forced change, body horror, decimation of the mind. it’s a drug, an invention, or spell that enhances the part of us that fights by destroying the parts that make us human.
figures like silco, singed, and (initially) viktor viewed magical mutilation as medicinal — but for mel, jayce, jinx, and later viktor, the choice was nonconsensual, yet permanent.
hextech; a handheld magic. a non-permanent disease of the mind. magic is power, power always corrupts. it targets the human will & skews morals by falsifying the illusion of control.
it has the potential to mutilate minds, morals, ego. owners of this magic will never be the same again.
magic isn’t inherently evil, but power is mankinds greatest weakness. vi is the only figure in arcane to be exposed to three magical systems (shimmer, hextech, and the arcane) without any permanent corruption. a good heart goes a long way!
honorable mention: zaun is notorious for chemtech enhancements, prosthetics and revolutionary technology. they’re a hotspot of black markets and global travelers. their bodily engineering, while can seen to be an alternative for healthcare due to the toxic sumps, can also be used as recreational means of limb enhancements and style.
Today's theory: Caitlyn's grandmother was a pirate!
Okay, okay. Hear me out.
In the brothel scene, Vi tells Pim that Caitlyn's name is Matilda. Caitlyn then blags her way through this by going "My parents named me Matilda, after my great grandmother Matilda, the, uh. Pirate."
Obviously, that's Caitlyn just making something up on the spot, but we know that her family is originally from Ionia, which is based on southeast Asia.
Well.
It just so happens that one of the most prolific pirates of all time was Zheng Yi Sao, who was born in China. Her nickname was The Pirate Queen.
At the height of her power, she had over 400 ships in her fleet and employed around 70,000 crew members. To give you a sense of scale, Blackbeard had 5 ships with around 300 pirates in his fleet.
Now, let's go back in time through the Kiramman portraits to Caitlyn's great grandmother, seen here.
We can see her sitting on a chaise lounge. In front of her, there's a ship in a bottle. Directly behind her, there's a bow (a little nod to the fact that Kirammans have always been sharpshooters), and in the background, there's more ships.
The ships in the background are very important, because these are three mast ships, also known as barques. This type of ship was the most popular type of ship during the golden age of piracy!
So basically. What I'm saying is. Caitlyn's great grandmother was a pirate, and not only was she a pirate, she was Runeterra's version of the most successful female pirate of all time.
I just finishes S2 of Arcane and just, ok, lots of feelings, complicated feelings on how they took the characters. Still a bit salty with Riot with their decision to make arcane 1. Canon, and 2. their main source of champion storytelling, but that’s a rant for another day.
Jinx’s look, final Battle Look. This.
Is driving me up the wall because I have yet to find a person who has seen this and not immediately thought it looked like the head of Fiddlesticks.
I’ve heard fishbones, scuttle butt, stinky maw, sea monster, etc. But COME ON!!
LOOK at THIS
AND LOOK AT MY BOY
LIKE ESPECIALLY WITH HER HAIR AND HOW IT HANGS OUT AND THE JAGGED TEETH WITH THE EYWS AND HOW IT SORT OF LOOKS HUNCHED
THIS CANNOT BE FROM THE SEED OF MY MADNESS FROM EXPOSURE TO 8 YEARS OF RUNETERRA LORE IT JUST CAN’T
now, is there a logical reason as to why Jinx may be dressing up as the demon of fear born from the first scream of the universe? No? But is Fiddlesticks still a well known folktale/myth that takes many forms all across Runeterra as seen through the short story The Ancient Fear? Yes. Ok. Just.
I genuinely feel like I have 20 cans of energy drinks when I think that maybe Jinx took inspiration from Fiddlesticks into her outfit. Like a colorful prey animal flashing a warning to its predator to be afraid
I don’t know. I’m tired. Did ANYONE see the resemblance?
This is a interesting one for lore because... i dont really know where to put it? We mostly deal with the gooey demons but occasionally we see those "monsters" that seem to be their own thing the problem is however
I don't know which the human rat was!
My theory as of right now.... i think its both.
I think the "rat boy" we see in the circus photos on the wall was one of those monsters (probably from experimentation) he probably ran away to get away from the abuse he was suffering and i think then he was starting to get taken over by those gooey demons but had to be in the early stages of it. He has a lot of the similar signs as some of the other demons and the pregnant woman especially peaked my curiosity because we do know that the demons will sometimes plant "baby?" Demons inside humans like a pregnancy. Idk whats yalls thoughts?
