Vi's Emotional Breakdown

hello! Thank you for your kind words.

my main thesis is this: the 2 lovers Caitlyn has represent the main arc she goes through in season 2- which is, The person people want Caitlyn to be vs. the person Caitlyn actually is.

You can see those 2 versions of Caitlyn manifest in her character, almost like 2 layers sitting on top of each other. the one on top is of a stiff, regal officer. That's who she was raised to be, and how she often presents herself to strangers, to seem more respectable and intimidating. This is what Caitlyn thinks people want her to be. This is also a mask, that keeps the second layer hidden under the surface.

the layer underneath is empathetic, sweet, a bit of a dork, and most importanty: emotionally vulnerable. this last bit is the hardest part to crack open, and I'd argue no one gets previewed to that side but Vi. This is the person Caitlyn truly is.

this mask system she has going is defense mechanism. It seems that quite early on Caitlyn learned that she should keep how she feels neatly hidden under the guise of stoicism. Probably passively picked up in childhood from Cassandra's very own patterns, if not actively taught.

guess who else has this exact same defense machenism. you wont believe it-

Vi's mask is a little different- it's rougher, a type of "fuck off" attitude. she had that mask around Caitlyn in their early episodes to hide her softer side... and protect herself from emotional vulnerability.

I've seen a lot of people recognize Vi slowly opening up to Caitlyn as S1 progressed. What i don't see a lot of people recognize is that Caitlyn has been going through a similar journey. She also started closed off and opened up to Vi as season one went on. in Caitlyn's case it's less obvious, because her closed off self is less actively pushing Vi away, and more passively keeping information and emotions in check. But sharp eyed viewers can notice that Caitlyn avoids brining up her concilor mother, family name and general finanical state; she doesn't open about her past at all, and she chokes back her own emotions when they begin to surface.

So, just like Vi, Caitlyn has a facade she keeps up- to keep her emotions hidden, or to seem more respectable. sometimes both. it's been there in S1 and it's more obviously there in S2, but the point is- it's always been a part of Caitlyn's character.

Vi slowly learned to trust and open up to Caitlyn, and Caitlyn did the same to Vi. Just like Caitlyn fell in love with the person underneath Vi's rough exterior, Vi fell in love with Caitlyn's true self, the person under the mask. before Vi knew anything about her heritage, she already was enamored by Caitlyn's kindness, her attentiveness and strong sense of justice. Vi compliments her on the 2 things Caitlyn's most proud of: her amazing aim, and her detective intuition- both are SKILLS Caitlyn honed herself, not privlidges she inherited. Vi made Caitlyn feel appreciated for who she is, not who she's expected to be- a Kiramman.

The Caitlyn Vi fell in love with, the "true" Caitlyn, is the one i mentioned before that Vi thought she lost. If S1 was about Caitlyn becoming Vi's safe haven, by the time S2 rolls around, Vi represents the one place Caitlyn can be just Caitlyn, without the legacy of her heritage attached.

Now let's look at Caitlyn and Maddie. Specifically, their body language in these 2 scenes:

Maddie is being more open and touchy in the second gif, as the setting is more intimate; Caitlyn, however, stays with the exact same mannerisms as she did wearing her full uniform, like they're still at the office during work hours.

Remember in my last analysis, where i brought up Vi not recognizing Caitlyn in this scene?

Caitlyn with Maddie is what this Caitlyn would look like in an intimate setting.

Her mask is still on.

Interestingly, unlike Vi, who uses her mask mostly around strangers, post S1 Caitlyn doesn't drop her mask even in front of people who are close to her.

Not in front Jayce,

not in front of her father,

and sure as hell, not in front of Maddie

Maddie, as a foil to Vi, represents what other people see in Caitlyn- her bloodline, her responsibilty, her legacy. With Maddie, Caitlyn is being who other people expect her to be. and what she thinks people expect her to be is her mother- a stone faced leader, who is always collected and well put together. Caitlyn clearly tries to mimick her mom this entire season, both professionally, and privately- she really has no other reference for a proper Kiramman.

Maddie outright states what she sees in Caitlyn: "You're our leader. The Enforcers, Piltover, they follow you. I follow you."

She then has to force Caitlyn to look in the mirror, which she's clearly avoiding, and at this point Caitlyn barely recognizes who she sees in the reflection. It's presumably been months since she last allowed herself to be herself. because during act 2, Caitlyn didn't just lose someone she deeply cared for, she lost the only place she felt she could be open and vulnerable.

