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klorophile · 1 month

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Arcane and food

There is a subject that’s been turning and turning around my head for quite some time now and that I really wanted to analyze because it’s just a detail and yet it gives me Feels Of Beautiful *o*, and it is: food in Arcane. But bear with me because we’re going to take detours that might be unexpected? (I want to mention air jails and pomegranates)

So, I’m not gonna teach you anything when I say: food is important. In real life obviously, but in fiction too. What I have in mind here: in real life you can’t survive without food, so it’s something that you do everyday, so it is a very mundane and daily thing… which is precisely why, in fiction, it can be very absent (the heroes have to save the world/prove themselves/find their identity/solve a big mystery/… = better things to do than what we do in our daily lives because it is a story to get us out of our everyday lives) or on the contrary very meaningful (ex: In The Lion King, Simba is a carnivorous lion but he accepts to get used to eating bugs when he meets Timon and Pumbaa and decides to live with them, it’s a symbol of him leaving his lion life behind).

Also, in the classical tragedies, there is the rule of grandeur: the main characters have to be princesses and kings and never your common citizen. And princesses and kings will not be shown doing stuff like peeing or eating in this genre, because it is too down to earth for the beauty that’s being displayed.

So, eating = down to earth, concerns your everyday living people ; not eating = what people that are more akin to queens and deities will do, celestial. And that’s a distinction that I really feel in Arcane…

Vi eats (like a pig) when she gets out of prison, and she very much says it: « we’re here because I’m hungry ». When she eats, she eats. She puts fuel into her stomach and that’s it, it’s a very earthy and mundane thing, it’s not a metaphor like tobacco can be (tobacco = power in the Undercity). Vi just eats like we all do and that’s it.

…Or is it? Well, at least that’s what she says to Caitlyn. Caitlyn was following Vi in hope of being led to important clues, and she gets pissed when she sees Vi stopping for food, because that is definitely not what Caitlyn got into the Undercity for… Because Caitlyn, as a Topsider, is not hungry. She had breakfast this morning, she will have dinner tonight, it’s whatever, her needs are met and she doesn’t need to think about it, and the viewer doesn’t have to think about it. But Vi is the opposite: As a prisoner, her needs depended on the decisions of the people in charge of her prison. She most probably didn’t get to choose what when or how, and most probably got the minimum and a look of disdain with it. In my head, I really like to make this cute comparison: you know how pet owners take their animals, like a dog for exemple, and they lift them above the ground when they have been naughty, and it’s « no, you’re in air jail now ‘cause you’ve been a bad dog so as a consequence you’re not allowed to dog anymore for a fitting amount of time » and it’s not a slap and not a hug and not a game, and the dog is just up confused with her legs dangling straight like IIII° <oh no what now? and they can’t do anything because air is not their element, the ground is, proven by the fact that they have all of four legs which is a lot of legs when you think about it and all of them want to touch the earth, so quadrupeds are like very ground dependent I guess. So the idea of air jail is that the pet can’t do anything and all that’s left is thinking about their existence and the choices they made and how it led them into not being able to choose anything anymore, and to be at the total mercy of their air jailer who happen to have only two legs that need to touch the ground, and two damned other that can remove you from your daily fulfilling life. And I might put a little too much thoughts into what’s basically cute a meme, but I think that is what is behind the air jail, and that is why it is so funny and cute when you do that to your pet (I’ve only seen it done with love), but yeah here is the thing: that is exactly what Stillwater is, but without the funny and loving part.

All of that detour to say that when Vi was in prison, she was basically in air jail. She wasn’t ‘just imprisoned’, she was removed from existence, and that aspect is accentuated by the fact that a) the prison is called “still water”, as in ‘you’re not allowed to move anymore’, b) it’s on an island that’s removed from both Piltover and the Undercity, and also: c) the time-skip.

The time-skip is very meaningful, because it makes us feel like everything was stopped and stuck from the moment Marcus took Vi away to the moment Caitlyn found an interested reason to get Vi out. We don’t get to see Vi in prison because it is literally a time out. It’s not her life she’s living during this time skip, it’s just her being removed for years and having no control over it.

When she gets out, she eats because it’s an earthy thing, and she was in the air all this time. She reclaims, not even her life, but just a life. This is why it is very important that we see her eat, because it shows us how she feels like she can finally move around and have an impact on the world. She is back.

At first she says to Caitlyn that she brought them here simply so that she could eat, basically to express to her that she is not going to just be used yet again by a Piltie, no, she’s here to reclaim something too and Caitlyn doesn’t have a choice in letting her have that or not, because Vi, as someone who grew up in the Undercity, is more adequate for this quest.

And then she gets the tip from Jericho.

Food is connection, both to the place and the people. Vi eats because that’s what you do when you get home.

And she does it like a pig because she knows that’s not what a Piltie does, and she’s definitely not here to please Pilties.

Silco

Silco does not eat. He is a “kingpin”, he is very close to a classical tragedy figure (I mean… Agamemnon and Iphigenia… That’s his conflict). But he also has a mug painted by Jinx on his desk, with a lid and all, for coffee and stuff. But we don’t see him use it (sadly). He only drinks alcohol, which is akin to tobacco: not necessary to live, on the contrary, especially for tobacco which feels the lungs with noxious smoke when there is already so much suffocating people in the Undercity; when a character takes to it, it’s a symbol of being rich and/or powerful in the Undercity.

So, with the painted by Jinx mug, the earthy thing is here, but Silco decides to not be seen using it. It’s here and not here. And that’s because it’s precisely Silco’s story: It’s him trying to be all but a deity, the founder of Zaun, and fatherhood creeping up on him whether he wants it or not, to the point of him choosing to be a dad with a child instead of a divinity at the head of a city. He doesn’t want to be earthy, because to bring a city towards its independence you probably need to be more than human, but he is earthy and human in the end.

Jayce (and Powder)

In episode 1, Jayce had left two sandwiches on his desk next to his dangerous forbidden work. It has tomatoes and lettuce, it's fresh. It’s a sign of how easy he has it at this time, because he can just leave food around his work, food is not precious, he doesn’t need to eat it right away. Then Powder comes into the room, and she’s starving, so her eyes light up to what is a random sandwich to Jayce, but an out of ordinary meal for her.

And Powder eats, because at this time of the story she is just a child playing around. She is being earthy. She is not concerned by all the stakes yet, she lives the life of a human (we can't exactly say the same about Jinx, who is more akin to a spirit).

There is also very much a thing to say about how Jayce puts his stuff on his desk, and then Powder/Jinx takes it for herself. She did the same with Hextech. (Though, I note that Powder took a bite from the sandwich and didn’t say anything to the others, she didn’t share. While we can argue that her stealing Hextech is helping Zaun, she’s kind of sharing the power with her community. And I’m just here wondering…: Why didn’t Powder share the food? What does this mean about her? Was this done intentionally to say that she’s always been on the selfish side?)

