#like i like silco bc he's compelling | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

guileheroine · 2 years

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arcane thoughts

as usual, putting things down for posterity so i dont forget my fresh impressions! [spoilers]

i’ve watched the show twice in the last ~week and i love it!

didn’t rly know anything going in (apart from hearing it was good) but what i didn’t expect is that it would fulfil one of my deepest narrative kinks: the intense, fucked up, tragic (found)family stuff here is my bread, butter, juice & jam!! vi & jinx, vi & vander (😖😖 i found them the immediate emotional core pre-timeskip), jinx & silco (😖😖😖!!!!!), vander & silco, it’s a LOT. the angst, the difficult loyalties, the being each other’s achilles heels of it all. front-and-center family dynamics in spec-fic are always a lance to my heart and few things have scratched this itch so good. out of a strong ensemble cast where i like everyone i’d prob pick those characters as my fav for this reason

jinx shouldn’t work as well as she does bc girl!joker isn’t usually my vibe wrt character types but the groundwork is solid, there’s much more going on than those aesthetics & her being ~teehee crazy! vi was my early fave (kids who act like adults are just ugh… the responsibility she felt not just for the siblings but also vander like. i cant think about it tbh), and maybe i’m still dean winchester-pilled but the eldest child x bruiser combo is simply elite, stacking that temperament over that backstory. kinda love how woobifiable they both are yes i will put them in a jar. the contrast between their trauma is compelling—jinx is erratic & indulgent, and frayed by silco’s influence, while vi clearly represses out of a sense of guilt/responsibility and prison survival mode. and then with all these divergences theyre just talking over each other, even tho they sort of want the same thing they dont know how to get there! irreparable (?) sibling drama! abandonment drama! knife and fork please!! (sidenote after wading into fandom a bit, im truly ecstatic they made complicated & mutually raw family dynamics the show’s centre, even tho it’s predictably not that legible to Fandom and its ‘ship/stan or bust’ orientation)

i think part 1 was the strongest — the whole show is tight but the later parts, as more of a setup for the future, don’t have a bow around them in the same way

ep 3 specifically was where i became thoroughly engaged, it’s like this masterful Greek Tragedy conga, definitely sth i’ll return to when i want to be emotionally hollowed out. just writing this makes me wanna go back

mel is STUNNING, maybe the most aesthetically pleasing character design i’ve ever seen. saw a pic of her before i knew the show and i was like 😩😩😩. the gold accents, arm/thigh braces, goooorgeous. i didn’t find her as interesting until the stuff with her mum came in, but rewatching in that light rly endeared me. looking forward to how she squares what happens at the end of s1 with her anti-war convictions (if she survives). also would like to know more about what her brother was like?

deeply intrigued by what viktor’s Final Form will look like, he feels like a little gnaw on my heart when i think about the show. a quietly magnetic understated character. viktor and mel doing a lot of legwork in dragging jayce into relevance for me. solid ot3 potential there, but i also dig the two jayce pairings (the fact that i think he and mel have basically no chemistry but it’s still cute lol) jayce is cute tbh! and there’s that dash of overreach to all three that i adore, good foils

he talks shit but heimerdinger getting kicked off the council and scurrying off destroyed me, whyyy did they make him look like the devastating combo of old man + babie

plotwise, much to consider & my thoughts congealed better on rewatch- the class warfare plotline could go well, fingers are crossed. it’d be cool to see the piltover charas that are being positioned as heroes like jayce and caitlyn have their moral frameworks blown open and excavated more (bc there’s a point where the good cop naivete becomes odd/grating in smart grownup characters no matter how well intentioned). ensure the inequality, corruption etc is a character motive rather than an overly accentuated but ultimately incidental detail (im looking darkly at lok s1). basically ig i hope the show knows it hasnt set up a both-sides situation in its deep, sustained worldbuilding even if a few enforcers got blown up. likewise really hope they don’t file off the chip on vi’s shoulder just bc she’s working with piltover and jinx made a mess

one thing i had a little trouble with was silco’s motivations—if he wanted justice for the undercity then why the drug kingpin stuff that laid it low? i guess he’s pretty fucked up and the profit + power motive can definitely coexist with high ideals esp in a brutal survival context but now he’s gone i’m excited to see how the undercity charas negotiate their future, amongst themselves even more so than with piltover. also when he went to vander’s statue after the parley w jayce and drew that dad/daughter parallel hurgleee

