Silco - Tumblr Posts

I was trying to pose the silco from TFT for a reference 😬

Damn, Caitlyn, what did you get yourself into?

It’s kind of funny to think that Caitlyn’s plan was to just interview the tattoo goon from the airship about who he worked for and then a few days later ended up neck deep in the family drama of the single mind behind the Undercity’s organized crime that she was looking for, his mentally ill daughter who HATES her, and her estranged sister who is a prisoner that Caitlyn broke out of jail when she couldn’t interview tattoo goon because said estrange sister broke his jaw.

Leading to Caitlyn breaking the estrange sister out of prison only to learn she is a highly regarded figure in the Undercity due to her and her sister’s adopted father being the former mob boss in charge. However, he was killed by the current mob boss after said prisoner’s sister severely injured their adopted father and killed their two brothers in an attempt to save her family by using the Hextech crystals they stole from Caitlyn’s family’s beneficiary and really her only friend from the current mob boss’s first human-shimmer monster.

And all of THIS essentially boils down to a shouting match between the mob boss and sister fighting over who loves the insane teenage girl more, despite the fact that she has kidnapped all of them and has made it very clear that she is a very dangerous and unstable individual.

Oh, and this family drama will have major consequences for not just the Undercity, but Piltover and a good chunk of the world; because said mentally ill teenage girl is a genius who figured out Hextech and created a shark rocket and has just fired it at the council, because she has once again accidently killed her father and now Caitlyn’s mom is definitely going to die, because Caitlyn didn’t want to shoot the mentally ill teenager because Caitlyn is falling for her sister.

And again, all Caitlyn wanted to do was interview some random thug and prove herself as a detective and now she has untold amounts of trauma to deal with.

–

Caitlyn: I’m going to interview this prisoner and prove myself as a detective.

This fandom is insane.

Arcane AU where everyone is a muppet

...Except for Silco:

Caitlyn: The estranged sister is fine af, why wouldn't I break her out?

Caitlyn, later:

It’s kind of funny to think that Caitlyn’s plan was to just interview the tattoo goon from the airship about who he worked for and then a few days later ended up neck deep in the family drama of the single mind behind the Undercity’s organized crime that she was looking for, his mentally ill daughter who HATES her, and her estranged sister who is a prisoner that Caitlyn broke out of jail when she couldn’t interview tattoo goon because said estrange sister broke his jaw.

Leading to Caitlyn breaking the estrange sister out of prison only to learn she is a highly regarded figure in the Undercity due to her and her sister’s adopted father being the former mob boss in charge. However, he was killed by the current mob boss after said prisoner’s sister severely injured their adopted father and killed their two brothers in an attempt to save her family by using the Hextech crystals they stole from Caitlyn’s family’s beneficiary and really her only friend from the current mob boss’s first human-shimmer monster.

And all of THIS essentially boils down to a shouting match between the mob boss and sister fighting over who loves the insane teenage girl more, despite the fact that she has kidnapped all of them and has made it very clear that she is a very dangerous and unstable individual.

Oh, and this family drama will have major consequences for not just the Undercity, but Piltover and a good chunk of the world; because said mentally ill teenage girl is a genius who figured out Hextech and created a shark rocket and has just fired it at the council, because she has once again accidently killed her father and now Caitlyn’s mom is definitely going to die, because Caitlyn didn’t want to shoot the mentally ill teenager because Caitlyn is falling for her sister.

And again, all Caitlyn wanted to do was interview some random thug and prove herself as a detective and now she has untold amounts of trauma to deal with.

–

Caitlyn: I’m going to interview this prisoner and prove myself as a detective.

Beautiful

02.01.2022

The Hanged Man, The Devil, Death

respect the blorbo

Smokers kill (sometimes)

Arcane - The Sins of the Father

Arcane does a really good job of assessing nature vs nurture when it comes to what shapes a person and what they become. Vi and Jinx are the primary examples of this. They are both caring people by nature but the world around them and their adoptive father figures are key parts in solidifying that characteristic or deteriorating it. 

For Vi the world has beaten her down time and time again like many characters in the series but Vander was a key part in making sure she didn’t succumb to her hatred and anger. At the start of the series Vi wants to fight. She wants to teach the enforcers a lesson and hurt them like they hurt the people of the undercity. But Vander reminds her that her decisions effect those around her. “You have a good heart. Don’t lose it. No matter how the world tries to break you”. When push comes to shove Vi is willing to give herself up to protect her sister and friends and prevent conflict with those in Piltover. She chooses peace over violence despite violence being all she knows. I think it is here that Vi becomes a protector rather than an avenger. She was toeing the line between the two before this moment.

