There's a difference between Jayce accidentally killing a kid without knowing he was there vs Caitlyn making a shot a hairs length away from a kid she knows is in front of her.
It also feels like a gross oversimplification when you say Vi is just a little clueless sometimes. Especially in the context of a parentified child who is barely at the age to work through their own trauma, let alone raise a kid to be able to overcome their own traumas and insecurities. People really expect too much from Vi without acknowledging she was a victim of her own circumstances too. No kid should have to take a parental role for their sibling. It just breeds disaster.
Powder and Vi managed the same trauma in opposite ways: Powder creatively and Vi destructively. Though Vi was placed in a tough position it's important to recognise what a corrupting influence she was on her sister, first pushing her towards violence then blaming her for the consequences.
i feel like vi was just justyfing the jayce with the kid scene because she didnt want jayce to live with the guilt of THE ACCIDENT and plus the damage was already done, contrary to cait and isha scene where vi is trying to protect her BEFORE the damage is done, and it wouldnt be an accident if if the damage had been done because caitlyn was willing to sacrifice the life of a kid to get jinx
"She has not lost her sense of justice or her principles or her identity" *gases the undercity and risks a child's life for the sake of her vengeance* Are you sure about that?
There's also how Caitlyn handles interrogations. In season 1 episdoe 4, she finds one of Silco's lackeys, and offers him immediate first aid without question before even beginning to question him, and assures his safety when he's scared to give up information. In s2e3, she is once again interrogating, this time one of the other factions' lackeys. This man is also wounded and clearly much weaker than the previous one, yet she never once reaches out ot physically help him, only telling him he has the right to arrest once he openly gives her all the information he knows. There IS a very clear mental degredation happening with Cait throughout s2 act 1, even before she threatens to kill a child and then goes FULL fascist. On top of that, Vi has seen a LOT since she criticized Jayce's remorse for the child's death. Her words betray her actions as an enforcer; we can see this best in the season 2 fight with Jinx. Jinx it going at her full force, but if you watch closely, despite being a notorious bruiser who can take down enemies MUCH larger and older than her, Vi fails to land a single punch on Jinx, almost as if she's holding her punches. She already is having trouble physically throwing herself at her sister. It makes more sense now, after SEEING what Cait has been capable with the gas and interrogations in season 2, that seeing a child throwing herself onto Jinx the same way Vi used to try to protect Powder when they were kids; it's understandable why THAT is the breaking point for Vi, when she's tired of trying to hurt innocent people, and to a lesser extent, her own sister.
well, you know, they were trying to prevent a civil war and Vi saw it a the only thing to do at the moment. Because a civil war could be catatrophic, she knew it and saw it when she was a child.
This sounded crazy for me too. Cait is poisoning the undercity with her mothers ventilation system design to bring clean air to them. Jinx was also defeated by that point. By the time vi asks her to promise not to change, she already did.
I was like "mmmm not sure not sure" but by the end... Yeah, you are onto something. But Cait is actually like. changing for the worst. Genuinely. Vi is actively acting to ignore it and it IS because she needs someone to protect. And on the kid thing, for me, there is a pretty clear distinction between Reacting to Something That Has Already Happened vs. Preventing Something From Happening. For Vi, an already dead kid is not a reason to stop whats necessary, but a potentially dead kid is something different.
Yes. Vi is a veteran to loss and trauma, her entire life was being treated like shit, she was put in the goddamn prison as a kid. She wants to help Cait navigate the rage and keep her from turning into second Jinx. But Cait is too far gone. Vi's trauma is the biggest but she didn't become a teen terrorist or a dictator.
It makes sense why Vi was against Cait taking the shot and used the kid as an excuse. The child humanised her sister in Vi's eyes again. And Vi has always prioritised Powder. So of course she's suddenly protective of this child who reminds her of Jinx's humanity, and by extension Jinx's Powder.
8:52 ..and she was right? The whole reason caits raids work is that she had control over the gray, which wasn't a thing until she used the kiramman key at the end of the episode. 12:16 and the whole reason she became so aggressive was ambessa's indirect manipulation over her. She was still peaceful until the attack happened, and maybe she wouldn't even use the gray before that. You can also see that this goes COMPLETELY against her mothers legacy, as you can hear her say ''the people of the underground deserve to breathe'' in the voice recording.
Agree with the first one, the second I don’t think Vi sees ambessa’s doing. Vi is just so scared of change because she wants familiarity, so she begging cait to stay the same, and now she has nobody. Idk if this is right but 🤷♀️
7:04 For the record, cait doesnt understand what's it like to lose her parents that way. Vi lost her parents in a revolt fighting for a better life. Cait lost her mom to Jinx while deciding on the future of that city. Vi was asked to join a group who oppressed them.... cait is already disgusted and has been disgusted by Vi's people and place.....its not the same at all, stop
also there is a significant difference about loosing your parents as a child vs as a young adult - you can deal completely different with this. On top of hat Vi had to babysit Powder and in the process can not really grieve for herself while Caitlyn at least still has her dad left. One thing is the same: Both never witnessed the bloodshed in the act - only saw the aftermath and dead bodies.
I see your points about Vi's unhability to read people and situations. I see Vi as a good hearted badass with the training of violence but not gifted in lucidity. And how would she? Huge Child traumas, protection of others as a child, and iterative losses as a child again... then manay years in prison... i mean, how could it be otherwise ?
No yeah Vi’s parents were murdered by the oppressors of her people and Cait’s mother was murder because she literally helps perpetuate a system of oppression and corruption… also Jinx is a product of that oppression and if Piltover didn’t mistreat the people of the under city for so long, then Jinx and Vi really wouldn’t have lost their parents and Jinx wouldn’t have been created 🙃💜
Or Vi sees Caitlyn turning into a fascist who is willing to use chemical weapons and willing to shoot a child and because she can't comprehend why you would do that sees her through the same lens as Jinx, someone who she also doesn't understand even though she felt she knew them.
Ikr how does this commentator misunderstand EVERY PLOT POINT and every charecter its actually so infuriating every HEAR ME OUT was a misunderstood very blatent plotpoint, this video had me facepalming the whole way through its undoubtedly the most trash video essay on arcane ive ever seen
Really, Vi saw cait as jynx, from the change her loved ones go through. The second they change, or just become something she didnt expect, she gets scared and panics. Especially whenever they start doing violent stuff. She prefers being the one who commits violence cause... she knows shes good at it. But when people she knows tries violence, they hurt themselves and those around them. The second she feels she loses control or at least understanding of them, she loses her cool and doesnt know how to fix things. She hasnt changed from who she was as a child because no one bothered to teach her once vander died. She was locked up for years instead and just reinforced her 'tough gal' demeanor. She has no idea how to help someone actually struggling. That struggle is what she saw in cait and compared to Jynx. She can still see the person she knew, but cant understand how theyve changed or what they need
Arcane writers were guided by many writing principles, one of them being "give characters something to prove". Vi failed with Jinx and blames herself for it. Wants another chance at proving herself as a protector. Jinx failed with helping Vander, and wanted another person to give her acceptance and chance to prove that her "monkey bombs can work". Now Caitlyn blames herself for not taking the shot with Jinx in S1 finale, and wanted to prove that she can make it all right, without hesitation. Jinx finally proved that she can save Vi, as she did in the finale, but the cost was too great. I feel that Vi will be forced to sacrifice someone to protect Jinx or Caitlyn.
Vi is pretty dumb socially, but that's to be expected of someone who spends half their teenage years in prison, basically growing up with prison hierarchy
My thoughts exactly. Even before she gets imprisoned, she's already pushed into a leadership role with basically no real peers to facilitate healthy social development. Mylo and Claggor have each other, as do Powder and Ekko, but we don't see Vi having a single friend that's really her equal. It's no wonder the only way she understands to have a relationship with someone else is by acting as their protector. This also kind of puts the interactions between her and Jinx in the tunnels in a new light; Violence is the language Vi understands, and Jinx/Powder engaging with her through her own language is something new and strange to Vi. I think that - in a really counterintuitive way - the fighting might be good for their relationship in the long run. Maybe Vi finding a way to reconcile Jinx and Powder in her own mind is the first step towards her stepping out of her own rigidly-dualistic understanding of relationships.
we have gotten a sneak peak into that Vi without a powder to orbit looks like, it is a death spiral into oblivion that will likely require some "fatherly" help to get out of.
I think you're right on the nose with the part about Vi underestimating people. We get a whole line during act 2 about Caitlyn warning her to "not underestimate Ambessa", which is a normal thing to say, but Arcane is basically 0% filler so why would that be emphasized? Could it he that Caitlyn understands her predilection towards underestimating people?
I think it makes a lot of sense that Vi sees Cait as another Powder, because they are genuinely similar. They do both have blue hair, they are both bad at parkour, but they're also far more capable than Vi gives them credit for. Both are excellent with guns, both are extremely intelligent and strategic, and both are more physically capable than Vi thinks. On a meta storytelling level, both also lose parents and guiding lights in horribly traumatic ways, and in the immediate fallout are manipulated into being pawns for masterminds in the political game between the two cities. They're also close to Vi, and Vi fumbles both relationships pretty horribly. I see Cait and Jinx as two sides of the same tyranny coin; we already know that Jinx is all about disorder, and I'll bet that Cait is about to take the fast lane to order. It might be a bit of a stretch, but I'll bet that Vi's arc in Act 2 and 3 will revolve around how she's caught between the two, and how they're vying for power over Piltover and Zaun. Both will become the rallying symbolic figure for their respective cities, with Piltover embracing fascistic order and Zaun embracing anarchistic disorder. This is a lot and also like totally unrelated but i was going to say that Jinx's mantra is chaos, but I feel like that isn't true anymore and I think that disorder is a much better word for what she's going to be pushing in the coming episodes. They're similar words, but, at least in my mind, chaos is wild and uncontrolled, whereas disorder is honed and intentional about its targets. She seems much more controlled and calculated in Season 2 than she was in 1, which i think is best expressed by just how quiet she is. In 1 she was always talking to ghosts or humming or rambling, but in 2 we start Act 1 with her silently roaming the streets of Zaun. I think it is as you say and she has taken control back from her demons, but what she does with that control is gonna be very interesting to see. I don't know, these are all just theories, I'm a lot more confident in Jinx and Cait mirroring one another than I am about this chaos thing, but this is all super interesting. I don't even know where the Firelights and Jayce and Viktor will come into play here if at all, I get the sense that they represent the ideal unity between the two cities in the face of adversity (Heimerdinger and Jayce representing Piltover, Viktor and Ekko representing Zaun) and will mostly be focused on fixing the Arcane. Like I said i don't know
I was actually rewatching this episode when this video popped up in my notifications. Seeing the text “Vi is a tragic himbo” pop up while a really serious scene was happening made me laugh so hard XD
Arcane doesn't clearly define it's characters, and their actions. The protagonists have antagonistic traits, and the antagonists have redeeming qualities of a protagonist. In reality, things are NOT just good/positive and bad/negative. It depends on perspective. Really, this is what makes a good story. 2 different people can watch Arcane, and see things very differently.
Vi has a fatal flaws, she has never changed. Or better, barely. She addressed the situation of Jayce killing a kid as normal, because she grew up like that and she had tunnel vision because it was a trigger that he doesn't know that in her world is normal. We should agree that there it was her mistake. We don't see her necessarly evolving from this, but her saying that killing a kid is wrong is not a mistake. She especially doesn't want Caitlyn to do it and for her to do it that way. Vi, person that has faced the consequences of how a bad action can cause the biggest changes, didn't want Cait, whom she sees as pure and kind hearted, to change that great part of her that is core to her and to what she fell in love with. Especially because she didn't want to regret it later. Vi lied, Caitlyn wasn't acting like Jinx, she was acting like her younger self. Enforced by the parallelism and with how clueless Vi is. She just is trying so hard to stop Caitlyn from making the same mistake she is baring the guilt to this day. She has not moved on completely and she thinks she won't, so just like she tried too much to protect Powder, she makes the same mistakes again with Cait. And now Caitlyn is indeed acting like old Vi, putting on instead of her secure and kind attachment, she uses the typical Vi detached and in some ways scared. And Caitlyn being a master at hiding her emotion if she doesn't want the others to know, she has something of a millisecond guilt appear in her expression, before leaving her. Vi is now the Powder turning into Jinx, having to go through the bottom of bottoms before rising back up to her real potential and growth. Also, Vi was scared of Caitlyn turning into the enforcers that killed her parents instead of the enforcer she fell in love with.
Well, I would like to point out, too, that Vi was trapped in a cell for 7ish years. So, in Act 1, she was the only character that was closest to her former self because of the stationary nature of being cut off from the world and any chance of change. So, she is like speed running YEARS of development that other characters have mostly already gone through in like less than a month (if I am being generous, no idea the gap between Act 1 to 2 but probably like a week). And, you got to remember she was 15 at the time, yet she has always been strong and confident person but that just makes it easy for her to mask her pain. However, she cannot hide it anymore because the rock she was moored at and swore to protect has cut her anchor, which just left to adrift at sea.
EXACTLY for me she isn’t a hipócrite it’s just she was also blinded h y rage at that time, you can see that in the same episode where the kid dies in season 1 after jayce leaves VI watches the kid and her expression changes to sadness.
