I've been learning to paint and this is my first big painting. You're all really talented so please be nice to me, I'm a noob with a $27 tablet and a dream.
In your opinion, what makes Caitlyn and Vi such captivating characters, and why do you think they’re so versatile when it comes to AUs while still feeling completely true to themselves and their core struggles?
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen a ship that’s as prolific in fanfiction. I’ve read them in practically every time period, every decade, every profession imaginable, and with every trope and yet they still work. As a writer, I’m really curious why you think that is. What is it about these two that makes them so adaptable without losing the essence of who they are?
Hi, good morning!
So what I personally love about Caitvi is they’re very much my flavour, I’ve mentioned before but I was deep into Swan Queen and Supercorp before Arcane came out and Caitvi is all my favourite parts of those two ships blended into an actual lesbian pairing and that’s why they hit with ME. They’re fun, and flawed and messy, Caitlyn’s got a ton of flaws, Vi’s got the tragic backstory, they have a dynamic relationship where they support and push each other? Overall I think they’re neat.
Wait, I have an old meme lemme find it.
Yeah, that. That’s what I like about them!
For the broad audience I think the first big appeal to them is just the novelty: that they’re a front and centre, no-homophobia romantic-subplot in a plot-driven series that isn’t niche horror, medical/crime or geared to children, they didn’t die, and they hit the niche with having a rare hot masculine dyke that owns it. To add to that, they’re very well designed/animated adult characters so they don’t feel cartoonish but they also aren’t real people so a lot of people feel more comfortable making stuff up about them. That drew in a lot of fans who I don’t think would have really cared for Arcane if they knew of similar options.
More under the cut
I think the second big appeal is they are functionally equals that contain a lot of complimentary tropes. And some are more one sided — cocky rogue with the sheltered heiress, cheeky subordinate + details boss — while others they play either part. They’re both the tortured hero opposite the kindhearted damsel, they both have a fall from grace to hit different but equally devastating rock bottoms to save the other from, they both had childhoods missing something the other one has, freedom in adulthood they weren’t afforded in youth, fish out of water, being shown a new world, being the first person to recognize the other, they break up with the other one, save the other one’s life, etc. They’re the rich + poor from two different worlds romance story we’ve been telling for millennia, of course we can write them like that in a million familiar ways.
TBH, they’re much closer to what makes a typical m/m ship popular, which I’ve noticed is a supported theory by a hilarious number of times I’ve peeked a fic author’s history to see all m/m until Caitvi. I myself used to be a yaoi girly lol and I can see Caitvi echoing the m/m ships I had in like ninth grade on fanfiction.net lmao (1x2 iykyk)
And then you combine this smorgasbord of complimentary tropes with the fact that a lot of their conflict is circumstantial. The circumstances can demand they be enemies, so you can believably write them as enemies, or you can take external conflict away and they’re just as instantly believable as childhood friends. They argue and bicker about the how but they agree about the what, and push come to shove they work together so you can throw anything at them.
It’s like a big old basket of ingredients and you can pick and choose and make whatever type of dish you crave. And as long as you write them with complimentary traits they work to fit, which makes them excellent dolls to play with. You can take almost any story and put either one in either role. You want to do a comedy? They’re a pre-built buddy cop team where either one can be the stubborn impulsive idiot who says fuck the rules when it comes to problem solving. Want to do a romance where one coaxes the other into accepting love? Caitlyn’s too work focused OR Vi’s never had a chance to live for herself. You want to do whump? Cait’s delightful to torment emotionally, while Vi can get thrown in the pear wriggler. Even background swap - rich Vi + poor Cait - can still work and be fun to explore how their personalities would handle it.
The other thing too is, besides the playful banter from LoR bits, we mostly only know them by their flaws in times of high stress. We have NO idea what their happy moments look like, which makes it really easy to not get wrong lol.
Now this part is meant just observationally and non-judgemental at all, because I think AU fanfic shouldn’t be held to any standard beyond being a creative sandbox, and I fully cop that many people have said the same about my writing, but I find (still being completely true to themselves) to be a little YMMV, as imo one of the reasons lot of the fan works are so diverse is because personal experience/biases are interpreting the characters in hugely different ways. There’s a lot of fics that don’t interpret the girls anywhere close to how I do lol, to the point that feels to me they may as well be original characters; but the characters that are written are still complimentary in terms of traits. And I think people still enjoy those because it’s the complimentary energy Caitvi offers that they’re after in reading fic, plus a space to explore situations/gender/lifestyle etc. , not so much ‘analytical process of would she fucking say that’.
