VANDER. You know, but you don’t know. When people look up to you, you don’t get
to be selfish.
VI. I’m not…
VANDER. You say run, they run. You say
swim, they dive in. You say light a fire, they show up with oil. But whatever
happens, it’s on you.
HEIMERDINGER. Imprisonment. What a curious principle. We confine the physical body, yet the mind is still free. I do love a good conundrum.
JAYCE. Surely, we, the pioneers of science, can use [the Arcane] for good. We’re the champions of discovery. Why fear it when we can master it? This is the city of progress, think of the wonders we could create.
SILCO. I’d like to let you in on a very important secret I learned when I was about your age, boy. You see, power, real power doesn’t come to those who were born strongest, or fastest, or smartest. No. It comes to those who will do anything to achieve it.
MARCUS. You people down here are all the same, mistaking arrogance for bravery. You think you’re standing up for something, but we all know there is a crime behind every coin that passes through this place. You;re just a small man in a little hole the world forgot to bury. And I’m gonna bury the lot of you.
SILCO. Ever wonder what it’s like to drown? Story of opposites. There’s peace in water. Like it’s holding you, whispering in low tones to let it in. And every problem in the world will fade away. But then there’s this thing… In your head, and it’s raging. Lighting every nerve with madness. To fight. To survive. And all the while, this question lingers before you: Have you had enough? It’s funny. You could pass a lifetime without ever facing a choice like that. But it changes you forever. For that, I thank you… old friend.
SILCO. It’s a little crude, I’ll admit. The base violence necessary for change.
But we both know topside won’t listen to anything else.
…
VANDER.
In fighting topside, you’d sacrifice everything that we are. It’s not the way.
Can’t you see that? Kill me if you have to, but please spare the Lanes.
SILCO. You’d die for the cause, but you won’t fight for one?
VIKTOR. We’ve found a means to fortify the crystals. This new version is stable
and absolutely safe. We present to you the next chapter of Hextech. We can now
design portable devices. The Gemstone can power virtually anything. The Atlas
Gauntlets. The mining colonies in the fissures can work faster and without
fatigue. The Hex Claw. A mechanical arm, equipped with a powerful ray of light.
Imagine what our artificers could do with such a device. I want Hextech to be a
tool for us to build a new world. And now, it’s finally possible.
HEIMERDINGER. Quite amazing, gentlemen. You should be very proud. Obviously,
there are a few kinks to iron out and screws to be tightened, but give it a
decade of careful research, and it will be ready.
VIKTOR. With respect,
Professor. We can be improving lives with Hextech now.
HEIMERDINGER. A
breakthrough like this takes time, Viktor. Putting that kind of power into
everyone’s hands is dangerous. Keep at it and I’m sure you will discover a way
to safeguard Hextech against misuse.
JAYCE. I can’t compromise the safety of the Hexgates for collateral.
MEL.
No one’s asking you to. These are simply favors amongst friends.
SILCO. What is truth, but a survivor’s story?
SILCO. Hmm? Imagining yourself a hero? One final act to make you the martyr you’ve always seen yourself as? Then what are you waiting for?
SINGED. I know the look of a doomed man. I must warn you. If you take this path, they will despise you. Love and legacy are the sacrifices we make for progress. It’s why I parted ways with Heimerdinger.
AMBESSA. Kill her now, and only one must die. Let her live and you may need to kill thousands.
AMBESSA. It’s not conjecture, it’s a fact. Weapons can’t be unmade and they are always used.
JAYCE. I could have you arrested.
VI. You guys really like to bandy that
threat around. You ever been to Stillwater?
JAYCE. No.
VI. So you
just wave an arm, have someone dragged off, don’t bother to find out what it
does to someone being stuffed in a stone box for weeks, or months, or even
years?
VI. You’ve always been a part of this. You just never had to look it in the eye. One dead kid? There’s hundreds more where he came from, thanks to Silco, and thanks to people like you who stuck their heads in the dirt.
VIKTOR. We lost ourselves. Lost our dream. In the pursuit of great, we failed to do good. We have to make it right.
SILCO. A thousand times I’ve imagined this moment. Never like this. All we ever wanted. The boy didn’t even haggle. And what do I lose but problems? Oh, it all makes sense now, brother. Is there anything so undoing as a daughter?
JINX. Well, it’s all going to shit. Chembarons warring for control of the Lanes. Wannabe street thugs squabbling over scraps. Except this time… you aren’t here to put it all back together, because… Because someone put all those holes in you.
VIKTOR. Cold. No, I don’t think so. I sense a charge. A potential. A recursive impulse. Unpleasant, but… “cold” isn’t its name.
JAYCE. The mesh is above-ground, but we weren’t sure what would happen if the
gate was overloaded, so we installed a failsafe at the base.
EKKO. So
instead of it exploding in your neighborhood, it would blow up in ours.
We’re miles from the main fissures.