@ exactly, and even vi regrets the dead kid you can see it in her expression. And people who say VI hasn’t changed haven’t watched s1 carefully. There’s ton of videos that show how VI has changed in s1
I admire the way this show did this kind of loop, where Vi's non-understanding of her relationship causes the other to turn to a much darker place, and even get taken under the wing of a chaos sower (Silco and Ambessa)
It wasn't normal collateral damage, but it would have been taking out a child after having taken aim. The kid in the shimmer factory was offed by accident and not looking where Jayce shot, Caitlyn hat a rather clear shot and it would have been premeditated. Another thing is that if you look at the scene, Isha had her head directly behind Jinx head, if Caitlyn would have gone for a head shot, Isha would have been dead as shown by the caliber of the hexgun both with the mirror and even more so in the arcade (where it burns a fat hole in the figure and is shown to spread outwards behind it. She compared Caitlyn to Jinx because Jinx similiarly does not consider or mind collateral or mind killing people. Whereas Vi didn't see Caitlyn killing one person, rather the opposite, when Caitlyn took a shot it disabled Sevika, not killed her. Caitlyn trying to kill Jinx, even without Isha as a casualty, is Caitlyn acting way more like Jinx. Why didn't take Powder to the Vander recuse because she didn't believe or see that Powder could be useful, but because Vander impressed on her in their last normal conversation that bringing Powder along is risking to get her killed. Which Vi did not want. She was not afraid of Powder being hurt physically, but permanently killed. The video feels like working backwards from an idea, forcefully hard.
I'm sorry but I really disagree most of this take. 1:05 It is absolutely FALSE that Vi was not upset the kid died. She was calling out Jayce for lamenting that "he is part of this now" when he and all of Piltover have always been a part of Zaun's suffering. She looks at the kid after Jayce is out of sight, and she is UPSET. 1:24 The fight in the temple is a completely different situation. The incident with Jayce was an accident, they didn't even know kids were there until Jayce kills the boy. This time Vi is clearly aware of Isha's presence and she is not going to risk a kids life. Especially when the kid is clinging to Jinx. It shocks Vi. Completely different situations. She compared Cait to Jinx because Caitlyn did not at this point care if her actions harmed innocent people like Isha. Cait was being reckless, full stop. Just as Jinx did not care about the harm she caused in Season 1. Caitlyn is in fact starting to behave like Jinx did in Act 1. They are mirrors of each other. "She's not chaotically dangerous, she's not descending into madness or threatening to implode". Yes she is? Cait is absolutely losing her grip and is becoming erratic and vengeful. It's understandable why, and I empathize with her pain, but lets not pretend she's not on the cusp of going too far multiple times as is clearly shown in this arc. "She has not lost her sense of justice" Again yes she has, it's being replaced with a desire for revenge as we clearly see in her reveries of killing Jinx. And she uses the Grey in the undercity which, while I understand the tactic, is still hugely problematic. And it must be acknowledged. I'm not going to quote everything wrong, but suffice to say I think your estimation of Caitlyn is very off. I love Caitlyn and her reaction is understandable, but she is very much falling off the deep end. And Vi can see that. Blaming Vi for not being as understanding as she could have been to Powder, when she's still a teenager and in a position to have to act like parent is not really fair to her circumstances, and it does not make her clueless. It makes her a teenager. She's trying her best under the circumstances. 7:04 Again Vi is right here. Caitlyn understands violently losing a loved one, absolutely. Asking someone to join with the organization that killed Vi's parents is NOT at all the same thing. Caitlyn's pain is valid, but it doesn't dismiss Vi's own pain, and asking that of her was tone deaf on Caitlyn's part. Not the other way around. 7:55 The just met each other, why should Vi think anything else other than her biases towards Caitlyn in the beginning. They are literally getting to know each other, the fact that Vi has her perspective of Caitlyn change (and Caitlyn's perspective of Vi by the way) over time is not Vi being clueless. 8:43 Again, Vi was right. It's not about lacking confidence in Caitlyn. It's about avoiding a bloodbath, of Piltover and Zaun alike. Vi doesn't become an enforcer to protect Caitlyn. She becomes an enforcer because she feels responsible for the carnage that Jinx has commited, and the death of Caitlyn's mother. "Her dad's right, there's no point sticking around... except I'm the one who created the monster." She motivated by guilt and dedication to Caitlyn. Caitlyn is Vi's only hope at this point. 10:45 "it's just Vi talking about powder". Yeah... and? She's spent the last 7ish years wanting to reunite with her little sister. It's her entire drive at this point in the story. The point is that Vi trusts Caitlyn enough to open herself up to her, and lets Caitlyn touch her cheek where she refused a few episodes prior.
Especially agree with the last one. I do see the similarities between Cait and Powder in Vi's mind, but the bedroom scene was not about that. It was a moment of vulnerability and intamacy, of course Vi will talk about Powder because it's what's defined her throughout most of her life and confiding in Cait about it means she trusts her. If anything, it makes a distinction between the two to Vi as she would never burden Powder with her own pain and trauma.
Look, Cait is like my roman empire and I will defend her until the day I die but Cait is becoming like Jinx, If you look at the scenes of her almost shooting Jinx you can see her be relentless. I do however agree with you on the fact that Powder and Jinx are the same.
Good people don’t turn to racially motivated chemical warfare and collective punishment because their mom died. Cait is one of the most privileged characters in the show, she is a part of the systems that created Jinx and took away everything from Vi,Ekko, Sevika etc. The society she upholds and is a part of orphaned thousands of children and made it so that death, destruction and violence are everyday trauma for all children and adults of Zaun. Her mother died because of Jinx. But Jinx only exists because people like Caitlyn and her family only want to work within the system that oppresses others, not dismantle it. The way she’s acting is entirely reasonable for someone who’s racist and privileged and unwilling to admit to or change either. I’m excited to see where they’re going with her but Vi deserves so much better. As far as I see it her only flaw is allowing and participating in raciallized violence against her own people at that.
I don’t think Cait is a saint by any means, but I don’t think she’s “a bad person”. I think she’s a privileged person who had the most classic flaw of college kids: Idealistic and open minded until the crap hits their own fan. Then they suddenly find all their power they have, and they’re looking for “an eye for an eye.” But behind the scenes, they’re being used for their power by the people supposedly on their side It’s beautifully written.
Also, she is the one who said that Jinx’s actions was just one deranged person. She knew what was up, even though she was bitter. But Ambessa is manipulating her to become what Ambessa wants her to become. The chembaron attack was orchestrated FOR Cait. To make her think that they’re all the same, and it’s not just Jinx. In a way, she’s right to try to sniff out Jinx and take care of her. In her point of view, (a very understandable point of view), Jinx needs to be taken out. If Piltover lets this hang, they’re going to be attacked again and again. In fact, if this was the CIA, Jinx would have died, even if Isha was collateral damage. Just because you can’t risk another weapon of moderately mass destruction being aimed at piltover again. But Vi is trying to keep Cait human, and not let her become the CIA. In a way, that’s great for our story. But, it might have taken away Cait’s catharsis. And probably pushed her to her decisions. Cait also loves Vi. She has every (harsh government) right to just shoot Vi for getting in the way. (Again, Jinx is a terrorist.) But a gun butt is mild in comparison. Now, this is all a low bar to clear for humanity of Cait- not becoming a government machine. But it shows that she is truly a good person going through a hard time. Because legally, she could have done so much worse and would have been called a hero.
7:03 One thing to add (not disagreeing with you! I just think this line needs a bit more context. Also just saw someone else commented a similar thing, but I'll give my take anyway): I think Vi expressed herself poorly here. When she asks Caitlyn whether she knows how it feels to have watched "them" kill her parents, this is part of the wider scene where Caitlyn is asking her to don the Enforcer badge, and Vi refuses. Of course Caitlyn knows how it feels to have lost a parent to the "other side", but I don't think that's what Vi is asking. The equivalent scenario would really be Vi asking Caitlyn to fight for Zaun after having witnessed her mother die to a Zaunite; I think if Caitlyn instead read Vi's line this way she would perhaps empathise a little more readily with Vi's stance. Yes, Vi changes her mind later, but her immediate reaction is one of an almost visceral (albeit irrational given the circumstances) revulsion, as anyone might feel when asked to become that which one fears and despises the most. In other words, Vi wants to know whether Caitlyn understands how it would feel to associate oneself in a very direct way with the group responsible for the death of one's parents. This is a legitimate question, and while we are primed to view this scene more from Caitlyn's perspective, as it follows soon after the funeral scene, Caitlyn is definitely being the unreasonable one here (hence Vi's line, “You didn't think at all”) in declining to accept that Vi might understandably not be too keen, at least at first, on the idea of becoming an Enforcer. Nor is this out of character, given what Season 2 is doing with Caitlyn. Again, I agree that Vi is a little clueless generally, especially regarding Powder/Jinx, but in this scene I can fully see where she is coming from. This is absolutely nitpicking though, your video was great and explored a lot of things I hadn't considered! And sorry this is very long-winded - having trouble articulating myself succinctly today 😅 Edit: ok seems you agree with this take on the scene anyway - and expressed it much better than me at 9:01
you fail to consider that vi was ALSO a child... probably no older than 14/15 when everything first went down. to reduce her to “generally clueless” is really unfair to her character imo. she’s powder’s older sister, not a licensed therapist, and dealing with so much on her end and on powder’s end, mind you. so while it’s easy for you to realize exactly what powder would have needed and how vi should have handled it, vi was doing her best: including her 99% of the time except the one time she didn’t, for her own safety, defending her to mylo etc. on caitlyn: why should she expect her to be able to do all the things she reveals herself capable of? she just met her, like, yesterday. and also, she just got out of prison, like. yesterday. after like 7 years. and in s2, it’s not that she doesn’t think caitlyn able to handle a raid on her own, but that she wants to help her. vi consistently sacrifices herself for those she loves and you don’t seem to be giving her much grace at all. to characterize vi to some idiot who thinks caitlyn=powder is so reductive. i don’t think you’re considering the whole situation and tbh your take seems pretty black and white
I have to say, I’ve never seen the dynamic expressed this way and I find it really fascinating how you placed the seeds for this reveal. I do think people miss how stunted Vi is. She was a kid herself when she tried to instill positive self-esteem in Powder, but her not fully recognizing the steps that would make Powder come into her own and capitalize on her unique strengths is realistic but also tragic. She is so focused on protecting Powder that she misses the mark. Combine this with her being locked up for years, then barely getting a day or two to register the changes in Powder/Jinx, and she continues making mistakes, because the past she clung to in order to survive prison won’t help her in the world as it is now. Thanks for making this video! Made me view Vi’s dynamic with Caitlyn and Jinx in a different way I hadn’t considered
omg, I'm sorry - this is some kind of rant. Let's see how much actual accurate sense I can produce. My point of view: To sum it up shortly, Vi is in the right, Cait is acting out of her mind. I find it crazy how you would understand Cait's point of view more than you would understand Vi's. Cait putting that kid's life in danger and Jayce killing one are completely different situations. Jayce didn't even think there was this kid still there. And Vi describes it as colleteral damage bc the shot was already shot, it was an accident, the kid was already dead, they gotta move on. Cait shooting Jinx while a kid defends her is irresponsible. Imagine her slipping up or faiting just so slightly bc of the fight with Sevika before. Or the kid just moves more infront of Jinx this exact second. The kid is dead. Vi might be dead. Cait doesn't seem to care about that, she is so full of hatred to hunt Jinx down it makes her uncontrolled and mad. Also both of their parents deaths are completely different, Vi was still a kid, as others also said, she had to take care of Powder. Cait is an adult. Cait is priviledged as hell and her reaction now really shows how much. And the context is a different one. Cait asks her to wear a badge of the people that killed her parents, it's not like Cait is in a similar situation. What happened to the philosophie of Caitlyn. The moment she said "I thought you were on our side" already showed, Cait forgot it. Before she wanted to build peace. Putting urself and others on opposing sides is ignorant and builds up hatred and pain. What happened to understanding the situation, why people turn to what they are, how this messed up society creates messed up people. She doesn't care anymore. We don't defend anymore, we fight, we hunt, we kill. It's crazy. Their relationship was supposed to depict Piltover and Zaun being able to build bridges. Understanding the unjust and suffering the upper city has produced for the undercity. To be generally understanding AND to help the undercity. Well... but all that doesn't seem to matter anymore. Maybe one more dead kid? If anyone is justified to harm anyone it's the undercity fighting Piltover. Cait getting overly revengful doesn't do justice to her original actual moral and goal she had. So she changed. Then she calls Vi "Jinxes blood" while she is the one not caring if people die in the process of her goal. Not with good intend. Cait always had good intentions. This one is awful. She even hit's Vi, if anyone isn't trustworthy anymore to be sane, it's Cait.
@@introvertedinfp personally, the writers wrote Vi and Cait very well considering their current circumstances. Cait never had to deal with violence until recently. Always protected by the gilded wall her parents and Piltover provided. Such a loss so suddenly, and so violently very obviously damaged her self-identity. She is lashing out at Vi for “not being a good one”, like being by her side is a privilege. Frankly Cait is prejudiced against Zaunites. When push comes to shove, Cait thinks Zaunites are beneath her. It’s only because of Vi that she thinks Zaunites are people. In this respect, Vi is more grounded and stable in her thinking. She has had more years to manage her emotions regarding to her loss.
@@n0hesitati0n15 I'm literally working on a video essay (more like a raw, unfiltered rant) about this right now and have come to the same conclusion you have, but additionally I'm airing my dislike of Cait. But you said this so well! Can I use this comment in my video?
@@n0hesitati0n15 Exactly. Until she met Vi, Caitlyn's only problems in life were dealing with her mother trying to make her into a politician, when she really wanted to be an officer, a detective, out there solving crimes and serving justice, but the best she could get was being an Enforcer and doing guard duty or light work because of her mother's interference. She may have grown up learning to hunt, but her life was easy and perfect compared to anyone who grew up in Zaun. Violence was guaranteed in the Undercity... where as it would be shocking in the Uppercity.
