Headscratchers / Arcane

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Why didn't Vander cut Silco instead of drowning him?

• Given Silco grabbed Vander's knife off his belt and fended him off with it, it's obvious Vander would have been better off using his knife to slit Silco's throat rather than trying to hold him underwater until he drowned. That being said, given Vander stated he regretted the attempt entirely and doesn't begrudge Silco hating him for it, it could be inferred that Vander's heart wasn't truly into his murder attempt so he didn't want to execute Silco in such a certain manner.
  • Vander's a brawler by nature. When "running on automatic," like he was when he was attacking Silco in a rage, it's not all that surprising that he'd fall back on his bare hands rather than using a weapon, even if the knife would be a surer and quicker tool.
  • Vander might have been really pissed at Silco for some reason or another and thought it would be painful and fitting for him to drown in Zaun's waters.

If Silco's eye was scarred from being in the river, why wasn't Vander's stab wound?

• The two of them both had open wounds in a toxic river from Vander's murder attempt, but only Silco appears to have been permanently scarred from it. While Vander's could have been easily hidden under his clothes since it was on his torso, The Law of Conservation of Detail would imply he simply doesn't have such a thing when it could have worked as a symbol of his past and history with Silco if he did.
  • Presumably, since Silco isn't greeted warmly upon sight by Benzo when he sees him, it seems Silco wasn't looked fondly on in Zaun during their previous fight for equality, with it being implied that, similar to Vi and Powder, it was only Vander who stood between him and the consequences of his decisions. When Vander turned on him, it seems Silco had to flee the city immediately for his life, thus presumably being unable to get his infected wounds properly treated, whereas Vander was able to get his allies to somewhat disinfect his own injuries. Additionally, Silco's wound was submerged beneath the waterline for a significant period of time, whereas Vander's injuries were all on his upper torso, and thus he was able to keep them out of the polluted water for the most part.

Details of Jinx's Pentakill

• So, Jinx bombing the council chambers was a brilliant scene that brought the character full circle, and there's essays that have been written about why she decided to kill the council and solidify herself as Jinx. But I'm more wondering about the details of how she pulled this off. Mainly due to it being ambiguous about how aware of the situation Jinx is at any given time. Firstly, how did she know the council was voting for peace in the first place? Silco told her about the offer, but he didn't mention them having a vote on the matter (assuming he even knew). Secondly, how did she know they were meeting right then and right there?
  • She might not know either thing, and is just attacking the Council for its own sake. That would open up a few new avenues of conflict for next season.
  • Even in that case, how did she know the council was meeting at that time? It was late in the evening, when most people are going home, and it was really far away so I highly doubt she could see them through the window.
  • Again, she might not have. An attack on the building alone is pretty serious. It could be that next season Jinx finds out that the Council was in session, and how much deeper trouble that puts her (and Zaun) in.
  • Attacking the seat of a government is a pretty serious message, even if the building is deserted. Also, Jinx might not have even aimed at the council room directly, and just at the tallest building she could see. Plus, the entire series had a recurring theme that every time Powder takes direct action to try to accomplish something on her own, there are dire unforeseen consequences that bite her in the backside, jinxing the entire situation.
  • Come to think of it, perhaps she expected the chambers to be empty because of the time of the day. As far as she knew, the conditions were that she had to give herself in, and even that was made with Silco in place. With him dead, who's to say Piltover won't go back on their concessions and decide to double down on crushing Zaun by force? Blowing up the council building would serve as an effective show of strength, give them pause and hopefully bring them back to the table. Of course, it would've helped to make sure the chambers were actually empty, but that's where Jinx' tendency to not think things through kicked in.

"Where is your sister?"

• How did Silco know that Powder and Vi were sisters? They just met.
  • Surely Silco knows about Vander's adopted kids.
  • Silco has informants all of the city. We saw that he knew about them as early as the first episode (when their heist was reported to him.)

Why doesn't Caitlyn have trouble breathing in Zaun?

• The show establishes that the air in Zaun is polluted, and downright toxic in the depths of the city. However, in episode 6 Caitlyn follows Vi to what seems to be the lowest of said depths, and she never seems to have trouble breathing.
  • The air in most of Zaun isn't polluted enough that supplemental air is required for topsiders; Enforcers wear their air filtration masks partly out of prejudice. Other Piltovians like Grayson and Jayce also go without any sort of mask without issue. The really bad air, such as what Silco used on the chem-barons, is specifically from the mines.

