The Silco Saga, Part Two*: Vander and Silco haunt the narrative (and are kinda gay for each other)
*This is the second (well, actually third) post in a series Iâve lovingly dubbed âThe Silco Saga, a retrospective after Season 2â. Itâs halfway between flow of conscience, meta, headcanon and review, spawned from my Arcane brainrot (and recent S1 rewatch) and vaguely aimed at trying to reevaluate the entirety of Arcane with a focus on my Main Man⢠Silco. Here is Part 1 (on how S2 handled Silco and Jinxâs relationship) and Part 1.5 (miscellaneous thoughts regarding timeline issues and Silcoâs actions towards the kids in S1ep3).
Please feel free to comment! I love hearing different perspectives on this show.
Also, quick disclaimer (just in case it wasnât clear from the title of this post): I ship them. Donât like, donât read. And I swear to God, if I hear anyone say âbut theyâre brothers!!!1!â, know that Iâm going to curse your entire genome until the thermal death of the Universe. Bye.
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The portrayal of Vander that emerges from S1 and S2 is that of a man who is trying to do good by his people, but is plagued by guilt and shame due to the horrific acts of violence he committed in the past. S2 clearly shows us that the events of the Day of Ash and the subsequent attempted murder of his best friend/comrade/homoerotic situationship (Iâm looking at you, Brokeback Mountain jackets) were intensely traumatic not just for Silco, but for Vander as well. Iâll admit I didnât much care for him in S1 (mostly because of his goody-two-shoes aura which most of the fandom seemed to latch on to), but I think the elements S2 added to his backstory turned him into a wonderfully complex and contradictory character. It cements something I already kind of sensed about him in S1: that thereâs a distinct layer of hypocrisy in Vanderâs strict adherence to pacifism (to the point of inaction), which is not really a byproduct of a deeply held personal belief about the ethics of non-violence, but instead a way to cope with his guilt about Silco and the other victims of the Day of Ash revolt. Vander chooses to âatoneâ for his sins by suppressing all forms of violence, both internal and external, thus generating a safe but stifling environment in which the Lanes survive, but arguably cannot thrive long-term. And in line with Arcaneâs tragic narrative, he gets ultimately punished for it: heâs forced to loose all that he holds dear (Silco, the kids and his peaceful little world) and to ultimately embody what he hates and fears most about himself (being a violent monster only capable of destruction).
During my first watch of S2 I couldnât really figure out whether I liked or not the fact that Feliciaâs death was the reason for Vanderâs âbetrayalâ of Silco (it felt a bit contrived and love-triangle-y), but after giving it much thought I have decided that, in fact, I quite like it. It plays heavily into the theme of guilt being central to Vanderâs character, and how this guilt really ends up snowballing into something completely unmanageable. Guilt about Felicia (and probably many others that died on that day) leads him to turn on Silco; and later, guilt about Silco ultimately makes him give up all violent means of revolution because heâs too afraid to harm the people he loves. Guilt also becomes a motivating factor for his adoption of Vi and Powder, since we now know heâs not just selflessly picking up two strays, but acting on a promise done to a dear friend whoâs just died because of him. The fact that the details of his âbetrayalâ of Silco are kept pretty much a secret also reeks of guilt and shame. Thereâs this layer of selfishness and cowardice to his actions that I find very refreshing for a character thatâs introduced to us as the closest thing to a paragon of virtue in all of Arcane.
Itâs deeply tragic how his inability to properly deal with his past impacts the rest of the narrative; perhaps, had he told Vi the real reason for his unwillingness to rise against Piltover, and not the wishy-washy âviolence bad, be responsibleâ speech, she would have been less rash and black-and-white in her thinking.
I wish S2 spend more time on the two sisters reflecting on Vander and Silcoâs relationship. While itâs natural for us to draw parallels between the dyads Vi-Jinx and Vander-Silco, in reality their situations are quite different. There was no âbetrayalâ between Vi and Jinx, just two grief-stricken children unable to handle an immensely tragic situation; but, due to the âlessonsâ imparted to them from their âparentsâ (lessons which themselves were distorted due to their own inability to deal with their past), they are led to believe their situation is as hopelessly unsolvable as it was for Vander and Silco.
