Crank It!!

Jo, any pronouns My main is @knight-says-ni

[knight-says-pow]

Asks: Open

Faves: Jayce n Jinx <3 but other than them I enjoy p much everyone else in the cast equally

Ships: MelJayVik, Timebomb|Ekko/Powder, ZaunDads, CaitVi, and s2 Mel/Sevika

[clementine-kesh]

the big three questions of media analysis: what the author wanted to say, what they actually said, and what they didn’t know they were saying

[clementine-kesh]

for the last one i don’t just mean oh the author inadvertently wrote in gay subtext or whatever i’m talking about media as a cultural artifact which can reveal a ton about societal norms, biases, ideals, etc. it’s all about positionality and an unexamined positionality is often the most revealing of all

[jaijeijayjei]

Pre canon Melvik headcanons

Mel’s love language is “acts of statecraft”

When Viktor complains about the ancient equipment in the science dept she pushes for increased funding at the next meeting.

When he mentions how hard it was to secure a position at the Academy, she proposes increasing admission rates for undercity applicants

When he’s frustrated about Heimer undermining his research proposal she works her magic and talks him into approving it.

At first he just thinks “Hm, telling Mel about my problems always makes me feel better” before catching on that the problems mysteriously fix themselves afterwards every time…

[knight-says-pow]

Vi getting along so incredibly with both of her brother-in-laws while Jinx wants to set her SIL’s hair on fire was truly the most important family dynamic representation that Arcane gave us

This is just how extended family works, it’s accurate

[knight-says-pow]

My issue with the many jayvik psych ward AUs isn’t even the portrayal of mental health, bc psych wards ARE fucked up in how they treat their patients. No, my issue is the fact that Viktor is seemingly always the one in the straight jacket

Yall.

Yall Jayce quite literally spent his entire life trying to convince people that 1) he isn’t crazy 2) magic is real and non-mages can access it with blue rocks

Viktor came to him saying he’s read his work and Jayce’s immediate response was a defense n pleading to be believed

Just because Viktor is disabled doesn’t mean he has to be the patient please have a Grain of creativity

[sopuu]

grown man pouts unconsciously

[eeboor]

“Jayce is a player” Jayce Talis had a fucking lute in his bedroom. Jayce Talis probably rambled like a madman about magic to every first date until he realized that’s what was scaring them off. Jayce Talis spends his free time (as a presumably full time student) experimenting in his apartment and hangs out with a teenager. Jayce Talis was publicly labeled insane by his own mother at his trial, and it was so believable to the professor that KNEW HIM PERSONALLY that that angle actually worked in saving him from banishment. Jayce Talis goes and hugs his mom at age ~30 when things are getting rough with his job. Jayce Talis immediately fucks everything up the second he’s given political power because he doesn’t understand how people work. He is absolutely not a player. He’s probably freaked out by the game in the first place

[knight-says-pow]

Ximena: Councilors, please, my son is suicidal he can’t live alone

*not one hour later*

Jayce:

Viktor: oh wow she did not lie

[knight-says-pow]

s2 Jayce makes me ill oh my god my boy someone save him I can’t believe they compounded his trauma and then didn’t even discuss it- the fandom didn’t even really discuss it

We joke about the raw salamanders but he couldn’t make a fire for a long time when he was stuck in that ravine. It was visibly wet at the bottom. This means he was stuck in a cold, dark, wet crevasse of rock, alone for a minimum of two or three months - long enough to grow that beard

We’ve known from day 1 that Jayce holds onto his trauma from the blizzard. It’s the cold, the loneliness, the helplessness. It’s the root of his anxiety. It’s the pressure behind his motivation. Decades later and he still fusses over loved ones being cold.

The ravine is already awful for any character but it doubled down on all the things Jayce specifically is weak to. All of the things he struggles the most with were shoved at him on top of an already horrible situation

All this to say: his mental state Was Not Intact or Stable. He had been eating raw amphibian for ages by the time he had access to fire, and I do not think he was fully checked in when he got to that point. Guy was operating on autopilot. This is so upsetting I hate it here

[wuekka]

👏👏👏 Give me post-canon fics where Jayce can't sleep in the dark because he fears he wakes up in the ravine!! Give me fics where Jayce gets overly worried of Viktor being cold! 👏

Also I continue to believe that Jayce eating salamanders was sensored, because that framing of him crying and not showing what he burns is so deliberate..

