Actions and consequences are like a cocked guillotine
ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: SEASON 2 ACT 2 (2024)
“I’ve tried every combination of runes, but it`s always the same. The subject, wither and rot” - Viktor
ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: 2x02 - “Watch It All Burn” ↳ "You need not suffer anymore."
if viktor was a worm jayce would build the most beautiful enclosure for him and would spend all his free time staring at him and feeding him leaves and i think this is deeply devastating. he loves him in the purest of ways and the affection was NEVER one sided jayce and viktor always loved each other and they always will to some extent
heimerdinger breaking into the lab right after jayce spent the night and had his breakup with viktor was so funny. he's sitting there with eyebags surrounded by research notes and diagrams, hasn't had a good night's rest since the accident and his ex just decided to start a cult, i guess and he's like professor? what happened to you? and heimerdinger's like ???? what happened to YOU?
Mel being alive, Jayce and Viktor having a dramatic breakup without even dating, Jinx adopting a random child, Caitlyn losing herself in her grief and anger, Jinx blasting Get Jinxed in the speakers she put on Sevika's arm while they kill some people, Sevika acting like a mama bear with Jinx like she didn't hate her guts last season, Ambessa fucking manipulating everyone, Viktor becoming Twink Jesus, Mel being kidnapped, Jinx losing her finger, Caitlyn and Vi kissing and then breaking up not even half an hour later, Vi taking L's over and over again, whatever the fuck was happening to Ekko, Jayce and Heimerdinger-- bruh
insane face card
Mel has magic armor and chose to save Jayce, but she's keeping it a secret from him
First frame of episode 1: something is glowing gold
The camera is blurry because this is Jayce's POV and he's reeling from the explosion. The camera focuses enough to let us see Jayce's face. He's holding Mel. We see her gold pieces in the same location as the glowing gold parts in the previous frame.
Jayce focuses. He clearly doesn't know how he ended up in this position. He blinks in confusion, then sees Mel.
Mel's back is still to the window. Jinx's rocket literally was going to hit her directly in the back. Jayce is in the wrong place to have put his body between her and the rocket.
We're made to think that Jayce, being a big strong guy, somehow protected Mel from the explosion. But there's nothing a human body can do against a whole entire rocket. How did Mel survive, but also, how did Jayce survive? His survivor's guilt torments him.
Mel is sad for him and tells him simply that it's senseless that one person survives while another person dies or is injured. The quickest way out of needing to provide an explanation is to point out that no explanation is needed.
Jayce probably thinks that he, like the audience is supposed to believe, had a hand in protecting Mel, because he doesn't wonder how Mel survived.
Mel's gold parts were glowing. It's definitely armor. And for SOME REASON, she's not telling Jayce. And I really want to know what that reason is. And I would also really like to know how Mel feels about having had the power to choose one person to save, because I can think of one feeling that's worse than survivor's guilt.
One final piece of proof:
In the Council scene in episode 1, there's a fair amount of emphasis placed on the stone floor, which is mostly destroyed and riddled with cracks. This is to emphasize Salo's wheelchair as well as Piltover and its Council literally crumbling under their feet. However:
In the lower right corner, we see a PERFECT CIRCLE of untouched stone. Even that part of the Council table is intact. Everything else is cracked or destroyed or covered in ash. But not the spot where Mel and Jayce were. Also recall that Fortiche has said that a perfect circle represents the Arcane.
We get a glimpse of it again in episode 3:
The floor is cracked everywhere except in the lower right.
ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: SEASON 2 OPENING THEME (2024)
Everything between Jayce and Viktor can really be traced back to their childhood inciting incidents and it’s killing me.
Jayce: a miracle saves him and his mom, forever imprinting him with the certainty that miracles do exist, they can be controlled, he can save his loved ones no matter how awful things get, if he can just be smart and bold and quick enough.
Viktor: he saw the horror of what Singed had done—of forcing a creature to live against its will, of the degradation and terror of being fundamentally changed. For a while he thought he understood Singed, when he decided that he was willing to throw away all his principles to survive his own body. But he didn’t, really. He didn’t understand. There was still a line he would not cross. He wanted to die human.
It’s fitting, then, and unspeakably tragic, that Jayce is the one who played Singed’s role in the end. Because you can’t ask Jayce to let a loved one go, when he knows there’s a miracle that can save him, the solution is right there, it will work if you will just let him try—and so he forces a change onto Viktor against his will. He traps him into the Arcane, takes apart and reassembles his body, strips him of his selfhood and humanity. All so that Viktor will live. Singed wasn’t talking about the desperation not to die—he was talking about the desperation not to lose someone you love.
And so Viktor is…changed. He lives, whether he wants to or not.
And so Jayce loses him anyway.
SEVIKA and JINX in
Arcane 2.02 " Watch It All Burn "
ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: 2x03 - “Finally Got The Name Right”
viktor vs cait innit
I am so normal about these two