#arcane ramble

They’re both absolute disasters. They built a tea corner right next to all their sockets and cables. Neither has ever looked at a safety manual in their life. Their collective self-preservation level is negative five. They can whip up the most complex, groundbreaking invention in ridiculously little time, but the moment they turn it on, it’s either exploding, on fire, or seconds away from both. Heimerdinger wasn’t their supervisor, he was their babysitter. It’s a MIRACLE they didn’t accidentally kill themselves between act 1 and 2 of s1. I mean, guys, it’s canon that Viktor once said “imma do illegal experiments now”, and all Jayce did in response was say “whatever makes you happy pookie 🥰” and make sure the Council wouldn’t ban it.

the "eye of zaun", the "jinx", they're both turning their traumas into a brand. silco's fixated on the river he almost drowned in, framing it in his mind as not trauma, but an important lesson. a baptism. a rebirth. all to avoid the fear he actually felt. he can dismiss the pain and terror as the emotions of someone other than himself entirely, some other version of him that he let die, so that he never has to actually confront it.

and he thinks that that's what jinx needs to do too. to let powder die, to become someone else. reframe her trauma, make it her identity. and she does. she names herself jinx, she draws the things she has flashbacks about over and over again until her room is covered in the proof of her "rebirth" as jinx.

but it doesn't work for her the way it "worked" for him. she's younger, she was way younger when it all happened to her, it's imprinted into her brain in a completely different way. she can't repress it the way he does. all of the reminders only do that; remind her. she hallucinates and has breakdowns and none of this is healthy for her. she can't recover, not in this environment of constant triggers.

silco doesn't understand that, because it "worked" for him. he wears his trauma as a role, a mask, a brand. the eye, a very real permanent disability of his, becomes a logo and a signature. the river becomes a metaphor for rebirth and change, instead of what it actually is: a large body of water full of toxins that he almost drowned in. sort of off-topic, but this is the main reason why the song "dramaturgy" reminds me of silco so much: he's performing his own trauma as a role. he's purposefully leaning into the dramatics of it, the themes, he's turning his own life into a compelling story. because that's easier for him than confronting the actual horror of what he went through.

there is, however, one moment in s1 where we see silco express a raw sort of terror directly because of his trauma, and that's when vander wraps his hand around his throat in episode 3. only for a moment, the reality of it all sunk in again. he'd spent years wearing his trauma like a costume, but right then, he was forced to acknowledge once again that that costume was him. vander's hand wrapped around his throat, and he was that boy again, terrified and choking, drowning, lungs burning, being beaten to a pulp and strangled by someone he thought he could trust. for just a moment, that elaborate coping mechanism he'd built for himself crumbled. the eye is just an injury. the river is just a river. drowning isn't rebirth. he's just that traumatized boy. he'll always be that traumatized boy.

first, viktor knew he was supposed to die. he says it. he says “i was supposed to die” as one of the first objections when he wakes up and talks to jayce. he didn’t want to be changed more than he already was. hell, look at how he was at the near end of season one

he gave up his own body for the sake of progress, and was miserable as a result of doing so. he WILLINGLY hurt himself over and over for science, but it was ultimately his decision; he knew he didn’t have long

this scene is a vicious stab to the gut when you delve into it. viktor’s forgiveness to jayce symbolized by his face still being his own, the last remaining part of him.

and then we go to where jayce completely rejects him.

this is rejection at its cruellest, rearing form.

“my partner died in this room”

viktor lost everything within a single sentence. everything. he left that encounter completely distraught and defeated; he just lost his last chance at convincing the only person he truly cares about to stay with him, and he lets go of emotion entirely

his face is now masked. there is no forgiveness in this viktor’s heart, for his emotions are no longer there, replaced with sheer apathy and a need to go forward.

yes, he did agree to the transformation, telling singed to “begin the process”, but was he really in his right mind? really? he just lost his partner, his everything, jayce motherfucking talis. those last vestiges of hope are now gone. that wasn’t viktor making that choice, not truly.

(plus, it was hardly viktor’s choice anyways. the mutation must survive, y’know?)

fucking look at him. he is hoping and fucking praying that jayce sees him as perfect now. why wouldn’t he? isn’t this the true pinnacle of beauty?

and yet,

the mask broke.

You know what baffles me, the arcane writers and animators have been shown to be able to write and successfully convey a sibling dynamic between both blood and non blood relatives

They have

Vi and jinx, a huge part of the storyline, they even go through a similar arc to Jayce and Viktor relationship progression wise, well as similar as blood siblings raised together can be to people who met in their early 20s

They have Jayce and Cait! They only have a few bits of time together and still clearly portray a sibling dynamic and even outside of the age issue someone would be considered very odd by the fandom to see their dynamic as romantic!

They even have a dynamic which could have been a sibling dynamic but is clearly closer to romance, ekko and jinx/powder.

They clearly are perfectly adept to write and execute clear relationship dynamics that are easy to interpret

They CAN write non blood sibling dynamics, but you know what this is?

*taps stick at a now projected image of Jayce and viktor*

not a sibling or brotherly relationship! None of the subtext aligns with that view.

So why, if we know they know how to portray multiple kinds of relationships, are we here? What’s the problem?

The problem is people including one guy who worked on the show, are claiming this

*taps again on multiple images of Jayce and viktor*

Is brotherly, when it’s so clearly romantic, well honestly it’s beyond romantic, as the one guy said, they’re everything, they’re soul partners

Their body language around eachother, their parallel character arcs, the way they talk about eachother, the things they did for and because of eachother..

It’s very hard to interpret that as brotherly, especially especially because they’re not brothers.

I’m in full support of deep life altering found family type dynamics. But that is not what it looks like, and we know the writers and storyboarders and animators, at least most of them, know that too.

"Because I promised you"

I've been thinking about it and I'm not really sure what Jayce was referring to by saying that. What did he promise to Viktor besides destroying the Hexcore in S1? To me it sounds like he's referring to some kind of wedding vows: "I promise to love you for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; until death do us part". Do you have an idea what he meant by saying that? Am I missing or forgetting something?