#arcane speculation

[camilleflyingrotten]

[wingedshadowfan]

do y'all not even realize jinx altered caitlyn's entire arc by kidnapping her and that bcuz of it caitlyn had a good enough reason to hate jinx before jinx even bombed the council and killed her mother in the process??

yes, jinx kidnapped her but it was heavily implied jinx kidnapped her from her fucking bathroom. i'm sorry but how fucking terrifying is that? the one place where you're at your most vulnerable, literally naked. then, jinx must've forcibly dressed caitlyn up in her enforcer uniform (you can argue she just politely waited in a corner for caitlyn to finish showering and get dressed but it was late evening and caitlyn had nowhere to go and no reason to put her uniform on after a shower, and even if you claim jinx allowed her to get dressed herself - why the fuck would caitlyn choose her uniform, considering who was kidnapping her), then jinx took her to the undercity and held her hostage there by herself for an entire day before she got silco and vi to join the tea party.

during this time, of course caitlyn would've tried to escape, like did we all see her with that broken wine glass? she was just waiting for a chance. but the fact that she couldn't escape likely means jinx was there with her the entire time (aside from when she was gone for silco and for vi). and what do you think happened between them so that caitlyn wouldn't try to escape during the time jinx was gone? what do you think jinx had done to make caitlyn flinch when she approached her?

we may never know but i'll give you a hint. when jinx tells vi she made her girlfriend a snack, she pulls off the cloche to reveal... a single cupcake.

how would jinx know about that unless she'd forced caitlyn to tell her? vi gave jinx her name. that's what she was, a jinx. of course jinx would've wanted to know what name she'd given caitlyn. but you're so sweet, like a cupcake. of course caitlyn wouldn't have wanted to tell jinx that, not only bcuz of its implication for her relationship with vi but for the fact that it would only make jinx angrier, more insane and more destructive - her only reason to kidnap caitlyn and want her dead in the first place was the fact she thought vi had replaced her with caitlyn. so she somehow got caitlyn to tell her. eventually. if i had to guess how, i'd say jinx waterboarded her - since caitlyn's hair was wet when jinx pulled her chair in, and there's no way it wouldn't have dried since her shower (24hr ago), even though it's also possible caitlyn was so scared and nervous that it was sweat.

and unless i'm mistaken, vi doesn't call caitlyn cupcake again up until after caitlyn tackles her on the border of the noxian camp. so perhaps vi connected the dots after seeing the cupcake and this became yet another thing she felt guilty for her sister doing to caitlyn, or perhaps there just hadn't been an appropriate moment to be flirty again after caitlyn's literal mother died. but vi hasn't called caitlyn cupcake again since. and, metaphorically and only half-jokingly, caitlyn stopped being sweet. the caitlyn we knew from season one was gone. and i hate to say it, because i strongly advocate that vi calling caitlyn cupcake is not what made her decide to betray ambessa, but it had a grounding power over her and i wonder if it would've made a difference in caitlyn's choices if vi had done it sooner. if she'd been reminded sooner of who she was, and what vi meant to her.

[multifandom-posts2941]

MADDIE IS A TRAITOR?!

Ambessa said to Vi “Your absence provided a vacuum I was able to fill” after we saw Caitlyn and Maddie together 2 episodes ago. Do you think Maddie works for Ambessa so that she can easier manipulate Caitlyn?

[vampire-lady-of-lesbos]

It's two in the morning so it's sad hours.

As much as I'm loving Viktor Christ I can't help but think how 1) the Hexcore is manipulating him by using Sky and his guilt over her death and 2) his own traumatic experience because he fucking died!

Yes it is very rushed how Viktor left Jayce but Viktor is not in his right mind, I genuinely don't think he doesn't feel emotions, I think he's detached, disassociated or depersonalized. He died and woke up in a new non-human body, his best friend used on him the very thing he asked him to destroy! The Hexcore is making him feel all sorts of things, new knowledge and possibilities that he can't focus on anything!

The way that Viktor reacts to Jayce's hug.

It's this expression on his face, he doesn't feel anything when the person he loves most hugs him. There's the slightest movement of his part.

"it was affection that held us together" WAS, he doesn't feel it anymore, he's dull, his emotions are watered down by either the Hexcore or this extremely traumatic event he just passed.

UGH MY BOY I LOVE HIM AND NEED TO HUG HIM.

Also, I really really hope the Hexcore influence goes away, I like a good brainwashing trope but one of Viktor's charms is that he's insane all by his own views. His radical transhumanist ideals. I don't want him to be the Hexcore's puppet forever, because that'll be so sad and such a horrible destiny for him.

[xshindaaix]

🗣 HOW WE FEELING JAYVIK NATION???

I'm seeing EXACTLY what ur seeing.

I FUCKING KNEW IT!!!!

WHAT DID I TELL U MFS??!?!!?!

THEY FUCKING TELEPORTED!!!

I KNEW I wasn't delulu!!!

LET'S FUCKING GO!!!!

I'm so happy I stayed delulu. This makes me soooo happy u guys. Now just make them canon and let's wait like 3 years for comeback (possibly even their own spinoff). The amount of fanfics these guys made people to produce so far will keep me fed for months! Let's fucking go!

[purpleshimmer]

wait I was just rewatching s2e1 and at the part where shoola, salo, and mel are like "how could they have gotten into the memorial service; there must have been someone from the inside helping them" the camera pans to ambessa.

[viridian-fields]

What was Maddie's role in the attack on the memorial?