Just my 2 cents about this scene: Singed is not a trustworthy character, and I am more afraid for the Enforcers/ Wardens than him. He's not only a force to be reckoned with because he has Warwick in his backroom, but also because of his poison, and I wonder whether it's more potent than the masks of the Enforcers.
Also, he has a scalpel in his left hand, which he drops to the ground. Now, who was he operating on? Warwick is one possibility, Viktor is another. People say, that he completely augments himself, but I'm not so sure. I mean, he just got blasted by a whole damn rocket, which might not put you in the mood to operate on yourself. Which doctor does he go to? Yup, the mad one. His former mentor. It might be, that it's Singed, who does the first operations/ augmentations on Viktor. Another lead is one of Singed's lines: "You mustn't die yet; I have far too much to learn from your fragile anatomy.". Though that might apply to almost anyone in this part of Zaun. Nevertheless, he was one of the first to augment people (yet, the lore might still get changed because of Riot *argh*).
But, according to the lore, as it stands now, he also worked with Nexus (then to make his signature poison for their war against Ionia), and Noxus is in Piltover, sooo...🙃 And after making Warwick, he sought of ways to yield of death, now, who might be interested in this *coughviktorcoughcough*
Random headcanons that I use in "Screws and Bolts"
Tw. for child abuse, ableism, typical Zaun violence
Viktor;
- looks like the mix of the old and new Prototype skin (maintaining some parts of his humanity still),
- autistic,
- trans man,
- had an accident as a child that left him with one leg paralyzed,
- very sickly since birth, he easily caught colds and got tired after simple activities (ex. walking up stairs),
- his mother was a bar keeper, his father a drug addict. They always had fights, leaving the kid to fend on his own,
- he was always beat down because of his disabilities,
- used a cane until he replaced his leg,
- while his mother entertained drunken patrons and gave them more and more drinks, he tinkered with his toys,
- he applied to the Piltovian academy without his parents' knowledge,
- he got accepted because the professors knew such a great mind could cause havoc if developed in Zaun,
- he met Jayce during a lecture from Heimerdinger, they were immediate friends,
- his entire life's work seemed to fall when his design for Blitzcrank got stolen by Professor Stanwick,
- when Jayce and the council refused to help, he realized just how much everyone in his life is disgusted by him only because of where he was born and who he was,
- his bottled up rage rose to the surface, he began making projects that were more and more inhuman,
- the worse situation came when he disagreed with Jayce about the diving helmet mind-manipulation; goes same as his original lore,
- after being thrown out of Piltover, he lost it completely,
- he started removing his body parts and replacing them,
- stil mad at Jayce, but as the days go on, after each fight, he realized the other man still cares and it hurts him to admit that.
Jayce;
- has ADHD,
- born in upper parts of Zaun,
- he was talented with technology ever since he was a child,
- his talent was noticed by Clan Giopara, they quickly took him in even though he was barely a kid,
- they treated him as a son, he had more luck than brains to be able to grow up in Piltover,
- he quickly began calling the eldest woman of the clan his mother (that's who he refers to when talking to Amaranthine in chapter 1),
- under the clan's patronage, he started working on Hextech,
- his ideas were loved enough for him to be accepted into university,
- the clan needed him to never, under any circumstances, talk about his true heritage, so he never did,
- very charismatic, people came to him like flies to fruits,
- he usually tries very hard to seem sociable and kind but the moment he comes back home he usually breaks down and starts engaging in aggressive behaviour (ex. throwing objects, working in the forge only to be able to hit stuff with a hammer),
- because of being shaped from childhood to be a perfect golden boy, he often seems very self-centred and rude,
- his closer friends know that he's a very kind person, even if he has trouble showing it,
- spends lots of time with Amaranthine (she has no mum and her father is a very rich man who doesn't pay attention to her),
- misses Viktor, swears that if he ever sees more disgrace come to students because of their conditions, he'll smack a hammer against the councillors' heads.
Smaller facts:
Blitzcrank;
- still hasn't realized he doesn't support the machine evolution theory fully,
- his program allows him to self-learn,
Caitlyn;
- she's not evil, she genuinely believes in what she's told by the council and thinks that taking down Viktor will help,
Jinx;
- she blew up the fireworks earlier because she knew just how much Piltovians love order...and she genuinely found child-like wonder in them.