Now, you might be asking: Why do i consider one layer to be the "true" Caitlyn, and the other a mask? aren't they both different sides of the same coin, working together to make up the character that is Caitlyn? well, that is partially true. and by the end of the show, Caitlyn doesn't just leave her mask behind and go to live freely in the northen woods riding on a horse made of water. But i think it definitely points to who Caitlyn is at her core. Yes, she is a dutiful person, who will take on the commander role and bravely lead her people to battle. But does she do so because she want to or because she feel like she has to? I'd argue it's the latter (one day i'll make a 'Caitlyn and her relationship with power' analysis.... just you wait). and I think the show definitely points to it, seeing how each lover is framed.

With Maddie, Their scenes together are always lit in cool colors. Often there's a huge physical gap between them, or the camera itself is positioned really far away from them- making us feel distant and cold.

Caitlyn is always turned away from her- she never fully faces Maddie in any of their scenes, nor does she reach out to touch her- it's always Maddie that pushes herself in Caitlyn's space, Caitlyn's at best stiffly accepting her touch (i can't imagine how awkward the sex mustve been). it's parodied in their last scene together.

In fact, after Vi comes back into her life, and "real" Caitlyn slowly starts coming back out, she recoils from Maddie's touch.

In comparison, Caitlyn always faces Vi fully, and looks her deeply in the eyes.

Their love scene is lit in warm colors, with extremely close and intimate camera angles.

It is also the only time we see Caitlyn this happy- not just happy, carefree- in the whole season, if not the whole show. Her posture is loose, the ever present frown she had fixed on her face this entire season is gone. For the first time, maybe ever, she doesn't have to keep the mask up. The burden of all the responsibility she's been carrying her entire life is lifted off of her for a few moments, and clearly she's... ehm... relieved.

i think it's abundently clear which one of these is the "right" Caitlyn and which one is "off".

To tie it all back to the theme of true self vs the mask, just Caitlyn vs The Kiramman heir- why do you think Caitlyn was so moved by this moment?

Even when she tries her hardest to seem like a scary commander, a respectable scion- even when she's the most detached she's ever been from herself- Vi remains to be the one person to see her for the person she really is. 'Cupcake' is a nickname she coined for Caitlyn all the way in s1, because of her sweet and gentle nature. It's a reminder for Caitlyn of the person she used to be- the person she always was. despite everything, Vi still sees her as just Caitlyn. So of course she immediately does the most authentically Caitlyn thing ever- make a huge leap of trust to based on her heart's intuition.

(i put this gif here as a cheeky lil joke but it made me realize Caitlyn had the antithesis arc to Simba's- Simba ran away from him responsibilities and his coming to jesus moment was being reminded of his legacy, while Caitlyn follows her legacy and her coming to jesus moment is remembering the person she is in spite of it. ANYWAY,)

one last thing. speaking of emotional vulnerabilty, the one thing Caitlyn seems to really struggle with around everyone, except Vi. Caitlyn doesn't like leaving herself vulnerable, especially not in words. Usually, when she's emotionally exposed, she doesn't talk.

there are very few times in the show she lets her guard down enough to verbally express her emotions. let's look the first and the last:

in the 2 scene above, Caitlyn indiretly admits her feelings for Vi, and asks her to stay with her- which leaves her wide open for rejection. and indeed, in the first scene, she does get rejected, and it absolutely crushes her little heart. it hurts even more when you realize it took her all season to build up the courage to be this vulnerable. fun!

(The only other time she voices her emotions in such an open way is after the attack on the memorial, where she begs Vi to stick by her side and tries to voice how the grief and expectations of everyone around her are choking her)

So of course, they end the series with Caitlyn being open like this with Vi, to show their trust has built back up, and that Caitlyn now has a place she can be this vulnerable in moving forward. In the end, She finds balance between the who she is and who she's expected to be. She's still the head of house Kiramman, with another big responsibilty on her shoulder- as the sheriff, but she also has Vi by her side. She gets to be just Caitlyn, and a Kiramman. Vi assures her that she's here to stay, keeping Caitlyn tethered, so she never loses herself in her responsibilities and work again.

the tl;dr here is that Caitlyn is an incredibly emotionally repressed girl, and the only person who ever made her feel safe enough to expose herself is Vi, because Vi sees her for who she really is. thanks for coming to my tedtalk.

But then, at the end of the episode, she hears from Sevika that her sister is working for Silco, and everything goes downhill from there: she is stabbed and she and Caitlyn are chased by Silco’s thugs; she briefly reunites with her sister only to be separated again, and then be told by Ekko of the awful things her sister has been doing; she is hurt and attacked by her sister (being shot at the bridge, the tea party), and her sister makes it clear with the tea party that their relationship is maybe damaged beyond repair; her sister hurts the girl she loves by kidnapping her, threatening to kill her and then killing her mother; she makes the decision to join the enforcers to stop the invasion of Zaun and stop her sister, which makes her miserable; she then loses Caitlyn too, who was the only light Vi still had in her life; she spends months in a downward spiral of despair during her pitfighter era; she has a brief moment of hope as she reunites with Vander and Jinx, only for that to be ripped away again by Ambessa’s attack and Isha’s death; she has a happy moment with Caitlyn in the cell, but then has to fight in the war and lose Vander and Jinx again.

