I See Nothing Wrong Here

I CAN SEE IT RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES.

INFJ: Let’s slow dance.

ENFP: [does the macarena at ¼ speed]

it makes me so insane that even though the undeniably most relevant moment in his character arc was being betrayed by someone, silco still fundamentally trusts people on principle. the system he's built relies entirely on other people doing their part, he relies entirely on other people's loyalty to him. he lets jinx, someone everyone else says is a liability and unpredictable, inject his eye with shimmer, an insanely vulnerable position for him to be putting himself in willingly. he trusts sevika, someone who could easily overpower him physically (much like vander did), to remain loyal to him.

the trust silco places in other people is also indicative of his past role as an activist and a revolutionary, i think. communities are built on trust. movements are dependent on trust. when an entire people work as one, trust is the thing that keeps them together. and even though vander, in silco's mind, betrayed that trust, he still believes in the inherent power of it.

half•alive - still feel

Why does everyone assume Vander would be rowdy, fun, cool and lenient parent while Silco would be soft and nurturing but the disciplinarian and overprotective one. Their parenting style is canonically the OPPOSITE to this.

Vander is shown on-screen disciplining his children for going against his rules. He's not particularly strict (I don't think any parents in Zaun are tbh I think children just kinda roam unattended a LOT) but he does have rules and expect them to be followed. He has that Stern Dad voice down to a science. He has that "I'm not mad I'm disappointed also you're grounded" vibe down pat, and he scolds them because he is worried about their safety. This is a man who is taking childrearing seriously. He's also shown being very soft and loving with them. His little smile when he gives Powder juice. How gently he encourages Mylo when he successfully lockpicks the cuffs. He is soft and nurturing. He is protective. He is gentle but authoritative.

Silco meanwhile allows Jinx to do whatever she wants. You can argue he disciplined her when he yelled at her for killing those enforcers but 1- she committed a literal massive terrorist attack that derailed ALL of his plans and he's acting like she stole his car or something and 2- what we see is not the same practiced discipline that we see from Vander. This is not a man who has established a relationship where he is the Parent and she is the Child and must follow his rules. He is emotional, almost childish, acting more like her friend or colleague being pissed off than her dad. He is not protective, he lets her play with bombs and do all sorts of dangerous shit. He cares about her safety, he's obviously distraught when she's hurt, but he cares about her freedom more. He lets her fuck up constantly without repercussions. He lets her dress and act however she wants no matter how poorly it reflects on him because her freedom mattered more to him than anything in the entire world-- more than his own, more than his dream, more than his life, and more than her safety. He also appears a lot stiffer when it comes to expressing affection, even though his love for her is obvious, he lacks Vander's warmth.

This isn't to say Silco would be a worse father or anything, rather that he is objectively the "fun dad" who lets his kids do what they want, has absolutely zero backbone, and isn't as good at expressing affection but makes sure his kids know they are loved by him.

What I'm saying is Vander is so obviously Primary Caregiver and I don't know how people mix the two up.

Just kidding! I do know. It's the classic Forcing Hetero Gender Norms Onto A Gay Couple! You know, because Silco is small and dainty, and small/dainty = woman and woman = mommy and mommy = "does all the parenting work" = nurturing, affectionate, strict and protective.

Meanwhile Vander is a Big Strong Masc Man we know That = "Real Man" (vomit) = father = "gets to be the raucous fun parent and doesn't have to actually do any real parenting" (again vomit)

pov you are carlos

Silco told her “Don’t cry. You’re perfect.”

That was toxic positivity. That was locking her in place as this static ideal that could never grow. But she wasn’t perfect. She was a fucked up mess, and she knew she was a fucked up mess. But by saying that she’s already perfect Silco basically told her there’s no way to get better. How can you improve, be better, if you’re already perfect?

Vi told her “Maybe we can rewrite your story.”

Oh Vi. She tries so hard to connect with her sister and say the right thing but she just doesn’t quite get it. That’s essentially saying “you were evil before, I need you to be good now. I need you to be what I want.” Vi really tried her best and she wasn’t really conscious of it but she was always trying to mold Powder/Jinx into her vision, opposite but equal of Silco.

Ekko told her “No matter what happened in the past, it’s never too late to build something new.”

