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ARCANE S2E06 | “The Message Hidden Within the Pattern”

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ARCANE S2E09 | “The Dirt Under Your Nails”

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You know I don’t think I’m going to get over Vi’s expression in the “you really think I needed all the guards at the Hex Gates?” scene for as long as I live. The way she was just spiralling about how “I choose wrong every time” like, Vander told her she had a good heart and not to lose it, but she feels like every time she does what her heart tells her to do, something goes wrong, and every time that happens, it chips away at her confidence in her judgement a little more. And then Caitlyn shows up, and she might as well be the phantom that haunted Vi in act two, because doing what her heart told her was the right thing to do was what lost her Caitlyn last time. She has done what she felt was right and time and again it went went wrong in some way. She’s felt her belief in herself slip through her fingers and the people she loves along with it. And Caitlyn walks in and tells her that not only has she not lost her, but she had known, predicted, thrown her own weight behind Vi’s impetus, to facilitate her doing whatever her good heart told her was the right thing to do. At the moment Vi had lost faith in herself and her judgement, Caitlyn shows her that she values it so highly she’s now chosen to make it her own compass. And it’s kinda beautiful how Vi seizes it again, and Caitlyn along with it

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Already thinking about their future together UGH they make me sick

Inspired by Heybosshotsauce fic “Lovers, Hunters” Chapter 12, on AO3! A great blend of pre/post battle missing scenes and flashbacks that relate to the story.

Check em out!

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Caitlyn choosing to fight for/protect Vi

Q: How did you approach developing their bond? "For me, I had to figure out that they could first respect each other before they could love each other. Caitlyn was going to be someone who chose to fight. You know, she was a rich aristocrat. For someone like Vi, who kind of was forced to fight to get anything that she had, someone who chose to fight for her would be someone that she could respect." — Amanda Overton (x)

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It's not CHEAP that they fucked in a prison cell, it's SYMBOLISM for how much Vi has HEALED from her years of being "stuffed in a box." Idt we had enough of a moment of seeing just how traumatic it was for Vi to have her sister lock her in a prison cell--it had to be triggering in the worst way.

They MET in a prison when Vi was so sure that Caitlyn was there to interrogate her for Silco before sending some big goon in to whoop her ass, and now they've come so far that they can GIGGLE and SMILE and have all these little tender MOMENTS of VULNERABILITY with each other (while taking each others clothes off).

It's a full circle moment and I love it for them.

plus it's hot af.

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missing them like a mf

my kofi if anybody wants to support me !! :)

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It’s time to stop dying bro- Vi because I love her long hair and just yes

I forgot to post this yesterday

Mmm one day I’ll be able to post normally

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Vi and her mental resilience

I don't think the fandom gives Vi enough credit for how mentally resilient she is. I see a lot of people say they wish the show explored more of Vi's trauma (and I do wish the show had given her traumas more attention), but a lot of the time what people mean when they say this is that they wanted Vi to show more obvious signs of trauma, and I don't really think that would make sense for Vi's characterization, precisely because I think one of the main points of Vi's characterization is that she really is that mentally resilient.

The thing people forget is that not everyone reacts to trauma in the same way. Not everyone will break down, have hallucinations and PTSD episodes like Jinx. Some people will, in fact, cope better with their traumas than others, and I think Vi is one of these people.

As a child, we see that she is not affected by the death of her parents in the same way Powder is: Powder starts having hallucinations already in the bridge scene, and she develops severe abandonment issues. Vi, on the other hand, takes on the responsibility of being the protector (which obviously takes a toll on her, but I will talk about that later). She obviously grieves her parents, but she is able to deal with it: when Vander takes her to the bridge where her parents died, she is initially distraught, but is able to deal with it. She focuses on the good in her life and what she still has (her sister and adoptive family), instead of focusing on what she's lost. (By the way, I'm not saying any of this to discredit Jinx or say that she's weak. I'm just describing how Jinx and Vi reacted in different ways to their trauma).

In Stillwater, we see the exact same thing: she lost her entire family, she feels guilty about slapping and “abandoning” Powder, but she never lets it break her spirit. She focuses on her hope of seeing Powder again, she exercises her body, she beats up Silco's goons as a way to gain information on Powder (this is stated on Vi's council archives). Again, she focuses on hope, on what she still has, instead of sinking into despair.

