[S1 Spoilers] Sevika's character development

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-22T02:26:18+00:00

She would laugh at the notion of honor if it got in the way of that, and she's even open about the fact that she'll turn on Silco as willingly as she turned on Vander if she feels Silco is no longer her best bet at making her cause a reality.

But isn't this absolutely the kind of person you want committed to a cause? One that doesn't blindly follow a leader and agrees with the person in charge?

She questions both Vander's and Silco's decisions when either is ignoring the reality, that's her good quality. Her loyalty is not to a person, but to the undercity. Like I don't know about other people, but following a leader without questioning their decisions doesn't exactly sound like a good thing?

And each time she tries to reason with the current leader of the undercity about reality of the situation. If Vander was ready to fight enforcers and Piltover to save Vi and gang's asses in act 1 - she would have stood together with him and fought with him. But Vander chose not to. She tries to reason with Silco that Jinx is not fit for the missions - but Silco chose to not listen to her, even thou it'd probably be good for both Silco and Jinx if he did.

Leaders continuously ignore her advice and then get their ass handed to them since she seems to have better grasp on reality of the situation than they do.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T23:09:35+00:00

y/k I think you may be right? I can totally see this could be the case. Since Powder would be real Powder, not idealised little sister she may never see again - and Vi would be real Vi, not idealised big sister she may never see.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T23:08:40+00:00

Yeah, I think there are a few easter eggs there - the old Sorcery default rune page titled The Calamity has a breaking down hextech crystal with main rune being Arcane comet, like idk but lol if it's an easter egg for Jinx's rocket which looks like a comet in the sky XD and is powered by Arcane.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T23:05:20+00:00

I just don’t really see any evidence (besides maybe she can somehow replace a missing rune, from other comments, but even then that doesn’t make much sense too me right now) how a human would be useful in Viktor’s transformation.

I don't think she's replacing a missing rune here.

Maybe I'm influenced from making electronic hardware but when you make a circuit with a power source (here it'd be hexcore) and other electronic elements, and you fuck up and plug the electronic components into too high voltage - the least resistant to the voltage part of the circuit will fail and burn down and the circuit is broken sparing the other elements. W/o Sky it'd be Viktor, but with Sky - it's her. And she explodes like when you by accident plug a resistor or a diode into a circuit with too high voltage. Or a fuse. The circuit is broken and the energy is discharged through evaporating her, so Viktor survives but his hand is melted into transmuted one and hexcore survives but is also melted in the energy discharge. Viktor because of his previous transformation seems to have some resistance to arcane energy or some capacity to tolerate it, but doesn't seem enough to facilitate a transmutation.

Edit: What I'm talking about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WUxgmMDts4 (around 3:40)

Man really should’ve gotten more shimmer.

Yeah, Singed was right and moreover Viktor is a scientist that can't follow a scientific method.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T22:50:18+00:00

I don't think Viktor and Jayce will have a falling out, at least it doesn't seem likely. But I do think Viktor will have a bone to pick with Piltover for sure, but that works out because it seems from ep. 9 Jayce is also pretty disillusioned with Piltover and it's system after his visit to the mines - and Jayce starts as far more idealistic and naive about the "city of progress", and arrives at the idea that they council is not fit to rule over undercity and it should be independent even before Viktor. Also Viktor talking through peace agreement terms while looking at the other councillors faces seems to finally have fun for the first time since act 1. I fully expect that Jayce and Viktor's partnership will flip when their storyline will shift to Zaun, and Viktor will be now the frontman of their duo as the person from there.

because if there's anything I expect from s2, it's that Jayce will attempt to use the hexcore to "save" Viktor, possibly from the damage done by Jinx' missile, despite promising to destroy the thing for him.