End of s1 (pre-kidnapping) Caitlyn is one of the loudest voices in the room for peace. She defends the Undercity as being full of good people, she's deeply hurt and upset when Jayce, her friend, advocates for taking enforcers down there to recover the hex gem

It's Vi in S1, motivated by her hatred of Silco and need for vengeance, that pushes for an escalation. It's Vi that tracks Jayce down in his workshop and riles him up to go behind the Council's back with her. When it goes sideways and he kills an innocent kid, Vi isn't willing to lose their momentum. She tries to keep pushing him, to justify the loss as one among many, tragic but a drop in the bucket compared to the harm Silco does and not enough reason to deter them. They nearly come to blows about it.

Of course, Vi keeps pushing on her own and things go terribly.

The gap between seasons kind of hurt the narrative momentum, I think, because you lose the immediate parallels that would have made s2 act1 hit that much harder

Vi is watching Caitlyn go down a path she JUST walked. She knows where that ends. Not to mention how the Caitlyn she gets to know in s1 is a woman defined by her compassion and sensitivity to the pain of others - if she'd missed, if she'd killed a kid on accident, Caitlyn would have lost herself entirely. There's certainly a desire to protect Jinx and this kid caught up in that, but I think in the moment Vi stops Caitlyn she's also desperately trying not to lose her too

based on that post i saw

This post will be a defense of both Caitlyn AND Vi. I’m stressing that I’m also talking about Vi here because it makes me really annoyed how both Caitlyn haters and Caitlyn defenders completely ignore Vi’s existence when talking about the Strike Team and the Grey. It’s as if everyone thinks Vi has no agency and her character has no importance to this story. But her character is important and her actions do matter here, her actions in the strike team are important. So yeah, I’m defending both Caitlyn and Vi here.

Summary of what I will talk about in this post:

Whose idea was the formation of the Strike Team and the use of the Grey?

The Grey is not a lethal gas, and its effects are not as severe as fandom makes them out to be

The strike team’s use of the grey was controlled

Is it a war crime? (No)

Was using the Grey was a perfectly moral choice?

A few more observations

Whose idea was the formation of the Strike Team and the use of the Grey?

I think Caitlyn and Vi have different contributions to the idea of the Strike Team and how it will operate. I think the idea for the strike team came initially from Vi, and the idea to use the Grey came from Caitlyn.

In my opinion, the initial idea for the formation of the Strike Team was actually Vi’s. Why do I think that? A few reasons. First, let’s consider what have been Caitlyn’s views on the whole conflict, ever since season 1. In season 1, when Vi and Caitlyn go talk to the council (1x08) and Jayce suggests “then we have to go in by force”, Caitlyn disagrees with the idea: she says “there are good people down there", and asks Jayce “what happened to you?”. But she doesn’t exactly supply an alternative plan to Jayce’s idea. At this point, Caitlyn is very much an idealist, without much of a pragmatic side. Meanwhile, Vi is actually a more pragmatic person. Her reaction to Jayce’s words is the opposite to Caitlyn's reaction: if you look at her face, she is looking at him with a certain appreciation:

And right after the council, she goes directly to Jayce to ask for his help in invading Silco’s shimmer factories. They do invade a factory, and when Jayce accidentally kills a child, Vi is saddened, but she still wants to continue until they take down Silco and his empire.

In the beginning of season 2, we see them having similar positions: when Caitlyn is in the council meeting telling her version of the story about what Jinx did (2x01), she once again is against an invasion, saying that "innocents will be caught in the crossfire”. But once again, she doesn’t supply an alternative plan, so even though Caitlyn voices her disapproval, the council still ends up voting in favor of an invasion. Caitlyn, at this point, is still very much an inexperienced idealist, she doesn’t want to endorse an invasion where innocents might get hurt, but she doesn’t exactly know what to do. When Vi says that maybe Caitlyn should change the terms of the battle (2x01, after the memorial attack), Caitlyn answers “I don’t know how!”, and moments later expresses how she feels that “it’s all coming apart”.