Then the reveal..

I keep seeing it like this, nobody can convince me this originally wasn't Jayce cannibalising his hurt leg.

[knight-says-pow]

Self cannibalism WOULD be a sick concept for a fanfic but that is most definitely a salamander

[wuekka]

That's why I'm saying it got sensored/changed in the creation process, I think they made it a leg first but then something happened they couldn't show cannibalism/decided it was too dark, (it's still a heavy taboo?) so they quickly covered/recoloured it being a salamander, like that Achilles's heel/ankle is so clear! 😭

[knight-says-pow]

No offense but I heavily disagree on the idea it was censored. Arcane is good at anatomy and none of what you labled is remotely the right shape or proportion to have ever been a leg, even in concept sketches.

I can sort of make out what you’re saying would’ve been the sole of the foot but there’s zero “heel” or “ankle” behind it. Not to mention if it was a leg there would be no “thigh” in the picture. Human legs aren’t that short. Especially considering Jayce’s build. I tried envisioning how a leg could possibly fit into the frame and still be anatomically correct, but as you can see that entirely removes the wound from focus of the shot. Unless you think the ankle, an area of mostly bone, is edible?

Look, the show is extensively animated. Season two was in production for over four years. Nothing was done “quickly.” To say a scene was a redraw of an entirely different subject on top of a discarded frame is implying a level of sloppy artwork that wouldn’t slide here. If they were ever going to swap ideas and change subject matter then then the entire shot would’ve been redone. The angle, the proportion, the anatomy? That was never a leg. Point blank that isn’t how legs look. A censorship change wouldn’t have the elements you’re trying to invent.

Not to mention it wouldn’t have made sense from the beginning to ever have that be Jayce’s injured leg.

Again, I still agree the concept of self cannibalism would’ve been cool and is a neat fanfic concept, but there are fundamental issues with implying they intended for it to be canon.

The show places a lot of emphasis on the infection from the arcane magic. The rot is portrayed on everything in the apocalypse timeline, Viktor is coated in it, Jayce’s leg was consumed by it. In the concept art the pattern was even meant to extend to Jayce’s face. From the very conception of the story the rot brought by the arcane was meant to be a heavy factor. It carries a lot of symbolism and maintains story mechanics.

If Jayce’s wound was always meant to portray rotting then why would he consume it? With the self cannibalism concept we’re running off the idea he had no food and was only left with his own body. How, out of all his limbs, would the infected rotting flesh be considered a viable food source? It would’ve been his other leg- except no, he needs that, because it’s his only remaining functional leg. Maybe his arm, if we ignore how much he needs those as well, he does have two of them. But an arm still doesn’t fit into the “censorship” idea or match the salamander.

[knight-says-pow]

s2 Jayce makes me ill oh my god my boy someone save him I can’t believe they compounded his trauma and then didn’t even discuss it- the fandom didn’t even really discuss it

We joke about the raw salamanders but he couldn’t make a fire for a long time when he was stuck in that ravine. It was visibly wet at the bottom. This means he was stuck in a cold, dark, wet crevasse of rock, alone for a minimum of two or three months - long enough to grow that beard

We’ve known from day 1 that Jayce holds onto his trauma from the blizzard. It’s the cold, the loneliness, the helplessness. It’s the root of his anxiety. It’s the pressure behind his motivation. Decades later and he still fusses over loved ones being cold.

The ravine is already awful for any character but it doubled down on all the things Jayce specifically is weak to. All of the things he struggles the most with were shoved at him on top of an already horrible situation

All this to say: his mental state Was Not Intact or Stable. He had been eating raw amphibian for ages by the time he had access to fire, and I do not think he was fully checked in when he got to that point. Guy was operating on autopilot. This is so upsetting I hate it here

[wuekka]

👏👏👏 Give me post-canon fics where Jayce can't sleep in the dark because he fears he wakes up in the ravine!! Give me fics where Jayce gets overly worried of Viktor being cold! 👏

Also I continue to believe that Jayce eating salamanders was sensored, because that framing of him crying and not showing what he burns is so deliberate..

