loycos

[loycos]

nothing but respect for our troops (smut writers) but listen. i dont want to be the person to tell you this, but not every character is going to be a dom or a sub. some people. and i know this is hard to hear. but some people do have vanilla sex. and some of those people might even be The Character.

[loycos]

imagine how much more hardcore this would be when it's only one eye.

Love giving Cait an unnerving aura and unsettling blue-eye stare. Like she’s zoned out thinking about a case and doesn’t realize she’s staring into the soul of somebody. Or like she was taught that avoiding eye contact was impolite so now she never blinks ever while talking to someone

[loycos]

ARCANE S2E01 | “Heavy is the Crown”

She dies and leaves this giant hole, and I'm just supposed to fill it. Like she was never there to begin with.

[loycos]

VI in ARCANE 2x03 Finally Got the Name Right

[loycos]

ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: 2x04 - “Paint the Town Blue”

[loycos]

People on the ao3 subredit get so mad when you point out you wanna read fanfiction of the actual characters of the media you have consumed and not the fandom commodified version of them. Like idk if you take every interesting character and transform them in the same trite dynamic of masculine top man x hyperfeminine bottom twink flower shop au angst hurt and comfort in this oddly american setting and do it ad oltranza with all the medias turning into that why are you even writing for those fandoms to begin with!!!

[loycos]

ARCANE S2E08 | “Killing is a Cycle”

[loycos]

ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: 2x01 - “Heavy is the Crown”

[loycos]

i noticed it too, particularly after act 2 (which is consider to be pretty disastrous writing-wise) cause viktor's storyline was a jumbled mess, and then episode 7 didn't make it better (not a fan of time travel as a plot point) and all i could think of was "thank god caitvi are tying us back to what arcane USED to be" cause thats what i loved about s1- the groundness, the reality of the 2 cities, the way their people react to political events- it felt realistic to me. and caitvi were always super tied to those plots- including ACTUALLY being the physical manifestations of the 2 cities, their bond being a metaphor for peace between the cities. the time travel and magic stuff really took me out of s2, and i think im not alone in this. luckily, caitvi were always the furthest away from that so i can still say i liked their storylines this season.

about them being fighters, i think that's why i find the current fandom a little bizarre. caitvi were created as a cop duo, working together in law enforcement. thats one of the most hands-on, feet-on-the-ground jobs there are, regardless of you think it's good or bad. and it's reflected in both their characters in the show, including the very last line, which seem to imply that they're gonna be stepping into their original LoL counterparts roles post canon. i know arcane is not league, but this is the CORE of their characters. and like you said, it's reflected in arcane perfectly, with their involvement in anything piltover\zaun related being very hands on and physical.

and YET. people in this fandom refuse to acknowledge it, because of personal political biases. believe whatever you want, but this is an integral part of their characters and their dynamic- theyre meant to fight alongside each other. reading any post canon material with them always feels like theyve been neutered- like a huge chunk of their dynamic is missing- because most people dont want vi to work with the enforcers, or be one, and they dont want caitlyn as an on the ground sheriff who gets physically involved in cases- she's always doing some undefined paperwork in an office, while vi spends her days... working out. who are these characters??? if you don't like cops, and are unwilling to engage with any media that even depicts them (despite arcane's representation of them being FAR from favorable) why are you liking the cop duo? why aren't you willing to explore that side of them? i'm just baffled.

Something I find really interesting about Caitlyn and Vi is the way that they're the only members of the main cast who aren't really connected to the "Arcane" part of the show in any major way.

Like, Jayce and Viktor are at the centre of the hextech plot, Mel is a mage (and was also significant to the S1 hextech plot), and Jinx and Ekko both have storylines in which hextech and the arcane play a major role. But Caitlyn and Vi? They're pretty separated from that part of the show. And I think that might actually say something about their characters (rather than simply just being the way the story shook out).

IMO Caitlyn and Vi's separation from the arcane is an indication that they're supposed to be more...grounded, in a way. More interested in the practical and concrete, rather than the abstract and theoretical (hence why neither displays any particular interest in or affinity for e.g. science and academia). They're hands-on and action-oriented. Do-ers rather than thinkers. You can see it in their characterizations—for example, the fact that so much of their communication is physical and nonverbal. But there's more to it than just that.