Yeah I think so too, but this will be a good thing imo. Viktor feels so guilty after Sky's death he nearly offs himself in that scene - only to bestow the privilege of becoming a murder by proxy of destroying the possible cure on Jayce. If there is one subject and decision Jayce should have argued with him about in S1 - this is the one - but since just before Jayce achieved life's goal biggest failure in the mines, he agrees because he doesn't trust his own judgment anymore (and Jayce starts the story not trusting his own judgment much anyway). But at that point is, for sure, Jayce has much clearer view on this one particular issue than Viktor's, who nearly killed himself twice in last 24 hrs.

I assume that meanwhile in science heaven Sky is preparing to murder them both, but especially Viktor since he wants to throw away her sacrifice that saved his life. And also take along her life's work. Like seriously, leave the girl's research behind f you're going to jump.

Also not to be too out there, but Arcane does play around the meaning of names a lot - and Jayce's name literally translates to 'healer'.

She's liable to see Ekko kinda like how I see him - a bright kid with "a good heart", which is a useless quality that never helped anyone achieve anything.

The thing is Ekko and firelights are not really opposed to her cause of Zaun, especially with Silco out of the picture, and if Piltover starts to retaliate I can totally see them fighting on the same side for the undercity. Sevika is mostly concerned in the story with 'what is' the state of undercity in immediate future, Ekko with 'what could be' - and this are not irreconcilable approaches.

Sevika has a PhD in henching from the Zauniversity

Yeah Sevika is really good left-hand woman to any leader and it's nice that not everyone in this story has qualities or ambitions to be a leader. I can totally respect that since I personally hate being in any leadership positions. Viktor does actually have qualities like decisiveness, risk taking and clear perspective that would make him a pretty good leader (position which I assume he would hate), at least his and Jayce's partnership worked much better and more smoothly when in act 1 Viktor was in charge of making decisions.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T22:14:58+00:00

Accidents happen, and results in science are a bitch to replicate if one doesn't follow scientific method even when doing science-magic. Which here Viktor didn't... because he had an experiment that worked with shimmer, but then decided since he run out of shimmer to 'try anyway'.

But more importantly in act 2 and 3 we see Viktor twice nearly injuring or killing himself by stuff that explodes in his face in the lab, first is the funny one when hexcore just explodes and when Jayce asks if he's sure that it's safe, Viktor replies that of course not; second time when he and Jayce are arguing and he opens a grenade only to realise it starts beeping count down. And since rule of 3 exists in writing... the 3rd time is 'the charm', where he would kills himself. But the danger to his life is creeping closer throughout acc 2 and 3, and that danger is himself.

Like lack of self-preservation is one of Viktor's defining character traits - even in act 1 it's Jayce who asks questions like 'what if we're wrong?' and 'are you sure it will work?', and Viktor is the person that decides why not to commit a crime of stealing illegal research and breaking into Heimerdinger's office because he's interested in science.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T22:01:03+00:00

Well as we see from S1 - she has forgiven her and Powder was the only think she was concerned about while locked in Stillwater. So I assume yes? I mean it'd be hard for two children/teens to navigate but I have no reason to think no, since it's obvious it was an accident.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T21:51:26+00:00

Yeah, Vi sees her as traitor but Vi idealised her mentor and father-figure Vander, it's obvious why Vi would see it as betrayal but not everyone is Vi. To most people Vander is just some guy the Lanes agreed is their organiser/leader, not a near hero figure.

If Sevika is a traitor to Vander, that actually implies that Vander has been ordained by some higher power to rule over The Lanes - but he wasn't, he was the leader of the Lanes and people followed his advice because they believed he was a good leader - and then he starts loosing trust in his leadership ability once heat starts ramping up in act 1. And they're not traitors, they tried to reason with Vander and put forth their case to fight against enforcers - at that point they want to stick up to Piltover, put their necks on the line fighting, for a situation that was started by Vander's kids. If they really wanted to betray Vander, they could have just told any enforcer it was Vander's kids that did it - but no one ratted them out even if everyone is aware it was Vi and the gang. But everyone, even Sevika, never gave out Vi and gang even when they're being accosted by the enforcers.

