THEM.

Support course! Deku <3

Arcane said “why is peace always the justification for violence” and then shows a peace in Viktors vision that was only won by turning from violence and breaking away from the fight. And then it’s destroyed for violence, to win a WAR somewhere else, far away, at the demands of a warlord. It’s destroyed for power, forcing one man to kill that which he loves for the sake of chaos. This show always knows exactly what it’s saying huh? League of Legends game tv show you really are everything, huh?

i think there is something to be said about the way a lot of popular western media (both within fiction and outside of it, now that i think about it) uses the pretense of nuance to obfuscate existing power dynamics.

the example i'm mulling over at the moment is netflix's Arcane, which depicts a pretty straightforward conflict between a brutally oppressive ruling class and an underclass that is out gunned, out manned, and lacks even the means to support its own population. despite this, the show takes a very even-handed "everybody's flawed" approach to how it portrays this conflict, one that seems to be increasingly popular in popular western media. this makes for a compelling story, the show takes the time to make sure we understand all the characters involved, their motivations, their flaws, their hopes, their dreams etc, but i think when people engage with that kind of narrative uncritically, they tend to miss the forest for the trees and get lost in pointless debates over which characters were more in the right or who's actions were more justified by their trauma etc. this kind of weightless, individualist approach seems to always lead to the same conclusion: that changing society is scary and traumatic and everybody is too flawed to be trusted with leading such a shift. how convenient that this always seems to benefit those already in power.

i'm thinking about this in regards to the reactions to the latest developments in the story of Arcane, which sees caitlyn supporting a military dictatorship, in part as a response to the trauma of losing her mother in jinx's terror attack. the reactions are pretty typical fandom discourse about whether or not her actions are understandable given what she's going through as a character, but what no one seems to be considering is that she's only able to undergo this change in the first place because of her class position, not just as a member of the wealthy elite of the overcity, but also as a respected member of the overcity's law enforcement. see, while the individual characters involved might be complex, the moral dimensions of the overall conflict really are not. one side has all the power and resources, as well as a vested interest in keeping the other side subjugated to maintain its dominant status quo. just because the dominant side is populated primarily with skinny attractive people a who're shown to be doing their best with the situation and the other are mostly grotesque caricatures of poverty stricken degenerates doesn't mean this is a difficult choice.

it remains to be seen how the actual show will play out, but i can't help but see it as continuing a trend of what i can only describe as a kind of smug liberal nihilism, crafting a brutal class conflict only to revel in the horrific spectacle of it all, basking in the complex moral greyness of its protagonists, uninterested in taking an actual stance. there's a point when nuance becomes a form of cowardice, imo

Innovators competition prize winning photo

jayce surrendering to viktor in the exact same position that his alternate self died in is so funny because he really went all in on the power of love thing huh. he was really putting that much faith in his ability to snap viktor out of it. and it wouldn't have even fucking worked if ekko wasn't there. i fear that he's not beating the himbo allegations with this one, jayce talis you continue to be the stupidest man in all of piltover. godspeed you fucking idiot

is anybody else screaming and crying about this parallel or is it just me

a summary of MHA shipping

The only scenes we got wherein Viktor actually expressed any emotions were the scenes in the cosmos. On the ground, within his Herald Era, he always has the same expression: calm, tired eyes, eyebrows slightly furrowed, mouth thinned.

Meanwhile, in the cosmos, we see him actually reacting to the things he comes into contact with: Vanders soul, Jayce's actions, etc. Look at him: his wide-eyed wonder, his almost childlike, innocent curiosity, his search for answers.

THAT is Viktor. This is him as we knew him in s1 act I, where he and Jayce figured out hextech. Where they levitated. Where they explored and discovered. And his eyes! Theyre gold! Those are Viktors eyes!

Maybe, without his deteriorating physical body to hold him back, Viktor can finally focus on that which he always loves: science.

"Scientists seek discoveries", and he still does!

Yes, his mind-body-soul-heart connection was, well lets say muddled at best (which does bring up my fav philosophical question of "where does the [sense of] self end?", but that aside), but he was still There, at least in some form.

When your genocidal warmongering colonialist imperialistic buff butch milf wolf mom wants you to join your home country’s military industrial complex but you’re too busy being artdeco steampunk fenty beauty mogul diplomat goddess with a buff latino-adjacent boytoy who has a situationship with a sad eastern European 90’s heroine-chic machine herald Czech hunter twink boyfriend

Happy Halloween 👻🎃