these are not fully formed thoughts but there’s something in arcane about personal change versus change in perspective. it could be a coincidence maybe, or like…just something that kind of happens in every story, but when you have foils like jinx and caitlyn who exist on opposite ends of this spectrum, it starts to feel more intentional.
jinx underwent drastic and permanent personal change, but experienced very little change in her perspectives on the world. she maintained a childish, black and white view of the city and people around her through the entire show. “enforcers bad, upper city bad, council bad, pilties barely human.” her final action in the first season is in part driven by this inability to learn to see the world differently.
caitlyn on the other hand didn’t change very much at all on a personal level. she was always kind, altruistic, and invested in the wellbeing of others, but i think out of all the characters she went through the most extreme change in her perspective. she always cared about the plight of the undercity, but at the start of the show she was nearly as out of touch as any other wealthy piltover citizen. it isn’t until she’s plunged into the darkest depths of the undercity that she really starts to understand the problems that are tearing the two sides of the city apart.
i won’t get into them right now but think we’ve got similar dynamics with these characters:
(jayce and viktor, especially on jayce’s end, is a little less clear cut but i think it still applies, and there are probably other examples too that i just don’t have the brain cells to think about right now)
it’s some kind of dichotomy between people who will change the actions they’re willing to take in pursuit of a goal, versus people who will shift their goals in order to act on what they think is right.
and as i’m a vi stan first and foremost it’s interesting to me that vi seems to kind of be in a constant battle against both types of change, as if she’s experiencing things that COULD change her if she would let them but is stubbornly trying to cling to both her worldview and her self as they’ve been in the past. she takes a half a step towards one of the other, realizes it’ll be difficult, and immediately retreats again. she tries to change herself in episode 2, to turn herself in to protect those she loves instead of fighting, but when that fails she digs her claws into her old self and refuses to let go, spending the rest of the season in full-steam-ahead “fists first” mode. meeting caitlyn and then teaming up with jayce has the potential to change her perspective, but the moment that goes wrong in her eyes she falls right back to “this is how it’s always been and it can’t change”
anyway i’m not really going anywhere with this so i’m gonna stop rambling but it’s something that stood out to me as i rewatched the show on some long plane rides over the last week