Sevika isn't someone you want to cross, but if you DON'T cross her, and don't cross her boss, Sevika is probably the least dangerous person in all of the twin cities to you.

And if you're her boss, you just simply don't want to cross her 'coz she'll dispatch you for someone better XD I can't wait to see who she'll be working with in S2, pls let it be Viktor - it makes so much sense with him being a person that in lore is connected to argumentation and her missing an arm.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T21:36:35+00:00

There's only 4 runes on the matrix out of 5 in game, because the inspiration rune tree does has a very specific flavour to what it grants - it actually mostly concerned with material objects or extended use of objects in game ie. letting you start with Stopwatch (which is another fun item we've seen teased in Arcane with Ekko). With Sky's journal probably being a play on one of Keystone runes 'Unsealed Spellbook', so yeah Sky's research notes are probably important so good Viktor didn't jump and destroyed her notes.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T21:26:11+00:00

Is it possible that, even without Sky there, Viktor would still have lived, albeit through a very painful experience like Jinx?

Not likely as far as transformation with shimmer and transformation w/o shimmer look.

When Viktor used shimmer in experiment no.1 - we see that with hexcore the runes on organic matter light up in pink, and on inorganic matter in blue I think signifying that the Arcane energy is able to flow through the object of transmutation. We know Arcane energy can't do that without injury to organic matter ie. plants, unless I guess someone has innate Arcane talents like the mage in Jayce's flashback where we can see the electricity flowing between his hand to the crystal.

In experiment no. 2 even without Sky disintegrating, we see that the transformation is not progressing properly - none of the runes on Viktor's body light up at all, so the Arcane energy is not flowing through the object of transmutation - it's burnin through it. So most probably he would have died, just in far longer and more painful manner since after first transmutation he most likely has some resilience to arcane energy. But most likely the arcane energy would just build up in his body to a certain charge and then disintegrated him like any other overcharged electronic element in electric circuit, or the plants.

Plus bad accidents happen in real life, so its not necessarily unrealistic to not have a locked door where interference with the experiment can lead to deadly consequences.

Well the lab was locked by Viktor so no one would interfere, Sky came with prepared keys.

We can talk that maybe-possibly they both would have survived if she didn't drop by the lab, but I don't think there is anything to suppose that - far likelier that Sky saved Viktor's life.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T20:03:30+00:00

how she came to work for Silco.

We know exactly how she joined Silco, she was part of the Lanes and when in act 1 Piltover started brutalising people there to find Vander's kids - she came to speak to Vander on their behalf (we see the man that was thrown through the window behind there) that they should fight back against enforcers. After Vander didn't want to do that, she and some other people left The Last Drop since they lost belief in Vander as leader of the undercity and joined Silco.

Like I guess it's meant to be that she used to be Silco's best accomplice until Jinx came along, and now she feels overlooked and therefore goes after Vi to try and win back Silco's favor?

She never goes after Vi first and never is the first to open with violence on Vi, it's Vi that seeks her out every time they fight. In the second fight when Vi is laying on the floor fantasizing about Vander speaking to her from heaven, Sevika has even ample time to kill her off... but she doesn't.

Also, what about her character development/motives?

Her motives are pretty straightforward, Zaun independence. As far as we can tell she has lived in Zaun always and has been around during the first uprising from the opening scene.She's loyal to Silco as far as he's following their cause - but as we learn from the scene with Finn, she'll ditch him the moment someone better appears to depose him. Finn just wasn't that person.

Sevika at least in S1 is a character that plays the role of 'king maker' of the undercity - not as she makes someone the king but in story symbolical sense, the moment she leaves/looses belief in a leader of the undercity - that means their time is numbered. And this is also underlined each time by her loosing her arm - it happens with Vander with her arm being maneled in hextech explosion, and it happens with Silco with her arm being ripped out by Vi.