Caitlyn

Caitlyn is nicknamed “Cupcake”. We don’t see her eat, but we see her being called the food. I see it as a way to make us feel how rich and privileged she is, and how Vi feels that and tries to make Caitlyn feels that too. I mean, of course “Cupcake” is a sweet nickname, and the most important meaning is that Vi likes Caitlyn (and also that it can be a reference to one of Caitlyn’s abilities in LoL), but still, a cupcake is a cupcake: a frivolous pastry. A cupcake is not food you get to survive, it’s something you can go without but you get it because it’s yummy. It’s superfluous, but someone from Piltover can afford them regularly. And Caitlyn is beyond that, she is the cupcake. She is a symbol of being rich. And people in the Undercity would want to eat her, but also Vi wants her for other reasons now…

Powder 2

In the « Enemy » clip, Powder plays with her food but does not eat it. She is distracted, and to me it feels like another sign of her being meant to turn into Jinx, a character straight from a tragedy. Something more akin to a deity or spirit of rebellion rather than a little sister. (The clip is all about the seeds of Jinx in Powder, which is why I feel like it is relevant to analyze that scene as one too.)

*big sigh*... Jinx

In the last episode, Jinx brings a cupcake to the table, with the gemstone she stole on top of it. And omg does it bear meanings.

First of all, there is the fact that there is only one cupcake when she invited 3 guests (Vi, Caitlyn, Silco), along with her two brothers who are always with her, maybe we can even count Vander since she did put a plate for him, and herself. With seven people and only one cupcake, we have to wonder: who is going to have the cake? This brings so much tension to the scene: all the people around the table, and only one prize that they have to fight over… And the twist is that no one wants the same thing (Vi wants Powder, Silco wants Jinx, Caitlyn wants the gemstone), and yet they can’t share anything.

Second, the fact that it is a cupcake. Of course it’s a cupcake. Because Vi calls Caitlyn "Cupcake", and it’s all about Jinx wanting Vi to choose her, her zaunite little sister, over her shining new topsider enforcer of a girlfriend. To Jinx, Caitlyn “Cupcake” is a big problem, and that is why she is going to put it on the table.

Third, she put the gemstone on top of the icing. And, visually, that’s what immediately tells us that the stakes are very high, and that we’re very much talking about both the past (the gemstone that killed Jinx and Vi's family) and the future (the key to 'progress' stolen on Progress Day), what we can keep from before and what’s going to have to happen next from that. Also, it feels very irreverent that Jinx puts the symbol of progress on a cute pastry. She is not scared of dirtying what is both a treasure, leverage, power, a weapon, … The gemstone is so much, and Jinx puts it into cream because she can. Because she wants to question it. Because she wants to be the one who decides what is going to happen with the gem. She makes a display of how this moment is a turning point, and how she is the one who is going to decide where we’re going from here. Basically, what is so scary about that episode is how much power Jinx has into her hands, next to how emotional and affected she is by every single word and eye twitch she gets from her guests.

Also, I might be seeing too much into it, maybe, but I still think that the reference is relevant: the cupcake with a gemstone on it is a pomegranate.

It does look like it: the gemstone is visually akin to a blue pomegranate berry, and it is on a cupcake that serves as the husk of an actual pomegranate that holds its berries. With the differences that in Jinx’s tea party the cupcake is the less important because it’s edible while the stakes are less about who is going to get food and more about who is going to leave with the gem of power, while in the pomegranate mythology it’s straight about whether you eat it or not, so the berries are the most important because they are edible (Persephone).

Also, in ancient Greek mythology, the pomegranate is related to death. It’s “the fruit of the dead”. And for Jinx, those magical stones are definitely all about death, since that is what she killed all her family with, whole family that she invited at her table. There is just this vibe around her gemstone crowned cupcake that I feel is the same around the pomegranates in mythology. It’s all about death, choosing to eat, staying underground (Persephone spending time in the underworld, Jinx shooting to make the Undercity an independent Zaun, Vi choosing Topside if we refer to her LoL affiliation). It's all very much about choosing underground/aboveground, and staying with the dead or not.

And the gemstone is only one berry while there are always several in the pomegranate, but I would say that that’s precisely because what is at stake with the tea party is choosing a person over another (Vi choosing between Jinx and Caitlyn, Jinx choosing between Silco and Vi, Jinx choosing to be Jinx or Powder) in a case where one choice has to exclude the other. So it’s a pomegranate with only one grain, and that is what makes us go even more « oh no… », because it's all about choosing, and we know that the ending cannot not be a tragedy for at least one character (joke’s on us, it ends up being a tragedy for absolutely everyone ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ).

TLDR: Arcane is a tragedy, Vi tries to get out of it by eating greasy food with her fingers while Silco says he’d never do that while doing that, and then Jinx puts one single pomegranate cupcake on a table with seven people around it and waits for them to fight for it, but they all bicker about other stuff than the food she baked herself, so she judges that no one is deserving of it and she destroys the world as a logic consequence. Arcane is all about how easy yet complicated it is to eat.

#Arcane #meta #analysis #That's my type #I am trying #food #cupcake #Jinx #Silco #Vi #Caitlyn Kiramman #Jayce Talis #Powder #Zaun #Piltover #character analysis

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friskarm · 2 years

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caitlyn is such a great character because she is such an unrelenting, unyielding force of kindness

and i do use that word specifically because you look at caitlyn and think "oh, she's just really good, lawful good or neutral good" and that is very true, caitlyn very much believes in doing the right thing and doing right by people but so does vi. so does vander.

caitlyn is distinct from the two of them because her approach is to solve the problems piltover has caused with kindness.

we see her demonstrate this again and again what with her trading over her gun for vi's medicine, hugging huck when she hears his story, looking after vi when vi goes and gets herself injured -- and then her speech to ekko really cements it. this city needs healing, is what she says. not fixing, not changing, but healing, which is such a profoundly objective and kind way to look at the situation.

caitlyn could have done a lot of things in zaun that would be less than kind that still would have benefited her goals and her cause, but she continually chooses not to aggress (for the most part) and instead to listen and learn, because she is demonstrably wrong about a lot of things in zaun.

vi leaving her behind in a brothel is forgiven, ekko's kidnapping of them is forgiven, and even her interactions with jinx bely this -- she trusts in vi's judgement when her instincts are telling her otherwise, and her only protest is "she's too far gone" -- not "she's dangerous" or "she needs to pay" or anything like that. even after everything jinx has done, justifiable or not, caitlyn still implicitly understands that jinx is one of the people piltover has let down. she's not chasing her down for justice. she's trying to minimise harm.

in vi's position, being someone who's whole thing is about being a protector -- why wouldn't you fall for all of that?

it breaks my heart a little to hear caitlyn pleading in the season 2 teaser with vi to accompany her to track down jinx. it makes it sound a little like vi has given up on her -- but caitlyn hasn't.

#arcane #arcane analysis #caitlyn #vi #caitvi #piltover's finest #and to be clear #caitlyn has the privilege to treat these problems with kindness because she holds power over the citizens of zaun #but it is nonetheless the correct approach to take #her moral core is so rock solid and it's so easy for me to look at vi and look at her looking at caitlyn and just fall for her #because caitlyn *gets it*#she is the character in the show most willing to accept her own faults and immediately try and move past them to better herself #and to be a better force for good in the world #and i think vi would really admire that #because it's something vi wants for herself too

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deltadex · 11 months

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Something I'd like to talk about is how some argue that "Vi is being hypocritical. How can she team up with an Enforcer when her parents were killed by them?" and "her and Caitlyn's relationship progressed too quickly because Vi is supposed to have a lot more resentment for those from Piltover, the people who have oppressed her her whole life". I understand these views. But the way I see it, the whole point of their relationship is about overcoming personal biases.

And let's not forget that, in Episode 8, Vi actually did bring their relationship progression to a halt, DUE TO her personal bias/insecurities that say the Undercity and Piltover will never be able to work together. The writers didn't ignore that aspect.