See, I came across this twitter post the other day that talked about how, like Jayce and Viktor, Jinx and Ekko were also "born to be scientists, forced to be soldiers". And of course Mel is a politician/diplomat who is forced to be a soldier. (And Mel, Jinx and Ekko are also all artists forced to be soldiers.) But you can't /quite/ say the same about Caitlyn and Vi.

Even as children, Vi and Caitlyn were already shown to be boxing/shooting. And not only were they good at it, they also clearly enjoyed it! (Vi is forced to rely on violence by terrible circumstances, yes, but I don't think it's inaccurate to say that she also genuinely LIKES fighting—and it's a tragedy that something she enjoys so much is tainted in this way.) They seem to find less joy in it in adulthood, but they almost certainly still consider these skills to be a significant part of their identities. (Just think about how Vi is still boxing even when she's lost everything else, and how the narrative has Caitlyn lose her eye specifically because it's uniquely devastating for her as a sniper.) Thus, unlike with the others, you could almost kind of argue that CaitVi were "born soldiers". Their natural instinct is to FIGHT (like, physically) for their causes/people.

There's more to it too. For example: the fact that the one notable connection to the arcane that they DO have is their /weapons/. Another example: at the end of the show, even when they're at relative peace, they still fall back on the language of combat ("Are you still in this fight, Violet?"). They're fighters at their core in a way that the rest of the main cast isn't.

I personally think this is a really interesting aspect of not only their individual characters but also their dynamic with each other. One of the things I love about CaitVi is how, despite having pretty opposite personalities, they're fundamentally very similar people. That sort of "kinship" is what draws them to each other, what helps them understand each other in a way they never quite experience with others, and what ultimately makes their relationship work and why they get along. It's a kind of soulmatism.

(I also wonder if maybe this shared "fighting spirit" is how they managed to achieve a...not happy, exactly, but happiER ending than everyone else. Like, maybe everyone else could have only properly thrived in a more peaceful reality, but in the bad timeline the only ones who could have really managed are Caitlyn and Vi. Idk, this particular idea isn't fully formed, I'm really just throwing stuff at the wall here.)

Thanks for reading!

[loycos]

ARCANE | PILTOVER'S FINEST

[loycos]

CAITLYN KIRAMMAN in ARCANE 2x04 Paint the Town Blue

[loycos]

"If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me"

- William Shakespeare, Macbeth, 1.3

[loycos]

i have some minor qualms about the sex scene (i think the song selection isnt great and that the conversation proceeding it shouldve been slightly longer) but i dont understand people who think its out of place. you understand why they chose to put it after jayce's speech calling for piltovians and zaunites to put aside their differences and protect their city, and right before the big fight where you see both pilties and zaunites fighting alongside each other, right? you understand why the two girls from the most different parts of that society shedding themselves of their clothes (often an indicator of class and wealth) and see the same human bodies underneath, choosing each other for the person they are and not for where theyre from, and "merging", might be a metaphor for what piltover and zaun are about to do. do you understand that the reason caitvi are main romance of the show is to reflect the "2 cities coming together" theme. do you understand that? do you understand that. do you

[loycos]

ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: 2x01 - “Heavy is the Crown”

[loycos]

they heard you loud and clear

we all know about the height difference

but have you considered

BACK SIZE DIFFERENCE

[loycos]

so many fics describe caitlyn as having a neat, elegant handwriting

reminder that this is what her handwriting (and general paragraphing) looks like

she doesnt put too much thought to the readability of the final product, as long as she can make out what it says.

also so many people assume she's organized and has everything perfectly filed. reminder that the only part of her room the maids didnt touch looks like this

her jinx board in s2 has the same look as well.

this is a character whose thoughts are so rapid she can barely put them to paper fast enough, who has her own internal logic to the chaos in her brain. i hate seeing this part of her erased- something about caitlyn living in this huge mansion that is squeaky clean and grandiose and yet her spaces in it are these little pockets of madness is so special to me.

[loycos]

as i grow older and age in fandom especially, i have waning patience for 2012 style fandom wars. i don't have time for the type of person who goes "why is this the 2nd top ship on ao3 when it bugs me", i don't have the energy to be friends with people who go "i specifically expressed dislike for this ship and people still write it?" and i have absolutely no time for someone who goes "this very personal trauma i have projected onto this random character and ship should be recognized and agreed by everyone else, otherwise they're bad people"