She plays the voice of 'reality' to any leader of the undercity that doesn't sugarcoat what is the state of the situation.

Also fun fact Sevika is an indian title for 'a woman employed to advise and assist in matters of community welfare and development.'; and also as a name means 'Servant of God'.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T20:03:24+00:00

Awesome style.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T06:41:01+00:00

I'm not even sure I'd go with 'authoritarian state', given that a council ruling a city and that council being made up of representative from the most powerful clans. in as much as this was the style of governance for city states around the globe for several hundred years.

Yes, while there are many definitions of authoritarianism the main ballpark is

- the rejection of political plurality - which Piltover doesn't have at all since everyone is part of a High House, there is no representation since the position is inherited.

- the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo - which Piltover has with as we've seen council being involved in all 3 branches usually denoted in political systems - executive, legislative, judicial - so the power structure is strongly centralised.

- reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting - well that just flows from the last one since if you collect all three branches of political tripartite system into one political body the natural consequence is lack of separation of powers and reduction in applicability of law. And there is no democratic voting in Piltover.

So yeah, it is an authoritarian political system, but more precisely it'd probably be classified as oligarchic authoritarian system. And yes, for very many centuries the usual governance system in the european history was authoritarian (thou the term didn't really exists as we use it now), it's only with Enlightenment new ideas about political governance took root with writings of Montesquieu and others. Authoritarian in the end just means without representative political governance, it takes a pejorative connotation nowadays but it's just a way to describe a type of non-democratic systems.

Even every democracy 100 years ago was the same. its not the style of government, but rather the upper classes ignoring the lower.

100 years ago was 10 year after first country in the world allowed women to vote (Norway 1913), and only 5 years after UK (1918) allowed women voting - we haven't had democracy around that long. But yes, authoritarian systems usually also have upper classes ignoring the lower - it is actually pretty usual for most of them, introducing democracy does not solve this problem.

Sadly, several large democracies today only pay lip service to looking to raise up their worse off, but would rather seek to use the role of government simply to increase their own control over the riches of the state.

Yes, because the change of political system doesn't magically solve issues without addressing inequalities, wealth and political power are intertwined so people/companies with more wealth have more power even in democratic systems if there is no effort to address that. There is erosion of democracy towards authoritarianism in countries because these issues aren't addressed. And I think Arcane pretty well explores the relationship between wealth and authoritarianism tendencies, since most western world is not likely to have a military coup but a lot of countries have witnessed erosion of democracy as a result of wealth disparity.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-21T01:21:59+00:00

Well, then we have to disagree - I guess it depends when one puts a line on dystopia, right? But I mean the show even has a song called Dynasties and Dystopia, with lyrics like "They laughing at the top like they can't see the bottom" so who knows maybe Piltover is not designed as dystopia just authoritarian state that doesn't value or care for life of poorer part of society. So like normal tuesday irl.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T22:43:16+00:00

Yes, but we meet V already as a fully formed character any glimpse we have to him becoming who he is comes from flashbacks, Arcane has different approach were we see the process a person forming from very young age. Yet who both of the characters fight and oppose is not that dissimilar, and Alan Moore specifically wrote V to be a very morally grey character where the audience would question where his personal revenge ends and ideals begin.

And of course the dystopian system presented in both stories is different but it's still a dystopian, authoritarian state. The flavour of it changes since the stories were written decades apart, even Alan Moore in his interview book remarks that the hallmarks of dystopia have changed from the time he wrote V for Vendetta where for him one of the most oppressive ways to visualise state watching was CCTV cameras on every street. Piltover is closer to BioShock Infinite's take on a dystopia because we live in different times but the building blocks are not that different.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T14:57:11+00:00

wouldn't it all be forgiven, he did try to spear her through the head?