This is where Vi enters. Vi is a hardened ex-con, who is very much a pragmatist. She will do what she deems necessary to achieve what she believes is right. We see this in season 1, when she goes after Silco’s factories, and we see it again in season 2: in the beginning of season 2, she says she wants to go after Jinx herself. A reckless plan, yes, but still a direct plan of action. Then, after the memorial attack (2x01), Vi is the one who comes to Caitlyn saying this:

Vi: You… you need to find a way to call off the invasion. Caitlyn, in an outraged tone: What?

After the attack, Caitlyn is VERY angry. It’s interesting to see how her reaction to the idea of the invasion changes here: before, she was constantly talking about how she was against the invasion because innocents would get caught in the crossfire. Now, when Vi asks her to find a way to call off the invasion, she sounds completely outraged that Vi would even suggest that. Caitlyn, by this point, is not thinking straight. She is not thinking like her normal self (I'm not saying she no longer cares about innocents getting hurt, just that at the moment her anger is speaking louder). In this moment, Vi is the one urging them to find an alternative solution to the invasion. And as I already mentioned before, Caitlyn doesn’t know what to do. She tells Vi “I don’t know how” and how “it’s all coming apart”. And what is Vi’s answer to this? She firmly tells Caitlyn "No, it isn’t. We won’t let it”. After this, the scene cuts straight to Caitlyn checking her mother’s archives, Jayce working on hextech weapons (something Caitlyn was against in the beginning of the episode and Vi was in favor of), the formation of the strike team and the reveal that Vi is an enforcer now. To me, the way the scenes are cut very much implies that Vi gave Caitlyn the idea of the strike team: Caitlyn was desperate, not knowing what to do, and no longer caring about stopping the invasion; meanwhile, Vi asks her to call off the invasion, and when Caitlyn expresses that she doesn’t know what to do and everything is falling apart, Vi is the one who tells her they won’t let it fall apart, supplying the idea for the Strike Team. I think Vi giving the initial idea makes sense, because the scene cuts straight from Vi saying “no, it isn’t. We won’t let it” to the formation of the strike team.

And if you think about it, the modus operandi of the Strike Team has Vi written all over it: it’s a smaller operation (so, just like Vi did when storming Silco’s factory and just like she wanted to do when saying she wanted to go after Jinx herself), they’re striking the chembarons fast and before they can react (just like she told Jayce to do in season 1), they’re destroying shimmer factories, just like Vi did in season 1. The strike team is very much a continuation of what Vi was already doing in season 1 with Jayce. Not only that, but Caitlyn’s behavior when coming to the council to inform them of the strike team is very unlike Caitlyn, and very like Vi: she storms a meeting, acts and talks in a very forceful manner, bullshits them (“I am a decorated officer”) and uses her family’s name to get the upper hand ("leader of House Kiramman”), something Caitlyn never actually liked doing before, she never liked to rely on her family name or wealth. Her behavior here seems very much influenced by Vi (she’s being forceful, she’s being pragmatic and using her family’s name even if it’s something she doesn’t like). Which is why I can’t understand when people act like the strike team is solely Caitlyn’s idea, and Vi has no agency or input whatsoever. The strike team is almost a copy of what Vi was already doing with Jayce in season 1, it has Vi written all over it.

Does this mean I think Caitlyn has no input? Absolutely not. I think Caitlyn provides crucial input, in fact, she provides the very idea that makes it possible for the strike team to achieve its objectives while avoiding casualties, which is the use of the Grey. And before anyone comes and says: “see? Caitlyn is evil, she is the one who comes up with the idea of using the grey”, let’s remind people that Vi is also here. The strike team is both their plan. Caitlyn respects Vi’s opinions a lot (she does what Vi wants literally all the time), so if Vi thought using the Grey was a bad thing that would harm the people of Zaun (her people), they probably wouldn’t have done it. So while I do think the Grey was Caitlyn’s idea (it was in her mother’s archives, after all), I very much disagree with the idea from Caitlyn haters that she was “manipulating Vi”. Vi has agency and is an active participant in all this, as I explained above. If she was against the use of the Grey, she would have opposed it (just like she came to Caitlyn to ask her to find a way to call off the invasion).

So let’s now talk about the Grey.