sevika. she could be such a good anti-hero! im not usually a villain person but tbh no one really read as a villain. i wonder what underlied her striking loyalty and how she’ll configure her place w/o silco, and yeah better articulation of the zaunites’ motivations🙏🏽

caitlyn/vi: good!! a normally paced gay ship comfortably nestled between ship tease and canon. the class dynamic they keep gesturing to is very tasty (the scene in the rain?? bollywood!) hope there’s more angst before it goes Canon canon— the ship has a lovely crackle to it and would be well served by a fuller contention w their differences (which are big + interesting even if theyve become close in a war-bond/chemistry way. otherwise yeah might feel like a disservice to the charas if swept under for ship preservation)

i neeeeed more ekko (and the firelights) loved their whole setup! no punk like solarpunk. wish we saw him with jinx more—would have made their charged reunion mega effective if we saw him with her as a kid the way we saw him with vi

the quality and density of the writing for such a short show bodes well. they’re juggling a lot very deftly so happy to give the benefit of the doubt wrt any nitpicks/worries. the characters all feel like dimensional and nuanced manifestations of their archetypes, in a way that makes me wanna keep a permanent distance from fanon bc i know how it goes there

the two vi/sevika fights 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽. the first time in my life that ive felt like an action fan. (also is there #content of them?? asking for a whore)

the pov shot of mel leaning in to kiss jayce is theee funniest thing ever, idk why i find them so funny (affectionate). that pov shot of vi when caitlyn strokes her cheek makes me want to kiss the animators’ feeeeet

whole show makes me wanna kiss the artists’ feet tbh. you can tell they got to express themselves, and all the stylistic stuff is super cool—rly works and the visual intensity didn’t put me off even tho it’s something i can find very overstimulating in the wrong show. it recalls spiderverse very strongly. i want to watch it on like a home cinema screen (rich people hmu). the gestures are so expressive and subtle in a way i often miss when watching animation (coming to cartoons from live action, i admit that ive never rly been convinced that cartoon charas can have a physical- not just textual- chemistry). this feels like the best of both worlds but it’s actually only animation. masterful

soundtrack slaps. the songs are used to great tonal effect. that sequence to ‘our love’ when the enforcers are coming in and vi’s going to give herself up was excellent and caused stirrings even when i had barely any attachment to the charas. the show is so cinematic. also i highly dont recommend carefully listening to the sting song in ep9 and thinking about the abandonment drama.

grateful that it has really lit my fire as a fan!! it’s been a few years since i felt so engaged with sth that actually feels like a world, and not just for one or two aspects of it. i was honestly almost certain that i had just aged out of that kind of hyperfixation-excitement. very happy :D

in conclusion:

#arcane #*

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redbullseb · 2 years

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ARCANE NATIONNNNN! oh my god, finally a mutual who i can talk about this. what are we thinking about viktor (and jayce… as individuals and together)? what was your favourite episode/scene?

btw, it‘s sera! 🤍

oh my god, YES. i have not fucking shut up about this show it has me in the tightest chokehold rn!!!

viktor is The Meow Meow i love him so much. like u know that post about glittery wet rags. he;s just such a tragic character and when he went back to singe all like "i understand now" i started crying real tears. also like. knowing what he's going to become makes everything sadder. i can't wait to see him lose his humanity entirely and want to mourn that loss but be unable to do so. i'm gagging for his philosophical transformation. also that one scene in act i when his first reaction to getting caught was like "wait a minute this isn't my bedroom" OKAY so ur first reaction to getting caught in 4k is pretending u were going to bring a boy to ur room. ok. like ok that was canon. ok

jayce i dislike on principle as a silcoblrina, also bc he becomes like the archetypical stuck up hero character and it's a turnoff.... but jayvik is compelling and when they become enemies... that will end me....

my fave scene is silco's death/jinx's super mega death rocket (wails. the way fishbone has a scar over its left eye) hands down. second only to when he adopts jinx in episode 3 and says "it's okay" like goosebumps literally goosebumps he's my ultimate fave.

dm me babe i want to know your thoughts too so bad let's talk about this and scream together!!!

