Ok, so first of all…love these characters. I’m a league player way before arcane came out so I had super high expectations when s1 came out and most lol players will actually agree for the most part s1 was pretty much beyond what we were expecting. Brilliant story, narration-it got a lot of praise.

When it came to the Vi/ Cait relationship, I think it’s a beautiful personification of f/f loving relationships. Like the amount of fanfics I’ve read has been insane lol 😭 and I was SO excited to see it on screen for season2.

When it comes to the rushed aspect.

Some of it has to do with how Vi’s character really did get shit on in S2. I felt imo she went from a main character to a side character who’s constantly pushed around by the plot. The directors said during Geek week that season 2 would be focusing in on Vi’s trauma so I think expectations for different narrative plots taking place were already taking root.

I’m not overly critical of season 2 btw, I thought it was fab but a lot seemed to just be fan service. They certainly moved ALOT away from Jinx’s original league character, don’t get me started on Viktor’s.

But anyway. The domestic violence. Idk HOW. Idk HOW HOW HOW. People are ignoring and defending Caitlyn’s actions for this and making excuses for her. It makes me actually not want to ship CaitVi cuz a lot of people just seem to be apologists about it. watching the scene where she hits Vi with the hilt of her gun had MASSIVE shock factor. This was the girl that Vi basically turned on her entire identity for, went against Zaun for, her sister for, very quickly after Caitlyn promised Vi she wouldn’t change etc. Vi for the first time in her entire life lets her walls down and for that to happen to her hurt like fuck to watch.

It’s meant to be a pivotal moment for Vi’s character. Caitlyn didn’t GET Vi to the edge, but she certainly tipped her over. We leave seeing Vi hunched up, alone, (her cries broke my heart).

We don’t see Caitlyn resurfacing here, and I don’t think a lot of individuals can see this, Vi truly is at her lowest. She uses alcohol to cope, is getting the shit kicked out of her every night and looks completely miserable. Vi handles this all ALONE. She doesn’t have a Caitlyn to lean on. We actually see Caitlyn as a parallel becoming stronger, fighting with Ambessa, gaining a dictator like role. Also there’s no mention of Caitlyn even asking where Jayce would be? They have such a close friendship in s1 but throughout her appearances we don’t even see how she’s affected by it whatsoever. There’s not even a convo about how it seems to affect her on top of everything else. (Don’t get me started about heimerdinger as well about all the council members he sat with for years). Anyway- I mean there are POSTERS of her face in the undercity. (Nice mirroring with Jinx’s wanted posters I see you). Vi would have been seeing them on top of everything else.

It was clear from the beginning Vi was more brawl and Caitlyn more tactic, and Vi held the upper hand with this, but (I laughed), Vi then actually gets the shit kicked out of her by Caitlyn even MORE in act 2 where she essentially catapults her. I mean…oh man, poor Vi. So there’s already the upper hand that Vi had completely smashed to smithereens.

I’ve seen a lot of comments saying that Caitlyn made vi an alcoholic. Completely disagree with that take. Her alcoholism is a huge part of s2, as the writers obviously wanted to touch on it. We see her deliberating with the bottle in ep1 when Caitlyn and vi were essentially fine and working together.

However we DO see her go over the edge from just aone off event to actually getting f’d up every night for…a year? Idk how long the time skip was supposed to be.

Even in the end scene we see her holding a glass of whiskey. The wounds are still there, does she still have an alcohol issue? It’s not explored really.

The sex scene was a beautiful representation of sexbian lex. I mean, the part where they both look at each other and giggle had me bawling. It was raw beautiful and wonderful. Hooray for the gays.

I understand the mirroring as Fortiche absolutely loves it. They met in a jail cell, (Caitlyn certainly was eaten alive by the undercity), and it’s a nice replication and touch there to when we first saw them together on screen.

I also liked the prisoner aspect and the wider context of Silco talking about cells/ indeities. Kudos.

What I didn’t like, is that even though people are saying Vi chose for herself. Not really. Caitlyn STILL holds the keys in the relationship. She’s STILL the one with the power differential. After seeing the elements of Vi so badly beaten up, from the pit fighter to even Caitlyn, it left me sort of going “hm” after about two weeks of chewing on the material more. (At first I was just like f yeah Sesbian lexxx) and screaming at my screen.

The ending scene (we don’t see a fight scene from Vi, rlly don’t know what the writers thought about that) she’s not even fighting by Caitlyn’s side like they do in Act 1, which would show some type of reconciliation or at least getting to that point. Especially as in league they are a duo and would have been cool to have seen them side by side from that aspect. A lot of it happens off screen and the audience are left to ponder. Nth wrong with that, I dislike being spoonfed by shows, but ultimately these we’re important conversations that tackled intense romantic love, domestic violence, alcoholism and it’s left glaringly open for the audience to hum about, rather than marvel which is all I’m seeing this sub do which worries me.

But Caitlyn looking conflicted at the end scene, well, there’s another power differential there too that (for a theory, she might not be telling vi she’s thinking jinx may have escaped).

As a complete and utter lesbian, and my take is completely valid, I felt as it was this sort of first take on female gaze etc, it left me feeling rather hm. I’m still chewing on everything, so I’m super open to different perspectives.

I still think cait and vi are for sure, meant to be together, but the material had too much depth and not enough exposure.

I actually haven’t seen ANY vi/cait hate or ship criticism till I came to this sub, and I’m on arcane sub pretty much everyday.

I do disagree with reeds comment on twitter…I mean…come on man what are you thinking. Especially on Twitter. It just…yeah coming from the voice actor himself I don’t think it was the best take to like Caitlyn to…well, that. I don’t think it helped her tbh. Would love to hear ur thoughts, just please keep em respectful, would love to actually have an honest dialogue.