I think they did a great job of conveying Vi's internal struggle towards accepting Caitlyn as an ally. At one point in her mind, she must have run out of excuses to distrust her, because Caitlyn keeps proving them wrong. It's a hard thing for Vi to wrap her head around, but she's wise enough to see that Cait has good intentions.

In the end, I think they showed a nice balance of "Vi being cynical towards Caitlyn" and "Vi realising Caitlyn is an inherently good person". You could say the same thing about Caitlyn and her initial doubts of Vi's trustworthiness. This is why I love their dynamic, because it encourages them to grow as individuals and see past their preconceived notions.

GIF by orphanmaker

Another hot topic of debate is that of Vi becoming an enforcer herself, which is slathered with the same critique: "How could she given her backstory?". But the important point people are missing is that Vi isn't going to become the type of enforcer that kills innocent people out of pure ruthlessness. She's not going to be an "asshole criminal" in a "fancy uniform". She's going to become an enforcer in order to HELP those in the undercity and PROTECT her sister. Is she really being hypocritical if what she's doing aligns with her own values? It's simply the external image that seems controversial: Oh look! A Zaunite has betrayed their own people by becoming a Piltover Enforcer. But once you dig deeper, you see that her loyalties lie in the right place.

Another point to mention is that we don't even know how the story is going to go about this. Is she going to join the current system of enforcers out of the urgent need to protect her sister? (I don't really see how that would be possible though, unless Jayce appoints Caitlyn as the new Sheriff and Vi accompanies her as a "collaborater" rather than an "enforcer".)

Or maybe they're going to be playing the long game and have Vi and Caitlyn reform the enforcers first before she officially joins them. Either way, they'll be seeking to bring about justice in their broken world.

By thinking that "all enforcers are inherently bad", you would be projecting the very same bias that people from the Undercity have towards Piltover (which is justified to a large extent because of how they've been treated). But what wouldn't make sense is to continually see an enforcer as corrupt even after they've proven themselves different.

#arcane #arcane analysis #arcane meta #vi arcane #caitlyn kiramman

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nerdasaurus1200 · 4 months

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I’m finally gonna talk about this cause I love it. Caitlyn and Vi from Arcane and Luz and Amity have started a new rule in filmmaking and it’s a rule that I frankly love to pieces. Also couples like Ambrosius and Balister and even Spinerella and Netossa have contributed to this rule.

And the rule is this:

You know you have made a great and healthy diverse couple when, if you changed one of their genders so it was a straight couple pretty much nothing about their story would change.

Cause think about it, lgbt couples are no different than straight couples. At their core it’s still two people (or more in the case of poly couples) who found each other and connected. And tbh I think couples like the ones I mentioned have done a fantastic job of making sure their kind of love is regarded as normal in both media and in real life. Cause the fact that it’s treated so normal somehow makes them even more special in a way.

#arcane #toh #the owl house #netflix nimona #she ra and the princesses of power #nerd talks #caitlyn kiramman #vi #luz noceda #amity blight #spinnerella #netossa #balister boldheart #ambrosius goldenloin #analysis #meta

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phoenixlionme · 4 months

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Caitlyn and Mizu Compare/Contrast

For some reason, I find that these two characters. Two different women from very different shows, have striking similarities to one another as well as differences.

Differences

Caitlyn comes from one of the wealthy families in her series; Mizu grew up broke poor

Caitlyn is driven towards helping others; Mizu is driven by revenge

Caitlyn's biracial heritage is never once brought up negatively, it's just a matter of fact; Mizu was viciously ostracized by many people because of her mixed heritage

Caitlyn was sheltered; Mizu was forced to live through and witness cruelty at a young age

Caitlyn is basically a saint; Mizu is an anti-hero at her best

Caitlyn's world is scifi/fantasy setting where the only bigotry is classism; Mizu lives in ordinary world (with the genre being of Western Samurai) and the accurate depictions of sexism, classism, and racism are all on full display

Caitlyn grew up with her parents in a loving, though controlling, household; Mizu doesn't know who her father is, had an abusive mother, and barely a place to call home

2. Similarities

Both are from one of the most popular adult-animated shows on Netflix, praised by critics and fans alike

Both are of East Asian descent - Caitlyn is half-Chinese; Mizu is half-Japanese

Skilled in respective traits - Caitlyn in marksmanship; Mizu in swordsmanship

They both have a connection to the color blue

Following from the previous point, both have blue eyes

They both have a strained relationship with their respective mothers - Caitlyn resents her mother meddling in her life as an adult; Mizu's "relationship" with her mother is just straight up abuse and neglect.

Both are biracial -> half Asian and half white

Both were ostracized -> Caitlyn stated she was a "misfit" herself and her Enforcer colleagues believes she's a rich, entitled brat; Mizu's ostracization is even more pronounced given how many people saw her biracialness as "demonic"

Have some sort of LGBT connection - Caitlyn is a lesbian and in an evolving romance with Vi; many LGBT fans have connected to Mizu because her struggles with her gender was similar to their own, and she's had palpable romantic tension with both a male and female character

#lol arcane #lol caitlyn #blue eye samurai #bes mizu #comparison #comparison analysis #my posts #asianexcellence #biracialexcellence

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idkwhatimdoingbutslay · 1 year

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“You can’t summon an entire fandom by stating a science fact 🙄”

Okay, but, oil and water can be mixed if you use an emulsifier 🧪

#arcane #caitvi #vi arcane #vi #caitlyn kiramman #caitlyn arcane #violyn #piltover’s finest #caitlyn #piltover's gayest #caitlyn and vi #vicait #I know I’m so funny #laugh #please laugh #it’s so silly that everyone I follow post super deep analysis and this is what I contribute #silly slays

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steelandscience · 2 years

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Currently thinking about how when Vi and Gang breaks into Jayce’s apartment in Episode 1, they marvel at how expensive everything is and how someone could be born that lucky to have so much stuff. The apartment is set up to seem like it belongs to an incredibly wealthy and eccentric inventor.

And then in Episode 2, it turns out that Jayce is… literally just a college student, and a vaguely struggling one at that, according to his journal notes. Jayce half-jokes with Caitlyn to be careful with the equipment from the Undercity, because it’s “her parents’ money she’s dropping” and not his, and how he still needs a patron in order to study and work at the Academy, because House Talis is essentially a house in name only, and not in money— they’re not even notable enough for Mel and the other Councilors (and heads of Houses) to know without someone reminding them what they do.

And then how in Act 1, Viktor technically has a higher status than Jayce in the Academy (as he was the one who was sent to oversee the explosion). He is technically part of Heimerdinger’s staff, whereas Jayce is a student or researcher that certainly does not seem to have the same relationship with the Dean/Councilor that Viktor does. In that first scene he’s in, both he and Grayson have a significantly higher (power) status than Jayce does. And yet Viktor mentions how he doesn’t have a patron or name like Jayce does, and how he has much grander aspirations for his life, and it takes Mel a moment to recognize him as well in Episode 2.

And then how Mel has such an abundance of wealth compared to all of these other characters, but even still, is (in her mind) the least successful and “poorest” Medarda. She wields the most power by far for a lot of Act 1 and 2, but we see her become quite small as soon as her mother is around.