I mean… she could just be depressed that the only person in her life - who is also the love of her life - the woman she begged not to change, like everyone else she’s known, almost killed a kid to get revenge - something the woman she fell in love with would never have done - then physically assaults her and leaves her completely alone to become a tyrant. I dunno… maybe it could be cause of that?
I'd ease up on calling Powder "malformed". The scene where she's breaking down is not evidence that she's "malformed" or evil or a monster. It's evidence that's she's neurodivergent. Jinx isn't a monster because she was born that way. She's a monster because she was shaped that way. Her neurodivergency made her vulnerable to the trauma she would later experience and made it easy for Silco to shape her into the monster she becomes. Being neurodivergent doesn't make you malformed or evil. That's silly and reductive
Being neurodivergent doesn't make you malformed or evil, but the very nickname "Jinx" is a projection of your community saying that you are malformed. Being told that you can't help save your dad because you aren't trusted to be competent enough to help is proof that you are seen as malformed by the person who has always had your back. She says herself, that it wasn't Silco that made her a monster. I think that given Powder's response when she finds out that she has killed her family, not asking for forgiveness, not talking about how she feels guilty, she is blaming Vi for leaving her behind. Of course this is a deflection, but I don't think that what she is deflecting against is guilt, its horror. She has proven herself to be a jinx. Her hope at having value has been shattered. This is what matters to her, her sense of self value, more then the lives of her family. With all that in mind, I can see her comfortable growing up into a weapons inventor who is one of the most dangerous people in the undercity with a complete lack of empathy for killing her enemies regardless of whether she was raised by Silco or by Vi.
@@KiIIMeQuietly No. The reason Vi didn't bring Powder along wasn't because she was incompetent. She didn't bring her along because she's a child and Vi just witnessed a hulking monster delete Benzo, Grayson and a squad of enforcers. She wasn't going to bring her little sister into that death trap. "she is blaming Vi for leaving her behind." She wasn't blaming Vi. She was pleading. You're right. Powder doesn't feel guilty and she doesn't care about her family. She's just hallucinating Mylo and Claggor for shts and giggles. "I can see her comfortable growing up into a weapons inventor who is one of the most dangerous people in the undercity with a complete lack of empathy for killing her enemies regardless of whether she was raised by Silco or by Vi." Regardless, of whether she grew up with Vi or Silco? Really? Pure nature? No nurture? People can't influence others in any way shape or form? Because that's how people work, surely.
Hear me out! The fact that Vi is unable to have more than one type of relationship dynamic IS the thing that will change. This will be the part of her that she will learn and grow from this season.
As other people have point out: Jaice had already killed the child and Vi was trying to make a point. In the case of Isha,she is still alive and Vi was trying to try to stop Caitlyn from killing a child, and posibly get through the same guilt she saw Jayce going through. Also, she is not in love with Jayce. She is in love with Caitlyn. Also, during the battle Caitlyn had already fauled 2 times because of the anomaly going crazy and affecting all hextech weapons and also because she is enraged. Also, it doesn't matter how precise you are with a gun, you should never fire it near children. Period.
What really hurt wasn’t Caitlyn hitting Vi, it was inferring Vi was no better than Jinx. Vi has become my favorite because underneath her tough exterior she is caring and sweet on the inside (When she isn’t punching the shit out of people).
Just 2 minutes in and theres so much flaw in the logic. Vi told jayce to get over the collateral damage instead of stewing in it because the damage was already done, in this cause the damage wasnt done yet and Vi was trying to stop it. But more so, she did not want Cait to lose her own moral character. She didnt want Cait to "change", and doing this would absolutely be her changing even if she didnt hurt the kid. The cait from season 1 would have never even risked it. It makes perfect sense for Vi's character. Also, the reason this broke Vi is because vi has dealt with so much in season 1, Cait is literally the ONLY thing she has left and she just hither and abandoned her. It makes sense this would break Vi. Also she was comparing Cait to jinx specifically about how Cait was willing to hurt others in pursuit of revenge, and acting based on emotion rather than logic and morals. which is exactly what jinx does all the time, especially at the end of season 1. But the theory that Powder and Jinx are the same, Jinx is just a more evolved or unearthed powder, is interesting and makes sense also I love the observation that Vi replaced powder with cait
Ok, I totally get you- and you’re right. But I would say, Vi shouldn’t be held to the same standard as normal people. She’s a himbo, but a very damaged himbo. And besides himbo, she’s a character trapped in a motherhood role. Everybody is ok with Jinx murdering left and right, because we know she’s not doing it fully in her right mind. She’s damaged, she’s not super conscious about what she was doing. I would just say that some people forget that Vi is a severely damaged character too. Her parents died when she was powder’s age or younger. She became her sister’s mother figure. She has parentized big sister persona x100. And Vander was a beautiful father figure. But that’s in comparison to what options they had in Zaun. Let’s not pretend he was a government standard guardian. He was good, especially for Zaun, but not a harbor of healthy childhood raising. (And Silco was worse.) And that doesn’t even mention her being raised in her formative teenage years in Jail. Like she was megamind or something. And after all of this, she came out with good intentions. Which, all of her flaws you point out are true. But the fact she went through hell and came out a Himbo and not a villain is quite incredible.
wow great video! i didn't really notice this! i think i would add that cait also never really understood vi either, i don't think it was all on vi with scenes where she says "i thought you were different" or "i thought you were on our side" ( ie: i thought you were one of the good ones) i think she even doesn't realize just how bad vi losing her parents were, or the years she spent being abused in piltovers prison... while i do see why cait is doing the things she's doing, she clearly is getting more and more extreme, as well as caring less and less about who gets in the way
Ah, thank you, finally explaining why Vi frustrates me. It is all difficult to understand, she was parenting as a child and then lacks 6 years of context, but yeah she's pretty clueless. I think you're underestimating Cait's dark turn. Like, Cait almost impulsively shot an unarmed prisoner/person they rescued, and Vi saw that. She might not have seen the non-diagetic Jinx-like mental snap effects, but... other example: Cait shot that target in the same *room* that Jinx shot that crow. Cait, out of rage; Jinx, in dissociated disregard, but they are developing some clear similarities. Cait's precision and Jinx's chaos are different styles of violence, but I wouldn't call Cait's old principles fully intact. But Vi... *sigh* yeah, the lead-up to the kiss was like the worst possible thing she could have said. Season 1 was all about the inevitability of change, which Vi failed to experience, and now Vi is setting her heart and her relationship with Cait on Cait not changing, which is doomed to fail, even if it didn't have to fail an hour later. Vi and Cait's relationship from here... I don't know. They were decently aligned in their purposes in Season 1. S2 Act 1, they wanted to stop Jinx and protect each other. But now Vi's two people both kinda hate her, and we know she's going to crash, and Cait's becoming a puppet military dictator. (Which, is so cool, but seems bad for her romantic prospects. And her ethics.) The trailers also show Vi fighting Noxians, who are supposed to be following Cait. So... Vi needs to figure out who she is by herself, to reconnect with people like Ekko and learn where she stands in this conflict. And then Cait would need to break from Ambessa's manipulation, heal from her grief, and find her kindness again. Which... might happen. We got Cait's full turn to 'Commander' in Act 1, so Cait only intensifying this trend for two more acts seems unlike Arcane, there's got to be more interesting development. But for them to get together again, they'd need to align politically and understand each other more deeply emotionally in a way they didn't before, for it to work with the quality I expect of this show. So I'm not sure. I'm expecting Vi to learn a lot, after hitting rock bottom, I'm really hopeful for her arc (that she'll actually get to have one this time). Cait's progression is very cool, but I don't know where she's headed.
My God, you just changed my mind about Vi for the entire show, at the start I was like "Of course not, what are you talking about?", but this ended up to be an awesome analysis, keep the good doing!
Once you watch season 1 again, you do realize that Cait has change a lot. A LOT. Late is the one saying all the time that there are good people in the undercity and the government is doing nothing for her (to her mom). Now she is using chemical weapons.
This is the one scene where I didnt like the dialogue, but I let it slide. You put it into good words. I think what people forget with Vi is that what Vi is to Powder is exactly what Powder is to Vi. They were/are dependent on each other. Now that Powder, now Jinx is no longer viable, Vi attaches to the next best thing that looks stable and similar to what she knew, something that she believes she can protect, which is Cait. (I also did not find the bed scene as romantic as the next person, probably because of your points). (ALSO! this whole behavior pattern she has is why I think Vi is enneagram 6 and not 8 as most people believe but I digress!!!!) edit: fixed some spelling mistakes because I wrote this in a rush haha
Vi is post purchase rationalising. Cait is right. When it came to it Vi wasn't able to see the end of her sister. But at the other end of that fight she's trying to cover over her protecting Jinx.
well the kid in the factory was already dead and an accident but also vi could have just moved isha but she didnt clearly she was just having cold feet about shooting her sister
I know everyone’s already said it, but I’ll throw my two cents on the pile: This is a sound, well made analysis, but I find it is WAY too flagrant in pinning ALL THE BLAME on Vi and shamelessly trying to victim-declare Cait even as she DOES grow sick with rage and hatred. The idea that Cait is “empowered” by becoming a callous, murder-happy fascist is simply absurd to me, as it’s not growth. It’s a perversion of what made her… her. Cait’s willingness to look to the humanity and good in Zaun, and who said in earnest that “this city needs healing” is her core, the good person that Vi loves. Seeing someone she loves for her empathy and humanity becoming a cold-hearted killer (LIKE JINX) is not “selfish” or “oblivious” of Vi. It’s calling out a dangerous shift in personality and behaviour to the one going through it as it’s happening. And the one time Vi sees that someone she loves HAS changed in time and tries to react to it, it costs her the only person she still truly loves.
The “that was a kid” wasn’t directed at the actual child, it was directed towards the last remnants of powder, she was using the child as a way to have an excuse to save powder. Just my analyzation.
Y'all forget vi has also been through a lot from also a very young age and had to take care of her baby sister on top. She lost her parents her father figure got locked up in prison for years for no damn reason with only the thoughts of reuniting with her sister to keep her going just to come out of prison and realize her sister has become someone she doesn't recognize while she wasn't there and not for the better too. And we're asking why losing cait broke her lmao. Can't get how you can understand cait and jinx's actions but not vi. Caitlyn is changing and not for the better as well she now suspectable to be manipulated by someone like merdarda using her rage against the undercity to likely commit more worse actions and oppress the undercity more which is something the Caitlyn in season one didn't support. Vi can see that. She trusted Caitlyn and put on the enforcer uniform not just cause she wants to protect Caitlyn but she feels guilty that powder becoming jinx was her fault also about cait's mother. She just wants to put an end to to the fight before it escalates and undercity is gonna suffer the most from it just like what happened in the beginning of season one. It's literally what she learnt from vander. Y'all put a lot on vi forgetting she has her own trauma to get through and she has been trying to do so without completely losing her shit like everyone else.
4:28 yeah, I think this is a big separation from dissociative identity disorder. Jinx is Powder, but a Powder that has accepted her “you’re a Jinx” sort of luck and life. Now, I don’t blame Vi. Because Powder was before Silco, and I don’t blame her for thinking Jinx is a result of brainwashing from the man who betrayed their father and started the whole mess. But Jinx is thanks to Silco, but because it’s powder that has learned to accept her chaotic genius.
I don't know I disagree with a lot of this respectfully. it's not that she is stupid it's just she is in her early 20s and like most people in her early 20s she goes off emotion more than logic. she doesn't have aged wisdom yet. Vi was trying to make Powder more like her yes but Vi was like a 15-year-old parent to Powder and thought teaching in that way would help Powder be better equipped for her reality. there is a difference between the Jayce and Caitlyn situations. the first already happened and Vi couldn't stop it vs Vi being right there and being able to prevent it. yes, both lost parents in a horrible way but Vi wasn't asking Caitlyn to become a Zaun terrorist and Caitlin did ask Vi to join the enforcers which Cait herself did admit she was wrong to do it. Vi isn't going against her values by joining the Enforcers. Vi sees this as the only option and she figures with Caitlin leading it won't end the same way, Vi is not an idiot she can see the bigger picture a lot of the time. Vi comparing Cait to Jinx isn't totally off the wall. Vi has seen what Cait is turning into and at the end of episode 3, she was right to a degree. yes, it's a little off but it's not that far off. I don't know maybe its because I'm a Vi fan but I don't really see how she has all these flaws. again I respectfully disagree with you and everyone else who shares this opinion. RESPECTFULLY.
This video was... Admittedly a bit rough to get through. There were a few good points! The one I agreed with the most was definitely, "Powder never existed" at least as Vi thought she knew her. I also think that it makes sense that years of dwelling on the memory of her sister without actually getting to see her grow up could definitely warp that memory to some extent. Even as a child Jinx was likely quite a bit different than how Vi remembers her after all this time. Definitely something interesting to think about. Where you really lost me was claiming that Vi's reaction to Cait was irrational or that Cait isn't changing. Vi is 100% correct in saying that Cait can't understand how it feels to be asked to join the police force when as a child you watched that police force kill both your parents. (And the police have been oppressing your people in general your whole life. Not to mention the abuse she suffered in prison at their hands.) That uniform carries a TON of trauma for her. Trauma that, try as she might, Cait will NEVER fully be able to understand as someone from a family as powerful as her's is. I also don't think that it's accurate framing that Vi just changed on a dime the second a child was put at risk. She's clearly already losing faith in Caitlyn at the "promise me you won't change" scene from watching Cait commit violence against against her people AND being involved in that violence. She feels like it's something she has to do to protect these people against worse violence, but obviously it sure doesn't feel right once she's in the thick of it! It's a complex situation and I don't think for a second that Vi is stupid for feeling conflicted. Oh, and Cait is literally using GASES against Zaun. I feel like taking away CLEAN AIR from a population is already pretty damn extreme and unreasonable! Not to mention this isn't a situation of her accidentally killing a child and feeling bad about it. This about her actively putting a child at risk! A child that is trying to protect a parental figure! It's a pretty different situation! Especially if the parental figure of that kid happens to be your own sister!