Does Jinx know what happened to Ekko?

• I don't really get if Jinx knew what happened to Ekko from the night Vander died, to when she sees him next and calls him "The Boy Savior". Does Jinx know what happened to him during the time skip? Or did she see Ekko on the bridge, recognise him - just like Vi did - and make a educated guess on what he was doing? If the second is true, would Jinx even know about Ekko's connection to the Firelights?
  • Jinx's use of the title implies that Ekko's actions in creating and protecting the sanctuary are known. It's possible that she didn't know Ekko was The Boy Savior until she saw him on the bridge, but Ekko never made much of an effort to conceal his identity. It's not surprising that a well-connected underworld enforcer would know of his exploits (even if she hadn't connected them to him until then).
  • Follow up: You're right, Jinx probably knew about Ekko's actions under the mask, and would've put it together by the bridge scene, but did Jinx know Ekko was alive?

Where did the Firelighters' hoverboards come from?

• They look decades ahead of other non-hextech based technology, and even the portable hextech is a very recent development. So where did a street gang get them? Who invented/made them and why is there no other comparable vehicles or weapons?
  • Their green glow is similar to that of those used by the Chem Guards, so there is likely a third, fairly common non-Shimmer or Hextech power source that exists. It's also possible that's the extent of their advancements as it's merely a hoverboard while Hextech devices borderline on magical.
  • From a mechanical standpoint, they're essentially just small VTOL aircraft that seem to control similar to something like a Onewheel or real-life wheeled hoverboards, and are probably made from scavenged or stolen materials. Complicated, but not so much that it's out of the question that Ekko could have designed them after much tinkering. "You'd be surprised what you can pull off when your life depends on it," as he says.

Where are all the colorful-haired people?

• Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn and the Firelight girl with pink hair stick out like a sore thumb among a world of people with realistic colors of hair. They are shown with this color growing up implying they are natural. Where are all the other people with naturally bright hair or why are these select few the only ones with such trait?

Ekko could have stayed with Powder

• So why couldn't Vi have Ekko stay with Powder while they were off to rescue Vander?
  • Vi had to move very fast once she realized what was going on, and Ekko had just gone through something extremely traumatizing. Vi didn't want to cause Ekko more stress by forcing him to go somewhere, and maybe didn't even have the time to track him down and ask him to stay with Powder.

Stillwater's Inmate Increase

• So Vi's prison number is 516, which is a little joke about double meaning for the tattoo on her face (because V=5, I=1, VI=6, and Vi spells Vi, her name), but that still means Vi was the 516th prisoner to go to Stillwater Hold, which happened pre-timeskip. And the prisoner Caitlyn asked to speak too after the timeskip was inmate number 2135. In about five years, less than a decade, the number of inmates increased by about 400% (please correct my math if I did it wrong). And all over the city, nobody is acting weird at all. No curfew, no more officers than usual, nothing to indicate high crime rates. How? Is Silco just hauling Vander's old friend off to Stillwater with Marcus' help just because he can or something like that?
  • In that time Silco cranks up Shimmer production and spreads it through Zaun and even gets it into Piltover. Widespread drug abuse (especially a drug that doubles as Psycho Serum) could well account for that spike in crime.
  • We also don't know if they re-use prisoner numbers. There probably aren't over two thousand inmates in the prison right then, that's how many have cycled through.
    • If there's not at least 2,000 prisoners in Stillwater, then why does the inmate have the number 2135? Shouldn't it be a smaller number, especially if they re-use prisoner numbers?
    • Who said there aren't 2,000+ prisoners? The question was whether the numbers of inmates increased dratically during the timeskip, and there's no reason to conclude that from the two numbers we're given alone, at least not definitely.
    • The numbers could be a code of some kind. Or just arbitrarily assigned from a pool at random.

Using the Hexgate for shipping

• From what I can tell, the Hexgate is a magical catapult that can launch airships to destinations that would normally take them months to reach on their own. There doesn't seem to be any sign of it being anything other than a one-way trip, meaning the ships would have to come back the long way. Baring setting up more Hexgates in other cities, something that would put them outside of Piltover's control, I don't see an effective way of recovering them. Do they just have dozens of ships?