Vander learned from his mistakes and passed those lessons onto Vi. His final appearance convincing Vi to get up really solidifies this and Vi’s role as a protector. His lessons have continued on long after he is gone. “ I wish I could say it gets easier, kiddo. But I'd be lying. What I can say is... She still needs you. They all do. So what do you say?” 

For Jinx the line that defined her was said by her sister rather than any father figure “Because you’re a jinx... Mylo was right”. Powder’s evolution into Jinx is brought on by her hearing her sister finally agreeing with the others and looking at her as a weakness (from her perspective. We know that Vi’s outburst came from a place of pain from learning that her sister caused the explosion that killed Mylo and Clagger and led to the death of Vander rather than a place of genuine hatred or contempt). This is further solidified by Silco using his misplaced guidance to make her believe that this moment made her stronger rather than actually addressing the issue and dealing with the trauma. He believed that killing the person who was hurt by the one closest to them was the solution rather than healing. Jinx became a vessel for destruction because that’s the only way she was taught to deal.

Silco and Vander genuinely loved their daughters and did the best they could with what they had. The sad reality is that Vander learned from his mistakes and Silco didn’t. Silco didn’t have the same kind of support that Vander made for himself which gave him the ability to clearly see that violence hadn’t gotten them anything but loss. Silco was forced to drag himself through his pain which lead to his misplaced beliefs and unintentional projection onto Jinx. This story is a tragedy of circumstance and trauma. The sins of the father and their lessons learned really can pass onto the child and effect who they become moving forward.

The monster you created is the perfect title for the finale. The whole episode and series is about how the world creates it’s own demons. Ignoring the problems can create monsters (Silco and his hold on Zaun) just like how violence and anger can create monsters (Powder’s descent into Jinx). And how all of it is interconnected. The violence in Zaun wouldn’t run as rampant if the topsiders would offer any sort of actual help. And there wouldn’t be so many people like Silco who want revolution and change through violence if the topsiders had treated the Zaunites well and not like ants to be trampled over and ignored. But Silco also hurts his own people to maintain his power just like many others from Zaun. And so on and so forth. It’s all layered and absolutely brilliant.

The Birth of Jinx

This shot from Arcane is the one most used to promote the show. It’s all over the internet and is probably the most noticeable of all the frames of the show (besides maybe the “you’re hot cupcake” frame with Vi pinning Caitlyn). And it’s also the moment I would argue Jinx was born. Many people would argue that Jinx was born much earlier and I would be inclined to agree but I think the moment Jinx takes her seat in episode 9 is the moment that Jinx the loose cannon was born. This moment and the scenes that directly lead up to and follow it are so masterfully framed with the use of music only solidifying it as a rebirth of sorts and I’d like to get into why. This is my (probably) overly long analysis/breakdown of a scene that is one of my favorites in the whole show. The film nerd/student in me couldn’t resist a thorough breakdown of this scene.

I’m going to focus on Jinx in this post (clearly) and it will almost be a shot for shot breakdown of the moments leading up to the shot above.

I’m going to start here, right after Silco passes away in Jinx’s arms (in yet another masterful contrast to Vi and Vander). Right here when she opens her eyes. The look on her face is one of resignation. The voices whisper incoherently and then stop as the music quietens. And Jinx rises to her feet. Right here is the shift within Jinx and it’s shown most prominently in the framing, which goes from a wide shot of Jinx on her knees crying before a dead Silco to a close up shot of her resigned and tired face, and the sound, which goes from the score “You’re perfect” being the loudest noise in the scene to becoming quieter and overtaken by the whispers in her head.

The next part has Jinx standing up and slowly walking away from Silco’s chair. She stops to look back at Silco one more time while Vi is trying to comfort her. She avoids looking over at Vi Until she sits in the chair (a little bit later). The score turns from sad to more sinister. This shift in the music is very notable because of when it happens, right after Vi calls Jinx “Powder”. Jinx doesn’t show any acknowledgement to Vi. That isn’t who Jinx is anymore. There’s no ounce of Powder left.

There’s a very purposeful divide between Jinx and everything else. She’s boxed in by candles on each side. She’s separated from the back of Silco’s chair and the hex crystal and the edge of the frame. She’s noticeably boxed in with the Jinx chair. It makes her look trapped. Almost like a sealing of her fate but also it shows that all her allegiances are gone. She’s separated from the most notable symbols of Zaun (Silco) and Piltover (the hex crystal) in the room. Her only allegiance now is to herself, Jinx. The candlestick at the edge of the frame can also signify her divide and separation from her sister. Further separating her from everything else.