The Grey is not a lethal gas, and its effects are not as severe as fandom makes them out to be

First, what is the Grey? Unlike what some people in the fandom seem to believe, the Grey is not a chemical weapon developed for war: the Grey is pollution. We are explicitly told this twice: Cassandra’s voice in the archives says “the rise of industry in the fissures has led to the air becoming increasingly toxic. They call it the Grey” and Smeech says “it’s factory smog trapped underground, no more, no less”. Not only are we told about this pollution, but we have been seeing it ever since season 1: every time we see enforcers come to Zaun in season 1, they’re wearing gas masks to protect themselves against the Grey:

So here’s the thing: Caitlyn and Vi didn’t expose the people of Zaun to some new toxic gas. They were already exposed to it, and have always been. The ventilation system does some work to remove it, but clearly the ventilation system doesn’t remove it entirely, otherwise enforcers wouldn’t need to go to Zaun using gas masks. So the people of Zaun are always exposed to the Grey. And yet, people are (mostly) fine. Yes, the Grey has long term effects that can cause deterioration of organs (that we see in Cassandra’s archives), and Jayce speculates that Viktor’s disease might have been caused by the Grey (but here’s what people always forget, it’s a speculation from Jayce. Nowhere is it confirmed that the Grey caused Viktor’s condition). But people in Zaun aren’t dropping like flies because of the Grey. They aren’t getting horribly sick because of a single sniff of the Grey. We also see several people be affected by high concentrations of the Grey in the short term (Jinx is exposed, Heenot is tied up by Jinx and exposed to it for hours, Caitlyn is exposed to it in the final battle), and they later recover without any permanent side effects. Hell, the strike team even steps into the room that Heenot is without masks and they are all fine. The only adverse effects we see the Grey causing in the short term is coughing, irritation of the eyes and nose, and some people pass out. But these short term effects only happen when people are exposed to high concentrations of it (after all, the people of Zaun are always exposed to lower concentrations of the Grey and are usually fine, the strike team steps into the room Heenot is without masks, etc).

In conclusion: the Grey can cause adverse effects (like coughing, eye irritation and passing out) in high concentrations, but people exposed to these high concentrations usually recover (like Jinx, Caitlyn and Heenot did). The more serious side effects, like organ deterioration, happens only after long term exposure (considering that all the characters in the show that we see being exposed to the Grey in the short term don’t develop any of these serious conditions). And this isn’t me creating headcanons and making up stuff to defend Caitlyn and Vi: I am pointing out things that we explicitly see in the show. We explicitly see that the Grey does not cause terrible side effects in the short term, and it doesn’t even cause short term side effects in lower concentrations (as seen by the strike team breathing the Grey without masks and not coughing at all).

The strike team’s use of the grey was controlled

If you actually pay attention to the Hellfire scene of Caitlyn, Vi and the Strike Team going after the chembarons, you will see that they use the Grey in very specific places: going after Silco’s former goons and in the chembaron headquarters. We also see them use it in the Arcade, a place Vi knows Jinx could be hiding. We never see the strike team use the Grey in the streets of Zaun or indiscriminately.

I’ve seen plenty of people argue that “the grey is a gas, it spreads, it won’t stay put just because you told it to”, and that is partially true (I say partially true because there are actually shots in the show that might suggest that the grey doesn’t spread that much). However, as gas spreads, it also dilutes its concentration. Yes, it’s possible that they Grey might have spread to some streets of Zaun, but even if some random citizens were exposed to it, they would not have been exposed to the high concentrations that the Strike Team was using against the chembarons. It would probably cause some coughing in the moment, but it’s very unlikely that anyone would have any permanent side effects.

Not only that, but people also forget that the same ventilation system that they are using to release the Grey is the ventilation system that was created to remove the Grey, meaning that the Strike Team probably used it to remove the Grey once their operation was over. I have seen some people say that the strike team didn’t remove the grey because they left Margot’s lair full of it, but I’m pretty sure when Smeech and his men get to Margot’s lair, it’s currently being invaded by the strike team. Why do I think that? Because we actually see a silhouette that looks very much like Vi in the smog when Heenot enters the building:

So, in conclusion: yes, some innocent people might have been exposed to the Grey released by the Strike Team, but they would have been exposed to a much lower concentration as the gas spreads (a concentration not much higher than the concentration that people of Zaun are already used to being exposed). Not only that, but it’s very possible that the strike team used the ventilation system to remove the Grey once the operations were over.

There is also no evidence in the show that the use of the Grey by the strike team caused anything more serious. We see Jinx accuse Vi of “poisoning their air", but if innocents were actually terribly affected by it, WE WOULD HAVE BEEN SHOWN. This is the kind of information that writers wouldn’t hide from the audience, because it’s vital to the very discussion the writers are posing when introducing the Grey. Clearly, the writers do want us to see it as a morally grey action, but they are not portraying it as an evil action that got people killed.