#when he's like we'll show them we will show them all vs vander like u have a good heart don't forget it #jumping and screaming and pulling out my hair i love this show so much every single fucking DETAIL #sera tag #ask #arcane spoilers #long post

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mariautistic · 2 years

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Jayce was a funny flipflop idiot who has no morals or convictions who the show desperately tries to make you think is the morally righteous golden boy which is the funniest thing ever, Viktor :), silco is also good but not for the reasons ppl think he's good i think his relationship w jinx is like one of the more borings aspect of his chsracter, Caitlyn has the same problem as Jayce of being a naive idiot people listen to for some reason when she found out orphans are real that same week, vi fucking sucks and all her issues she has irt her unhealthy relationship with Jinx are played straight as if she was only slightly confused instead of Actually Having Problems like jinx does but i guess it doesn't count if she's not Crazy Insane Asylum and they made her even more feminine which didn't help, they made ekko be angry all the time to show how he's grown and changed but like i feel it was a little too much specially considering in game he's pretty witty and fun, heimerdinger is like. Very funny and can't believe anyone can listen to him talk with authority when he's this furry gnome immortal that talks funny and tells his students he would let them die, Mel i feel would be a lot more compelling if she had been manipulating Jayce or something but her relationship with him is very straightforward which makes it so boring, and jinx. Hm. Well her writing kinda goes down bc she's like crazy insane... Outside of that... I did like how they developed her and vi's relationship even if they didn't notice what they were doing with their codependent relationship

#.txt

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willosword · 3 years

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this scene makes me feel so many things all at once and i’m gonna rant bc i can’t stop thinking ab it

in terms of pure atmosphere, this is definitely my favorite scene in arcane so far. the setting and flashes of quiet blue lightning and the reflection of the sky in the water was just.. way too beautiful

it’s so hard for me to get immersed in silco’s character most of the time bc he’s so over-the-top “villain” with that stereotypically eeevil voice + appearance, but something about the music + his genuine expression + the voice acting starting when he says “you’re strong, now” was so...... like... wow. this is the ultimate gentleness you will ever get from a hardened and evil man

he is genuinely trying to help jinx here. he sees himself in her, and he doesn’t want her to have to suffer alone. in the last shot before jinx is dunked, a drop of water runs down silco’s face in the same place a tear would. we never see him cry on-screen, but this gesture of his is the equivalent in terms of emotional vulnerability

but again, he's also an evil man. and one of the worst role models anyone could ever look up to. he is not helping her here. just like he didn’t help her when he chose to kill vander. her real, healthy father figure. he was never able to recover from the violence of vander’s ‘betrayal’ so he passes on those same awful coping mechanisms to jinx in the hopes that she’ll stop hurting. he brings her out here in the dead of night, during a lightning storm. his gentle is dark, an unconventional peace.

in the moment, i was nearly convinced silco was going to physically drown her. like, hold her under the water so long to the point where she can’t get enough air, and then pull her out once that fight-or-flight desperation to survive kicks in as some kind of twisted and fucked up lesson about her inner strength. but no, the actual scene was surprisingly tame. more like a baptism, which was intriguing

i love that shot with their hands, the way you can see how tiny jinx’s fingers are compared to his. with her goofy multi-colored nails. it conveys so well how she’s still just a kid who needs guidance, and silco is trying to give that to her, even though he could never be what she needs. even worse when you recognize that silco is the source of most of jinx’s pain in the first place. it’s uncomfortable and soft and tragic and earnest and sad and upsetting all at once

the way silco seems to sincerely care about jinx and see her as a daughter is really compelling to me. i hope they keep that thread up into the 3rd act. there’s a chance they could be like “hey, silco never actually cared about jinx and was just manipulating her the whole time” and that’d be alright too but i hope it’s the former. this scene was very beautiful and it sticks in my mind a lot

#i did not just write an essay overanalyzing a 1 minute scene from arcane sssshhh just keep scrolling #arcane #willow whispers #though i'm sure part of the reason why this scene is so special to me is also bc i've felt very connected to nighttime recently #like have you ever stood out in an open field in the middle of the night with a sky just bright enough to see all your surroundings?#i used to be scared of the dark but god it's so peaceful. especially if it's windy too #this is a nighttime appreciation post. it's very very good

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