I think it was necessary fot them IF they want to be together...I mean Vi hasn´t experience life since 16...and Cait has always been in her moms shadow, NOW both of them can be free of expectations and "duty" or "loyalty" and find themselves. The question is their true selves CAN BE TOGETHER?
Never heard someone go into that much detail on (one of) Vi's character flaws. Felt kinda weird because I always saw her as the only sane person and somewhat saw the series through her eyes, definitely a great analysis
I think the season 1 kid was a soilder , Isha looks scared and not that far gone, Caitlyn until season 2 doesn’t kill (Sevika) but is always in rage in season 2 .
I basically agree with you on this the one thing I would like to add is it was basically expected to go down this way if you think about it vi's emotional growth was basically put on hold the moment she was taken and put in prison her growth as a person kinda stopped she did not get the chance to grow up. So this was inevitable vi's body is older but emotionally she is still that little girl that got jump and put in prison and the whole time she was in their thinking about powder the little girl that she remembers and as you said when she meets Caitlyn her surrogate powder, so I'm kinda interested to see her begin to grow up past the kidnapped girl from season 1. Love your analysis 😊 and point of view
I'd like to point out that I think Vi thinks (or used to think that) no one is capable enough until proven wrong. She's been taught to be a leader and a protector, and she was used to taking care of people. That mixed with her prejudice against piltover makes it a bit more than just being a Jinx 2.0, but I can agree with most of this.
This video sounds like victim blaming, ngl. Almost like it's Vi's fault for not seeing Caitlyn would turn into a Bigoted Dictator the moment they met and though there are signs, with her being a cop being the damnedest, it's not Vi's fault that she didn't see it coming. Firstly, the circumstances in which they met, Caitlyn literally let her out of the prison, so it makes sense for Vi to trust Caitlyn and to think she may be different. It is true that Caitlyn changed, from the person who was willing to see the good in people, and doesn't immediately dehumanize the Citizen of the undercity and willing to see that they are suffering, oppressed people to a person who does just that by calling them an animals, gassing the city just to find Jinx and throwing people who are already suffering into prison. It's not like she doesn't have evidence to the contrary too, there's literally Vi there as well as Ekko as proof of this yet she let one person change her whole viewpoint. Vi is right as well that Caitlyn is acting like Jinx. Jinx let her trauma define who she is, literally making it her new name and Caitlyn is doing that as well, letting it change her whole identity.
I will admit though that you have good points on what Vi's flaws are, especially about her relationship with Powder and how she might see Caitlyn as someone who also is in need of protecting.
Um? Cait is becoming a LOT like Jinx, and I would argue she is worse. She is now being manipulated by an older war experienced mentor who preyed on her in her moment of trauma and vulnerability, (sound familiar?) and is willing to go to war with the undercity as far as to literally gas them out? That's way worse than bombing the council which in many ways is justified and expected considering how Piltover has treated the undercity. And what has she suffered? The loss of one parent? In comparison to what Jinx has suffered, come on. She's worse than Jinx, much worse, yet because of her privilege so many are still seeing her with the halo effect.
My one criticism of this video is - people can underestimate how difficult it can be to understand what other people are going through mentally and what should be done to help them. We live in a world where access to information about mental health and how to help others is abundant. These girls don’t. Not to mention - they’re both kids. I wouldn’t expect a young teenager to understand the issues powder is going through thoroughly, while dealing with raising them and defending them from and themselves from criticism by family members. It also doesn’t help that Vi never really does get to learn about that sort of thing after the time jump. A lot of people react to things by the way they know and what they experienced in the past guiding them to try to make a good choice. It’s not surprising Vi doesn’t fully understand Powder and might not have when they were kids despite their closeness. She also really doesn’t have much updated information on how her sister got to the point she is now. She barely knows anything of what happened and why her sister is the way she is - she mostly gets to mull it over in her mind. We also saw what could have looked like to Vi - Powder loosing herself to grief. It’s not at all surprising seeing her concerned about Cait turning the same after experiencing such after such a loss and being willing to take drastic action
Was thinking about Powder always sort of being Jinx, and there's even more evidence than that, for example, when we first see Powder, we watch her parents die in front of her, but there are no tears, she doesn't even seem sad for herself, just for Vi, who does cry, she has tear marks, but they were already there by the time she saw her parents, so that's likely just fear Additionally, when Powder sees what she's done, she doesn't apologize, she doesn't ask if Vi is ok, or Milo or Clagger, who she hasn't seen, she just asked why Vi left her, a Jinx move if I ever saw one. Even in the Enemy music video, Powder antagonizes an enforcer with Echo, not exactly something the innocent helpless Powder Vi is familiar with would do (Which I know isn't totally canon but I stand by my point). Anyway, great vid, I haven't seen this kind of take and really liked the way it mad me think about things, I do think that Cait is changing for the worse overall, but those changes don't equate her to Jinx in any capacity, unless viewed in this lens
People are calling Caitlyn a monster after she was willing to shoot a child, but if you think about it, that child's death could have saved thousands, considering that Jinx is a literal terrorist to Piltover later on. Not to mention her mother's death has broken her, all she has right now is anger, nothing else, and emotions always come before rational thinking
Vi treats Cait like she treated Powder. So her accusing Cait of acting like Jinx makes a lot of sense. She never listens to Jinx or Cait when they tell her who they are.
It’s so hard to listen to criticism of my favorite characters. At first I was like “bruh u just don’t get it” but now I’m like “sheeiit dog.” I think you addressed something that I haven’t seen in many other takes on there relationship. Looking forward to more of ur stuff
No she doesnt get it she misunderstood EVERY PLOT POINT and mischaracterized every character especially caitlyn saying she didnt lose her morals and isnt dangerous is a DERANGED take when the whole plot is that caits grief has warped her morals and made her nearsighted and willing to commit atrocities to reach her goal pf revenge, along with acting like vi cant understand anything and is just stupid i could go on but thats the summery. This video is TERRIBLY exicuted and she misunderstands every blatent plot point its ridiculous
Vi is lovable but she really is not the brightest bulb Almost all she ever does is charge headfirst into situations without thinking about consequences... ...which is, funnily enough, a pretty good descriptions of her playstyle in league of legends
OMG I literally made the same mistake with the herbo comment. I once asked my coach "What's the female version of a himbo, a herbo?" 😖Turns out himbo comes from the term bimbo lmaooo. But I still think himbo is the best way to describe Vi.
The people at Fortiche recently revealed that there was no kiss in the first season due to technological reasons. They didn't clear what exactly was the tech shortcomings. Came here from Schnee's video. Really nice analysis and you are lovely to listen to. Thank you for this vid!
I like to see Powder's conversations with her toys as the beginnings of her hallucinations, this Powder/Jinx divide was just Silco's attempts at parenting. It's also funny how the fandom tends to give Caitlyn's aristocratic tendencies a free pass: Vi with her was always subordinate, Jinx to her was nothing but a terrorist - though calling herself an outcast she took after her mother.
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Hell yeah good to see you doing arcane stuff again! also sry for the incomming rant that has nothing to do with your vid but fuck I need somebody that understand this theory: In the show Jayce wonders what changed to make the arcane unstable, overuse seems like a cop out answer so imo the only answer is Viktor. Viktor introduced shimmer to the hexcore/the arcane in the process changing his biology but.... (This is the "I'm a looney on the internet and my theory is dumb part") - its properly also connected to his biology. What really bugged me about the entire anomaly sequence at the bottom of the hexgate was Heimerdinger noticing the goo structure and how specific the little blob were. I then noticed it was red... It was a significant scene, back when Viktor and Jayce argued about the lack of action after Jayce had become a council member, viktor seeing a vision and showing signs of sickness... but he also bled. Blood which found its way to the bottom of the Hexgate. If it indeed is his blood that had turned into this goo, it would mean it literally can alter Viktor even the parts of him such as hair, sweat, skin he have shed. He would be a patient zero for the arcane to spread if a hextech gemstone was present. The last thing that makes me think this could be true is the tree itself being affected. Its interesting how Jayce mentions that the plants they tested on didn't survive but i still think the hexcore learned something, more specifically the structure of plant cells. It may be why it is affecting the tree now. Because it knows how to affect it. just like how it knows to affect a human ravaged by shimmer. I'm props wrong but this would make the arcane a lot more scary, but if it is sentient or there is a greater connection to the void I still have no clue about.
Great video analysis on Vi! Thanks for that, but I must disagree with you in some points. Especially in the bedroom scene in season 1. Vi wasn’t trying to hit on Cait, neither Cait seems to want to go for a romantic ou sexual aspect in that scene. Vi is simply talking about some childhood trauma and be vulnerable, to let Cait know more about her and Jinx. The scene was never supposed to be seen as a pre move for kiss and stuff, we need to decentralized that every interaction between caitvi is just romantic or sexual, they are affectionately bonding in this moment, they are tired from 4 days straight of being almost killed, just let this women breath and have an intimate moment with the intention of making out (bth im a big caitvi shipper i just thing that this moment you have deeply descharacterlizazed them
What breaks them is that Cait is willing to kill a child and to release toxic fumes in the underground. What she said to Jayce was not only when she was on a self-destructive bender but was also after the fact, there was literally nothing to do but comfort Jayce. Good to know this will be a nothingburger in the first minute lol.
I do think you're onto something but also I think that Vi is being a bit more reasonable than you depicted, the comparison to jinx is about the willingness to ignore the deaths she's causing.
i think that vi didn't protect the kid but her sister, since her sister has people who care about her and would even kill or die for her, maybe that changed vis perspective on her sister since she thought her sister is a monster but why would a child protect a monster unless she is not completely lost.
I am here for act 2 and expect it to break me, and I am here for it. That is the brilliant thing with this show, sometimes there are not good options, only the least bad option.
i don't agree with everything, but the points about vi underestimating people are very good. and it was interesting to hear takes i don't share too with vi not understanding how extreme powder's needs are, i can't really blame her? maybe i was just really emotionally unintelligent or something at that age and i'm biased, but i think it's very rare for kids/teenagers to have a really good grasp how to navigate relationships and emotional matters, or know another person inside out. vi's already doing well comparatively imo granted powder does seem pretty open with expressing herself to vi, so maybe she should've noticed, but we can also speculate if powder ever shows her how painful she finds being left or unneeded. maybe she has those extreme reactions when she's left behind, alone, and vi's none the wiser and thinks powder grew out of that with vi not utilizing powder's strength's, YEAH. you made it seem so clear how it could've all been different. again i don't blame vi that much, but this one was a very possible mistake not to make. i think it did make sense to still take powder on the occasional job though (if we disregard the question whether those jobs were worth the risk at all), to get her used to doing stuff like that. maybe vi didn't know how to utilize powder? her gadgets weren't useful yet, i could imagine vi planning to use them when they'd be improved enough, and make powder feel capable then - not knowing they didn't have time to wait that long. involving her in planning does sound great, but again, if vi overlooked that i'd put more responsibility for not utilizing powder's talents on vander rather than vi
I'm on your team re: Vi flip flopping on collateral damage so fast. It wasn't an excuse to spare Jinx since Vi herself had wound up the killer punch after Jinx had told her to. Maybe Vi doesn't want Cait to have to live with it and doesn't know Jayce well enough to care. A few conversations in this act had a goal they needed to get to story wise but had a rough time getting there. Alas.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying Vi is a tragic himbo. She was just a child when she lost her second family and was thrown into prison with no trial or charges and those years she was in prison she had nobody.
As a huge CaitViholic i feel your anxiety... but i can't offer any theory on how to fix it... tbh. i just think that writers end up show and we don't get any final answer... with hope... that Caitlyn and Vi will have the rest of their lives to find a solution.
There's a difference between Jayce accidentally killing a kid without knowing he was there vs Caitlyn making a shot a hairs length away from a kid she knows is in front of her.
It also feels like a gross oversimplification when you say Vi is just a little clueless sometimes. Especially in the context of a parentified child who is barely at the age to work through their own trauma, let alone raise a kid to be able to overcome their own traumas and insecurities. People really expect too much from Vi without acknowledging she was a victim of her own circumstances too. No kid should have to take a parental role for their sibling. It just breeds disaster.
Powder and Vi managed the same trauma in opposite ways: Powder creatively and Vi destructively.
Though Vi was placed in a tough position it's important to recognise what a corrupting influence she was on her sister, first pushing her towards violence then blaming her for the consequences.
i feel like vi was just justyfing the jayce with the kid scene because she didnt want jayce to live with the guilt of THE ACCIDENT and plus the damage was already done, contrary to cait and isha scene where vi is trying to protect her BEFORE the damage is done, and it wouldnt be an accident if if the damage had been done because caitlyn was willing to sacrifice the life of a kid to get jinx
How can you get a really good read on Vi's flaws but completely miss all the insane things that Caitlyn is doing and on top of that defend it.
"She has not lost her sense of justice or her principles or her identity"
*gases the undercity and risks a child's life for the sake of her vengeance*
Are you sure about that?
Yeah, I kinda see what she's getting at, but at the same time, Cait is going full fascist, and you should never go full fascist.