A last point I want to make on this topic is that I’ve seen a lot of people say that “even if innocents weren’t affected, criminals are still people and plenty of people in Zaun need to resort to crime to survive”. And sure, that is partially true (I say partially because it's not true that everybody in Zaun resorts to crime to survive, as some people in the fandom seem to think). However, as discussed above, the Grey has short term effects that are only temporary and meant to incapacitate said criminals, so that they can be arrested alive. It’s precisely to avoid deaths that Caitlyn and Vi use the Grey, including avoiding the death of the criminals they are apprehending. Not only that, but people keep acting as if Caitlyn and Vi were after petty thieves, but that was not the case. There’s a world of difference between Vi and her siblings, who were entering some rich people’s houses to steal a few objects, and violent crime lords that exploit people, spread addictive and debilitating drugs, and so on. Not only that, but the chembarons aren’t “poor people doing what they need to survive”. They are rich crimelords.

Is it a war crime?

It’s tricky to discuss this, because Arcane is not our world and does not have the same laws that our world has. And also because the Grey does not exist in real life. It’s described in the show as pollution, but normal pollution in our world doesn’t have the exact same effects that we see in the show. It has some effects that look like tear gas (irritation of eyes and nose, coughing), but it’s not exactly tear gas either (tear gas can make you pass out in certain circumstances, but passing out is not a direct effect of it; while the Grey does seem to make people pass out as a direct effect of it).

That being said, we can make some analogies. The Grey doesn’t cause any serious side effect in the short term (as discussed above), so I don’t think it’s fair to compare it to the chemical weapons like mustard gas. I think the more fair comparison would be, as mentioned above, with tear gas (it causes irritation of nose and eyes). Tear gas is forbidden in war. But the strike team was not waging war on Zaun, it was acting as law enforcement. The use of tear gas as a riot control agent by law enforcement is allowed, and it’s not considered a war crime, so I don't think what Caitlyn and Vi did can be called a war crime.

But does this mean that using the Grey was a perfectly moral choice?

Short answer: no.

Long answer:

Using the Grey is still a morally grey action. After all, you are still causing people physical distress, and you are using a substance that is known to cause health problems in the long term. It’s unlikely that a little bit of exposure from some dissipated Grey in low concentrations will cause serious health problems, but every person’s organism is different, so it’s not a zero chance of harming people.

That being said, context matters. In this case, the context is that this was Caitlyn’s and Vi’s best option. By this point in the story, the attacks from Jinx and Chembarons have killed and hurt people in Piltover, and everyone is claiming for something to be done. Doing nothing is not an option. And the council has already decided to invade Zaun (2x01). They won’t just give up on their course of action. Caitlyn and Vi have no power to stop this, so they come up with an alternative solution: the strike team, with the use of the Grey.

I’ve seen some people argue that they could have created the strike team without using the Grey, and to this, I answer: no, they couldn’t. The strike team was a group of five people trying to neutralize the production of shimmer, which probably involve hundreds, if not thousands of criminals, and they were also aiming to catch the most wanted person in Zaun. Five people would not have accomplished this without the use of the Grey to help incapacitate the criminals they were fighting against. If they decided to not use the Grey, the alternative was to bring more enforcers, meaning a full scale invasion. And what would that mean? It would mean plenty of enforcers (who we know are corrupt and violent, and we know plenty don't value the lives of Zaunite people) with guns, running around Zaun. It would mean innocent people being caught in the crossfire of said guns. Some people coughing is infinitely better than people being shot and killed in the crossfire of fights between enforcers and chembaron goons.

In conclusion: the use of the Grey is not a morally perfect choice, but it is the best choice available to Caitlyn and Vi, who both care about the people of Zaun and about innocent people getting killed by enforcers. It’s easy to criticize an action as “evil” if you strip it of all context, but the context matters, and the context is that an invasion that would get hundreds of people killed was about to happen. What Caitlyn and Vi did saved many lives that would have been lost to the invasion, and also helped get rid (or at least, diminish the power) of the Chembarons that have been inflicting violence and spreading addictive and debilitating drugs on Zaun.

A few more observations

Vi is a Zaunite and she cares about Zaun. She would never have been ok with using the Grey  if it was this deadly gas that certain parts of the fandom claim it is, and she would not have agreed to “gassing the entire undercity”, as the idiots in this fandom claim they did.