(I think a lot of people want to get seduced by a confident Vi and rewrite Cait as a relatable proxy which, understandable fantasy, but not what I’m personally going to fics for)
I don’t think OOC is necessarily bad. For an example, Rumours Vi is OOC. I know she’s OOC, I could never imagine Arcane Vi to be Like That lmaoooo. But I wanted to have fun lampshading fuckboy behaviour and Arcane Vi does have a cocky posturing habit, so I just RAMPED that shit up in order to have fun with it. And her being Like That was the goal to lead her into evolving into a more recognizable echo of Arcane + League Vi, and I think that fun and recognizable evolution is why the fic got so big (despite the fact Vi’s obnoxiously ooc lmao). I made Caitlyn a quieter version of herself to be complimentary, but I kept her impulsivity and stubbornness. Going into Players, they’re both being written with their League personalities in mind so now I get to pick different flaws to ramp up for my own tastes and amusements.
But getting away from myself, that’s more or less why I think Caitvi works for a lot of people. They’re a super fun dynamic and complex characters made up of very familiar stories we’ve grown up, which makes them ripe to pick and choose traits to isolate to play with, or throw them into different plot mazes and see what paths they work out.
oh and they’re written to be obviously obsessed with each other, with is catnip for writing porn lmao
Tomodachi life caitvi and vi² shenanigans- i only have the demo so this few is all i got before they got locked inside their homes xD
I didn't know you can take pictures in the switch itself because i've never owned one- i still don't because i only borrowed it xD- so i took a picture with my phone and decided to redraw it instead cause it looked kinda wonky xD
Amtrak Assistant Conductor Vi has finally settled into her route routine. From Piltover to Basilich and back. Each 12 hour shift is grueling, but at least it’s predictable. Then a chance meeting with a very beautiful woman - stretching in the Bike Lane of all places - stands that routine on its fukkin’ head. That very same woman appears again and again on Vi’s route. As Vi gets to know Councilor Ret. Lt. Com. Caitlyn Kiramman, Vi will have to decide whether to stay the course or hop the tracks and let the engine of her own heart choo-choo-choose for her.
Rewatching Arcane and I’ll never get over the fact that there is no indication that Caitlyn returns to Piltover to get paperwork to break Vi out, doubled with the fact that Jayce clearly had no idea she had done so, which means while she’s still healing from the bomb attack she ran away from home, impersonated an officer (dressing as an enforcer despite being freshly fired) and brought paperwork with her with the intent of forgery originally just to hopefully get a name from a prisoner because she was obsessively overconfident of the fact she’s a better detective than anyone else. Absolutely tickles me.
“My crimes are justified because I’m right.” This woman is insane.
Thinking about this again and how Caitlyn’s original motivation isn’t revenge for being blown up, isn’t concerns over the Enforcer’s incompetency towards the case or suspicion of corruption in the force. The catalyst isn’t people died or a potential WMD got stolen. No, what finally gave her the push to break several laws without giving a fuck, diving headfirst into trying to solve a mass-murder/drug smuggling conspiracy to first and foremost prove herself, was being offered a desk job.
Had this little brainrot for a minute ever since my sister jumpscared me with a tiktok of tsuyu's girlies on the victoria secret show thing xD and did herself better a few days later and messaged me, "caitlyn, seolhyun, specifically queendom."
what if orpheus was butch and she unclipped her carabiner and held it out behind her and then eurydice clipped it onto her belt loop and then orpheus didnt have to look back because she could hear eurydice jingle jangling behind her. follow me for more dyke solutions to famous tragic literature
I reckon usually I'm the one with a penchant for the dramatics but when she bellowed 'all this crash out for a MAN??' and gave me a quick rundown of valorant lore and voicelines to make me see reason as to why the pairing is utterly ridiculous- I realize I might need to step up my ship game xD
I don't have anything special for her but I did my best to clean this up and put some color to try and make a tiny little thing for it xD
Happy Birthday Vi xD
(lineart version and some ramblings down below)
This was suppose to just be a little comic thing for the request thingy but I couldn't really draw leisurely last weekend- i try to slowly chip away at em xD I dunno if i will continue the rest in color tho..
kianamaiart
snowghoul
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stormborns
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germansingergirl
theartofmadeline
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
areudirty