I had the same sentence in my head when she said that
There's also how Caitlyn handles interrogations. In season 1 episdoe 4, she finds one of Silco's lackeys, and offers him immediate first aid without question before even beginning to question him, and assures his safety when he's scared to give up information. In s2e3, she is once again interrogating, this time one of the other factions' lackeys. This man is also wounded and clearly much weaker than the previous one, yet she never once reaches out ot physically help him, only telling him he has the right to arrest once he openly gives her all the information he knows.
There IS a very clear mental degredation happening with Cait throughout s2 act 1, even before she threatens to kill a child and then goes FULL fascist.
On top of that, Vi has seen a LOT since she criticized Jayce's remorse for the child's death. Her words betray her actions as an enforcer; we can see this best in the season 2 fight with Jinx. Jinx it going at her full force, but if you watch closely, despite being a notorious bruiser who can take down enemies MUCH larger and older than her, Vi fails to land a single punch on Jinx, almost as if she's holding her punches. She already is having trouble physically throwing herself at her sister. It makes more sense now, after SEEING what Cait has been capable with the gas and interrogations in season 2, that seeing a child throwing herself onto Jinx the same way Vi used to try to protect Powder when they were kids; it's understandable why THAT is the breaking point for Vi, when she's tired of trying to hurt innocent people, and to a lesser extent, her own sister.
well, you know, they were trying to prevent a civil war and Vi saw it a the only thing to do at the moment. Because a civil war could be catatrophic, she knew it and saw it when she was a child.
This sounded crazy for me too. Cait is poisoning the undercity with her mothers ventilation system design to bring clean air to them. Jinx was also defeated by that point. By the time vi asks her to promise not to change, she already did.
I was like "mmmm not sure not sure" but by the end... Yeah, you are onto something. But Cait is actually like. changing for the worst. Genuinely. Vi is actively acting to ignore it and it IS because she needs someone to protect.
And on the kid thing, for me, there is a pretty clear distinction between Reacting to Something That Has Already Happened vs. Preventing Something From Happening. For Vi, an already dead kid is not a reason to stop whats necessary, but a potentially dead kid is something different.
Yes. Vi is a veteran to loss and trauma, her entire life was being treated like shit, she was put in the goddamn prison as a kid. She wants to help Cait navigate the rage and keep her from turning into second Jinx. But Cait is too far gone. Vi's trauma is the biggest but she didn't become a teen terrorist or a dictator.
My thoughts exactly.
@Sorine9 you worded it beautifully.
@Sorine9 but is Cait really too far gone? Maybe there's hope
@@ΘΘΝΘ-β5ξShe’s probably going to have a redemption arc. She’s just blinded by grief and rage. Doesn’t excuse her actions but does explain them.
It makes sense why Vi was against Cait taking the shot and used the kid as an excuse. The child humanised her sister in Vi's eyes again. And Vi has always prioritised Powder. So of course she's suddenly protective of this child who reminds her of Jinx's humanity, and by extension Jinx's Powder.
8:52 ..and she was right? The whole reason caits raids work is that she had control over the gray, which wasn't a thing until she used the kiramman key at the end of the episode.
12:16 and the whole reason she became so aggressive was ambessa's indirect manipulation over her. She was still peaceful until the attack happened, and maybe she wouldn't even use the gray before that. You can also see that this goes COMPLETELY against her mothers legacy, as you can hear her say ''the people of the underground deserve to breathe'' in the voice recording.
Agree with the first one, the second I don’t think Vi sees ambessa’s doing. Vi is just so scared of change because she wants familiarity, so she begging cait to stay the same, and now she has nobody. Idk if this is right but 🤷♀️
7:04
For the record, cait doesnt understand what's it like to lose her parents that way.
Vi lost her parents in a revolt fighting for a better life. Cait lost her mom to Jinx while deciding on the future of that city. Vi was asked to join a group who oppressed them.... cait is already disgusted and has been disgusted by Vi's people and place.....its not the same at all, stop
also there is a significant difference about loosing your parents as a child vs as a young adult - you can deal completely different with this. On top of hat Vi had to babysit Powder and in the process can not really grieve for herself while Caitlyn at least still has her dad left.
One thing is the same: Both never witnessed the bloodshed in the act - only saw the aftermath and dead bodies.
THANK YOU
I see your points about Vi's unhability to read people and situations. I see Vi as a good hearted badass with the training of violence but not gifted in lucidity. And how would she? Huge Child traumas, protection of others as a child, and iterative losses as a child again... then manay years in prison... i mean, how could it be otherwise ?
Yes her media literacy verges on idiocy
No yeah Vi’s parents were murdered by the oppressors of her people and Cait’s mother was murder because she literally helps perpetuate a system of oppression and corruption… also Jinx is a product of that oppression and if Piltover didn’t mistreat the people of the under city for so long, then Jinx and Vi really wouldn’t have lost their parents and Jinx wouldn’t have been created 🙃💜
Or Vi sees Caitlyn turning into a fascist who is willing to use chemical weapons and willing to shoot a child and because she can't comprehend why you would do that sees her through the same lens as Jinx, someone who she also doesn't understand even though she felt she knew them.
Ikr how does this commentator misunderstand EVERY PLOT POINT and every charecter its actually so infuriating every HEAR ME OUT was a misunderstood very blatent plotpoint, this video had me facepalming the whole way through its undoubtedly the most trash video essay on arcane ive ever seen
Really, Vi saw cait as jynx, from the change her loved ones go through.
The second they change, or just become something she didnt expect, she gets scared and panics. Especially whenever they start doing violent stuff. She prefers being the one who commits violence cause... she knows shes good at it. But when people she knows tries violence, they hurt themselves and those around them.
The second she feels she loses control or at least understanding of them, she loses her cool and doesnt know how to fix things. She hasnt changed from who she was as a child because no one bothered to teach her once vander died. She was locked up for years instead and just reinforced her 'tough gal' demeanor. She has no idea how to help someone actually struggling.
That struggle is what she saw in cait and compared to Jynx. She can still see the person she knew, but cant understand how theyve changed or what they need
Arcane writers were guided by many writing principles, one of them being "give characters something to prove". Vi failed with Jinx and blames herself for it. Wants another chance at proving herself as a protector. Jinx failed with helping Vander, and wanted another person to give her acceptance and chance to prove that her "monkey bombs can work". Now Caitlyn blames herself for not taking the shot with Jinx in S1 finale, and wanted to prove that she can make it all right, without hesitation. Jinx finally proved that she can save Vi, as she did in the finale, but the cost was too great. I feel that Vi will be forced to sacrifice someone to protect Jinx or Caitlyn.
Vi is pretty dumb socially, but that's to be expected of someone who spends half their teenage years in prison, basically growing up with prison hierarchy
My thoughts exactly. Even before she gets imprisoned, she's already pushed into a leadership role with basically no real peers to facilitate healthy social development. Mylo and Claggor have each other, as do Powder and Ekko, but we don't see Vi having a single friend that's really her equal. It's no wonder the only way she understands to have a relationship with someone else is by acting as their protector.
This also kind of puts the interactions between her and Jinx in the tunnels in a new light; Violence is the language Vi understands, and Jinx/Powder engaging with her through her own language is something new and strange to Vi. I think that - in a really counterintuitive way - the fighting might be good for their relationship in the long run. Maybe Vi finding a way to reconcile Jinx and Powder in her own mind is the first step towards her stepping out of her own rigidly-dualistic understanding of relationships.
@@mushymass9716 Vi - stands for violence
we have gotten a sneak peak into that Vi without a powder to orbit looks like, it is a death spiral into oblivion that will likely require some "fatherly" help to get out of.
I think you're right on the nose with the part about Vi underestimating people. We get a whole line during act 2 about Caitlyn warning her to "not underestimate Ambessa", which is a normal thing to say, but Arcane is basically 0% filler so why would that be emphasized? Could it he that Caitlyn understands her predilection towards underestimating people?
A Squircle and Schnee video in one day 😌
I think it makes a lot of sense that Vi sees Cait as another Powder, because they are genuinely similar. They do both have blue hair, they are both bad at parkour, but they're also far more capable than Vi gives them credit for. Both are excellent with guns, both are extremely intelligent and strategic, and both are more physically capable than Vi thinks. On a meta storytelling level, both also lose parents and guiding lights in horribly traumatic ways, and in the immediate fallout are manipulated into being pawns for masterminds in the political game between the two cities. They're also close to Vi, and Vi fumbles both relationships pretty horribly.
I see Cait and Jinx as two sides of the same tyranny coin; we already know that Jinx is all about disorder, and I'll bet that Cait is about to take the fast lane to order. It might be a bit of a stretch, but I'll bet that Vi's arc in Act 2 and 3 will revolve around how she's caught between the two, and how they're vying for power over Piltover and Zaun. Both will become the rallying symbolic figure for their respective cities, with Piltover embracing fascistic order and Zaun embracing anarchistic disorder.
This is a lot and also like totally unrelated but i was going to say that Jinx's mantra is chaos, but I feel like that isn't true anymore and I think that disorder is a much better word for what she's going to be pushing in the coming episodes. They're similar words, but, at least in my mind, chaos is wild and uncontrolled, whereas disorder is honed and intentional about its targets. She seems much more controlled and calculated in Season 2 than she was in 1, which i think is best expressed by just how quiet she is. In 1 she was always talking to ghosts or humming or rambling, but in 2 we start Act 1 with her silently roaming the streets of Zaun. I think it is as you say and she has taken control back from her demons, but what she does with that control is gonna be very interesting to see.
I don't know, these are all just theories, I'm a lot more confident in Jinx and Cait mirroring one another than I am about this chaos thing, but this is all super interesting. I don't even know where the Firelights and Jayce and Viktor will come into play here if at all, I get the sense that they represent the ideal unity between the two cities in the face of adversity (Heimerdinger and Jayce representing Piltover, Viktor and Ekko representing Zaun) and will mostly be focused on fixing the Arcane. Like I said i don't know
Boy was I wrong about this
I was actually rewatching this episode when this video popped up in my notifications. Seeing the text “Vi is a tragic himbo” pop up while a really serious scene was happening made me laugh so hard XD
Vi is also still freshly out of prison so maybe thats part of her being stuck as the big sister she was when she was thrown in prison
Arcane doesn't clearly define it's characters, and their actions.
The protagonists have antagonistic traits, and the antagonists have redeeming qualities of a protagonist.
In reality, things are NOT just good/positive and bad/negative. It depends on perspective.
Really, this is what makes a good story. 2 different people can watch Arcane, and see things very differently.
Vi has a fatal flaws, she has never changed. Or better, barely. She addressed the situation of Jayce killing a kid as normal, because she grew up like that and she had tunnel vision because it was a trigger that he doesn't know that in her world is normal. We should agree that there it was her mistake. We don't see her necessarly evolving from this, but her saying that killing a kid is wrong is not a mistake. She especially doesn't want Caitlyn to do it and for her to do it that way. Vi, person that has faced the consequences of how a bad action can cause the biggest changes, didn't want Cait, whom she sees as pure and kind hearted, to change that great part of her that is core to her and to what she fell in love with. Especially because she didn't want to regret it later. Vi lied, Caitlyn wasn't acting like Jinx, she was acting like her younger self. Enforced by the parallelism and with how clueless Vi is. She just is trying so hard to stop Caitlyn from making the same mistake she is baring the guilt to this day. She has not moved on completely and she thinks she won't, so just like she tried too much to protect Powder, she makes the same mistakes again with Cait. And now Caitlyn is indeed acting like old Vi, putting on instead of her secure and kind attachment, she uses the typical Vi detached and in some ways scared. And Caitlyn being a master at hiding her emotion if she doesn't want the others to know, she has something of a millisecond guilt appear in her expression, before leaving her. Vi is now the Powder turning into Jinx, having to go through the bottom of bottoms before rising back up to her real potential and growth.
Also, Vi was scared of Caitlyn turning into the enforcers that killed her parents instead of the enforcer she fell in love with.
Well, I would like to point out, too, that Vi was trapped in a cell for 7ish years. So, in Act 1, she was the only character that was closest to her former self because of the stationary nature of being cut off from the world and any chance of change.
So, she is like speed running YEARS of development that other characters have mostly already gone through in like less than a month (if I am being generous, no idea the gap between Act 1 to 2 but probably like a week). And, you got to remember she was 15 at the time, yet she has always been strong and confident person but that just makes it easy for her to mask her pain. However, she cannot hide it anymore because the rock she was moored at and swore to protect has cut her anchor, which just left to adrift at sea.
THANK YOU OH MY GOD
EXACTLY for me she isn’t a hipócrite it’s just she was also blinded h y rage at that time, you can see that in the same episode where the kid dies in season 1 after jayce leaves VI watches the kid and her expression changes to sadness.
Also there's a difference between Jaycee having shot the kid already unintentionally and Caitlyn potentially shooting at the kid.
@ exactly, and even vi regrets the dead kid you can see it in her expression. And people who say VI hasn’t changed haven’t watched s1 carefully. There’s ton of videos that show how VI has changed in s1
I admire the way this show did this kind of loop, where Vi's non-understanding of her relationship causes the other to turn to a much darker place, and even get taken under the wing of a chaos sower (Silco and Ambessa)
It wasn't normal collateral damage, but it would have been taking out a child after having taken aim.
The kid in the shimmer factory was offed by accident and not looking where Jayce shot, Caitlyn hat a rather clear shot and it would have been premeditated.
Another thing is that if you look at the scene, Isha had her head directly behind Jinx head, if Caitlyn would have gone for a head shot, Isha would have been dead as shown by the caliber of the hexgun both with the mirror and even more so in the arcade (where it burns a fat hole in the figure and is shown to spread outwards behind it.
She compared Caitlyn to Jinx because Jinx similiarly does not consider or mind collateral or mind killing people.
