Wait, You're Right. I Was Way Too Chill Abt It Too 💀

it makes me so insane that even though the undeniably most relevant moment in his character arc was being betrayed by someone, silco still fundamentally trusts people on principle. the system he's built relies entirely on other people doing their part, he relies entirely on other people's loyalty to him. he lets jinx, someone everyone else says is a liability and unpredictable, inject his eye with shimmer, an insanely vulnerable position for him to be putting himself in willingly. he trusts sevika, someone who could easily overpower him physically (much like vander did), to remain loyal to him.

the trust silco places in other people is also indicative of his past role as an activist and a revolutionary, i think. communities are built on trust. movements are dependent on trust. when an entire people work as one, trust is the thing that keeps them together. and even though vander, in silco's mind, betrayed that trust, he still believes in the inherent power of it.

it's an AU where you get the first phrase your soulmate will tell you written somewhere on your body

with Viktor's first phrase to Jayce it was hilarious

I see nothing wrong here

outstanding work everyone

Big stronk dude with his fuckass hammer and his stupid shoulder armor waiting on his knees for his eldritch god bf to materialize behind him and oh so tenderly penetrate his brain with his magic fingers

This is one of the sentences ever.

Since everyone is talking about that concept art of Jayce and Viktor fighting, it's useful to know that the concept artist, Suheb Zako, also posted it on their twitter with some context.

It is early concept art for a final fight between Jayce and Viktor in the hexzone sorry I'm not calling it that astral plane. There's a link in the twitter thread to an anime clip that gives you a sense of what the vibe would've been.

It's not totally clear when in the development/production process this art is from, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jayce and Viktor originally had a dynamic that was more like their game counterparts. In that case a knock-down-drag-out fight in the astral plane might've fit better. But in the final version of the show it wouldn't have worked anywhere near as well as what we got, and not just because it would have seemed out of character for what the characters and their relationship arc became in the finished show.

First of all, we already did have a knock-down-drag-out fight between them. That's the Council chamber fight scene. It would've felt like a repeated beat and that's the last thing you want in your big finale. When you have characters who fight each other multiple times, you want each fight to reflect a progression of their relationship.

Secondly, by the end of the show, Viktor is absurdly overpowered compared to any other character. Once he goes full Machine Herald he is basically a god. A conventional fight scene is just not gonna do it here. You need a twist, some way to win that doesn't involve being stronger than him. And the trump card being The Power of Unconditional Love (And Also This Time Machine Getting Chucked at Your Head) fits perfectly with the show's themes.

Thirdly, the final episode is ALL action. In an episode that's one massive battle, it takes a lot of work to make individual pieces of action stand out. (And generally, you do it not by making the fighting look Super Duper Extra Cool, but with character work.) But any scenes between the characters that are not action are automatically gonna pop because they're so different in pacing and energy from everything around them.

I haven't seen as many people discussing this set of keyframes, but the changes here are also fascinating:

Because Viktor assimilating Jayce as a battle move is almost the complete opposite of what we got in the finished show, and what we got in the finished show is so fucking good. It's one of my favorite moments in the whole damn series.

I've already written about it here, but playing it so that Jayce doesn't get surprised or overpowered but chooses to allow Viktor to bring him into the astral plane as a last-ditch effort to reach whatever is left of Viktor's humanity is sooooooo narratively sexy. (And also just. Sexy. Big stronk dude with his fuckass hammer and his stupid shoulder armor waiting on his knees for his eldritch god bf to materialize behind him and oh so tenderly penetrate his brain with his magic fingers, listen I am not making this up this is just what happens, no homoerotic fight scene could ever top this.)

It also fits with the motif of a number of characters winning their individual battles in the finale by surrender/submission/potential self-sacrifice. It fits with Caitlyn realizing that to cut the string of protective runes off Ambessa's arm she has to allow Ambessa to get within stabbing distance of her face. And of course, Jinx forcing Vi to let her go by popping the gemstone out of her gauntlet and letting herself fall with Warwick.

Arcane has fantastic action storytelling and part of good action storytelling is knowing when to have the character stop fighting each other. Seeing the early concept art is cool to see how much things evolved, but I'm glad they moved away from just trying to do an epic boss fight because what we ended up with is so much more interesting.

Underrated JayVik moments/lines (2/∞)

"For what?"

(Previous line by Jayce: "I need to get ready.")

Ugh, if only the gays could communicate.

In this scene, Heimerdinger has threatened - sworn - to have the HexCore destroyed "one way or another". Since they are running out of time to find ways to save Viktor at this point and the HexCore appears to be the only viable option, Jayce immediately resolves - however conflicted about it he feels - to go up against his revered mentor by having him voted off the council. For Viktor.

However: from Jayce's quieting footsteps as Viktor asks "For what?", we can tell that Jayce didn't stick around to tell Viktor of his intentions.