Then we get another close up of Jinx from the middle of her chest up with her eyes obscured. These frames are noticeably separated by Vi trying and failing to reassure Powder. It cuts from Vi when she says “It’s okay” to this shot back to Vi again when she says “We’ll be okay” back to this same shot. Jinx is trying to keep her breathing even and just like Vi we can’t totally tell what Jinx is thinking. We know that she doesn’t agree with Vi based on her body language and the hitch in her breathing each time Vi tries to say they’re okay, but the hair in her eyes keeps us from getting the full picture.

Jinx uses her gun to tap on the chair and move it out to sit on. The score has one final sinister tone that matches with Jinx’s first tap before cutting out all together and the only noise is diegetic (noise that the characters in the story can hear). The lack of outside noise simultaneously makes the following scenes more eerie and more personal.

It cuts to a shot from above of Jinx in front of the chair. It’s at what could be a bird's eye view above the scene. It’s a high angle which is commonly used to convey the psychological vulnerability of the character in the scene or how something holds power over the character in frame. It’s not necessarily the chair that has power over Jinx but the name written on the chair. This is emphasized by the fact that the name Jinx is legible even from this angle and the bright color it is written in is in complete contrast with all the rest of the much more muted colors of the scene. Even Jinx’s blue hair is lit in a way that makes it blend in more with the surroundings than it. 

This shot is used to be put in contrast with the next one that utilizes the superior angle. The name has power over Jinx but she is accepting the name or reclaiming it in a way. It’s meant to be different than when she first took on the name all those years ago where she seems to have taken it out of guilt and a blind attempt to reclaim it. 

The next shot is of Jinx alone in the frame from the waist up. Everyone else is angled out of the frame and the angle of the camera is a superior angle from the top of the chair looking up at Jinx. This shot is used to make the character in frame seem strong and powerful, imposing. This scene is eerily quiet as Jinx stands above the seat. The only source of light is hitting her from behind causing her front to be bathed in shadow making the glowing purple of her eyes stand out. Because everyone else is angled out of the frame she is surrounded by inky blackness. She isn’t framed like a lone figure rising or coming into her power. It instead feels like a tragic moment of someone who held so much promise and potential to change the world for the better falling to her darker nature due to failings outside her control (the shimmer which is glowing in her eyes, Silco who she is facing, and the dinner table of her dead family and Vi which she has her back to). She has also literally and metaphorically turned her back to the light (which can be the candles or Vi or any semblance of peace that she will shatter with fishbones). 

It’s important though that this final choice is all her’s. There’s no one behind her pushing her towards the chair. The whispering is quiet for once so all the thoughts running through her head are her own. It’s a tragedy because of all the things outside of her control but also because this choice is purely her own.

Jinx then sits and it starts on a close up of her face with her eyes closed, the music is still nonexistent, we are left to stew in the moment with Vi and Jinx before she looks up and we get the iconic shot.

This is the first time she has looked at Vi since she shot Silco. And it’s at this moment that the song “What could have been” starts playing softly in the background. Jinx has made that final leap, she has made the decision to become the loose cannon that she is in canon and her next actions will solidify that. The song starting up is indicative of the sad reality that in this moment all those what ifs that the audience and Vi have been hoping for are only “what could have been”. Jinx the loose cannon is a reality and Powder and the idea of Vi and her becoming a family again are gone. The shot is straight on. We are looking at Jinx as who she really is for the first time. We are witnessing a rebirth.

Something Jinx drew for Silco, probably.

i'd like to think that jinx cut off her hair cause silco used to braid it

"Nothing Ever Stays Dead..."

Finally finished my Season 2 Silco Fan Poster, just in time for Arctober prompt #5 "Legacy"

This was created in Ibispaint X.

Brushes used:

Dip Pen (Hard)

Opacity < 100%, gives it a painterly look)

Dip Pen (Soft)

Airbrush

Flat Watercolor (Mix 2)

Flat Watercolor (Water)

Used to blend, gives it a painterly look

Dip Pen (Bleed)

Used for blood, gives unpredictable edges

Sputtering 1

Flecks of blood

Custom Hair

Strands of hair

Without text and Jinx Glitch

Layers

Silco: My parenting style with Jinx was very simple, I just let her express all the anger and hatred she had inside, until it eventually ran itself out.

*explosions and screams in the background*

Silco: Unfortunately, I did not realize how much anger and hatred could actually fit inside a small, young girl. So that’s my bad.

I can't be the only one who sees it

ARCANE + PARALLELS

Daily 😭

crying over them is a crucial part of my daily routine

I often think about that scene of Sevika being soft and advising Silco about Jinx. I often think about the fact that she knew Powder before. I wonder if after Silco took her in, Sevika ever tied her shoes, watched her play, or picked her up when she fell. I wonder what it was like for Sevika to watch Silco destroy a little girl's sanity and know she couldn't do anything about it.