EKKO. These are the same utility ducts
that carry our water and facilitate our ventilation. That would explain it
affecting the tree.
JAYCE. Inconceivable.
EKKO. You know, you say we
should feel like we’re all one people. But whenever it rains, we’re the ones
that get wet…
AMBESSA. What greater cause is there than returning peace to this city?
CAITLYN. Why is peace always the justification for violence?
AMBESSA. In my experience, only guilty men answer accusations with silence.
SINGED. In my experience, no one in power is innocent.
SINGED. I’ve been expecting you.
AMBESSA. Confident, aren’t you?
SINGED. It’s always the same look when one covets a weapon.
SINGED. Why does anyone commit acts others deem unspeakable? For love. Perhaps,
in another life… you would have been friends. Everything I’ve done is to cure
her.
CAITLYN. Precisely what are you trying to cure?
SINGED. That
affliction we all suffer. Death. Imagine a world that no longer need fear it.
SINGED. His quest led him astray of any trodden path. His own shadow dissolved to darkness. Now the only course was forward. The only warmth, a dream of her waltz. Knowledge is a paradox. The more one understands, the more one realizes the vastness of his ignorance.
VIKTOR. I understand now. The message hidden within the pattern. The reason for our failures in the commune. The doctor was right. It’s inescapable. Humanity. Our very essence. Our emotions… Rage. Compassion. Hate. Two sides of the same coin. Inextricably bound. That which inspires us to our greatest good… is also the cause of our greatest evil.
SILCO. Killing is a cycle. One that started long before Vander and me. And it will continue long after the two of you. I’m done running in circles. We build our own prisons. Bars forged of oaths, codes, and commitments. Walls of self-doubt and accepted limitation. We inhabit these cells, these identities, and call them “us”. I thought I could break free by eliminating those I deemed my jailors. But… Jinx… I think the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away.
MEL. You taught me the best lies come wrapped in truth. What really happened to
Kino?
AMBESSA. Your brother was struck with curiosity. He got caught in
their web and, with every action, grew more deeply entangled.
MEL. So you
let him die?
AMBESSA. I carried him in my belly, nursed him from my bosom.
He has all the sweetness in my heart. For that, they took him, carved me a wound
that will never close. I pray you never suffer the agony of being forced to
forsake one child to save another.
VIKTOR. It is the answer you and I pursued all our lives. And end to cruelty,
injustice. All of us our own authors to an unbroken saga of progress. To the
benefit of all.
JAYCE. People deserve to choose their own fates.
VIKTOR. Choice is false. It is how we clothe and forgive the baser instincts
that spur us to division. Death, war, prejudice. Energy spent only to consume
itself. But we can be of one mind. United.
VIKTOR. I know their minds, Jayce. They want better lives, but emotion clashes with reason. Humanity’s self-corrupting contradiction.
VIKTOR. I thought I could bring an end to the world’s suffering. But when every equation was solved… all that remained… were fields of dreamless solitude. There is no prize to perfection. Only an end to pursuit.
CAITLYN. You may read about the war in Piltover. But history is made palatably abstract. For its truth… the agony of every sacrifice… the exaltation of every triumph… is more than one should bear. We… whose decisions led us here, will carry them forever. Our only consolation is that with every loss, we found some good, some light, worth gaining, worth fighting for. And though we are doomed to revisit the error of our ways… spark ever more conflicts… our story isn’t over.
- Arcane S01E01. Welcome to the Playground. Nov 6, 2021.
- Arcane S01E02. Some Mysteries Are Better Left Unsolved. Nov 6, 2021.
- Arcane S01E03. The Base Violence Necessary for Change. Nov 6, 2021.
- Arcane S01E04. Happy Progress Day! Nov 13, 2021.
- Arcane S01E05. Everybody Wants to Be My Enemy. Nov 13, 2021.
- Arcane S01E06. When These Walls Come Tumbling Down. Nov 13, 2021.
- Arcane S01E07. The Boy Savior. Nov 20, 2021.
- Arcane S01E08. Oil and Water. Nov 20, 2021.
- Arcane S01E09. The Monster You Created. Nov 20, 2021.
- Arcane S02E01. Heavy Is the Crown. Nov 6, 2021.
- Arcane S02E02. Watch It All Burn. Nov 6, 2021.
- Arcane S02E03. Finally Got the Name Right. Nov 6, 2021.
- Arcane S02E04. Paint the Town Blue. Nov 13, 2021.
- Arcane S02E05. Blisters and Bedrock. Nov 13, 2021.
- Arcane S02E06. The Message Hidden Within the Pattern. Nov 13, 2021.
- Arcane S02E07. Pretend Like It's the First Time. Nov 20, 2021.
- Arcane S02E08. Killing Is a Cycle. Nov 20, 2021.
- Arcane S02E09. The Dirt Under Your Nails. Nov 20, 2021.