If ever there was a moment that perfectly encapsulates how Viktor never gets to see the full picture of Jayce, the full scope of his decisionmaking... it would be this one.

For all the times Viktor feels betrayed and abandoned by Jayce (and rightfully so), he equally often doesn't get to witness all the other actions/decisions that show how ultimately, Jayce will always put him first.

He sees Jayce looking starstruck by Mel, but didn't see him looking at Viktor the exact same way only hours prior.

He is aware of Jayce leaving him to his own devices at the lab, but not of how Jayce fled Mel's bed to come see him before he could have even known Viktor was sick.

He hears Jayce speak disparagingly about the Undercity only after worrying about Viktor and where he had disappeared to for days.

He knows that Jayce broke his promise to destroy the HexCore, but not of the wide-eyed desparation with which he scrambled for any way at all to save Viktor.

He notices the blueprints for HexTech weapons, but wasn't there for the attack on the memorial service.

And of course, he has Jayce attacking him multiple times, but can't see how much Jayce is fighting himself tooth and nail every step of the way to do it.

In the end, it literally takes Jayce forfeiting his entire existence for the chance to stay by Viktor's side for Viktor to finally realise all the things he never saw.

(Disclaimer: none of this is to say that Jayce's decisions were all good or justified - gods no - only that it's more complicated than that. Nuance, my beloved.)

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Idk if u guys will agree with me but I feel like Silco is simultaneously very straight and very gay but couldn't be further from giving off bisexual vibes. He occupies two opposite ends of the spectrum but avoiding the middle completely.

truth had gone, truth had gone, and truth had gone. ah, now truth is asleep in the darkness of the sinister hand.

I needed that 😩

I'm currently writing my first serious fanfic and it's probably going to be like 20+ chapters. I have so many ideas and they all start to interlace and form an interesting story.

The thing is, I have very strong visual imagination but I'm not that good with words (even though I studied literature - dropped out bc writing papers on schedule gave me lots of anxiety)

So anyway I would imagine the scene in my head in every detail. I can see the "camera" angles, the mood, everything. But when it comes to writing it down, I sit on ONE sentence for approx 15-30 minutes struggling to find the right words.

And then I'm all excited telling my friends I wrote 5 pages last week and one of them goes "That's not that much, I write 30 pages in two evenings"

Like, why would you say it like that? Why compare? Did you feel better? Bc I certainly didn't.

This is for the slow writers out there. Those who take weeks to write one chapter. Those who take years to finish one manuscript. Those who regularly write only 100-300 words in several hours. Those who take months to put out a new chapter. Those who haven’t touched their stories in years but it’s still a WIP because they can’t stop thinking about/taking notes for scenes/etc.

I see you. You’re valid. Keep up the good work!

Underrated JayVik moments/lines (11/∞)

[The crystal being set on the inside of Jayce's wrist.]

...as opposed to the outside, where you'd normally expect to see the jewel of a wristband like this. It's a simple fact that still carries so much weight:

Of course, one thing it signifies is simply how it's not for show, not an adornment, but instead something deeply personal to Jayce.

Beyond that, however, there is just something so symbolic about keeping a memento directly on top of your veins like this. Where you might feel for a pulse, or - you know - cut in order to end your life (Jayce's suicide attempt just so happens to be the only time he takes it off, too - he doesn't even take it off during sex).

And while it's not something I noticed consciously for the longest time, everytime Jayce rubs his thumb over the crystal, as he so often does... he is inadvertently also baring his wrist and tracing his lifeblood; his heart, his "whole life".

Jayce is quite literally carrying the stone, the beauty and the dreams it represents cased in gold and close to his heart.

And I don't know about you, but I can just never get over how - even though he won't know it for many years - what this gem really is at the end of the day, is the bond Jayce shares with Viktor across time and space made manifest. Given to him by Viktor in order to set them on their path to each other.

At which point, when Jayce does find out, it is then fully embedded into his body and his very essence; to be - at long last - dug out of his veins, gifted to and shared with his own Viktor during their final moments.

I don't know, man... the layers of symbolism with these two sometimes actually makes it more difficult to write these posts because there is just so much to consider. For instance, in this topic alone we have:

The crystal representing the mage who saved him,

who is also Viktor,

but also representing Jayce's dreams of bringing the magic that the mage i.e. Viktor brought to his life to the world,

those dreams being Jayce's "whole life"

and something of which he is immediately eager to share ownership with Viktor

after Viktor validated those dreams by returning the wristband to Jayce,

being the only other person to have held said wristband,

which in itself is again a symbol of their bond,

and -

You see the issue here? I feel like I can never truly get to the bottom of every facet I want to talk about in any of these posts (while still remaining coherent, that is).

Then again, I guess all that really means is that you are cordially invited to dig deeper if you wish to.

Part 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12

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