I still havenât decided on whether the letter would have worked on Silco or not. I think timing plays a big factor. The Silco we meet in arc 1 of S1 probably wouldnât have been swayed; heâs already too set in his ârebirthâ mentality, and the new man he has become doesnât care about Vanderâs sentimental platitudes. A younger Silco, with less time to crystallize into his new identity⌠maybe. I think the Best Timeline of S2ep7 (yes, thatâs what Iâm calling it) sort of implies that Silco got the letter almost immediately, given the state of his wound (and the absence of Shimmer).
I wonder if we are also meant to implicitly understand that his use of Shimmer in the Worst Timeline (a.k.a. Arcane, the Netflix show) had some kind of negative influence on his psyche. After all, Shimmer does seem to impact the emotions of its users; if it did influence Silcoâs radicalization, it would make his story doubly tragic. Iâve always found his use of Shimmer an interesting tidbit in S1, and the fact that the show doesnât explain it very much beyond using it to show the amount of trust between him and Jinx has always been very intriguing to me.
Anyway. I think that, in any case, the letter would have been only the first step in Silco and Vanderâs trajectory towards reconciliation. They both have a lot of issues to unpack; I love the headcanon going around that one of Silcoâs prerequisites to their âpeace treatyâ is for Vander to rejoin the political fight for Zaun. It sounds just so⌠in character for Silco to demand something like that; it acts as both a justification and a shield, preventing him to expose himself too much at the beginning, while ensuring that he and Vander remain close.
I think it was already clear in S1 that they both secretly craved to be close again, especially Silco, given how hard he still tried to convince Vander to work with him in S1ep3. (Which is kind of insane of him, if you think about it, but I guess working closely with the man who tried to murder you â and almost succeeded â kinda fits into his whole âalmost dying turned me into an Ăbermenschâ philosophy?) Now, with Vanderâs letter in S2, we know for a fact the feeling was mutual. Which is, again, horribly tragic for them both, because theyâre both so set in their respective ways that actual reconciliation is made impossible.
And they were miners (oh my God they were miners)
Since weâre already kind of on the topic of whether or not Zaundads is real (or just the fruit of our collective hallucination), letâs give to Caesar wha belongs to Caesar: I donât think the writers meant for them to turn out that way. Their dialogue doesnât particularly strike me as hinting to anything beyond a very close friendship.
⌠The animators, however? Those French fucks (affectionate) knew what they were doing. The imagery of the jackets stored one inside the other cannot be a coincidence. Thereâs really no other cinematic parallel I can think of that doesnât ultimately lead back to Brokeback Mountain. They were insane for that, and Iâm deeply thankful to their perverted French minds (extremely affectionate) that they had the balls to just⌠put it there. No further comment. Just a glaring nod to the gayest movie ever.
(Also, Brokeback Mountainâs most iconic quote â âI wish I knew how to quit youâ â perfectly applies to Vander and Silco. They just canât seem to let each other go. Silco is still harping on about Vander years after he died. Vander canât even bear to mention Silco in S1, and the moment they meet again the first thing he blurts out is âIâm sorryâ, right after Silco murdered his friend â RIP king Benzo, you didnât deserve it â in front of him. They match each otherâs freak so well, I tell you.)
And then Silcoâs scene in the Best Timeline. Just⌠the touching. The tenderness. The affection. Benzo going âack!â at them while they gaze lovingly into each otherâs eyes. Itâs just⌠chefâs kiss. No further comment. Is it, perhaps, self indulgent? Yes. Is Silcoâs line about forgiveness cheesy and a bit out of left field? Yes. Do I wish Ekko had more time to ask him what he meant by that, and get in on their backstory (since it would have been deeply meaningful for him too, given how much he idolizes Vander)? Yes.
(Someone please write me fanfiction of this scene. I beg you. I would do it myself but I lack the talent.)
Would I also watch 10 seasons of them being gay married and doing the most irrelevant domestic nonsense? Shamelessly. My poor blorbos deserve it.
andulkaphoto
tangentwithtanner
