Sometimes You Gotta See

Thank you, this helps so much! I always struggled with visualizing how exactly Viktor looks in 'jellyfish'.

Viktor and Jayce designs based off 'the line is covered in jellyfish' written by @yunuen 🪼🪼 I love this series so much and wanted to give back somehow!

censored nakey versions below

I loved the idea of how their bodies delt physical trauma and entanglement with the arcane, especially Viktor who is now both human and something else entirely.

Please read jellyfish if you haven’t already!! It’s a post-canon fic of Jayce and Viktor trying to survive the tundra as they rediscover themselves and collide into each other’s orbit once again

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)

omggg besties <3

I mean. Yeah he ugly as hell in vanilla game. But he's a sweetheart so I like to imagine him a bit differently you know?

Wait you guys are actually attracted to Brynjolf? I thought it was a joke

I'm so sorry to everyone who tries to recommend something to me

that show you have every intention of watching and you are 100% confident that you’ll love but you refuse to watch right now because its not the right time.

Big stronk dude with his fuckass hammer and his stupid shoulder armor waiting on his knees for his eldritch god bf to materialize behind him and oh so tenderly penetrate his brain with his magic fingers

This is one of the sentences ever.

Since everyone is talking about that concept art of Jayce and Viktor fighting, it's useful to know that the concept artist, Suheb Zako, also posted it on their twitter with some context.

It is early concept art for a final fight between Jayce and Viktor in the hexzone sorry I'm not calling it that astral plane. There's a link in the twitter thread to an anime clip that gives you a sense of what the vibe would've been.

It's not totally clear when in the development/production process this art is from, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jayce and Viktor originally had a dynamic that was more like their game counterparts. In that case a knock-down-drag-out fight in the astral plane might've fit better. But in the final version of the show it wouldn't have worked anywhere near as well as what we got, and not just because it would have seemed out of character for what the characters and their relationship arc became in the finished show.

First of all, we already did have a knock-down-drag-out fight between them. That's the Council chamber fight scene. It would've felt like a repeated beat and that's the last thing you want in your big finale. When you have characters who fight each other multiple times, you want each fight to reflect a progression of their relationship.

Secondly, by the end of the show, Viktor is absurdly overpowered compared to any other character. Once he goes full Machine Herald he is basically a god. A conventional fight scene is just not gonna do it here. You need a twist, some way to win that doesn't involve being stronger than him. And the trump card being The Power of Unconditional Love (And Also This Time Machine Getting Chucked at Your Head) fits perfectly with the show's themes.

Thirdly, the final episode is ALL action. In an episode that's one massive battle, it takes a lot of work to make individual pieces of action stand out. (And generally, you do it not by making the fighting look Super Duper Extra Cool, but with character work.) But any scenes between the characters that are not action are automatically gonna pop because they're so different in pacing and energy from everything around them.

I haven't seen as many people discussing this set of keyframes, but the changes here are also fascinating:

Because Viktor assimilating Jayce as a battle move is almost the complete opposite of what we got in the finished show, and what we got in the finished show is so fucking good. It's one of my favorite moments in the whole damn series.

I've already written about it here, but playing it so that Jayce doesn't get surprised or overpowered but chooses to allow Viktor to bring him into the astral plane as a last-ditch effort to reach whatever is left of Viktor's humanity is sooooooo narratively sexy. (And also just. Sexy. Big stronk dude with his fuckass hammer and his stupid shoulder armor waiting on his knees for his eldritch god bf to materialize behind him and oh so tenderly penetrate his brain with his magic fingers, listen I am not making this up this is just what happens, no homoerotic fight scene could ever top this.)

It also fits with the motif of a number of characters winning their individual battles in the finale by surrender/submission/potential self-sacrifice. It fits with Caitlyn realizing that to cut the string of protective runes off Ambessa's arm she has to allow Ambessa to get within stabbing distance of her face. And of course, Jinx forcing Vi to let her go by popping the gemstone out of her gauntlet and letting herself fall with Warwick.

Arcane has fantastic action storytelling and part of good action storytelling is knowing when to have the character stop fighting each other. Seeing the early concept art is cool to see how much things evolved, but I'm glad they moved away from just trying to do an epic boss fight because what we ended up with is so much more interesting.

truth had gone, truth had gone, and truth had gone. ah, now truth is asleep in the darkness of the sinister hand.

Wait, you're right. I was way too chill abt it too 💀

And this makes so much sense! Bc why would he leave Mel if he had no idea Viktor was dying?

Unpopular opinion: Jayce was way too chill that one day in the lab S1 when Viktor just randomly announced he had a vision.

Every single time Jayce allows himself to yearn out loud or even think of longing feelings for Viktor, he feels the painful pull from AU Mage Viktor. Reminding him of his mission. How he can’t fail… again. As much as he wants to give in… as much as he wants to fall to his knees just like AU Jayce. To hold his partner… he has to remember.

Be right back… *lets out muffled sob*

Underrated JayVik moments/lines (11/∞)

[The crystal being set on the inside of Jayce's wrist.]

...as opposed to the outside, where you'd normally expect to see the jewel of a wristband like this. It's a simple fact that still carries so much weight:

Of course, one thing it signifies is simply how it's not for show, not an adornment, but instead something deeply personal to Jayce.

Beyond that, however, there is just something so symbolic about keeping a memento directly on top of your veins like this. Where you might feel for a pulse, or - you know - cut in order to end your life (Jayce's suicide attempt just so happens to be the only time he takes it off, too - he doesn't even take it off during sex).

And while it's not something I noticed consciously for the longest time, everytime Jayce rubs his thumb over the crystal, as he so often does... he is inadvertently also baring his wrist and tracing his lifeblood; his heart, his "whole life".

Jayce is quite literally carrying the stone, the beauty and the dreams it represents cased in gold and close to his heart.

And I don't know about you, but I can just never get over how - even though he won't know it for many years - what this gem really is at the end of the day, is the bond Jayce shares with Viktor across time and space made manifest. Given to him by Viktor in order to set them on their path to each other.

At which point, when Jayce does find out, it is then fully embedded into his body and his very essence; to be - at long last - dug out of his veins, gifted to and shared with his own Viktor during their final moments.

I don't know, man... the layers of symbolism with these two sometimes actually makes it more difficult to write these posts because there is just so much to consider. For instance, in this topic alone we have:

The crystal representing the mage who saved him,

who is also Viktor,

but also representing Jayce's dreams of bringing the magic that the mage i.e. Viktor brought to his life to the world,

those dreams being Jayce's "whole life"

and something of which he is immediately eager to share ownership with Viktor

after Viktor validated those dreams by returning the wristband to Jayce,

being the only other person to have held said wristband,

which in itself is again a symbol of their bond,

and -

You see the issue here? I feel like I can never truly get to the bottom of every facet I want to talk about in any of these posts (while still remaining coherent, that is).

Then again, I guess all that really means is that you are cordially invited to dig deeper if you wish to.

Part 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12

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