Viktor was always afraid of becoming like Rio and Orianna, neither living nor dead, kept in glass by someone who would not let him die because he was loved too much. Jayce basically did just that to him.
How has this parallel never occur to me before? Viktor walking away was completely understandable before but this, this is just so sad...
Viktor being an apprentice for Singed longer than Arcane shows us really makes parts of his character deliciously more painful.
Viktor allows augmentations to his body, but never replaces anything despite the advanced prosthetics we see.
-> because Singed replaced Orianna’s arms and legs, and Viktor feared becoming her.
Viktor never uses Shimmer until he is absolutely desperate, though we see he could have access to it in Piltover a la Salo (or just by going to Singed earlier).
-> Viktor knows Shimmer was supposed to be a medicine because he’s the adopted son of the man who made it. He watches Shimmer, something he might have even helped with in its earliest stages as a teenager, become a drug that ravages Zaun.
-> The first person he “heals” is a Shimmer addict.
Viktor leaves after Jayce rescued him with the Hexcore.
-> Viktor was always afraid of becoming like Rio and Orianna, neither living nor dead, kept in glass by someone who would not let him die because he was loved too much. Jayce basically did just that to him.
Singed convinces Ambessa to let him talk to Viktor. He notices Viktor is fading and offers his creature up to heal him. He doesn’t actually do it until Viktor lets him.
Meanwhike, Viktor knows where one of the worst villains of the Undercity is. The reason Shimmer is flooding the Lanes. Viktor has a Councilor best friend and ties to the Enforcers who could root him out. Yet he never breathes a word about his location.
-> Because there is a twisted sort of love between them, a toxic relationship filled with acid, but at its core is a true affection of a father for a son.
Robert Sheehan explaining how people presume time is a strict progression of cause to effect but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.
It’s weird to know that Klaus is the least chaotic version of Robert
I mean I just have to add a bunch of Astral Viktor to this because he's SO expressive
People: Viktor is not externalising his feelings, he's the master of microexpressions
Actually Viktor:
Personally for me it was absolutely not about favoring mlm vs. wlw. This is not simply about representation, it's about the stories. I loved CaitVi in S1 but for me in S2 they completely lacked chemistry and their ending felt unearned.
In Season 1 CaitVi told a beautiful story about two kind-hearted women overcoming their prejudice and seeing the person that was in front of them. I cherished every heartfelt glance between them, especially Vi being touched every time Cait proved to be so much better than most Piltovians and showing compassion towards the people of Zaun.
But then Season 2 came along and I lost all respect for Cait the moment she said "animals" in S2E1. AND THEN she gassed Zaun and became the Fuhrer. Her redemption scenepack (because I'm not calling that an arc) didn't really do it for me. I get what they were going for but I never regained my appreciation for Caityn after everything she's done in S2.
Vi also became way less compelling in S2. She went from being an awesome big sister and one of the main characters in S1 to being basically a device for other characters (Jinx, Cait, Warwick) to have their moments, with a montage of getting drunk in goth makeup and an underdeveloped friendship with Loris sprinkled in for good measure. She also made many out of character choices, the biggest ones being joining the Enforcers and giving up on Jinx and Zaun.
Cait and Vi's first kiss had no chemistry for me. I feel like they weren't really seeing each other in that scene. Vi asked Cait to promise she wouldn't change but Cait has already started to change by then. Cait kissed Vi as a confirmation of that promise even though you can't realistically promise someone that you won't change because it's near impossible.
Their reconcilliation in S2E6 was rushed. We've all seen the jokes that all it took for Cait to do a 180 was to hear Vi say the word "cupcake". And then the sex scene in S2E8 felt unearned and had a very awkward timing. There was so much misunderstanding that they should've addressed first but I guess they just really wanted to boink already. Or rather, the writers wanted them to boink. Even if it was in a prison cell right after Jinx pretty much implied to Vi that she's going to kill herself.
I have many problems with Arcane Season 2's writing and Cait and Vi's storylines are among them. Meanwhile the best thing that happened in that season was Jayce and Viktor's stories. They were very compelling separately (Viktor becoming Jesus and finally being able to help people in Zaun like he always wanted to, only to become lost and possessed by the Hexcore and crossing the line. Jayce seeing the unforseen tragic consequences of his idealism and ambition and coming out on the other side more mature and wanting to amend for the damage he's caused) as well as in relation to each other (Their perspectives clashing in the divorce scene. Them basically switching places and gaining understanding of each other's POV. Every time they hurt each other in any capacity in Episodes 6, 8 and 9 you could see how much pain it brought them. And then their final scene which was just poetic and tied their story perfectly, them sacrificing their lives in each other's arms to save the world from their shared dream that started it all.)