Jinx is the one that actually used the gas indiscriminately. I’ve seen some people claim that Jinx was “redirecting the gas from Zaun to Piltover”, but this isn’t true. As already established, Vi and Caitlyn were not “gassing the entire Undercity”. The gas wasn’t loose in Zaun, the gas was trapped in the ventilation system. And we are told by Heenot that what Jinx was doing was "rerouting the vents". So she is not “saving the people of the Undercity” by redirecting the gas from Zaun to Piltover (because, as already established, Cait and Vi did not gas the entire Undercity). Jinx is redirecting a gas that was stored away in vents (stored away precisely to avoid hurting people), and intentionally releasing it on a huge population of innocent people to hurt them. I’ve also seen people in the fandom claim that because people in Zaun celebrated Jinx for releasing the Grey on Piltover (they even painted a mural of Jinx releasing the colorful Grey on Piltover), then this must mean Caitlyn and Vi were gassing the entire Undercity. But just because some people in Zaun celebrated Jinx for releasing the Grey on Piltover, doesn’t mean that Caitlyn and Vi were gassing Zaun. As already discussed, Zaun has always been exposed to the Grey because it’s factory smog, and many people in Zaun already hate Piltover. Plenty of them would celebrate Piltover getting attacked, regardless of whether the strike team was gassing them or not (and as we see in the show, the strike team was not gassing them).

I’ve seen people claim that the pamphlet in the game “Jinx fixes everything” is proof that Vi and Caitlyn were gassing Zaun. But it’s really not. First, the pamphlets and papers that Jinx sees are all in Silco’s room, over the map with the “chembaron codes for all the Piltie and Undercity regions”. So it’s very likely that many of the pamphlets Jinx has there are communications between the chembarons, and written from their point of view (not all of them, there are Piltover newspapers there too, but some of them definitely are from their point of view). Second, the pamphlet talking about the Grey simply says that Piltover is using the Grey, which is technically true, and asks the reader if they have been “coughing more than usual”. Nothing in that pamphlet tells us anything that we don’t already know by watching the show: we know that the strike team is using the grey, and we know that it’s possible that it could have spread and some innocent people might have been exposed, causing some coughing. But the pamphlet never says that Vi and Caitlyn are causing people’s deaths with the Grey. So the "Jinx fixes everything” game isn’t really proof of anything that we don’t already know. Third, the games and other supplementary materials are only semi-canon, because plenty of them have things that contradict the canon of the show. The very pamphlet about the Grey contradicts what we are told in the show: the show says the Grey is factory smog that started to affect the Undercity because of the rise of the industry, while the pamphlet in the game claims that the Grey is something that Piltover “used against Zaun in the past”, implying that it's some sort of weapon created by Piltover, which is a contradiction. Fourth, I find it funny that Caitlyn and Vi haters try to use this game as proof of something, because they love to use this game against Caitlyn and Vi, but completely ignore all the other parts of games that say not very kind things about their own faves. If we’re going to consider the games as canon to Arcane, then they should remember that the Council Archives (another game) tell us that Jinx has been executing people for Silco, and that Silco and the chembarons were kidnapping Zaunite kids to use them as test subjects for their drug experiments. So the games have way more incriminating things to say about Jinx and Silco than about Caitlyn and Vi.

Prints

Late for day one of Domestic Caitvi Week but nonetheless rejoice!

Here is long awaited Blanket-Burrito-Vi with tea and head kisses! :D

I understand some of the criticism towards season 2's writing of Vi's character. I don't agree at all with people who say Vi's character was ruined: I think she was very in-character, her development made sense, and I liked her ending, how she ended up finally choosing her own happiness after so many years of sacrificing herself for others and how she ended in a happier place where she is loved and can finally heal. But I do think Vi was sidelined in season 2, mostly in the final act and in the final fight (Vi has a smaller role in the final fight than everyone else, which, as a Vi stan, I find disappointing).

However, as someone who deeply loves Vi's character, I don't like being negative about her (because it's honestly draining and I want to be happy about my favorite character). So I like to tell myself all of the ways in which Vi was still important, both to Piltover and Zaun, and to the narrative. Not only that, but it really annoys me when I see people criticize season 2 by saying that "Vi didn't matter at all, you could remove her from the story and nothing would change". That's not true. Vi did matter, and a lot. So here's why I think Vi was important to the story, both in season 1 and season 2:

1) Vi is deeply empathetic and cares about the wellbeing of Zaun and Piltover both, and fought and contributed to the two cities:

Vi opened Caitlyn's eyes towards the Undercity and the corruption of the enforcers, so that Caitlyn could use her money and power for good (as Caitlyn herself says to the Council, "she risked everything to show me what life was really like down there");

Vi saved Caitlyn's and Jayce's lives during the memorial attack. Both Caitlyn and Jayce played crucial roles in the final battle, so without Vi, they would have lost the fight against Ambessa and Viktor;

She convinced Caitlyn to find an alternative solution to a full scale invasion of Zaun ("You need to find a way to call off the invasion"), in order to minimize casualties;

She helped stop Shimmer and the chem-barons;

Vi will probably spend her life trying to reform the enforcers with Caitlyn and protect the two cities.