Then the reveal..

I keep seeing it like this, nobody can convince me this originally wasn't Jayce cannibalising his hurt leg.

[knight-says-pow]

Self cannibalism WOULD be a sick concept for a fanfic but that is most definitely a salamander

[knight-says-pow]

Caitlyn Kiramman listens to girl in red, NOT in the “girls” or “bad idea!” on loop way, but rather in the sense that “dead girl in the pool” was her top song at age twelve

[knight-says-pow]

Jayce never stopped being suicidal, yall know that, right?

He just gained more investments in life. His dream coming to fruition, gaining friends, starting a relationship,,,

His will to live is still fully reliant on these external factors. He doesn’t have one of his own. It’s why he’s so easily molded into “the defender of tomorrow,” because he’s willing to die if that’s what’s best for the people he cares about. His own continued existence isn’t that important to him.

[knight-says-pow]

This obsession this fandom has with finding “the real jinx” is going to give me an aneurysm.

There is no jinx!! We are all interconnected!!! Nothing happens for no reason!!! A lot of times things happen for no good reason, but that’s still a reason!!!

‘Jinx’ was a concept thrown out there in a fit of anger by a small hurt individual looking for any excuse that would provide some sense as to why her world was pulled out from under her feet. It’s looking for blame when the reality is too complex to provide comfort. Its not real.

[knight-says-pow]

[knight-says-pow]

You ever just see a take so bad you need to put down your phone? I can’t even find the post anymore because I genuinely had to close the app for a few hours

Someone on this webbed site made an ‘analysis’ post where they said, with their full chest, that the reason Jayce is a good character that the audience can sympathize with is because his season 2 arc and time in the ravine was punishment for his crimes. The ravine was because he killed the chem barons child. The ravine was him atoning for his sins. Because that’s why he was in the ravine, totally. And that’s why unlike him Caitlyn is “bad” because she didn’t get “punished” for her actions like Jayce did so “how could riot expect her merch to sell”

And I just- what. What??? The obsession with punishment and moral justice in this fandom is out of hand because how did you let it rot your brain so deeply for THAT to be your takeaway from Jayce’s arc in s2?????

The ravine had nothing to do with his wrong doings! Arcane is so consistent and direct with its laws of cause and effect, EVERY action in this story has a reaction. You want to talk about him killing that child? The consequence of that was the chem barron’s attack on the memorial!! Where he got chainsawed and the entire situation in Piltover was radicalized further in the direction of war and harm towards common people! The exact thing he and Vi wanted to get around in the first place, which caused said child’s death!! That was the consequence!!

The ravine had more to do with his personal relationship regarding Viktor & the act of transforming him into his role as “defender of tomorrow” than it did literally anything else

[knight-says-pow]

Caitlyn is such a repressed emo, and that combined with Jayce basically being her older brother? She tried to give herself an eyebrow slit when she was 14, you can’t tell me otherwise

Keyword "tried" - she absolutely botched it. Shaved half her eyebrow off.

Blamed Jayce for it because “he's the one with the slit eyebrow to begin with” and gave her the idea. (His defense is that 1- he didn’t know she was planning that 2- he doesn’t have a slit eyebrow he has a scar which is different, Cait. 3- why is it his fault she chose to copy him)

The issue was solved with creative application of blue eyeliner and a new haircut. Bangs obscured the problem area. She liked them enough to keep the style even once she had both eyebrows back

[knight-says-pow]

Every time Jayce is distressed or cries on screen his breathing becomes SO pronounced, much more than any other character in similar situations

Almost like he knows breathing excercies and is simply bad at them, his breaths are too fast

I bet cold hard cash that his mom taught him that in the years after the blizzard. Jayce would’ve been full of anxiety, we know this because he’s still full of anxiety as an adult. I think Ximena sat that kid down n showed him how he should breathe to avoid panicking, so that he’d be able to stay composed long enough to go find her for help if needed

He doesn’t have to anymore, his pacing is trash anyway, but at this point it’s just habit. If he gets stressed then he subconsciously defaults to deep breaths.

It’s what his mom told him to do.

[knight-says-pow]

First time drawing humans in a month </3 they could not be less symmetrical but at least they’re cute