Whereas Vi didn't see Caitlyn killing one person, rather the opposite, when Caitlyn took a shot it disabled Sevika, not killed her. Caitlyn trying to kill Jinx, even without Isha as a casualty, is Caitlyn acting way more like Jinx.
Why didn't take Powder to the Vander recuse because she didn't believe or see that Powder could be useful, but because Vander impressed on her in their last normal conversation that bringing Powder along is risking to get her killed. Which Vi did not want. She was not afraid of Powder being hurt physically, but permanently killed.
The video feels like working backwards from an idea, forcefully hard.
I'm sorry but I really disagree most of this take.
1:05 It is absolutely FALSE that Vi was not upset the kid died. She was calling out Jayce for lamenting that "he is part of this now" when he and all of Piltover have always been a part of Zaun's suffering. She looks at the kid after Jayce is out of sight, and she is UPSET.
1:24 The fight in the temple is a completely different situation. The incident with Jayce was an accident, they didn't even know kids were there until Jayce kills the boy. This time Vi is clearly aware of Isha's presence and she is not going to risk a kids life. Especially when the kid is clinging to Jinx. It shocks Vi. Completely different situations.
She compared Cait to Jinx because Caitlyn did not at this point care if her actions harmed innocent people like Isha. Cait was being reckless, full stop. Just as Jinx did not care about the harm she caused in Season 1. Caitlyn is in fact starting to behave like Jinx did in Act 1. They are mirrors of each other.
"She's not chaotically dangerous, she's not descending into madness or threatening to implode".
Yes she is? Cait is absolutely losing her grip and is becoming erratic and vengeful. It's understandable why, and I empathize with her pain, but lets not pretend she's not on the cusp of going too far multiple times as is clearly shown in this arc.
"She has not lost her sense of justice"
Again yes she has, it's being replaced with a desire for revenge as we clearly see in her reveries of killing Jinx. And she uses the Grey in the undercity which, while I understand the tactic, is still hugely problematic. And it must be acknowledged.
I'm not going to quote everything wrong, but suffice to say I think your estimation of Caitlyn is very off. I love Caitlyn and her reaction is understandable, but she is very much falling off the deep end. And Vi can see that.
Blaming Vi for not being as understanding as she could have been to Powder, when she's still a teenager and in a position to have to act like parent is not really fair to her circumstances, and it does not make her clueless. It makes her a teenager. She's trying her best under the circumstances.
7:04 Again Vi is right here. Caitlyn understands violently losing a loved one, absolutely. Asking someone to join with the organization that killed Vi's parents is NOT at all the same thing. Caitlyn's pain is valid, but it doesn't dismiss Vi's own pain, and asking that of her was tone deaf on Caitlyn's part. Not the other way around.
7:55 The just met each other, why should Vi think anything else other than her biases towards Caitlyn in the beginning. They are literally getting to know each other, the fact that Vi has her perspective of Caitlyn change (and Caitlyn's perspective of Vi by the way) over time is not Vi being clueless.
8:43 Again, Vi was right. It's not about lacking confidence in Caitlyn. It's about avoiding a bloodbath, of Piltover and Zaun alike. Vi doesn't become an enforcer to protect Caitlyn. She becomes an enforcer because she feels responsible for the carnage that Jinx has commited, and the death of Caitlyn's mother. "Her dad's right, there's no point sticking around... except I'm the one who created the monster." She motivated by guilt and dedication to Caitlyn. Caitlyn is Vi's only hope at this point.
10:45 "it's just Vi talking about powder". Yeah... and? She's spent the last 7ish years wanting to reunite with her little sister. It's her entire drive at this point in the story. The point is that Vi trusts Caitlyn enough to open herself up to her, and lets Caitlyn touch her cheek where she refused a few episodes prior.
Love this comment
Especially agree with the last one. I do see the similarities between Cait and Powder in Vi's mind, but the bedroom scene was not about that. It was a moment of vulnerability and intamacy, of course Vi will talk about Powder because it's what's defined her throughout most of her life and confiding in Cait about it means she trusts her. If anything, it makes a distinction between the two to Vi as she would never burden Powder with her own pain and trauma.
Look, Cait is like my roman empire and I will defend her until the day I die but Cait is becoming like Jinx, If you look at the scenes of her almost shooting Jinx you can see her be relentless. I do however agree with you on the fact that Powder and Jinx are the same.
Good people don’t turn to racially motivated chemical warfare and collective punishment because their mom died.
Cait is one of the most privileged characters in the show, she is a part of the systems that created Jinx and took away everything from Vi,Ekko, Sevika etc. The society she upholds and is a part of orphaned thousands of children and made it so that death, destruction and violence are everyday trauma for all children and adults of Zaun. Her mother died because of Jinx. But Jinx only exists because people like Caitlyn and her family only want to work within the system that oppresses others, not dismantle it. The way she’s acting is entirely reasonable for someone who’s racist and privileged and unwilling to admit to or change either.
I’m excited to see where they’re going with her but Vi deserves so much better. As far as I see it her only flaw is allowing and participating in raciallized violence against her own people at that.
You know…We’ve never seen the Kiramman vents work until Cait weaponised it.
So her family built a venting system to remove the Grey but never used it?
I don’t think Cait is a saint by any means, but I don’t think she’s “a bad person”.
I think she’s a privileged person who had the most classic flaw of college kids: Idealistic and open minded until the crap hits their own fan. Then they suddenly find all their power they have, and they’re looking for “an eye for an eye.”
But behind the scenes, they’re being used for their power by the people supposedly on their side
It’s beautifully written.
Also, she is the one who said that Jinx’s actions was just one deranged person. She knew what was up, even though she was bitter.
But Ambessa is manipulating her to become what Ambessa wants her to become. The chembaron attack was orchestrated FOR Cait. To make her think that they’re all the same, and it’s not just Jinx.
In a way, she’s right to try to sniff out Jinx and take care of her. In her point of view, (a very understandable point of view), Jinx needs to be taken out. If Piltover lets this hang, they’re going to be attacked again and again.
In fact, if this was the CIA, Jinx would have died, even if Isha was collateral damage. Just because you can’t risk another weapon of moderately mass destruction being aimed at piltover again.
But Vi is trying to keep Cait human, and not let her become the CIA. In a way, that’s great for our story. But, it might have taken away Cait’s catharsis. And probably pushed her to her decisions.
Cait also loves Vi. She has every (harsh government) right to just shoot Vi for getting in the way. (Again, Jinx is a terrorist.) But a gun butt is mild in comparison.
Now, this is all a low bar to clear for humanity of Cait- not becoming a government machine. But it shows that she is truly a good person going through a hard time.
Because legally, she could have done so much worse and would have been called a hero.
7:03 One thing to add (not disagreeing with you! I just think this line needs a bit more context. Also just saw someone else commented a similar thing, but I'll give my take anyway): I think Vi expressed herself poorly here. When she asks Caitlyn whether she knows how it feels to have watched "them" kill her parents, this is part of the wider scene where Caitlyn is asking her to don the Enforcer badge, and Vi refuses.
Of course Caitlyn knows how it feels to have lost a parent to the "other side", but I don't think that's what Vi is asking. The equivalent scenario would really be Vi asking Caitlyn to fight for Zaun after having witnessed her mother die to a Zaunite; I think if Caitlyn instead read Vi's line this way she would perhaps empathise a little more readily with Vi's stance. Yes, Vi changes her mind later, but her immediate reaction is one of an almost visceral (albeit irrational given the circumstances) revulsion, as anyone might feel when asked to become that which one fears and despises the most.
In other words, Vi wants to know whether Caitlyn understands how it would feel to associate oneself in a very direct way with the group responsible for the death of one's parents. This is a legitimate question, and while we are primed to view this scene more from Caitlyn's perspective, as it follows soon after the funeral scene, Caitlyn is definitely being the unreasonable one here (hence Vi's line, “You didn't think at all”) in declining to accept that Vi might understandably not be too keen, at least at first, on the idea of becoming an Enforcer. Nor is this out of character, given what Season 2 is doing with Caitlyn.
Again, I agree that Vi is a little clueless generally, especially regarding Powder/Jinx, but in this scene I can fully see where she is coming from. This is absolutely nitpicking though, your video was great and explored a lot of things I hadn't considered! And sorry this is very long-winded - having trouble articulating myself succinctly today 😅
Edit: ok seems you agree with this take on the scene anyway - and expressed it much better than me at 9:01
you fail to consider that vi was ALSO a child... probably no older than 14/15 when everything first went down. to reduce her to “generally clueless” is really unfair to her character imo. she’s powder’s older sister, not a licensed therapist, and dealing with so much on her end and on powder’s end, mind you. so while it’s easy for you to realize exactly what powder would have needed and how vi should have handled it, vi was doing her best: including her 99% of the time except the one time she didn’t, for her own safety, defending her to mylo etc.
on caitlyn: why should she expect her to be able to do all the things she reveals herself capable of? she just met her, like, yesterday. and also, she just got out of prison, like. yesterday. after like 7 years. and in s2, it’s not that she doesn’t think caitlyn able to handle a raid on her own, but that she wants to help her. vi consistently sacrifices herself for those she loves and you don’t seem to be giving her much grace at all. to characterize vi to some idiot who thinks caitlyn=powder is so reductive. i don’t think you’re considering the whole situation and tbh your take seems pretty black and white
I get the vibe that Vi still just got the free out of jail card while everyone has built a hotel empire and just taxes her for no reason in her mind
I have to say, I’ve never seen the dynamic expressed this way and I find it really fascinating how you placed the seeds for this reveal.
I do think people miss how stunted Vi is. She was a kid herself when she tried to instill positive self-esteem in Powder, but her not fully recognizing the steps that would make Powder come into her own and capitalize on her unique strengths is realistic but also tragic. She is so focused on protecting Powder that she misses the mark.
Combine this with her being locked up for years, then barely getting a day or two to register the changes in Powder/Jinx, and she continues making mistakes, because the past she clung to in order to survive prison won’t help her in the world as it is now.
Thanks for making this video! Made me view Vi’s dynamic with Caitlyn and Jinx in a different way I hadn’t considered
Vi is stunted but she is wrong about a lot, especially Cait and Jinx
omg, I'm sorry - this is some kind of rant. Let's see how much actual accurate sense I can produce.
My point of view:
To sum it up shortly, Vi is in the right, Cait is acting out of her mind. I find it crazy how you would understand Cait's point of view more than you would understand Vi's.
Cait putting that kid's life in danger and Jayce killing one are completely different situations. Jayce didn't even think there was this kid still there. And Vi describes it as colleteral damage bc the shot was already shot, it was an accident, the kid was already dead, they gotta move on. Cait shooting Jinx while a kid defends her is irresponsible. Imagine her slipping up or faiting just so slightly bc of the fight with Sevika before. Or the kid just moves more infront of Jinx this exact second. The kid is dead. Vi might be dead. Cait doesn't seem to care about that, she is so full of hatred to hunt Jinx down it makes her uncontrolled and mad.
Also both of their parents deaths are completely different, Vi was still a kid, as others also said, she had to take care of Powder. Cait is an adult. Cait is priviledged as hell and her reaction now really shows how much. And the context is a different one. Cait asks her to wear a badge of the people that killed her parents, it's not like Cait is in a similar situation.
What happened to the philosophie of Caitlyn. The moment she said "I thought you were on our side" already showed, Cait forgot it. Before she wanted to build peace. Putting urself and others on opposing sides is ignorant and builds up hatred and pain. What happened to understanding the situation, why people turn to what they are, how this messed up society creates messed up people. She doesn't care anymore. We don't defend anymore, we fight, we hunt, we kill. It's crazy.
Their relationship was supposed to depict Piltover and Zaun being able to build bridges. Understanding the unjust and suffering the upper city has produced for the undercity. To be generally understanding AND to help the undercity. Well... but all that doesn't seem to matter anymore. Maybe one more dead kid?
If anyone is justified to harm anyone it's the undercity fighting Piltover. Cait getting overly revengful doesn't do justice to her original actual moral and goal she had. So she changed. Then she calls Vi "Jinxes blood" while she is the one not caring if people die in the process of her goal. Not with good intend. Cait always had good intentions. This one is awful. She even hit's Vi, if anyone isn't trustworthy anymore to be sane, it's Cait.
Reading your analysis makes sense. Do you think the writers made a misstep with her characterization?
@@introvertedinfp personally, the writers wrote Vi and Cait very well considering their current circumstances.
Cait never had to deal with violence until recently. Always protected by the gilded wall her parents and Piltover provided. Such a loss so suddenly, and so violently very obviously damaged her self-identity. She is lashing out at Vi for “not being a good one”, like being by her side is a privilege.
Frankly Cait is prejudiced against Zaunites. When push comes to shove, Cait thinks Zaunites are beneath her. It’s only because of Vi that she thinks Zaunites are people.
In this respect, Vi is more grounded and stable in her thinking. She has had more years to manage her emotions regarding to her loss.
@@n0hesitati0n15 I'm literally working on a video essay (more like a raw, unfiltered rant) about this right now and have come to the same conclusion you have, but additionally I'm airing my dislike of Cait. But you said this so well! Can I use this comment in my video?
@@n0hesitati0n15 Exactly. Until she met Vi, Caitlyn's only problems in life were dealing with her mother trying to make her into a politician, when she really wanted to be an officer, a detective, out there solving crimes and serving justice, but the best she could get was being an Enforcer and doing guard duty or light work because of her mother's interference. She may have grown up learning to hunt, but her life was easy and perfect compared to anyone who grew up in Zaun. Violence was guaranteed in the Undercity... where as it would be shocking in the Uppercity.