Just… I really like the parallels as to how every character seems to have something the other doesn’t, even as they are envied. Viktor doesn’t have the status and patronage that Jayce does, Jayce doesn’t have the money and support Cait does, Cait doesn’t have the freedom Vi does, Vi doesn’t have the money that anyone in Piltover does, Mel doesn’t have the success the rest of her family does. But each one of those things that a character DOES have comes with it’s own challenges and drawbacks along with the advantages. Everyone has a bit of a misconception about everyone else’s position, and I really like that.

#not really passing judgement on any of them tbh #i genuinely just think it’s really interesting #the vi to Jayce and Jayce to Cait one is really interesting to me today #this was also really REALLY interesting to me as someone who was watching without knowing anything about league and Piltover and Zaun #I remember in episode 1 I was like DAMN I CANT WAIT TO SEE THIS WEALTHY ECCENTRIC INVENTOR THEYRE STEALING FROM #and then… he was literally a middle class STUDENT who was IN TROUBLE #it’s just… really really cool storytelling #and I think in general— dynamics like these create delicious dramatic irony #sir e speaks #arcane thoughts #arcane meta #arcane analysis #Jayce arcane #Jayce Talis #caitlyn arcane #vi arcane #Mel Medarda #Viktor arcane

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designer-fiction · 2 years

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Caitlyn Kiramman’s Keys of Truth

Oooh, I accidentally found another Tarot reference in Arcane! Look! V. The Hierophant has the Kiramman logo on it.

Could this be intentional? Let’s see. The crossed keys are the papal symbol. And indeed, the 5th major Arcana in the Tarot is sometimes referred to as the Pope or the Teacher.

My favorite explanation for the key symbolic on the Hierophant is that they are the “keys of knowledge” from Bluebeard. Remember that story? Bluebeard must travel away, and he leaves the house keys to his wife, telling her NOT TO USE the little key that opens the last room upstairs. EVER.

Bluebeard by Gustave Doré

She invites her sister over and asks her to watch for Bluebeard’s return while she opens the mysterious forbidden door. Behind it, she finds grim evidence that Bluebeard has murdered all of his ex wives. She locks the door back and tries to pretend she never saw anything, but the key is magical and covers itself in blood (representing knowledge of her husband’s crimes) that can’t be washed away, no matter how hard she tries. Bluebeard returns. When he sees the bloody keys, he knows that she knows: he must kill her, like the others. Thankfully, her sister had called their brothers and they manage to kill him first, thus ending the murderous cycle.

The crossed keys of the Hierophant are a cautionary tale: those who seek knowledge will find it, but they must first ready their hearts, minds and souls to face it, for knowledge can never be unlearned.

OH LOOK! "The Truth" Tarot card on Cait's investigation board.

The story fits Caitlyn’s arc beautifully. She seeks to know the truth. Marcus forbids her from investigating. Her family gets her fired.

Still, Caitlyn crosses any and all forbidden lines, to find what lies beyond.

But once she sees…

She can never un-see. Marcus knows that she knows. She must be killed.

She survives, but she now knows of Piltover's guilt and corruption. She can never un-know AND OH MY GOD THE KEYS ARE COVERED IN BLOOD!

That’s it folks! Cait is now confirmed to be V. The Hierophant.

We also know that Vi is VI. The Lovers and Viktor is I. The Magician. Hmm... Did Fortiche associate a Major Arcana to each league champion?

#arcane analysis #caitlyn kiramman #tarot #major arcana #bluebeard #caitvi #the hierophant #arcane #lol

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demacianpuppet · 1 year

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Of Zaun and their missing surnames

With the hiatus and all the new fans discovering the League lore for the first time, I noticed that many people believe that people from Zaun do not have surnames, which is wrong.

First of all, we have one character from Undercity which gets addressed with her last name all the time - Sky Young.

It is fair to say that we do have places in Runeterra which seem not to use the classical example of the modern surname.

To list some examples:

Zed introduces himself in his own comic as “Usan of Kéthé”.

Both Cithria and Sylas have a reference to the place they grew up (Cithria of Cloudfield & Sylas of Dregbourne).

Ashe calls herself “Ashe. Daughter of Grena. I am the Bow.” in Ashe: Warmother.

Even for a person who lacks a proper surname, there is a cultural norm on how to introduce yourself.

For places like Ionia and Demacia it makes sense that their “surnames” are location-dependent - these regions tend to have mostly villages and small towns. You don’t need a fancy surname because everyone knows each other.

In Freljord, the individual is defined by his relationship with their tribe - as long as you haven’t made a name for yourself, you tie yourself to your family. And if you can offer something for your tribe, you wear that title proudly.

To summarize: All these regions have either small populations so it suffices to mention from which villages they come or have other ways like titles.

None of these methods would work in Zaun because the Undercity is a big place.

Another point: By watching the way the council operates, we know how much red tape exists in Piltover. Are we all gonna pretend as if getting into the Academy wouldn’t require tons of paperwork, which for sure has to include a full name? So surnames have to exist in Zaun for sure.

However, there is an important narrative point why we know the last names Jayce, Caitlyn and Mel in contrast to the main characters from Zaun.

For all of these three characters, the last names work as stepping stones and safety nets at the same time.

Let’s take a closer look.

Caitlyn is the heir of the Kirraman house. She is the daughter of the councilor member and therefore, every single door is open for her. No matter where Caitlyn would have applied for a job, they would have recognized her name immediately and picked her for the prestige alone.

While Jayce seemed to need a sponsorship to study at the academy, he is not from a bad family. When he gets expelled from the Academy, he actually could simply take over the Talis forge. And while his “name is no good anymore”, I am sure with time people would have simply forgotten about the whole thing and he could have simply stayed in his social circle.

Jayce’s life was not over in any way - he still had a stable future, simply not the want he dreamed of. It was Jayce’s own decision to try to end his life, he was not pushed by actual existential dread.

It is difficult to say how Mel’s climb has been. We know that she has been exiled from her family but we don’t know how. It could be that she came to Piltover with enough money to invest. Even if she didn’t, with her family name it wouldn’t have been too difficult to find someone to help her settle in Piltover before she had the power to shape the city to her own beliefs.

Every single of these three characters worked hard to get to their position. However, the truth is that their journeys have been so much shorter and smoother than for a lot of other people. The reality is that working hard is rarely enough to actually get to things you want - luck is the biggest factor. Luck in being born into the right family or somehow getting lucky in a different way.

Things are different in Zaun.

Vander is a pillar in the community. Not because he has a fancy family name or because his ancestor did something important but because he helped to create a place of connection in the Lanes.

Silco is a feared man. We don’t know his past but we can assume he worked on the fissure as well since he can breathe that kind of air. A man hellbend to use his power and money to create an independent Zaun, outside of Piltover’s shadow.

Nobody cares about how Ekko grew up. The people who look up to the “boy savior” do it because he is a symbol of hope.

In contrast to Piltover, Zaun doesn’t have a history it can take advantage of, but instead it forges its own legacy in the present.

TL;DR: People from Zaun absolutely have surnames, since the place is too big for not having such a system. Not knowing the last names of the Zaunites is a narrative choice - every Piltovian had advantage because of their family name, in contrast to the Zaunites who had to climb their way up in spite of everything.