During Jinx's tea party, we can see a glimpse of how she dealt with the deaths of Vander, Mylo and Claggor: she tells Jinx to remember them, without realizing that this is triggering for Jinx, because for Vi, their memory is actually what gives her strength. I'm aware that the situations are a bit different here, because Jinx was directly responsible for their deaths while Vi wasn't. But I would point out that Vi probably also feels guilty for their deaths: she is the one who took Mylo and Claggor there on the mission to rescue Vander, right after Vander gave her that speech about them being her responsibility. Vi clearly also feels guilty for what happened to them. But while Jinx let that guilt consume her, without being able to move on, Vi actually is able to move on, and sees their memory as something good, something that gives her strength. Once again, we see Vi's tendency to focus on the positive instead of the negative.

Then, when she accepts that her sister has changed and needs to be stopped, instead of breaking down, Vi still wants to take responsibility for it and help stop Jinx. She focuses on how she can fix the situation. And by the end of the show, after losing Jinx (though I do think Vi suspects Jinx survived), we see once again Vi's resilience: she is still grieving, yes, but she is able to sing, she is able to smile at Caitlyn, and she is still determined to “continue in the fight”. She is taking the steps to heal, even if she isn't totally there yet.

Of course, Vi is not made of steel. I'm not saying she is a pinnacle of mental health. She has moments in which she does break down and becomes self destructive, like her pit fighter era. But in this moment, she really had lost everything: her family, her sister, Caitlyn, even Ekko had disappeared. She had no hope. But even then, we see that she can still function: she is able to pay for an apartment, she is not really suicidal (in my opinion, I don't think she is), and she is able to go on despite her despair. Yes, she is being self destructive, but she still goes on. And as soon as she gets a little bit of hope again from Jinx coming to find her to save Vander, we see her leave that despair behind and once again cling to hope really fast.

Another mental issue that I do think Vi has is of course the fact that she was parentified, took on the role of the protector, and that she tends to see everything as her responsibility, and she has difficulty letting go of the people she loves. But even here, I think people don't give her the credit she deserves: Vi might find it difficult to let people go and let go of her guilt, but she actually does make the effort. She tries to reach out to Jinx in season 1, but when Jinx refuses her help and continues with actions Vi disagrees with, Vi does let go of her and accepts that Jinx needs to be stopped. She might still feel some guilt for how Jinx turned out (“I'm the one who created the monster"), but she does make a conscious effort to not blame herself for Jinx's actions (“I'm done blaming myself for your mistakes"). And in the end, yes, she tries to free Jinx, but only because she believes Jinx has changed for the better (and Vi was right about this, Jinx had indeed changed). If she didn't believe this, Vi would not have tried to free her (as we see in act 1, Vi is able to hold her sister accountable for her crimes if she believes that her sister is remorseless for her actions). And when Jinx locks her in a cell, Vi does not go running after her once she is freed by Caitlyn. She doesn't know Jinx is suicidal, but if she really was this person so unable to let go that the fandom claims she is, she would still have run after Jinx. And yet, she stays to fight, she doesn't go running after her sister. In the final scene, even with the suspicion that Jinx might be alive (and I'm certain Vi does suspect this), Vi doesn't go running after Jinx, she voices her commitment to stay with Caitlyn because this is what she wants.

So yeah, all of this was to say that I think Vi's mental resilience is underrated by the fandom. She suffered the loss of her entire family, was imprisoned and beaten up for 7 years, had to deal with her sister completely changing into a criminal who tries to kill her and kidnaps her, suffered heartbreak from her relationship with Caitlyn, and despite it all, she was still able to keep going, to cling to hope whenever she could, keep her good heart, keep her determination, and always focus on the positive parts of her life. She is able to let go, she is able to move on from her traumas, and we see this multiple times in the show.

(By the way, there's this great video analysis of Vi's resilience by a psychologist. It's in Portuguese, though, and I don't think the automatic captions are very good, but if you speak Portuguese, definitely check it out!)

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I've only ever seen this frame/moment pointed out on tiktok (of all places) so ima yap about it.

Arcane visual storytelling how I adore you.

In this moment, we see the final shift in Caitlyn’s priorities and sense of self. She's been slipping out of her rage and hatred for awhile, but even seeing Jinx in the commune made her a little spicy again.

Still, this moment speaks to me as ALMOST as powerful as the jail cell. The person she's been hunting for months slams right into her shoulder and Caitlyn doesn’t even look, doesn’t tear her eyes away from Vi, who should have been her beacon and priority all this time. Who she WON'T tear her eyes away from again.