2) Vi's contribution in the final fight was not meaningless:

It might not feel glorious, but defending that cannon that was shooting the crates at Ambessa's army and ships was important, it enabled their army to continue holding off Ambessa's forces and ships for as long as they could;

Someone already pointed out in another post (here's the link to the post) that the reason Ekko was free from Viktor's mind control and was able to defeat him with his Z-drive in the end is because Jinx used her shimmer speed to dodge the mind control tendril that was meant for her, and ended up being caught by the one that was meant for Ekko. This is why Ekko ended up free from Viktor's control. But the only reason Jinx was free to be able to dodge that tendril is because Vi protected her from Warwick multiple times during that fight. When Jinx was on the balloon being chased by Warwick, Vi saves her by punching Warwick:

And when they are in zero gravity and Warwick grabs Jinx, Vi once again saves her:

Without Vi, Jinx wouldn't be free to dodge that tendril, Ekko would have been caught, they would have lost that fight and Viktor would have enslaved them all.

Finally, Jinx was only free to help in that fight and dodge that tendril in the first place because Vi believed in her, believed that she changed for the good, and freed her. Without Vi, they would have lost the fight.

3) Vi's importance in the narrative:

When you think about it, Vi drives a huge part of the narrative (as a Vi stan, I am biased, I know, but I would even argue that she is THE main character of the show, in terms of her impact on the narrative and on other characters). She is central to both Caitlyn and Jinx's characters. For Jinx, Vi is the long lost sister that Jinx wants back, but also resents and feels afraid of being rejected. Many of Jinx's decisions that completely change the story between the two cities happen because of her conflicted feelings towards Vi. She bombs the bridge because she thinks Vi is abandoning her again. She bombs the council out of anger after feeling that Vi had "rejected" her. For Caitlyn, Vi is the one who opens her eyes about the Undercity and about the corruption of the enforcers.

Vi is central to the whole conflict between Jinx and Caitlyn. She is the cause of the hatred between them, but she is also the reason they let go of their hatred/rivalry towards each other, as they work together to save Vi. Vi's love and her good heart helps save both Jinx and Caitlyn from their dark paths:

For the entirety of season 1, Vi's love and determination to get back to her sister and save her is what puts in motion several events (Jinx's bombings, Vi and Caitlyn's plea to the council, and later her raid of the shimmer factory). In season 2, Vi's love makes it so that as soon as she sees some humanity in Jinx, sees Jinx showing empathy towards Isha, she is quick to believe that her sister has changed. If Vi was anyone else, she would not have forgiven Jinx so easily for all Jinx did. But Vi is incredibly forgiving and constantly believes the best in Jinx even when everyone else believes Jinx is a lost cause. And Jinx finally realizes this after she sees Vi's sacrifice for her in the commune, realizing that Vi always loved her and is never going to give up on her. And while at the moment, Jinx doesn't really feel worthy of Vi's dedication, ultimately, it's the fact that Vi never gave up on her, that Vi believed that Jinx could "use her explosive potential for good", that helps save everyone when Jinx does come to help in the final fight.

Vi was the initial catalyst in season 1 for Caitlyn to leave her naive views behind and see more of the plight of the Undercity and the corruption of the enforcers. And in season 2, while Caitlyn was never on board with Ambessa's violence and already distrusted Ambessa, Vi was the final push that she needed to finally act against Ambessa. Vi's love and lack of hatred/resentment is central here: during their reunion, if Vi was a different person, she could have clung to hatred and resentment towards Caitlyn because of what happened between them when they last saw each other. But Vi is not that kind of person. She is deeply empathetic and forgiving. She can understand why Caitlyn acted the way she did, and she forgives her. She doesn't hold resentment or hatred. So when they reunite, Vi instantly shows that she doesn't hate Caitlyn by calling her cupcake, opens her heart to Caitlyn about her father, and supports and trusts Caitlyn when executing their plan against Ambessa (yes, she has Jinx there to make sure Caitlyn follows through, but agreeing to be tied up and handed to Ambessa still involved a lot of trust on Vi's part. She might not have fully trusted Caitlyn, but she gave her the benefit of the doubt). Considering that Caitlyn has been manipulated for months and is feeling completely isolated, Vi's trust and forgiveness are huge things for Caitlyn. She realizes that she is not alone, that not all is lost and that she can still make up for her mistakes, that she has someone that will support her if she goes against Ambessa. Vi gives Caitlyn the support and forgiveness that she needed to finally be able to get out of the mess she was in.

So that's why I think Vi's role in the story is vital and central. Her love, her good heart, her lack of hatred and resentment, and her determination to protect her loved ones and her community are all important to set plenty of things in motion in this story, and are vital to saving Caitlyn, Jinx and the world.