#arcane #arcane analysis #too many fanfiction try to tell me that Viktor has no last name #THINGS DON'T WORK LIKE THIS #zaun is too big to not have last name basis #not consider you have to have something else in that case #jayce talis #caitlyn kiramman #mel medarda #vander #silco #ekko #viktor #also no last name in the red tape hell that is piltover #that sounds even more stressful #league of legends #lol #my analysis

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eddawrites · 2 years

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I’ve responded to this type of comment about a million times by now, so I figured that maybe I should save myself some time and turn it into a post that I can just copy + paste whenever someone starts repeating this mantra like it’s a billboard top record and they’re a radio DJ.

The rocket is not aiming for Mel’s back!

There, I said it. Now that I got your attention, let me explain why, with visual evidence.

First things first: the council chamber is not a tower. This might be obvious from the picture below, but some people in the fandom seem to be experiencing a bit of a Mandela effect about this. The chamber is adjacent a large building, so there’s plenty of room for the missile to explode and cause massive destruction without annihilating absolutely everything and everyone in the vicinity.

From the outside, the chamber appears to have seven windows (although the geography of the room is often fumbled to fit the scene, so that not all of the windows are ever visible at once in the interior shots), two on each side of the room, three opening to the front, overlooking the Academy Square; six in the shape of elongated hexagon and the one in the centre more intricately shaped, extending all the way to the floor - this is the window behind Heimerdinger’s former seat.

What’s more, the animators provide you with helpful foreshadowing of where the rocket is actually going to hit, first by highlighting said window with the red colour reflecting from the moon as pictured above, then with the blue smoke trail from the actual missile:

These two shots show that the missile is aiming for the window to the right of the central window (the one behind Heimerdinger’s seat) and this might blow your mind but...

That’s actually the window behind Jayce. Albeit given the circular shape of the room, how directly behind him depends on the angle the scene is shot from. Either way, this window is still closer to him, not Mel. It’s also visible on the reflection in the window right before the rocket hits: the grinning face appears to be actually aiming between Jayce and Mel, if skewed slightly more towards Jayce’s side (you can clearly see his silhouette in the glass). It’s likely that the missile will not hit anyone directly, but instead fly to the other side of the room and explode there, killing the councillors on the far side of the room, thus giving our trio a chance to survive. Moreover, if it were to collide with either Mel or Jayce, we could safely say goodbye to both (and Viktor) because their seats are right next to each other.

Unless... but more on that in a bit.

Now, this should be evidence enough for me to call it a day here and call everyone dumb for not noticing or lazy for not overanalysing every single shot of this show the way I do, but... did you know that this was actually visually foreshadowed during the council meeting in ep. 8 already?

Here - with Jayce standing by Heimerdinger’s empty seat after his failed attempt to call for retaliation against the undercity - we can see Jinx’s grenade lying on the table between him and Mel, likely foreshadowing the path of the missile proper.

So, why such an emphasis on Mel in this moment then?

Right before the incredibly cruel, but kind of ingenious cliffhanger, the animators direct your attention to Mel, to her noticing something going on and looking behind her. Then, they remove the back of her seat and her dress to reveal the mysterious golden metal plates fused to her body lighting up with warm, yellowish light. This light is not being reflected as most of the “armour” is covered by her dress, nor is it coming from the spotlights used in the council chamber since those are actually of cold, stark white light - therefore this warm light has no possible source other the item itself.

Whatever the function of these metal plates, they appear to be reacting to the impending danger. Will Mel be able to use them to save Jayce and Viktor? Will she have to sacrifice her own life to do so? Will any of the other council members survive thanks to her efforts? These are the burning questions that we’ll only get answers to in a year or so, but let’s ponder them regardless. We know Jayce and Viktor have high odds of survival because they’re still a far cry from their League of Legends counterparts, so there’s more to do with these characters yet. And Kevin Alejandro has indirectly confirmed Jayce’s survival in an interview the other day. But more prosaically, Riot and Fortiche can’t just kill half of their main cast in the opening of s2, that’s not how telling a story works. Source: trust me, bro, I have a degree in this.

With that in mind, let’s address the biggest elephant in the room first.

The Question of Mel’s Survival

I’ve seen a lot of people claim that the finale would be cheapened by Mel’s survival as killing off only the side characters would mean there are little to no repercussions for main cast. But repercussions don’t have to necessarily mean death, the story can be just as impactful without killing off any of the main characters. Jinx has effectively started a civil war, whether she intended for it to happen or not - there will be consequences for the greater population of Zaun, some of whom probably just want to be left alone; it will fuel the bigotry of Piltovans, and with most of the council and Silco dead, both halves of the city are left leaderless. The main cast will be forced to grapple with the absolute shitstorm that will follow in the wake of this single action and I think that’s plenty of consequence for one season.

And personally, I’m of the opinion that Mel’s death doesn’t actually serve the story. Arcane often gets compared to Game of Thrones due to the characters suffering very real consequences of their actions - a rarity in today’s visual media, especially in the era of omnipresent superhero titles. But people often forget that this show isn’t the later seasons of Game of Thrones where characters started dropping off willy-nilly for sake of shock value (and the pettiness of the screenwriters) rather than cohesive story; the deaths - abundant as they were - in Martin’s books were actually always justified and made narrative sense. The characters made a fatal mistake from which there was no recovery (if you’re feeling fancy you can call this hamartia) and therefore met - frequently violent - end.

So let’s review the leading arguments for Mel’s death and debunk them:

Mel’s death will fuel Jayce’s turn to the Dark Side™

I enjoy a good revenge arc as much as the next person, but there are several problems with devolving Jayce into an Anakin Skywalker - one of those reasons being that we already have that type of character on the cast, encompassed in Jinx, but also the fact that we’ve already had one woman sacrificing herself to give male character trauma and angst (and hopefully I don’t need to explain to you how killing off two black women in a row might look problematic) in Sky and Viktor (#justiceforSky), and while Arcane likes its parallels, doing the same exact thing again would not be interesting. Also, might I point out that a revenge against the Zaunites would be disrespectful to Mel’s memory? It’s not what she would’ve wanted at all. She was the one to shut down Jayce’s suggestion to retaliate, after all. Moreover, there is absolutely no justifiable reason for him to punish the entire undercity for the actions of a single person, nor does it make sense within the narrative unless you’re aiming to create unnecessary drama with the rest of the cast. Caitlyn and Vi witnessed the entire thing and can testify as to what actually went down. Jayce trusts Caitlyn’s word and has a begrudging respect for Vi. He will want Jinx brought in. Nobody else needs to pay for what Jinx did.

What’s even more important, though, is that Arcane is a character-driven show. In order for a character-driven show to work, you have character interactions. If you send Jayce on a roaring rampage of revenge and have him kill not just the men, but the women and the children of Zaun too, you will completely alienate him from the rest of the cast. Viktor, Caitlyn and Vi would despise him for such a thing. They would cut him off. Meaning no more interactions could happen. In your hunger for blood, you will have written one of your protagonists into a corner you can never write him out of. So, congratulations. Good job.

Furthermore, this development would completely undo his entire character arc in s1 - he would have learned nothing. By the end of the season, Jayce finally starts to recognise that he cannot treat every problem as a nail and expect his one-size-fits-all solutions to work. That Piltover is directly complicit in the plight of Zaun and that its people are mostly justified in lashing out against them. In other words, he knows that he’s fucked up and he owns up to it. And although the deal with Silco comes with its own can of worms, Jayce tries to do right by the people of Zaun and recognises that - unfortunately - Silco is a necessary evil vital to that plan because without a unified leadership to negotiate with, there is no way of controlling the situation. To go back on this development would be extremely frustrating to say the least, and - in my opinion - bad writing.