Enjoying a good story and disregarding a poorly-written one has nothing to do with biases.
im a huge jayvik fan and loved their gay ass ending but the way they get SO MUCH MORE TRACTION than the CANONICAL LESBIAN COUPLE at the center of the show is sooooo telling of everyone's biases. it's all talking about how there's not enough lesbian rep until you actually get lesbian rep and fully fucking ignore it to hype up the not even canonical gay ship. like ok !!!
Oh he so does. Joking about it is just the most comfortable way for him to reveal that. And yeah, he probably over exaggerates it for comic effect, but still. My hc is, my MC likes to tease him while they're chilling on the bean bags by resting her feet on him and watching him blush. The moment Bobby realizes she's totally cool with his fetish, there's no turning back for him. From that point their fun time in the hideout always starts with a foot massage :)
Okay but real talk, the important random question is:
Does Bobby really have a foot fetish or is it just a goof he latched into or some alternate third option?
...and go!
@ravenadottir
@cranesandshipyards
@bravomckenzie
@bobbyboops
Karliah: We need new Nightingales
Karliah: Please come to Nightingale Hall
Karliah: Take this Nightingale armour
Karliah: Okay so now you're becoming a Nightingale-
Brynjolf: What, I'm becoming a Nightingale?? This came out of NOWHERE!
Oh.
"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.
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:
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.
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 also 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 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/7½/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20
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Why does everyone assume Vander would be rowdy, fun, cool and lenient parent while Silco would be soft and nurturing but the disciplinarian and overprotective one. Their parenting style is canonically the OPPOSITE to this.
Vander is shown on-screen disciplining his children for going against his rules. He's not particularly strict (I don't think any parents in Zaun are tbh I think children just kinda roam unattended a LOT) but he does have rules and expect them to be followed. He has that Stern Dad voice down to a science. He has that "I'm not mad I'm disappointed also you're grounded" vibe down pat, and he scolds them because he is worried about their safety. This is a man who is taking childrearing seriously. He's also shown being very soft and loving with them. His little smile when he gives Powder juice. How gently he encourages Mylo when he successfully lockpicks the cuffs. He is soft and nurturing. He is protective. He is gentle but authoritative.
Silco meanwhile allows Jinx to do whatever she wants. You can argue he disciplined her when he yelled at her for killing those enforcers but 1- she committed a literal massive terrorist attack that derailed ALL of his plans and he's acting like she stole his car or something and 2- what we see is not the same practiced discipline that we see from Vander. This is not a man who has established a relationship where he is the Parent and she is the Child and must follow his rules. He is emotional, almost childish, acting more like her friend or colleague being pissed off than her dad. He is not protective, he lets her play with bombs and do all sorts of dangerous shit. He cares about her safety, he's obviously distraught when she's hurt, but he cares about her freedom more. He lets her fuck up constantly without repercussions. He lets her dress and act however she wants no matter how poorly it reflects on him because her freedom mattered more to him than anything in the entire world-- more than his own, more than his dream, more than his life, and more than her safety. He also appears a lot stiffer when it comes to expressing affection, even though his love for her is obvious, he lacks Vander's warmth.
This isn't to say Silco would be a worse father or anything, rather that he is objectively the "fun dad" who lets his kids do what they want, has absolutely zero backbone, and isn't as good at expressing affection but makes sure his kids know they are loved by him.
What I'm saying is Vander is so obviously Primary Caregiver and I don't know how people mix the two up.
Just kidding! I do know. It's the classic Forcing Hetero Gender Norms Onto A Gay Couple! You know, because Silco is small and dainty, and small/dainty = woman and woman = mommy and mommy = "does all the parenting work" = nurturing, affectionate, strict and protective.
Meanwhile Vander is a Big Strong Masc Man we know That = "Real Man" (vomit) = father = "gets to be the raucous fun parent and doesn't have to actually do any real parenting" (again vomit)
stealthy bi twins ❤️💜💙
The bisexual disaster twins are here and we’re queer 🌈👌🏻
Come find us and give Trinket some pats because he’s the best buddy and he deserves it
she/her, 28, ENTP, 7w8, nerdy bisexual mess. I open Tumblr twice a year to repost my current brainrot related things only to disappear again
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