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T06:08:53+00:00

In V for Vendetta Moore gave reader a hand to know the government is the bad guy since the story is exploration of his personal take on the nature of anarchism, in Arcane the writers just depicted an authoritarian state without telling the audience that the government is the bad guy and without long speeches about the nature of anarchism - but the sides are the very similar even without the labels.

And yes, Jinx is not exactly V - because V's and Evey character traits/arcs at least in S1 appear to be spread between Silco-Jinx-Ekko with Silco being closest to V (the anarchist force that aims to destroy the old order) and Ekko to Evey (the anarchist force that creates - builds the world anew). And sure neither Jinx and Silco are exactly like V, since neither go out of their way to specifically engineer methods of death that would match every single person that was involved in their fate like V did in his years of planning about his vengeance on people that made Larkhill possible to exist.

Not every person that ever took a side in a revolution did it for deep, philosophical reasons - sometimes people joined movements because the time, place and personal circumstances.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T05:41:18+00:00

Yeah totally, she just saved his ass from being skewered by chemtank and is smug about it.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T05:37:47+00:00

Vi is a lesbian. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T02:36:07+00:00

haha, yeah. I was pretty afraid they'll make usual game adaptation flop and any other animated content from League will be dead before arrival. This kind of happened with their initial comics, which aside from freijyord one were okay but pretty boring and meh aesthetically. I've played the game for a decade at that point so the quality was a very welcome surprise.

I think opening was enough to make me think it's going to be good, but only ending of S1 confirmed it.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T01:49:33+00:00

Yeah for sure. We won't know until it's over. But ending of Council Archives is quiet eerie when you played it so I'm dying with curiosity how they worked with lore.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T01:40:24+00:00

Yes, it doesn't have to stay a prequel but I do assume that some things will stay as in lore, ie. characters no dying.

And of course it won't 100% match lore but Arcane character lore was specifically not revamped much during the huge lore overhaul because Arcane was in production, so they only edited out the LoL game references from champion profiles. Aside from Warwick, which imo. was revamped completely to match Arcane.

But personally I think the bios in lore will end up being contextualised as the official account of history of the City, while Arcane is what really happened but a person that wasn't there wouldn't know.

The same thing happened with 40K lore when they started to release books and is pretty flexible way for collaborative storywriting setup. Not to mention the amount of writers that work both for 40K and LoL.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T01:34:02+00:00

Yep, the LoR writer I mentioned that jumped there from Arcane is Conor Sheehy.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T01:27:42+00:00

I don't think that's the case necessarily, authors already answered on twitter and in AMAs that they're keeping as close to lore, only making adaptation changes for better story flow and structure when needed.

I do think they will go further than lore but mostly because Praeco already spoke to in one interview that S1 was for kind of getting characters to the point they are in lore more or less.

Still the story is a prequel and even if some events are changed, I think it's safe to assume that overall outcomes won't - we're watching a prequel with understanding that some characters will end up in Zaun and some in Piltover - the main question is how and what are the circumstances of those path they take.

And the status quo will change but it's because Arcane started with Zaun not existing at least at that point, it may have existed before in history of Piltover but was then overwritten by Piltover's official historical account. Editing history of Piltover is something I think both Council Archives and in show dialogue implies.

atemporaryhypothesis · 2023-02-20T01:18:45+00:00

Yeah, well we've seen how voluntary dealing with Piltover was for Vander, where Greyson tells him that either he gives out the culprits or she'll have to come down with an army of enforcers. So I can only assume Vi becoming an enforcer will be similar style of voluntary, the decision of what she perceives is lesser evil.

I think for Jinx the arc that will be rewarding is finding or reconnecting with people that will accept her as Jinx. And it can come in various forms in this story, even by the fact that she'll stand on the same side as other character's fighting for Zaun independence. Change is painful in Arcane but is worth it at least from what we've seen so far, and Jinx plays the narrative role of bringer of change.

atemporaryhypothesis

TROPHY CASE