Without further ado
✨️ Thrash's big Silco ramble-thing! ✨️
*confetti*
(ramble below cut as well as spoilers for Arcane)
I'm going to ramble about Silco's appearance. Primarily, the differences between his main tl self and the alternate tl in S2E7!
For context:
This is primary tl Silco
This is alternate tl Silco
The thing I'm going to be talking about is his scarring and eye. The result of the attempted drowning by Vander.
In the original tl: Silco doesn't necessarily "heal" from this wound. It festers and, in a way, poisons him. His core in this tl was so irrevocably shaped by this betrayal that he never took the time or effort to really move past it, at least not fully. In this tl he bears his scar like a reminder, one that tells him he can't trust anyone and that he is practically alone even among those he considers family.
It's why he tells Jinx/Powder that "everyone betrays us." Betrayal was so ingrained in him that it's left that permanent, festering wound on his being – both physically and mentally.
Not to mention his eye itself. It's darkened and shrouded: which, could be symbolic of how his vision of life has been darkened and changed by the event. How his perception was altered and his morals shifted.
His scarring in this tl doesn't bear the mark of someone out for vengeance. It bears the mark of someone hiding from a wound that they can't help but prod. The original tl of Silco never healed in a way that actually closed that wound.
In the alternate tl, he did heal. Or, I should say: he healed differently.
His scarring does not bear the same infection. It is more maintained, it is more healed. In this tl, he reconnected with Vander, in his words: "the greatest thing we can do in life is find the power to forgive." But he didn't just forgive, he healed, he healed alongside people he trusted rather than fending for himself and letting it rot from the inside out. He still bears the scar as a reminder. The pain is still there, but it isn't consuming him.
Then there's his eye (or the prosthetic, anyway). Unlike the original tl, this eye doesn't bear the dark discoloration. It isn't clouded. While still changed, it isn't plunged into a contrast with who he is like the dark eye alongside the infected skin. Again, I take this as a sort of symbolic way to show his healing: the forgiveness unclouding the anger and fear to give way to another chance.
His scarring bears the mark of a man who was changed but didn't let it consume him, the mark of someone who has chosen to move forward with friends rather than alone. In this tl, Silco healed in a way that salved AND healed his wound. In this tl, Silco was able to be released from the mask that his original self hid behind.
In this way, Arcane showed the sides of the coin of healing from a trauma. That no matter what, it does leave scars: but how you heal shapes everything.
I could, of course, ramble longer. I could talked about the angularity differences in their faces: how the original tl is more sharp, showing a being made rough by an ever prodded wound; while the alternate tl bears lesser extents of these same angles, still changed and roughened by the experience, but less so due to the way the healing was achieved. But I'll stop here for now.