Discussing the Treatment of Vi in Arcane Season 2

[Winter]

Of all the characters in Arcane season 2 I feel that Vi got the shortest end of the stick. Something I talked with my sister about before was how few fights Vi won in the first season and was unable to save her sister in any meaningful way in season 1 which made sense it was a tragedy. Everything was set up for Vi to fail and we figured that season 2 would give her more to do, allow her to grow and change.

And then season 2 pretty much retreaded her overall arc in season 1. Vi is unable to save her sister in any meaningful way, finds comfort in her relationship with Caitlyn and while she is somewhat better it feels like almost nothing changed. Vi accomplishes pretty much nothing and what's worse in the unfortunate, however unintentional, implications of episode 7. But before I get to that let's cover the major plot points that Vi is tied to and see how much she influences the story.

Stopping Jinx, failed and even if she had killed her Jinx would have insured that both of them were dead and she still would have unleashed the Grey in the city.

Tries to be a voice of reason to Cait, failed and Cait becomes a dictator.

Saving her dad, failed and he nearly kills both Vi and Jinx. And she didn't even know about Vander until Jinx told her.

Saving her sister, failed and it takes Ekko talking to her to try and make her see reason.

Tries to save Vander and Jinx, both failed and Jinx has to save Vi and then herself.

The only thing that works out for her is her relationship with Cait who she does manage to get through to and make her see reason but that's rather anti-climatic as she just as to call her cupcake one time and she's already back on Vi's side.

And then we have episode 7. Now this was clearly not intended by the creators as the episode itself makes clear, several times, that the reason this alternate timeline turned out okay was due to Hex tech not being made and the world would be better off without it.

Unfortunately more people walked away from this episode with the idea that since this was the world that was pretty much perfect with everyone all smiles and hugs was the one where Vi was dead. Giving the impression that everyone would be better off if Vi would just die and leave everyone in peace which is several layers of bad and I hope Riot fixes this in later season of the series. Again, I know that's wasn't the intention but people apply more importance to what we see then what we hear.

The more I think about it, the more I dislike Season 2 of Arcane. The first season is great but the second season... ugh.

It's not bad, we're not talking about an Uwe Boll film and it has a lot of interesting ideas, great characters and iconic moments but the rushed nature of the season combined with more questionable creative choices really hurt it.

It's like X-Men 3 The Last Stand or The Last of Us Part 2, individual scenes or smaller moments can be and are great but when you take a step back and look at the story as a whole it quickly falls apart as you notice the flaws more. And the closely you look at it the more obvious the flaws are.

[hammerofglass]

I disagree about episode 7. I don't think part of the audience choosing to willfully misunderstand something the show both explicitly spells out in small words and clearly shows on screen even counts as a criticism of the show itself.

I mean I hate that episode for unrelated reasons (some of the parts where they played with the framerate I couldn't look at the screen because it makes my head hurt) but the reverse Wonderful Life reading is stretching so far they'll do themselves an injury.

[CharlesPhipps]

I think Vi also had a problem with self-actualization.

Arcane Season 2 is all about moving everyone from their TV show personalities to something closer in the games.

That ABSOLUTELY means Vi is going to be a Enforcer and a brutal one at that.

And the writers didn't want to do that.

They decided to essentially focus on her relationship instead, which is a shame.

[Madner Kami]

Giving the impression that everyone would be better off if Vi would just die and leave everyone in peace which is several layers of bad and I hope Riot fixes this in later season of the series.

Why? Sometimes someone not being around is a catalyst for healing and peace. Why isn't it allowed to be like this in this case?

[Winter]

Giving the impression that everyone would be better off if Vi would just die and leave everyone in peace which is several layers of bad and I hope Riot fixes this in later season of the series.

Why? Sometimes someone not being around is a catalyst for healing and peace. Why isn't it allowed to be like this in this case?

In 2016 there was a movie released called Lights Out, in it a monster stalks a family and is tied to one of said family members, one who suffers from depression. During test screenings it was suggested that the film end with Sophie killing herself to stop the monster. This created the unfortunate implication that people with depression should just kill themselves and stop burdening everyone else and this was so badly received that the film's director, David Sandburg, was so disgusted by what this ending ultimately meant that despite writing the film to be a one and done story he is working on a sequel to undo this.

This hit a lot harder for me recently because one of my friends recently took his own life. He was in the military and was kicked out back when Trump first got into office and ordered that Transgenders be banded from the military which included my friend because he was a transman. After Trump was removed from office it took him a full year to get back in and when he learned that Trump was going to be president again and was going to ban trangenders from the military again it was to much for him.

However unintentional this may have been what happens with Vi here gives the impression that some people should just die and leave the rest of us alone. And the show does with a queer character who suffers from depression.

Again, if you watch the episode it's clear that this isn't the intention of the episode making a point that it was the Hextech that was the actual catalyst for everything going wrong and the reason for Vi being the one who died is she's the one we're most familiar with. And her death is shown as a needless tragedy and had she lived and one of her brothers died instead this timeline would still have turned out okay.

But more people walked away from this episode with the idea that everything that went wrong was somehow Vi's fault reinforcing the idea that she created Jinx even though the truth is more complicated then that and Jinx was the result of several factors and characters. The fact that Vi pretty much fails at everything she does in this season and the last has resulted in many fans taking to blame her for everything that's gone wrong and this episode cemented that idea.

"Why don't you do us all a favor and die. We're better off without you."

And do to the rushed nature of this season there is no chance for Vi to prove she has value, that she is only there to hurt others and to be hurt. Which is only made worse when Jinx leaves at the end further implying, again unintentionally, that Jinx will only get better if she gets away from Vi.

I have lost friends because ideas like these keep getting spread around over and over again. And while the show never intended that to be the case that's what some have come away with. A perfect world exists, a world where someone who was as much a victim as anyone else was hurt and was blamed for something that wasn't even really her fault had the decency to die.

Again, not the intention of the writers, but that's how it comes across.

[Madner Kami]

Again, not the intention of the writers, but that's how it comes across.

That's where I disagree. I feel this is because of people desperately trying to make everything about themselves. Not everything happening in a story is a message to the audience or a statement about the audience. Way too many people suffer from main character syndrome.

[hammerofglass]

It's not presented as a perfect world anyway. Powder is still badly traumatized and emotionally crippled by Vi's death seven years later in the alt timeline, her whole storyline in the episode is about that.

Honestly I think 90% of these takes are from people not actually paying attention to the show outside the fight scenes. Or just lacking the emotional maturity to understand it, it does ask a lot more in that regard than most shows or movies do (a low bar).

[Winter]

It's not presented as a perfect world anyway. Powder is still badly traumatized and emotionally crippled by Vi's death seven years later in the alt timeline, her whole storyline in the episode is about that.

Honestly I think 90% of these takes are from people not actually paying attention to the show outside the fight scenes. Or just lacking the emotional maturity to understand it, it does ask a lot more in that regard than most shows or movies do (a low bar).

I mean, you're not wrong. Like I've said this wasn't the intention of the writers and watching the episode shows that this world is only seems better on a surface level. And again, the show presents Vi's death tragic and yeah, most of the people saying this are only seeing it in a more shallow way.

However, I would argue that the show doesn't show how peoples lives are better with Vi in it. Aside from Caitlyn everyone Vi knows is not in the best mental state and Vi doesn't get a chance to help them because the show limits it's use of her. Of the 9 episodes she's out of the picture for 2 of them and with various plot threads that means she has is limited in what she can do.

This is more of a issue with the show trying to do to much which leads to a more rushed pace so a lot gets lost along the way.