Jackpot. That was it. That was what she needed to hear. Because that doesn’t sit in judgement of what she’s done, that doesn’t condemn her mistakes or try to push her to conform to a particular vision, and it doesn’t lock her into some static ideal. It doesn’t even say that she has to change. It simply says that she doesn’t have to be completely, ontologically defined by her past. New growth is possible.

A nice little detail I noticed tonight.

They bar the door with Viktor’s cane, so when the Enforcers break in, the cane breaks too.

And then the next thing we see is Viktor floating, with his amazed smile, his childlike wonder.

There’s this sweet, almost bittersweet implication that he’s transcended his body, just for a moment.

He won’t feel so free in his body again for years, until he drops his crutch and runs on the docks.

The ways that their partnership is imprinted on his body, and the stages of it reflected through his body—how he finds freedom and joy that first night; how he’s wasting away during the period when Jayce’s attention was elsewhere; how Jayce reconstructs him through love and it’s too much for him to take; how Jayce’s body comes to mirror his; how they’re both bodiless in the end, and free, like it’s taken them years of suffering to reach the purity of that first free moment again—will always be so moving to me.

Arcane is a story written on Viktor’s body.

Okay I gotta talk about the Kuleshov Effect for a minute because I see a lot of people talking about how Silco and Vi were looking at each other on the bridge and it's got me scratching at the walls.

The Kuleshov Effect is a film editing effect. It is a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.

In other words, the way a movie or show is edited influences the way you think or feel about it. This kind of subtle manipulation is very powerful and is used throughout film and television to guide the audience's emotional journey and can be used to influence characterization and plot just by putting things in the right order. When people talk about "unintentional implications from the writers" I have noticed several times that the cause of the unintentional implication actually being the editing, not the writing.

On the bridge just before the opening credits of episode 8, we have two perspectives: Vi's perspective and Silco's perspective. Rather than show what Vi's doing in one long sequence, and then switch to Silco's perspective in one long sequence, the editors break these sequences into smaller shots and inter-cut them.

The most common use of intercutting like this is when shooting dialogue: cut to one character, cut to the other. Because of this, to our minds, this sequence looks like they are having a silent conversation, but they aren't. They can't even see each other.

Silco can't see beyond the smog, flood lights, and oncoming parade of enforcers, and it's safe to assume Vi can't see past these obstacles either. They have no way or reason of knowing the other is observing the bridge.

So, now that we know they can't see each other, let's look at what happens if we reorder the clips so these are two distinct sequences rather than one long one.

The sequences on their own are not staged the way a conversation would be staged, because both characters are in the centers of their respective frames.

Vi is looking at the bridge where her childhood friend was about to fight her sister so she could get away. The last thing that happened on the bridge that she knows of is another bomb going off, just one. She doesn't know if Ekko or Jinx are still alive. Maybe she's wondering if she should have stayed instead of leaving Jinx again.

Silco is panicked and caught off guard by his own reaction. He has a moment of emotional vulnerability while his back is turned to his employees and while the enforcers are still too far away to see what's happening on his face. He steels himself before standing up, and faces down the enforcers before walking away.

So, why edit this scene this way? If they can't see each other, why make it look like they can? Specifically because they wanted these characters to have an emotional exchange, but can't, because they are physically too far apart. Vi and Silco only get two scenes together and they only talk directly to each other once. This helps fill in a hole where we want these two to interact, but plot-wise it makes no sense for them to be able to. The editors change the entire meaning of both of these sequences if the emotions on their faces are a conversation.

What I like about this is that it gives you two options for how to interpret this, and both can be true at the same time. You can look at each sequence on its own, and you can look at it the way the editors were manipulating you into seeing it. I do love what they've done here, and I think it's important when analyzing media to know what tools and techniques the creators have used to tell their story and be able to deconstruct their little tricks to inform your interpretation.

Anyway thank you @sweetestsixshooter for reminding me I wanted to write this down lmao

I'm a woman but I feel like it's not very straight of me to have a crush on bdg??

i’ve finally completed my magnum opus: brian david gilbert say so edit

Chaotic academia is

1.) Intense obsessions that last maybe two weeks but consume your soul

2.) Spacing out in class but loving to learn

3.) Swearing and slang while discussing deep academic topics