Last but not least, and it pains me to say this: there simply isn’t enough people invested in Jayce and Mel as characters and a couple (many are actually wishing for Mel’s death because they deluded themselves into thinking that will make room for their preferred pairing somehow) for this to have a significant impact on the viewers. I would be sobbing (and likely quitting the show entirely), but I would be in a minority. Not to mention that having too many plotlines that involve grieving would be contra-productive, and ultimately Caitlyn mourning her mother would overshadow Jayce’s grief simply because Caitlyn is the more popular character of the two. That doesn’t serve Jayce’s story at all. He deserves the spotlight just as much and that is best served by giving him a different plotline.

Mel’s arc has been completed and there’s no room for her in the story moving forward.

It might seem that way to some, but it’s simply not true if you stop to think about the plot threads introduced in the last two episodes of the season. Mel’s story is only just beginning. She has cut ties with her family, she has learned valuable lessons, she’s prepared to do better. Her story going forward is redemption. She is going to be atoning for having neglected her most vulnerable constituents. Now, you might argue that Marcus didn’t get a shot at redemption either, but the difference is that the show was never actually setting him up for it. There is plenty for Mel to do and I have textual evidence to prove it:

105 00:07:26 --> 00:07:27 [Mrs. Medarda] We’re in trouble, Mel. 106 00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 The man who killed your brother doesn’t believe the score is settled, 107 00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 and his resources exceed ours.

Ambessa’s political rival who seems deadset on completely annihilating the Medarda dynasty still has a bone to pick with the family. And while he could easily do so without Mel’s presence within the story, I think this plot would fall flat with her out of the picture. While Mel herself is not a very popular character, Ambessa at this point has next to no characterisation of her own. We as viewers - and Jayce within the story proper - have no reason to care about Ambessa’s problems unless it directly affects Mel. She is a barebones character that can only receive characterisation through Mel, similarly to how Silco was chiefly characterised through Jinx. Moreover:

202 00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 I’m here to help guide you to the right decisions. 203 00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 -I don’t need your guidance. -We’ll see.

This simple exchange alludes to the future dynamic between Mel and her mother. A dynamic that strongly reminds me of Tyrion and Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones - arguably one of the best parts of that show. The story potential of these two brilliant politicians facing off is off the charts and as someone who enjoyed the political side of this show more than the actual A plot (which was still brilliant, mind you), the thought makes me giddy with anticipation. And with this show’s standing theme of parents jeopardising themselves to protect their daughters, I’m almost sure that therein lies Ambessa’s fate. After she receives due characterisation to make us sympathise with her, and even mourn her as many did with Silco. She has not been undone yet, and it would be wasted potential to do so right-away, when her relationship with Mel has not had a chance to be be explored in full.

And of those arguing in favour of Ambessa’s revenge arc I ask: what’s the point? Who cares? Where’s the story? If Ambessa could just walk into Zaun and start killing people left and right (for which she didn’t bring a big enough force to begin with), and if it just so happened that she did have Jayce’s support to do so, the season would be over in like three episodes. All Jayce has to do is arm the enforcers with hextech guns and Zaun is toast - he knows this, he tells as much to Silco during their parley. And if they did, the fandom would hate them both for it. There would be no chance for redemption, no sympathy spared for either of them. Arcane writers seem to be above such trite storytelling, as their continuous toying and subverting of the classic tropes and expectations should’ve taught you by now.

Jayce is just the worst and deserves to suffer.

No. Just no. And thank god it’s not you writing the plot because clearly character nuance is an alien concept to you. He’s just a fallible human like the rest of the cast.

What about the droid Jinx attack on the Wookies council?

What about the rest of the council, you ask? Well, for the plot to unfold and the eventual healing of the two cities, the old guard on the council absolutely had to go. They were bigoted, greedy, neglectful, rigid and unwilling to make the much needed concessions. That means that Heimerdinger, Hoskel, Salo (RIP, your nuts will be missed) and Cassandra Kiramman had to go. Furthermore, Cassandra’s death will throw an interesting wrench into Caitlyn and Vi’s relationship and give them new motivations to apprehend Jinx. Heimerdinger has already been removed and is presently picking brains with Ekko, hopefully leading to some eye-opening experiences. Shoola has proven rather reasonable over the times, but I don’t see her surviving either, she seemed too inactive even as she spoke pretty words. The show is setting up Jayce, Mel and Caitlyn, with Vi to guide them along the way, to be the the driving force of change in Piltover. With Ekko and Heimerdinger being the same for Zaun.

Notice that I conveniently left Councillor Bolbok out of my list even though he’s a rickety old thing with rusted hinges for ideas? Well, it’s because he’s the one council member I feel that has a chance of survival - although, admittedly, it would make for a delicious irony for his death to be caused by the same arcane forces that nearly wiped out his entire race. Nevertheless his survival is plausible, not only because he’s a robot and I assume his parts can be replaced, but also because he’s well... an asshole. But assholes are needed for the story to stay interesting - our protagonists need rivals to play off of and there is a precedent for Bolbok’s extremism going back to act 1.

So what will happen, Edda?

I’m glad you asked! Thanks to the game lore we have some inkling of what will happen - Caitlyn will become the sheriff, Vi will be her partner in law, Jayce will become the begrudging leader of Piltover, Zaun will eventually gain its independence, but its people will continue to be preyed upon by criminal empires. That said, changes will be made to the lore as deemed appropriate by the writers - plenty has been changed already, after all.

I think after the explosion, a provisional council will be appointed and if you thought the previous council members were bad, these ones will be decidedly worse. I think Amara will inherit one of the seats since s1 has already set her up as one of the major players in Piltover, I think Camille Ferros (before hextechiation?) will be another, possibly Bolbok if he survives as I expect. Ambessa will likely pick one of the new councillors to align with and continue fanning the flames of war. Jayce will reluctantly re-enter the political scene even though he’s effectively resigned on his position in the last episode. Him and Mel will try to deescalate the situation as best they can, butting heads with the rest of the council and Ambessa. While Piltover will be demanding blood - any blood - Jayce and Mel will be demanding Jinx specifically. My oddly specific prediction is that Jayce will order yet another barricade of the city, but this time to protect the Zaunites from the bloodthirsty Piltovan mob.

All of this will make Jayce and Mel extremely unpopular with the public. They might even lose their power. This will be impactful in Mel’s case especially, since agency is one of her core characteristics in s1 - she is the most powerful member of the council pre-explosion, always in control during the council meetings; she is the richest person in the city, she elevates and empowers Jayce every step of the way - it’s her go-to way of displaying her affection for him before they become a couple. Every one of these things is a show of her agency. To see how she grapples with losing something she clings to so dearly could be painful yet interesting to watch. And there is something poetic in Piltover turning on its Golden Boy, especially since the show has been toying with that possibility already...

Anyways, feel free to clown on me if turns out I’m wrong, but until s2 comes out these are my thoughts on the matter.

#arcane #arcane thoughts #arcane analysis #arcane theory #mel medarda #jayce talis #ambessa medarda #caitlyn kiramman #cassandra kiramman #vi #just my two cents on the topic #just kidding this is like a whole pocket of change #i was just annoyed by having to repeat myself after every bad take all right?#so here is the content of my one functioning braincell #explosive finale indeed #arcane predictions #arcane finale

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oxenfreeao3 · 6 months

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Arcane is such a masterwork of trope subversion it’ll have us thinking Vi rejects authority when in fact she defers to it almost every time.

