arcane spends the first season highlighting how brutal and unforgiving the piltover occupation of zaun is its objectively and cartoonishly evil there are almost no redeeming qualties for it but it all shifts when jinx does the piltover equivalent of 9/11 and the messaging shifts from brutal occupation and conflict to the characters not being able to cope with trauma so they now commit facism
jinx and zaun are constantly shunned by the show while caitlyn and piltover are so quick to be forgiven
but in the end its okay because they find a common enemy and obviously the biggest enemy is collectivisim
the show is so hilariously amercian and lib it is not even funny
caitlyn gets to win the girl but jinx gets so guilty that she tries killing herself multiple times and ends up faking her own death and escaping her only family
i am genuinely so fucking pissed
Love this show to death but if I think too long about the both-sides politics I start to go crazy.
Bizarre that when some of the Zaunites agree to fight alongside the topsiders to stop the techbro-dystopian/feudal-warlord alliance that’s trying to bring about the apocalypse the Zaunites wear the uniform of the Enforcers, the local cops/occupying army that has killed and terrorized the Zaunites for- What? Centuries? At least decades. I could accept them fighting together to stave off a worse enemy, but as depicted I thought it was more than a little distasteful.
It’s just weird how often the show seems to expect viewers to have sympathy for Piltover’s position when it’s shown over and over that they are depriving the Zaunites of all dignity. It’s at least implied that the generation before Vi and Jinx were born as a slave caste in mines underneath Piltover and narrowly won the precarious freedoms we see them with at the start of the show. Though I’m not entirely clear on the lore there.
It’s even reinforced in Episode 7 of Season 2 that in a world where Hextech never exists and also Heimerdinger gives even a little bit of a shit about the people of the Undercity that the entire situation is much much better, though nowhere near parity. But I’m supposed to feel bad that Jinx blew the council to hell?