This moment is like a second long and I think about it daily

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Honestly the way Caitlyn and Vi rebuild the trust that was broken between them didn’t feel cheap or rushed or unearned or anything to me, it just felt like two individuals who genuinely care so incredibly deeply about each other and really want to work it out, deliberately looking for ways to move forward together. Caitlyn wants Vi to know that she sees clearly now, that she’s trying to correct her mistakes, wants her to know she’s listening to her, prioritising her, doing right by her, wants to give her that in action, not just pretty words, and for her part, Vi isn’t holding forgiveness over her, waiting for Caitlyn her to fill out some arbitrary checklist; that’s not how forgiveness works. It’s unique and individual, but for Vi you can see the little ways she begins to let her back in, and then the way her heart blooms like a flower for the dawn in the famous “you really think I needed all the guards at the Hex Gates” moment. of course there’s bumps and jagged edges at first, but the fact that both of them want it so badly is an enormously underappreciated motivator to putting in the work that will get them there

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Caitlyn & Vi - apologies and trust

Caitlyn and Vi are very different, but they share a commitment to the same values: Honesty, loyalty and directness.

Caitlyn has felt like a misfit since she was a kid, not fitting in with the fakeness of Piltover high society. She resents her mother for not letting her see 'the real world', by which she means the Undercity. Caitlyn doesn't care about apologies either. People apologize to her multiple times and she doesn't even acknowledge it. Their actions have already spoken and that is more important than their words.

Vi explains how to earn her trust while tied up in Ambessa's tent: 1. Be honest 2. Be patient 3. Just shut the fuck up (actions > words)

Episode 7 breaks up the flow of the current timeline. The next conversation Vi has after talking to Ambessa is with Caitlyn. The subject of trust is immediately brought up. Vi doesn't trust Caitlyn, and for good reason. Caitlyn knows this and understands why. 'Can you blame me?' Vi asks, and Caitlyn remains silent, but her emotions are shown on her face; shame, guilt, regret, and anger (at herself) expressed in the explosive 'I KNOW!'.

1: Be honest. Vi doesn't trust Caitlyn anymore, and Caitlyn immediately leads with honesty, starting with the 'I know', agreeing with Vi that she let Ambessa and her hatred for Jinx poison her. She lowers her defenses and tells Vi exactly what happened with Jinx while Vi was unconscious. How Jinx only cared about Vi's safety and then surrendered.

2: Be patient Caitlyn then tells Vi Jinx is being held in the bunker while she decides what to do. That she was waiting for Vi to recover instead of acting on her own. She wants to be on the same page as Vi again, but they aren't yet.

3: Shut the fuck up Vi walks off after asking 'who decides who gets a second chance?', and Caitlyn shuts the fuck up, clenches her jaw, and lets Vi walk out. There is nothing she can say to fix things between them, action is needed.

Cait talks to Jinx and sends all the guards to the Hexgates so Vi can break Jinx out if she wants to (and potentially leave together with her sister). Vi chooses to put herself first for the first time in her life when she learns this.

This is how Caitlyn won Vi's trust in the first season as well. Trading her rifle (which she's had since she was young and the only protection she has from Silco's goons) for medicine to save Vi. Telling the Firelights to take her and let Vi go. Taking the hextech gemstone to the council with Vi and Ekko (which was the initial plan).

Caitlyn lets Vi take the lead and make the decisions, but does pause multiple times to slow things down. First to disclose she saw someone else, wanting there to be no secrets between them, which is met with 'I don't fucking care.' And again when she sees the bandage on Vi's side, not moving forward and hovering her hand over it in silent apology but also in question. Caitlyn is willing to address it now if Vi wants to. Vi then decides she doesn't by pulling Cait back in, saving that conversation for later if they survive the battle.

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Dreaming in the rain ☔️

For the City of Progress' Sweethearts event. Song: Taeyeon - Rain

See the full event playlist here

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PILTOVER’S FINEST // 6_teh

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the way it is canon that caitlyn grew up with dobermans as it is shown in the kiramman family portraits, i love that caitlyn grew up with dogs. i love my dobermans. omg baby cait w the puppies is adorable im sobbing

beautiful art cr: 2rusty_wings2 on twt

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mornings ✨

I used screenshots and this ref with some minor changes for the tattoos. 

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Oh, they make me ill

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