(In this vein, Caitlyn is her perfect inverse. It seems her primary directive is to become ungovernable.)

#arcane #vi #caitvi #violyn #piltoversfinest #caitlyn kiramman #league of legends #arcane analysis #tropes #trope subversion

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klorophile · 9 months

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On death and life, more specifically suicide, Piltover VS Zaun

[TW: for death and suicide, obviously] There are differences between Piltover and the Undercity, in their culture and way of life, that are so big that they can’t just remain only one city—they’re two cities, and they basically all but don’t speak the same language, and share even less the same laws and morals even before "the Undercity" would become "Zaun".

They don’t see what it is "to live" the same way. Note: this is not about one being right and the other wrong, it’s about observing.

The way I see it, Zaun is more animalistic. "To live" is to survive. It’s survival first and foremost, survival at any cost: first you live, and then you see what you do, but you have be alive to do anything. You have to be alive to be free and live your freedom; and even if you are not free right now, it’s only by keeping on living that you can get to it. Living is everything. You are when you live. To be = to live. I haven’t actually looked at where the name "Zaun" comes from canonically, probably the German for "fence" I guess, but to me I can’t help but think that it comes from the greek ζωή (zoe) for life, and the word "fauna" from the latin gods of earth and fertility and forests etc Fauna and Faunus that we use to talk about the animal life. So Zaun would be the city of "living animals that are alive".—Let’s not be scared of repetition, it’s Zaun! (Note: this etymology would be meta, no in-universe, it’s how it will mean something to the spectators, not the characters.)

Piltover is more refined. It’s less about needs (the needs are met in Piltover, they aren’t as easily in Zaun) and more about wants. It’s the city of progress, and it aims to be always more beautiful and successful, than itself and than other cities. Piltover is all about being "more". In a way it’s less instinctual than Zaun. The architecture aims to be impressive and also identifiable: there is a standardization in it, where in Zaun you find art more as a need for individuals to express something through it. For the etymology, I guess it would be simply "over the Pilt", but what I hear, again as a spectator and not as someone living in this universe, is "built over"—over what? well, over the Undercity, over itself, over everything, and more importantly over what makes us animals and beasts and into what makes us human, because that is what progress is. It's "built over" because Piltovans don't simply live, the build themselves, an identity. In Piltover, to be is not enough, life wouldn’t be worth it with just that. To live = to be someone.

In clear, Piltover is all about being someone respectable: someone that has a moral code and follows it, someone who makes discoveries push humanity into flourishing, someone who helps the city, someone that their parents would be proud of and anyone would accept as a honorable human being. Zaun is all about existing at any cost: the end justifies the means, everything changes constantly and following laws and rules is not important when it can prevent you from following your own path and becoming who you are. Go with the flow, be the flow.

Now that we have those two mentalities, we can also say that the show loves to push its characters to their limits… And it’s very interesting to see how they will all react in their crisis, but what might be even more interesting is to understand what are each characters limits? When do any one of them stop being themselves? When do you lose yourself?? What must happen for each character to feel like they can’t be the person they are anymore, to feel like they can’t live anymore, and reach the conclusion that death is preferable. …So I guess: Who do they think they are? What I want to put into light here is how this question in answered very differently for a character who is from Piltover and for a character who is from the Undercity/Zaun.

As a Jinx fan, if we talk about a suicide attempt in Arcane I will immediately think about her letting a chomper go off right next to herself after her fight against Ekko on the bridge. Yes, but there is another suicide attempt we see a lot earlier in the show, and it’s Jayce’s. The feeling is the same, "I can’t continue", but their situation is very different. Jayce is very clean. He leaves a letter, there is his bracelet that started his dreams and hopes for the future on it, he’s well dressed and the white of his jacket contrasts against the shambles of his lab and the night, and this happens after a decision was taken with a vote at a trial. The law decided he couldn’t science anymore, Jayce can’t see himself being anyone else than a science dude that finds a way to control magic of anything, so he prefers death. He could still live and laugh, he still had his mother and a home, he still had money, he still had skills that could give him a role in society, but he esteemed that none of this was enough for Jayce to be Jayce. His standards are pretty high: he will follow his dream or nothing. In a way, his attempt makes his character look disturbingly impressive, because he still had so much for himself, but he considered it not enough for him to be himself. He’s the golden boy, but that’s also because he refused to be anything else.

I think it’s very interesting to compare him to Silco. Silco makes no apology. He does not accept people judging him and deciding what he can’t be (free! powerful!). He was betrayed by his own brother when they no longer saw their cause the same way, he fought for his life when he was being drowned by stealing a knife he didn’t have, he survived an infection to his eye, he found new followers, he made his way to the top, even if he had to kill and poison for that. As he says, he died, yes, but he was reborn. He refused to be erased and found a way to live still by reinventing himself, like a butterfly (Jayce did put his hands in the air like butterfly wings but this butterfly was going to go swoosh-flop, you need the cocoon phase first Jayce). I think it’s very interesting to note how Jayce and Silco are different, especially when you think about the scene where they meet to negotiate. Here is a man with the higher standards and here is another capable of the lowest blows, and they will try to reach an agreement…

We can also compare Jayce to Vi. Vi loses her whole family in front of her eyes, carries the guilt of having left her little sister behind, gets imprisoned for who knows how long, remains in hell for years… and she’s still standing and fighting. Maybe what she has is not hope per se, but there is something still pushing her. A zaunite light, one that refuses to be extinguished. Same for Ekko. He is only a little kid when when see him lose everything, and next time he appears, he has founded a strong community around a tree that can’t possibly grow in Zaun but has grown in Zaun and they are the resistance about what is poisoning their city. He is the same as Silco, he reinvented himself, though not on the same bases. When you lose everything, you build something else. Same for Powder. She causes the death of her family and gets rejected by her own sister, and when she is about to be stabbed, well she decides that the person with the knife will now care about her and fucking actually causes him to care about of all things. How? Because Zaunites survive, always, like the ivy leaves going around Singed’s lab, Singed who has to cover himself in bandages but hasn’t stopped what he was doing before this accident.

Like Singed who decided his axolotl was going to live no matter what, even if it has to stay in a tube. Like Silco who decided Jinx could not die, even if she had to become inhuman for it.

Piltover people have an idea of what their life can and cannot be. For Jayce, he has to be a part of progress, or his life doesn’t have enough quality for him to live it. We can also see it in Caitlyn, though she hasn’t been pushed to her limits (yet?), in the way she says "shit" in front of her parents because she has decided that she was going to be an enforcer and even go as far as defending the Undercity even if it is against what she was taught. She calls herself a "misfit" because she knows what she is and what she isn’t. Zaunite people just need to survive. It’s almost as if that instinct to resist is stronger than them… They can be dragged through hell, but they will find a way to get back up and continue living. They will find a solution, even if a limb or a brother has to be left behind.

