The Mysterious Blue-green Fruits In Arcane (Apples???)
It may have already been put out there, but I haven't seen it. Through careful research, I have determined: These are almost certainly Shadow Citrus!
Now, you may be curious as to how I've reached this conclusion.
Let me take you on a brief tour.
https://www.reddit.com/r/arcane/comments/1gtfipa/s2_act_2_spoilers_whats_up_with_those_apples/
This article has some great things. The Arcane symbolism, the human symbolism, the mythological symbolism. You know. All sorts of things. Character symbolism. Color based symbolism. Anyway! Some people do think they're apples or pomegranates or what have you, and even I struggled to figure out what fruit might have such a seed pattern, fruit color, texture, and skin. What sound it made and what colors it had, paired with the bemusing fact of what they do with it every time they eat one on the show--throw it away or drop it carelessly on the ground--was a mystery. However, thinking from the seed type that it may be some kind of orange led me to discover the Runeterra wiki, and the fact that a Citrus Courier exists, with a myriad of fruits. All of these are citrus, and most of them are sweet or sour, some are seedless, all seem to have some traits of normal oranges, citrons, etc., other citrus. You get the picture. However. There are some facts that led me further and further from doubt. Point A: The spikes.
If ya zoom in a little close, you can see 'em pretty easily. Still confusing why they'd, uh, look like that, though. But considering that there are a lot of weird-looking fruit, including citrus, with differing skins-leaves-fruits-seeds, you know, it could make sense for them to be a little different. Plus, I mean, spikes and seeds. And the wiki doesn't have much descriptor other than the spikes.
Actually, first, I think, I thought they might be bilge bitters. That's because people were spitting them out. Like, maybe they're a delicacy? Too bitter to take more than a few bites, but rare, and delicious for those first couple mouthfuls, or something? I did a little research to see if there were geological crossovers, but I didn't get far. I tried to see if characters had a favorite fruit in the LOL game, maybe they'd have included it in the show as a cheeky reference. But I didn't see anything about Vi and Jinx enjoying (a few bites of) citrus, or anything like that. So I returned to researching the specific fruits.
Then, I came across this gem!
Well, if you look at that Ruination page, it gives you a big history of the Runeterra stuff. But the main part is The Ruination of Helia.
The Ruination was a historical event that resulted in the destruction Helia and the rest of the Blessed Isles as well as the subsequent fall
Now, someone on that reddit up there, the one with the apples/pomegranates theories, had suggested that maybe they were fruits that had been normal once, but grew corrupted and now had something wrong with them. Good idea! The wiki screenshot says that Citrus Fruit were likely corrupted by The Ruination, so, it would make sense to match the two up. Now, what does that picture on the link thumbnail of The Ruination of Helia look like to you? Here, if you can't see it on the link, I'll post it here too.
That's a picture of some kind of large blue blast, with a blue-green glow emanating from it. Is it energy? Is it light? Is it fire, or like, some kind of soundwave? Is it a Ghost Thing? I don't know, I didn't read it this time and I only skimmed it a couple of weeks ago, but it sure is shiny, blue, and green! Have you seen something else that's blue-and-green? :D Ding-ding-ding! It's the inside of that fruit. Yup. The answer now is almost certainly that they're shadow oranges, I mean shadow citrus! But there's one last thing. Why do those weirdos eat them with skin on? Like, yeah, sure, I've eaten a few oranges with the peel on myself, and people around the world do, too. But would the creators and artists make such a bold statement with their characters/world? To have them eat fruit with the peel on?? Would they really??? Well, a little scroll further down the Citrus Courier's page surprisingly and delightfully dropped this information in my lap.
Boom~~! Hahahaha! Haha! That's a guy eating an orange with the peel on! Sorry, Citrus. That's what I meant. Let's zoom in a little more.
Yup. Yup, yup, yup. That's a person with a mouthful of orange AND peel, baby.
You heard it here first! Well, probably. I did a lot of research on it, but maybe someone else got to it before I did. Anyway. One more Yup for the road. It's Shadow Citrus. Probably. Don't forget your Vitamine C, y'all! :)