@ please go ahead! I’m looking forward to watch that video
I feel like you really needed to define malformed because it's really unclear what you mean by it
I mean… she could just be depressed that the only person in her life - who is also the love of her life - the woman she begged not to change, like everyone else she’s known, almost killed a kid to get revenge - something the woman she fell in love with would never have done - then physically assaults her and leaves her completely alone to become a tyrant. I dunno… maybe it could be cause of that?
Vi's insecure attachment style has me in PAIN
I'd ease up on calling Powder "malformed". The scene where she's breaking down is not evidence that she's "malformed" or evil or a monster. It's evidence that's she's neurodivergent. Jinx isn't a monster because she was born that way. She's a monster because she was shaped that way. Her neurodivergency made her vulnerable to the trauma she would later experience and made it easy for Silco to shape her into the monster she becomes. Being neurodivergent doesn't make you malformed or evil. That's silly and reductive
Being neurodivergent doesn't make you malformed or evil, but the very nickname "Jinx" is a projection of your community saying that you are malformed. Being told that you can't help save your dad because you aren't trusted to be competent enough to help is proof that you are seen as malformed by the person who has always had your back.
She says herself, that it wasn't Silco that made her a monster.
I think that given Powder's response when she finds out that she has killed her family, not asking for forgiveness, not talking about how she feels guilty, she is blaming Vi for leaving her behind. Of course this is a deflection, but I don't think that what she is deflecting against is guilt, its horror. She has proven herself to be a jinx. Her hope at having value has been shattered. This is what matters to her, her sense of self value, more then the lives of her family.
With all that in mind, I can see her comfortable growing up into a weapons inventor who is one of the most dangerous people in the undercity with a complete lack of empathy for killing her enemies regardless of whether she was raised by Silco or by Vi.
@@KiIIMeQuietly No. The reason Vi didn't bring Powder along wasn't because she was incompetent. She didn't bring her along because she's a child and Vi just witnessed a hulking monster delete Benzo, Grayson and a squad of enforcers. She wasn't going to bring her little sister into that death trap.
"she is blaming Vi for leaving her behind."
She wasn't blaming Vi. She was pleading.
You're right. Powder doesn't feel guilty and she doesn't care about her family. She's just hallucinating Mylo and Claggor for shts and giggles.
"I can see her comfortable growing up into a weapons inventor who is one of the most dangerous people in the undercity with a complete lack of empathy for killing her enemies regardless of whether she was raised by Silco or by Vi."
Regardless, of whether she grew up with Vi or Silco? Really? Pure nature? No nurture? People can't influence others in any way shape or form? Because that's how people work, surely.
@@KiIIMeQuietly You seem to believe that children can be born inherently evil which is really disturbing
Thanks for saying this I was really caught off guard by how casually they call her that
Bro stfu she is criminally insane
Hear me out! The fact that Vi is unable to have more than one type of relationship dynamic IS the thing that will change. This will be the part of her that she will learn and grow from this season.
As other people have point out: Jaice had already killed the child and Vi was trying to make a point. In the case of Isha,she is still alive and Vi was trying to try to stop Caitlyn from killing a child, and posibly get through the same guilt she saw Jayce going through. Also, she is not in love with Jayce. She is in love with Caitlyn. Also, during the battle Caitlyn had already fauled 2 times because of the anomaly going crazy and affecting all hextech weapons and also because she is enraged. Also, it doesn't matter how precise you are with a gun, you should never fire it near children. Period.
What really hurt wasn’t Caitlyn hitting Vi, it was inferring Vi was no better than Jinx. Vi has become my favorite because underneath her tough exterior she is caring and sweet on the inside (When she isn’t punching the shit out of people).
Just 2 minutes in and theres so much flaw in the logic. Vi told jayce to get over the collateral damage instead of stewing in it because the damage was already done, in this cause the damage wasnt done yet and Vi was trying to stop it. But more so, she did not want Cait to lose her own moral character. She didnt want Cait to "change", and doing this would absolutely be her changing even if she didnt hurt the kid. The cait from season 1 would have never even risked it. It makes perfect sense for Vi's character.
Also, the reason this broke Vi is because vi has dealt with so much in season 1, Cait is literally the ONLY thing she has left and she just hither and abandoned her. It makes sense this would break Vi.
Also she was comparing Cait to jinx specifically about how Cait was willing to hurt others in pursuit of revenge, and acting based on emotion rather than logic and morals. which is exactly what jinx does all the time, especially at the end of season 1.
But the theory that Powder and Jinx are the same, Jinx is just a more evolved or unearthed powder, is interesting and makes sense
also I love the observation that Vi replaced powder with cait
Ok, I totally get you- and you’re right. But I would say, Vi shouldn’t be held to the same standard as normal people. She’s a himbo, but a very damaged himbo.
And besides himbo, she’s a character trapped in a motherhood role.
Everybody is ok with Jinx murdering left and right, because we know she’s not doing it fully in her right mind. She’s damaged, she’s not super conscious about what she was doing.
I would just say that some people forget that Vi is a severely damaged character too.
Her parents died when she was powder’s age or younger. She became her sister’s mother figure. She has parentized big sister persona x100.
And Vander was a beautiful father figure. But that’s in comparison to what options they had in Zaun. Let’s not pretend he was a government standard guardian. He was good, especially for Zaun, but not a harbor of healthy childhood raising. (And Silco was worse.)
And that doesn’t even mention her being raised in her formative teenage years in Jail. Like she was megamind or something.
And after all of this, she came out with good intentions. Which, all of her flaws you point out are true. But the fact she went through hell and came out a Himbo and not a villain is quite incredible.
wow great video! i didn't really notice this!
i think i would add that cait also never really understood vi either, i don't think it was all on vi
with scenes where she says "i thought you were different" or "i thought you were on our side" ( ie: i thought you were one of the good ones) i think she even doesn't realize just how bad vi losing her parents were, or the years she spent being abused in piltovers prison... while i do see why cait is doing the things she's doing, she clearly is getting more and more extreme, as well as caring less and less about who gets in the way
Ah, thank you, finally explaining why Vi frustrates me. It is all difficult to understand, she was parenting as a child and then lacks 6 years of context, but yeah she's pretty clueless. I think you're underestimating Cait's dark turn. Like, Cait almost impulsively shot an unarmed prisoner/person they rescued, and Vi saw that. She might not have seen the non-diagetic Jinx-like mental snap effects, but... other example: Cait shot that target in the same *room* that Jinx shot that crow. Cait, out of rage; Jinx, in dissociated disregard, but they are developing some clear similarities. Cait's precision and Jinx's chaos are different styles of violence, but I wouldn't call Cait's old principles fully intact. But Vi... *sigh* yeah, the lead-up to the kiss was like the worst possible thing she could have said. Season 1 was all about the inevitability of change, which Vi failed to experience, and now Vi is setting her heart and her relationship with Cait on Cait not changing, which is doomed to fail, even if it didn't have to fail an hour later.
Vi and Cait's relationship from here... I don't know. They were decently aligned in their purposes in Season 1. S2 Act 1, they wanted to stop Jinx and protect each other. But now Vi's two people both kinda hate her, and we know she's going to crash, and Cait's becoming a puppet military dictator. (Which, is so cool, but seems bad for her romantic prospects. And her ethics.) The trailers also show Vi fighting Noxians, who are supposed to be following Cait. So... Vi needs to figure out who she is by herself, to reconnect with people like Ekko and learn where she stands in this conflict. And then Cait would need to break from Ambessa's manipulation, heal from her grief, and find her kindness again. Which... might happen. We got Cait's full turn to 'Commander' in Act 1, so Cait only intensifying this trend for two more acts seems unlike Arcane, there's got to be more interesting development. But for them to get together again, they'd need to align politically and understand each other more deeply emotionally in a way they didn't before, for it to work with the quality I expect of this show. So I'm not sure. I'm expecting Vi to learn a lot, after hitting rock bottom, I'm really hopeful for her arc (that she'll actually get to have one this time). Cait's progression is very cool, but I don't know where she's headed.
I too am a tragic lesbian himbo
My God, you just changed my mind about Vi for the entire show, at the start I was like "Of course not, what are you talking about?", but this ended up to be an awesome analysis, keep the good doing!
Once you watch season 1 again, you do realize that Cait has change a lot. A LOT. Late is the one saying all the time that there are good people in the undercity and the government is doing nothing for her (to her mom). Now she is using chemical weapons.
This is the one scene where I didnt like the dialogue, but I let it slide. You put it into good words.
I think what people forget with Vi is that what Vi is to Powder is exactly what Powder is to Vi. They were/are dependent on each other.
Now that Powder, now Jinx is no longer viable, Vi attaches to the next best thing that looks stable and similar to what she knew, something that she believes she can protect, which is Cait. (I also did not find the bed scene as romantic as the next person, probably because of your points).
(ALSO! this whole behavior pattern she has is why I think Vi is enneagram 6 and not 8 as most people believe but I digress!!!!)
edit: fixed some spelling mistakes because I wrote this in a rush haha
Vi is post purchase rationalising. Cait is right. When it came to it Vi wasn't able to see the end of her sister. But at the other end of that fight she's trying to cover over her protecting Jinx.
well the kid in the factory was already dead and an accident but also vi could have just moved isha but she didnt clearly she was just having cold feet about shooting her sister
5:59 but, I don’t blame a child who became a mother at a very young age.
"Here me out..... NO (there's alot of surface evidence for this)" 🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥
I know everyone’s already said it, but I’ll throw my two cents on the pile:
This is a sound, well made analysis, but I find it is WAY too flagrant in pinning ALL THE BLAME on Vi and shamelessly trying to victim-declare Cait even as she DOES grow sick with rage and hatred.
The idea that Cait is “empowered” by becoming a callous, murder-happy fascist is simply absurd to me, as it’s not growth. It’s a perversion of what made her… her.
Cait’s willingness to look to the humanity and good in Zaun, and who said in earnest that “this city needs healing” is her core, the good person that Vi loves.
Seeing someone she loves for her empathy and humanity becoming a cold-hearted killer (LIKE JINX) is not “selfish” or “oblivious” of Vi. It’s calling out a dangerous shift in personality and behaviour to the one going through it as it’s happening.
And the one time Vi sees that someone she loves HAS changed in time and tries to react to it, it costs her the only person she still truly loves.
The “that was a kid” wasn’t directed at the actual child, it was directed towards the last remnants of powder, she was using the child as a way to have an excuse to save powder. Just my analyzation.
Y'all forget vi has also been through a lot from also a very young age and had to take care of her baby sister on top. She lost her parents her father figure got locked up in prison for years for no damn reason with only the thoughts of reuniting with her sister to keep her going just to come out of prison and realize her sister has become someone she doesn't recognize while she wasn't there and not for the better too. And we're asking why losing cait broke her lmao. Can't get how you can understand cait and jinx's actions but not vi. Caitlyn is changing and not for the better as well she now suspectable to be manipulated by someone like merdarda using her rage against the undercity to likely commit more worse actions and oppress the undercity more which is something the Caitlyn in season one didn't support. Vi can see that. She trusted Caitlyn and put on the enforcer uniform not just cause she wants to protect Caitlyn but she feels guilty that powder becoming jinx was her fault also about cait's mother. She just wants to put an end to to the fight before it escalates and undercity is gonna suffer the most from it just like what happened in the beginning of season one. It's literally what she learnt from vander. Y'all put a lot on vi forgetting she has her own trauma to get through and she has been trying to do so without completely losing her shit like everyone else.
4:28 yeah, I think this is a big separation from dissociative identity disorder.
Jinx is Powder, but a Powder that has accepted her “you’re a Jinx” sort of luck and life.
Now, I don’t blame Vi. Because Powder was before Silco, and I don’t blame her for thinking Jinx is a result of brainwashing from the man who betrayed their father and started the whole mess.
But Jinx is thanks to Silco, but because it’s powder that has learned to accept her chaotic genius.
I don't know I disagree with a lot of this respectfully. it's not that she is stupid it's just she is in her early 20s and like most people in her early 20s she goes off emotion more than logic. she doesn't have aged wisdom yet. Vi was trying to make Powder more like her yes but Vi was like a 15-year-old parent to Powder and thought teaching in that way would help Powder be better equipped for her reality. there is a difference between the Jayce and Caitlyn situations. the first already happened and Vi couldn't stop it vs Vi being right there and being able to prevent it. yes, both lost parents in a horrible way but Vi wasn't asking Caitlyn to become a Zaun terrorist and Caitlin did ask Vi to join the enforcers which Cait herself did admit she was wrong to do it. Vi isn't going against her values by joining the Enforcers. Vi sees this as the only option and she figures with Caitlin leading it won't end the same way, Vi is not an idiot she can see the bigger picture a lot of the time. Vi comparing Cait to Jinx isn't totally off the wall. Vi has seen what Cait is turning into and at the end of episode 3, she was right to a degree. yes, it's a little off but it's not that far off. I don't know maybe its because I'm a Vi fan but I don't really see how she has all these flaws. again I respectfully disagree with you and everyone else who shares this opinion. RESPECTFULLY.
This video was... Admittedly a bit rough to get through. There were a few good points! The one I agreed with the most was definitely, "Powder never existed" at least as Vi thought she knew her. I also think that it makes sense that years of dwelling on the memory of her sister without actually getting to see her grow up could definitely warp that memory to some extent. Even as a child Jinx was likely quite a bit different than how Vi remembers her after all this time. Definitely something interesting to think about.
Where you really lost me was claiming that Vi's reaction to Cait was irrational or that Cait isn't changing. Vi is 100% correct in saying that Cait can't understand how it feels to be asked to join the police force when as a child you watched that police force kill both your parents. (And the police have been oppressing your people in general your whole life. Not to mention the abuse she suffered in prison at their hands.) That uniform carries a TON of trauma for her. Trauma that, try as she might, Cait will NEVER fully be able to understand as someone from a family as powerful as her's is.
