Arcane Analysis - Blog Posts

karashti

4 months ago

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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emiliaisis

2 months ago

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

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

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

But let's go point for point shall we?

First, how did they meet?

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

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

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

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

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

Then she just clings to him.

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

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

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

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

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

I will however describe it as extremely negligent.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All to protect the fragile perception of the ideal father.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.