Viktor is also really interesting in regard to that because he is from the Undercity but lives in Piltover, and he has a Piltovan moment before acting more like a Zaun guy. After he accidentally causes Sky’s death, he goes to scatter her ashes, and almost follows them down there. He then states to Jayce that they lost themselves because "in the pursuit of great they failed to do good". So this is his piltovan limit: failing to do good, doing bad. Very different from Silco who doesn’t shy from bad to reach great. Viktor has morals, and feels like if he steps over them, he can’t live with himself. It is interesting to not that when he is on the edge, it’s on a window with the shape of the Piltover crest…

…but with some kind of ivy on the right, reminder of Zaun and its survival at all costs. Because in this moment Viktor is rapidly dying. And I feel like this how he shows that he is a Zaunite at core: in the end, he turns to Singed. And if we watch who he is in League of Legends, he is not that scared to lose himself anymore, at the very least not his body. He responds to the ivy call, the ivy mostly in the shadow but with tendrils like hands not that scared from stepping into the light.

And then there is Jinx letting a bomb go off almost in her hand. Something I find shocking in what she does is how not Zaunite this is. We see Silco, Vi, Ekko, and even Powder herself, go through so much and still get up like there is nothing that could destroy them completely, but at this moment we see Jinx reaching a point of no return… A Zaunite, previously defined as a "living living animal" say "that's it, I’ve got enough" and I think that that’s a really heartbreaking moment when you think about how there is so much she can and already has survived, and there is finally too much.

Silco’s death is also very tragic in that regard, and I use "tragic" in the sense of a classic tragedy like Racine would write. We show that Silco does not want to die: when there is this doubt about who Sevika will choose and who she will kill between Silco and Finn, he’s not that confortable. He doesn’t want to be done. And as much as an in control villain he likes to look, he still has that instinct when in danger that makes him scared in close contact to his potential demise.

But when Jinx shots him? He accepts. He tells her not to feel guilty… even when we just saw how he very much minded staying alive. He could have been angry, he could have tried to still remain standing even with bullets in his body, but he did not. Why? Because he had reached his ultimate cul-de-sac too. He was the father of Zaun and the father of Jinx, and here the both couldn’t coexist. It was a choice he couldn’t make, because stopping for Zaun here would mean he was as weak as Vander, which could mean that killing him was a mistake since they were more of the same mind that he thought in the end, which could also mean that Sevika and other people following him would stop following him since he was not strong enough to seize their independence when given the occasion, but taking the opportunity would mean sacrificing his Jinx, and would his life be livable without her? But could he survive betraying Zaun? No to both. I am sure that hadn’t he be shot, he would have kept fighting. But he was, and there was no way he could be angry at Jinx for having the Zaunite instinct to shoot to survive.

PS: I’m not talking about Noxus here, but I guess Mel’s way would be "if you’re not letting me live like me here in Noxus, I guess I’ll live like me but somewhere else so that me can stay me and Noxus can stay Noxus."

PPS: Watching them crumble is fascinating ;u;

#that's my type #scratch that (as in write it down please)#character analysis #Arcane #Piltover #Zaun #Jinx #Silco #Jayce #Viktor #Vi #Ekko #Caitlyn #Mel #death #suicide #oh the misery

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geekmediatypings · 1 year

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💎 Arcane: Myers Briggs Types 💎

🦋 Powder/Jinx [ENTP] The Visionary

“In general, ENTPs are upbeat visionaries. They highly value knowledge, and spend much of their lives seeking a higher understanding. They live in the world of possibilities, and become excited about concepts, challenges and difficulties. When presented with a problem, they're good at improvising and quickly come up with a creative solution. Creative, clever, curious, and theoretical, ENTPs have a broad range of possibilities in their lives.” (Source: Personality Page)

🥊 Vi [ESFP] The Performer

“ESFPs have very strong inter-personal skills, and may find themselves in the role of the peacemaker frequently. Since they make decisions by using their personal values, they are usually very sympathetic and concerned for other people's well-being. They're usually quite generous and warm. They are very observant about other people, and seem to sense what is wrong with someone before others might, responding warmly with a solution to a practical need. They might not be the best advice-givers in the world, because they dislike theory and future-planning, but they are great for giving practical care.” (Source: Personality Page)

☂️ Caitlyn Kiramman [ISFJ] The Supporter

“The ISFJ feels a strong sense of responsibility and duty. They take their responsibilities very seriously, and can be counted on to follow through. For this reason, people naturally tend to rely on them. The ISFJ has a difficult time saying "no" when asked to do something, and may become over-burdened. In such cases, the ISFJ does not usually express their difficulties to others, because they intensely dislike conflict, and because they tend to place other people's needs over their own. The ISFJ needs to learn to identify, value, and express their own needs, if they wish to avoid becoming over-worked and taken for granted.” (Source: Personality Page)

🦈 Silco [ENTJ] The Commander

“ENTJs are natural born leaders. They live in a world of possibilities where they see all sorts challenges to be surmounted, and they want to be the ones responsible for surmounting them. They have a drive for leadership, which is well-served by their quickness to grasp complexities, their ability to absorb a large amount of impersonal information, and their quick and decisive judgments. They are "take charge" people. (Source: Personality Page)

⚙️ Viktor [INFJ] The Advocate

“The INFJ is as genuinely warm as they are complex. INFJs hold a special place in the heart of people who they are close to, who are able to see their special gifts and depth of caring. INFJs are concerned for people's feelings, and try to be gentle to avoid hurting anyone. They are very sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger. They may tend to internalize conflict into their bodies, and experience health problems when under a lot of stress” (Source: Personality Page)

🔨 Jayce Talis [ENFJ] The Giver

“ENFJs are people-focused individuals. They live in the world of people possibilities. More so than any other type, they have excellent people skills. They understand and care about people, and have a special talent for bringing out the best in others. ENFJ's main interest in life is giving love, support, and a good time to other people. They are focused on understanding, supporting, and encouraging others. They make things happen for people, and get their best personal satisfaction from this.” (Source: Personality Page)

⚜️ Mel Medarda [INTJ] The Mastermind

“INTJs are natural leaders, although they usually choose to remain in the background until they see a real need to take over the lead. When they are in leadership roles, they are quite effective, because they are able to objectively see the reality of a situation, and are adaptable enough to change things which aren't working well. They are the supreme strategists - always scanning available ideas and concepts and weighing them against their current strategy, to plan for every conceivable contingency.” (Source: Personality Page)

🐹 Heimerdinger [ENFP] The Inspirer

“ENFPs are warm, enthusiastic people, typically very bright and full of potential. They live in the world of possibilities, and can become very passionate and excited about things. Their enthusiasm lends them the ability to inspire and motivate others, more so than we see in other types. They can talk their way in or out of anything. They love life, seeing it as a special gift, and strive to make the most out of it.” (Source: Personality Page)

⏰ Ekko [ESTJ] The Guardian

“The ESTJ puts forth a lot of effort in almost everything that they do. They will do everything that they think should be done in their job, marriage, and community with a good amount of energy. He or she is conscientious, practical, realistic, and dependable. While the ESTJ will dutifully do everything that is important to work towards a particular cause or goal, they might not naturally see or value the importance of goals which are outside of their practical scope. However, if the ESTJ is able to see the relevance of such goals to practical concerns, you can bet that they'll put every effort into understanding them and incorporating them into their quest for clarity and security.” (Source: Personality Page)

👊🏿 Sevika [ISTP] The Mechanic

“ISTPs are loyal to their causes and beliefs, and are firm believers that people should be treated with equity and fairness. Although they do not respect the rules of the "System", they follow their own rules and guidelines for behavior faithfully. They will not take part in something which violates their personal laws. ISTPs are extremely loyal and faithful to their "brothers".” (Source: Personality Page)

*Individual MBTI Profiles coming soon.

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