I also don't think that it's accurate framing that Vi just changed on a dime the second a child was put at risk. She's clearly already losing faith in Caitlyn at the "promise me you won't change" scene from watching Cait commit violence against against her people AND being involved in that violence. She feels like it's something she has to do to protect these people against worse violence, but obviously it sure doesn't feel right once she's in the thick of it! It's a complex situation and I don't think for a second that Vi is stupid for feeling conflicted. Oh, and Cait is literally using GASES against Zaun. I feel like taking away CLEAN AIR from a population is already pretty damn extreme and unreasonable! Not to mention this isn't a situation of her accidentally killing a child and feeling bad about it. This about her actively putting a child at risk! A child that is trying to protect a parental figure! It's a pretty different situation! Especially if the parental figure of that kid happens to be your own sister!
I think it was necessary fot them IF they want to be together...I mean Vi hasn´t experience life since 16...and Cait has always been in her moms shadow, NOW both of them can be free of expectations and "duty" or "loyalty" and find themselves.
The question is their true selves CAN BE TOGETHER?
"Hear me out, naurrrrrr"
Never heard someone go into that much detail on (one of) Vi's character flaws. Felt kinda weird because I always saw her as the only sane person and somewhat saw the series through her eyes, definitely a great analysis
I think the season 1 kid was a soilder , Isha looks scared and not that far gone, Caitlyn until season 2 doesn’t kill (Sevika) but is always in rage in season 2 .
I basically agree with you on this the one thing I would like to add is it was basically expected to go down this way if you think about it vi's emotional growth was basically put on hold the moment she was taken and put in prison her growth as a person kinda stopped she did not get the chance to grow up.
So this was inevitable vi's body is older but emotionally she is still that little girl that got jump and put in prison and the whole time she was in their thinking about powder the little girl that she remembers and as you said when she meets Caitlyn her surrogate powder, so I'm kinda interested to see her begin to grow up past the kidnapped girl from season 1.
Love your analysis 😊 and point of view
I'd like to point out that I think Vi thinks (or used to think that) no one is capable enough until proven wrong. She's been taught to be a leader and a protector, and she was used to taking care of people. That mixed with her prejudice against piltover makes it a bit more than just being a Jinx 2.0, but I can agree with most of this.
This video sounds like victim blaming, ngl. Almost like it's Vi's fault for not seeing Caitlyn would turn into a Bigoted Dictator the moment they met and though there are signs, with her being a cop being the damnedest, it's not Vi's fault that she didn't see it coming.
Firstly, the circumstances in which they met, Caitlyn literally let her out of the prison, so it makes sense for Vi to trust Caitlyn and to think she may be different. It is true that Caitlyn changed, from the person who was willing to see the good in people, and doesn't immediately dehumanize the Citizen of the undercity and willing to see that they are suffering, oppressed people to a person who does just that by calling them an animals, gassing the city just to find Jinx and throwing people who are already suffering into prison.
It's not like she doesn't have evidence to the contrary too, there's literally Vi there as well as Ekko as proof of this yet she let one person change her whole viewpoint.
Vi is right as well that Caitlyn is acting like Jinx. Jinx let her trauma define who she is, literally making it her new name and Caitlyn is doing that as well, letting it change her whole identity.
I will admit though that you have good points on what Vi's flaws are, especially about her relationship with Powder and how she might see Caitlyn as someone who also is in need of protecting.
Um? Cait is becoming a LOT like Jinx, and I would argue she is worse. She is now being manipulated by an older war experienced mentor who preyed on her in her moment of trauma and vulnerability, (sound familiar?) and is willing to go to war with the undercity as far as to literally gas them out? That's way worse than bombing the council which in many ways is justified and expected considering how Piltover has treated the undercity. And what has she suffered? The loss of one parent? In comparison to what Jinx has suffered, come on. She's worse than Jinx, much worse, yet because of her privilege so many are still seeing her with the halo effect.
My one criticism of this video is - people can underestimate how difficult it can be to understand what other people are going through mentally and what should be done to help them. We live in a world where access to information about mental health and how to help others is abundant. These girls don’t. Not to mention - they’re both kids. I wouldn’t expect a young teenager to understand the issues powder is going through thoroughly, while dealing with raising them and defending them from and themselves from criticism by family members.
It also doesn’t help that Vi never really does get to learn about that sort of thing after the time jump. A lot of people react to things by the way they know and what they experienced in the past guiding them to try to make a good choice. It’s not surprising Vi doesn’t fully understand Powder and might not have when they were kids despite their closeness. She also really doesn’t have much updated information on how her sister got to the point she is now. She barely knows anything of what happened and why her sister is the way she is - she mostly gets to mull it over in her mind.
We also saw what could have looked like to Vi - Powder loosing herself to grief. It’s not at all surprising seeing her concerned about Cait turning the same after experiencing such after such a loss and being willing to take drastic action
Hey, there's hope that this will be Vi's character arc for the rest of the season
Excited that Squircle dropped another video!!!! Love her analyses.
Was thinking about Powder always sort of being Jinx, and there's even more evidence than that, for example, when we first see Powder, we watch her parents die in front of her, but there are no tears, she doesn't even seem sad for herself, just for Vi, who does cry, she has tear marks, but they were already there by the time she saw her parents, so that's likely just fear
Additionally, when Powder sees what she's done, she doesn't apologize, she doesn't ask if Vi is ok, or Milo or Clagger, who she hasn't seen, she just asked why Vi left her, a Jinx move if I ever saw one.
Even in the Enemy music video, Powder antagonizes an enforcer with Echo, not exactly something the innocent helpless Powder Vi is familiar with would do (Which I know isn't totally canon but I stand by my point).
Anyway, great vid, I haven't seen this kind of take and really liked the way it mad me think about things, I do think that Cait is changing for the worse overall, but those changes don't equate her to Jinx in any capacity, unless viewed in this lens
People are calling Caitlyn a monster after she was willing to shoot a child, but if you think about it, that child's death could have saved thousands, considering that Jinx is a literal terrorist to Piltover later on. Not to mention her mother's death has broken her, all she has right now is anger, nothing else, and emotions always come before rational thinking
Vi treats Cait like she treated Powder. So her accusing Cait of acting like Jinx makes a lot of sense. She never listens to Jinx or Cait when they tell her who they are.
It’s so hard to listen to criticism of my favorite characters. At first I was like “bruh u just don’t get it” but now I’m like “sheeiit dog.” I think you addressed something that I haven’t seen in many other takes on there relationship. Looking forward to more of ur stuff
No she doesnt get it she misunderstood EVERY PLOT POINT and mischaracterized every character especially caitlyn saying she didnt lose her morals and isnt dangerous is a DERANGED take when the whole plot is that caits grief has warped her morals and made her nearsighted and willing to commit atrocities to reach her goal pf revenge, along with acting like vi cant understand anything and is just stupid i could go on but thats the summery. This video is TERRIBLY exicuted and she misunderstands every blatent plot point its ridiculous
Poor Vi, she's a cool himbo at least!
Vi is lovable but she really is not the brightest bulb
Almost all she ever does is charge headfirst into situations without thinking about consequences...
...which is, funnily enough, a pretty good descriptions of her playstyle in league of legends
Finally, some good female himbo representation.
OMG I literally made the same mistake with the herbo comment. I once asked my coach "What's the female version of a himbo, a herbo?" 😖Turns out himbo comes from the term bimbo lmaooo. But I still think himbo is the best way to describe Vi.
I love the conclusion when all you have ith a hamer everyting lucks like a difrent tipe of nail
The people at Fortiche recently revealed that there was no kiss in the first season due to technological reasons. They didn't clear what exactly was the tech shortcomings.
Came here from Schnee's video. Really nice analysis and you are lovely to listen to. Thank you for this vid!
I like to see Powder's conversations with her toys as the beginnings of her hallucinations, this Powder/Jinx divide was just Silco's attempts at parenting.
It's also funny how the fandom tends to give Caitlyn's aristocratic tendencies a free pass: Vi with her was always subordinate, Jinx to her was nothing but a terrorist - though calling herself an outcast she took after her mother.
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when vi says that line about everyone around her changing, all i can think of is the kha'zix quote "CHANNNGE IS GOOOOD 😈"
Hell yeah good to see you doing arcane stuff again!
also sry for the incomming rant that has nothing to do with your vid but fuck I need somebody that understand this theory:
In the show Jayce wonders what changed to make the arcane unstable, overuse seems like a cop out answer so imo the only answer is Viktor. Viktor introduced shimmer to the hexcore/the arcane in the process changing his biology but....
(This is the "I'm a looney on the internet and my theory is dumb part") -
its properly also connected to his biology. What really bugged me about the entire anomaly sequence at the bottom of the hexgate was Heimerdinger noticing the goo structure and how specific the little blob were.
I then noticed it was red...
It was a significant scene, back when Viktor and Jayce argued about the lack of action after Jayce had become a council member, viktor seeing a vision and showing signs of sickness... but he also bled. Blood which found its way to the bottom of the Hexgate.
If it indeed is his blood that had turned into this goo, it would mean it literally can alter Viktor even the parts of him such as hair, sweat, skin he have shed. He would be a patient zero for the arcane to spread if a hextech gemstone was present.
The last thing that makes me think this could be true is the tree itself being affected.
Its interesting how Jayce mentions that the plants they tested on didn't survive but i still think the hexcore learned something, more specifically the structure of plant cells. It may be why it is affecting the tree now.
Because it knows how to affect it. just like how it knows to affect a human ravaged by shimmer.
I'm props wrong but this would make the arcane a lot more scary, but if it is sentient or there is a greater connection to the void I still have no clue about.
Great video analysis on Vi! Thanks for that, but I must disagree with you in some points. Especially in the bedroom scene in season 1. Vi wasn’t trying to hit on Cait, neither Cait seems to want to go for a romantic ou sexual aspect in that scene. Vi is simply talking about some childhood trauma and be vulnerable, to let Cait know more about her and Jinx. The scene was never supposed to be seen as a pre move for kiss and stuff, we need to decentralized that every interaction between caitvi is just romantic or sexual, they are affectionately bonding in this moment, they are tired from 4 days straight of being almost killed, just let this women breath and have an intimate moment with the intention of making out (bth im a big caitvi shipper i just thing that this moment you have deeply descharacterlizazed them
What breaks them is that Cait is willing to kill a child and to release toxic fumes in the underground. What she said to Jayce was not only when she was on a self-destructive bender but was also after the fact, there was literally nothing to do but comfort Jayce.
Good to know this will be a nothingburger in the first minute lol.
I do think you're onto something but also I think that Vi is being a bit more reasonable than you depicted, the comparison to jinx is about the willingness to ignore the deaths she's causing.
Helicopter ass parent(/sister/partner)
forgot I was even subbed and this notification was a jumpscare
i think that vi didn't protect the kid but her sister, since her sister has people who care about her and would even kill or die for her, maybe that changed vis perspective on her sister since she thought her sister is a monster but why would a child protect a monster unless she is not completely lost.
wow okay I love this so much
SHHHIIIITTTT THAT WAS SUPER DEVASTATING- lowkey hated what u were saying so... well done!!
I am here for act 2 and expect it to break me, and I am here for it. That is the brilliant thing with this show, sometimes there are not good options, only the least bad option.
Danm great analisys
i don't agree with everything, but the points about vi underestimating people are very good. and it was interesting to hear takes i don't share too
with vi not understanding how extreme powder's needs are, i can't really blame her? maybe i was just really emotionally unintelligent or something at that age and i'm biased, but i think it's very rare for kids/teenagers to have a really good grasp how to navigate relationships and emotional matters, or know another person inside out. vi's already doing well comparatively imo
granted powder does seem pretty open with expressing herself to vi, so maybe she should've noticed, but we can also speculate if powder ever shows her how painful she finds being left or unneeded. maybe she has those extreme reactions when she's left behind, alone, and vi's none the wiser and thinks powder grew out of that
with vi not utilizing powder's strength's, YEAH. you made it seem so clear how it could've all been different. again i don't blame vi that much, but this one was a very possible mistake not to make. i think it did make sense to still take powder on the occasional job though (if we disregard the question whether those jobs were worth the risk at all), to get her used to doing stuff like that. maybe vi didn't know how to utilize powder? her gadgets weren't useful yet, i could imagine vi planning to use them when they'd be improved enough, and make powder feel capable then - not knowing they didn't have time to wait that long. involving her in planning does sound great, but again, if vi overlooked that i'd put more responsibility for not utilizing powder's talents on vander rather than vi
6:15 vi wasnt her mum but silco was her dad,how did siblings tend to raise siblings in their image
I'm on your team re: Vi flip flopping on collateral damage so fast. It wasn't an excuse to spare Jinx since Vi herself had wound up the killer punch after Jinx had told her to. Maybe Vi doesn't want Cait to have to live with it and doesn't know Jayce well enough to care. A few conversations in this act had a goal they needed to get to story wise but had a rough time getting there. Alas.
Vi does and did not understand, strongly agreed
I wouldn’t go as far as saying Vi is a tragic himbo. She was just a child when she lost her second family and was thrown into prison with no trial or charges and those years she was in prison she had nobody.
i thought we were talking about the text editor i don't belong here
You are overthinking and overfeeling the characters.
5:54 what pistol they whor dirt poor
As a huge CaitViholic i feel your anxiety... but i can't offer any theory on how to fix it... tbh. i just think that writers end up show and we don't get any final answer... with hope... that Caitlyn and Vi will have the rest of their lives to find a solution.
Thank you so much for this video. This is a really really REALLY good observation.