#arcane discourse

She betrayed Ambessa. She let Jinx go. She led the battle against Ambessa in the finale. She lost an eye and nearly died. She gave up her seat on the council to Sevika so that Zaun could be represented.

Does it fix everything? No. Systems of oppression aren't fixed with a handful of well intentioned actions.

But Caitlyn DID feel remorse and DID make attempts to reverse her wrongdoings.

Literally.

There is a constant stream of toxic!Ambessa Medarda x reader fics, most often posing her in an unflattering, uncaring, brutish, abusive light.

A large part of me knows that some of it is attributed to racism. Something something strong black woman and something something equating her to terrible stereotypes and something something thinking she can’t be written or perceived in any way other than toxically controlling and terrible.

It is very disappointing.

I understand everyone has their own interpretation, but if you watched the show or gave a damn about Ambessa Medarda beyond her looks, you’d know that her natural setting is not ‘toxic’ or ‘abusive’ or ‘apathetic’ when it comes to being in a relationship. In fact, you’d know that such behaviour would be incredibly out of character.

Yes, she’s a warlord and has committed an insane amount of crimes against humanity, but she’s not an abusive fucked up partner that manipulates her lover into thinking they’re nothing without her.

many people seem angry at both caitlyn and the showrunners for developing caitlyn’s character in this direction. it’s upsetting. it’s tragic. caitlyn hitting vi with the butt of her gun like a true cop and leaving her to cry wrenched my fucking heart.

but this is why i love stories. corruption arcs and dark nights of the soul can make them extremely interesting.

i love analysing the layers of characters. my instinctive reaction towards caitlyn’s corruption arc was excitement—the path she’s going down is like that of a star wars villain. she is a dangerous (and simultaneously vulnerable) person who is grieving and lost and is therefore malleable, and ambessa medarda has decided to use caitlyn’s grief and anger to serve her own purposes. this will leave caitlyn with blood on her hands and a hard path towards redemption.

i would urge my fellow arcane enjoyers to remember that characters are not real individuals and the aim of telling stories is not necessarily to guide them towards happy endings, perfect relationships, and moral correctness. i obviously don’t support caitlyn’s actions (just making this clear after receiving a confused comment on a previous post).

my heart breaks for vi after act 1. i hope she’s able to find her feet again after the awful shit she’s been through—losing not two but three parental figures, being pushed to become an enforcer despite her serious cognitive dissonance surrounding this, deciding to take it upon herself to kill her estranged sister, and finally losing caitlyn whom she had come to think of as a reliable constant through everything that has happened.

Caitlyn didn’t need to have some dramatic badge removal moment because she took it off every time she broke Piltover’s rules for Vi. Here’s the proof:

• She lied to a prison guard, faking Council authorization the very day Jace became a councilman, just to bust Vi out of prison.

• She traded her Piltover rifle for shimmer without hesitation the moment Vi got hurt, folding up the symbol of her old life like it was worthless next to Vi’s survival.

• She lied at a Council hearing, ready to commit perjury to protect Vi and Jinx from political fallout.

• She stood between Vi and danger countless times, fought battles in Zaun’s worst alleys, and allied with criminals she was trained to fear—all because she chose Vi’s side.

• She gave up her own Council seat and handed it over to Sevikanto become a Zaunite leader, so Zaun could finally have representation. That’s a political and symbolic surrender of her Piltover privilege. Not to mention it being SEVIKA, someone known to be loyal to Silco.

• She had multiple chances to kill Jinx but didn’t (when jinxs guard was down), because she realized Vi and Jinx were a package deal, and protecting Vi meant protecting her whole messy, dangerous world.

Caitlyn’s life was impacted by Zaun too.

Maybe not as deeply as Vi’s, who lost her parents to Enforcers, but Caitlyn grew up hearing about Zaun’s struggles constantly. She knew about the poverty, the crime, the corruption. It killed 5 enforcers in one of the first episodes in season 2 for seemingly no reason, other than just a straight terrorist attack. And when a notorious Zaunite criminal killed her own mother? That was personal.

Yet instead of turning away, Caitlyn chose to cross every line she’d been raised to protect. She chose to stand with Vi and Zaun, even when it meant betraying her own class, her own family, and everything she was taught to believe.

Cuz it’s like I’m sitting here like:

OH

GEE

I

WONDER

WHAT

HAPPENED

And not Only will there be Jinx glazers who deem there was Nothing Wrong with this, but they’ll deem that Caitlyn Deserved it. And Look, I Get that Jinx’s your fav and all, but Nothing about what Jinx did to Caitlyn here was Remotely ok.

“But she didn’t know her mom was there!”

And that doesn’t excuse the Entirety of the tea party scene.

“But Jinx has abandonment issues!” Yea so do I, not Quite on the same level as Jinx does but I’m not about to go Kidnapping and Threatening the person I thought was “responsible” cuz that’s just Fucked Up (also highly illegal)

And No, I’m Not “letting my Caitlyn bias get in the way” of having a discussion with this because I at the very least have the mental capacity to say “it’s not okay that ____ did that”

And it’s to the point where I’m seeing videos like “How it feels to be an Arcane fan with media literacy in 2025” and I open the comments to see that the OP is a Notorious Jinx glazer that treats Caitlyn like the devil like babes if your a glazer for Anyone in this show I’m gonna say that you probably lack media literacy all together because that wasn’t the Point of the Character 🤦‍♀️

“But you’re a Caitlyn defender”

Exactly. I’m Not a Caitlyn glazer because I’m spending most of my time Defending Caitlyn from Jinx glazers because there’s a difference between the “defenders” and the “glazers” of the Arcane fandom. And I don’t sit here saying “oh Caitlyn was in the right for x, y and z” when she’s clearly Not.

And Most of the time when we’re having a discussion about Caitlyn not only will fans Completely Ignore characters like Ambessa and Salo; they’ll deem you “racist” if you bring up the fact that Ambessa’s the one that’s the dictator/manipulator as if that wasn’t the whole reason she came to Piltover in the First Place. (While Also making “jokes” that compare Caitlyn to two of the most Heinous moments in history. “But Caitlyn stans were racist towards Reed when he made the jokes!” Yea and that was wrong as well! Two things can be wrong at the same time people! It’s not rocket science)