Arcane - Zaun and Piltover

The Arcane fandom hurts my soul. Firstly, they completely misunderstand the context of class divides in arcane and glorify every single Zaunite regardless of their actions and hate every rich person which pisses me off. 

Jinx is the biggest example of this, she is NOT a revolutionary or an advocate against Piltover she is the furthest thing from it. 

Silco too. 

Silco exploited the position Zaun was put in by Piltover, Shimmer is the only medicine we're aware is available in Zaun. He produced Shimmer factories and literally forced children to work under him,in those factories and exploited the poor to work for him and get their families involved for shimmer or safety in hopes he'd free Zaun. And who was right there behind him, producing weapons for him without question? jinx.

Jinx didn't blow up the council as an act of revolution, she did it out of her own anger. She didn't steal the hex gem out of revolution or kill enforcers. Is it because they abused her under classist rule? Yes. But is it for a cause? No. Personal hatred.

She blew up the council which cause Piltover to become more aggressive to Zaun and cause problems for Zaunites as they saw her as their savior Silco was meant to be and they wanted her to help them SO bad yet she NEVER showed once. She stayed in her lair and didn't show up for own people. That's the whole point, she was turned into a symbol she wasn't and didn't want to be. And also she didn't break out Zaunites from stillwater cause she wanted to, it was for Isha and they happened to be freed coincidentally. Honestly the whole plotline felt rushed and dumb to me.

Yet people swear Jinx is this amazing revolutionist symbol for Zaun when she didn't show up for her people and exploited them for years, or at least aided Silco in his exploitation, and was a terrorist.

But let's take a look at Piltover. Mel, Jayce and Caitlyn.

I think Mels spot on the council doesn't get discussed nearly as much as it should. I adore Mel but she stood for prosperity for Piltover, not Zaun, who are her people. She neglected them for years despite her being a valuable councillor who is incredibly intelligent and manipulative and persuasive. But she negelected their issues and she was not held responsible for that in the fandom or in the show which annoys me. I love her but she never saw what her neglect caused.

Jayce and Caitlyn hate is rooted in lies ngl. A moment in arcane that annoyed me was when Vi told Jayce he never had to look Zaunites suffering in the eye. But what needs to be understood is that Jayce was a SCIENTIST, not a politician. He had no authority on how Hextech would be used and his opinion on its use was a mere suggestion to the council. And the moment he became a councillor he started killing himself trying to ease relations with Piltover and Zaun, and negotiated a peace with Silco, something that none of the councillors, including Mel and Cassandra, did. He made ONE classist comment to Vitkor and immediately apologised, and everything else was him genuinely caring. He took down a shimmer factory that was used to exploit Zaunites and the MOMENT he harmed a child he pulled back.

Now, Caitlyn. Personally, I believe there are valid reasons to hate her, but people love lying about her. Cait had been a sheltered, privileged rich girl and in S1 we see she has incredible compassion and empathy for Zaunites when she sees their suffering first hand. I believe her anger was completely justified. Jinx hated Caitlyn because of her own delusions which of course, aren't her fault since her mental illness was fed into by Silco but nonetheless it was all in her head. Cait was kidnapped by Jinx, we have NO clue what Jinx did to her while she was captured, and then she watched helplessly as a bomb gets launched at her mother. That's horrifying. And to her, it happened because she held back on Jinx. 

So, lets see why most people hate Caitlyn.

1. She's classist and called Zaunites animals

2. She gassed Zaun

These aren't entirely true. Caitlyn did release the grey but it was only in specific areas where Silco's goons would reside or more specifically, Jinx. While it was definitely extreme and horrible she did not gas all of Zaun and did not harm citizens. She was actively against that when speaking with Ambessa.

She did not call all Zaunites animals. She called Silco's henchmen animals for trashing a memorial.

"What kind of animals" as in "What kind of animals would attack a funeral?" Which, in my opinion, is understandable. She was NOT calling Zaunites animals. And also her attacks weren't rooted in classism or classist ideals, she doesn't hate Zaun or Zaunites, it was Jinx she despised. And are we forgetting that Jinx hung a guy over the gas and Caitlyn helped him off of it???

However I do think it is fair to be angry that after S1 she didn't try to help Zaun at all as she was hunting Jinx so angerily even though she witnessed the suffering first hand.

Of course none of this is blaming Jinx or Mel and completely excusing Jayce and Caitlyn. They all have understandable reasons for their faults, grief, ignorance, manipulation, trauma, mental illness, but I'm saying the arcane fandom can't see past that.