We have confirmation from writer Amanda Overton that Maddie is in fact Noxian and has therefore always been working for Ambessa. So I want to examine her actions around that memorial attack a bit closer.

I've seen it suggested that Maddie was somehow "protected" during the attack, because the armoured shimmer goon (do these armoured suits have a name btw?) was making a show of attacking her without actually harming her. I'll examine that exact moment a bit later but I do not agree with this assessment even a little bit.

Maddie is a deep cover agent. Presumably her entire identity in Piltover is fictitious. Careful planning and work have gone into integrating her into the ranks of enforcers over a long period of time. You do not take unnecessary risks with the identity of agents like this.

Keeping an agent like this "protected" from Renni's goons, would mean revealing her identity to every single Zaunite that Renni has recruited ("hey no one kill that redheaded enforcer, she's on our side"). If even ONE attacker survives this assault they have the potential to reveal Maddie's true identity. And imagine how it would look for these guys to be attacking everyone except her? And why would they waste their time playing around with her? It makes no sense. It's absolutely not worth that risk. Renni is used as a tool here. She is not informed as to who her actual employer is, and she is lured here by the promise of revenge against the person who killed her son.

If they really wanted to protect Maddie, it would have been much easier to come up with some excuse for her to not attend the memorial in the first place. But Ambessa has no need to try to protect Maddie. Maddie is a Noxian soldier. If a Noxian can't hold their own in an attack they are expecting then what good are they? Ambessa was willing to take the risk and accept the sacrifice if Maddie was somehow killed during this attack.

And Ambessa wants Maddie there because Maddie has a job to do. Maddie knows the attack is coming. She looks alert and on edge before it happens. We see her taking note of Renni's arrival.

So what were Maddie's orders? To protect the council.

Ambessa orchestrated this event to strike fear into the hearts of the people of Piltover, the council included. One of the attackers even gets up on stage to say “You aren’t safe, topsiders. None of you are safe.”

Making the council fearful and angry will motivate them to pursue the course of action that Ambessa has been pushing for. Dead council members can't give her what she wants. She doesn't want harm to come to Mel, and her influence over Salo means she'd prefer to keep him alive. Protecting the council is also something Maddie is in a position to do that will not look suspicious and is likely to give her career a boost.

But Maddie is very nearly killed in this operation. She is dazed from the carriage crash and pulled from the wreckage. She is screaming and fumbles her weapon. She seems genuinely afraid here.

This attacker is not playing pretend. He is seconds away from stabbing her...

... when Steb intervenes. His one and only L

Do you think that fall hurt? I hope it hurt.

But Ambessa very nearly overplays her hand here. By allowing someone who had a vendetta against Jayce to have access to him, he is almost killed.

And Ambessa doesn't want Jayce to be killed as she needs him to build her hextech weapons. Jayce dying would have been disastrous for her plans in Piltover. And what was the deciding factor in the end?

Vi.

But here's the thing. Vi was not planning to attend this memorial at all. How do we know this?

She's not wearing a ribbon.

[See this post for more info on these ribbons]

Vi had fought with Caitlyn and was on a bender. She had no plans to go to an event where there would be a chance of running into her. So why did she go?

Because moments before the memorial began a certain junior officer showed up to tell Vi all about how Caitlyn had sang Vi's praises to the enforcers, and how she was so pleased to have Vi in their ranks.

Now, there's no possible way that Ambessa could have known that Vi would end up saving Caitlyn and Jayce, but this entire meeting feels way too calculated for it to not be meaningful.

Perhaps Ambessa believed Vi would fight to protect Caitlyn and Jayce or other councillors, and was there as an added contingency. Perhaps Vi was a wildcard she wanted to keep an eye on. Perhaps she thought it wouldn't hurt to put Vi in the line of fire and maybe get rid of a potential problem.

In any case, when the dust settles, all of Ambessa's meticulous scheming is rewarded.

Maddie fought alongside Caitlyn, proving her courage and earning her respect. It is not a coincidence that the people Caitlyn later picks for her strike team are the ones she fought shoulder to shoulder with during this event.

And Ambessa succeeds in striking fear into the heart of the council and forcing them to act against Zaun. She also gets to be the big fat hero.

[mistresscitrusslice]

ARCANE BINGO!!! for Season 2

In preparation for Season 2, I'm making a Bingo board for all my predictions. You can join in too!

I've put a link at the bottom of this post to a Slides document where you can copy the template onto a Slides board of your own. (Just make sure to set the slide size to 10x12 inches. It's under File -> Page Setup.)

Below is my own board transcribed.

B | Zaun leader Sevika, Singed gets Operation Paperclipped, Vi prison flashback(s), Heimerdinger gets shot, Musician cameo

I | Caitvi Breakup, Caitvi get back together, Obligatory sex scene, Caitlyn-Ambessa team up, Mel gets deformed/disabled

N | Jinx fakes her death, Sisters childhood flashback, FREE SPACE: I cry at any point, OG mage appears, Hexcore = Void

G | Psychosis runs in the family, Ekko undercover, Jinx hallucinates Silco, Timebomb mention, Jayce gets a big makeover

O | Jinx dies at the end, Z-Drive, "The gLOriOUs EVolUTioN," Werewolf daddy, Singed daughter reveal

Below is how it would look on an alternative board style.

The Shimmer Board is pinkish-purple with the Rock Salt font in bold. The Hextech Board is light blue with the Grenze Gotisch Normal font. Pick your poison.

You can find the templates here! Or make a Bingo board in your own unique style.

Reblog with your own Arcane Season 2 Bingo Boards!