Season 1 Failed Vi Too. Jinx Was Always The Writers' Priority.

Season 1 failed Vi too. Jinx was always the writers' priority.

The way Arcane (even in Season 1) didn't address Vi's trauma from being imprisoned in Torture Jail as a child, gets even more egregious when compared to how Jinx's trauma was handled. From the very beginning, it was clear that the writers cared far more about Jinx than Vi.

I'm gonna focus only on Season 1 and ignore Season 2 (which is a whole other can of worms), because I want to highlight that the problems with Vi's writing already existed since the first season. So many people who are critical of Vi's writing in Season 2 praise her writing in Season 1, so I want to push back on that. Because Season 1 already failed Vi. Season 2 just multiplied that by 100.

Now, what Jinx went through in s1e3 was horrific and definitely enough to break a child's sanity. No denying that. Add to that her entire childhood leading up to that point, as well as preexisting mental illness, and the mental state of Jinx that we saw in episodes 4-9 was 100% realistic and believable. Even though she was taken in by Silco, then raised with tons of affection and validation, none of that was enough to heal her trauma. Good writing, no notes. Then we have Vi. Vi also went through season 1 episode 3, and her side of things were, in my opinion, just as potentially sanity-breaking. Then, she was immediately kidnapped and thrown into Torture Jail. As a child. In this jail, she was taken in by no one. Given affection and validation by no one. She got brutally beaten so many times that the wardens lost count. She felt crippling grief and guilt and worry the whole time but had no one to confide her feelings with. She had nothing.

At the same time as all this, Jinx had affection. She had validation. She had someone to confide her feelings with. Someone who even related to her trauma and could empathize. If anyone had hurt a hair on Jinx's head, Silco would have had them skinned alive. Silco was also the richest man in Zaun and its crime leader, so Jinx essentially grew up as the closest thing Zaun has to a princess. A mafia princess with an overly doting dad/trauma buddy. Remember, despite all this comfort, Jinx was still realistically shown to be horribly mentally damaged, and her trauma explored deeply and extensively in the show.

But Vi, who had none of the comforts Jinx did during the same duration of years, and received all the physical and mental abuse that Jinx didn't, somehow came out of the timeskip considerably saner and more well-adjusted than Jinx. Not only that, she also came out of the timeskip more forgiving and charitable towards enforcers than she was before her torturous imprisonment. And significantly more forgiving and charitable towards enforcers than Jinx, despite Jinx being immune to any enforcer abuse during the timeskip thanks to Silco having Marcus by the balls.

..........

Do you see why this writing is completely unbelievable and illogical? The excuses people give for this are:

1) "Vi is just that tough. She is mentally stronger than Jinx so it takes more to break her."

... sorry, but no 15-year-old on earth is so mentally tough that years of prolonged physical torture, verbal abuse, minimal sunlight, poor nutrition, no love or support, zero positive relationships, no proper medical care, and no psychological or psychiatric intervention, doesn't destroy them. Find me an example of a kid in real life who went through the equivalent of that and came out mostly sane, quipping and immediately ready to flirt with the cops.

2) "But Vi's trauma was shown in Season 1! She hallucinates Powder in the slums and also has a few lines saying how much prison sucked".

The Powder hallucinations occured while she was stabbed and delirious from blood loss. In every other scene, she showed no signs of mental illness. Her one or two lines saying Prison Bad were just that. Throwaway lines. If you removed them, would you be able to guess that Vi suffered in prison as a child? The Vi who is flirting and rapidly falling in love with an enforcer? No, from her behavior, you'd have no idea what she went through. Compare this to Jinx: If you removed all the verbal lines talking about the events of s1e3, would you still be able to guess what Jinx went through? Yes. Because it is shown in her character through more than just throwaway lines. It is shown visually, mentally, behaviorally.

3) "Vi just got lucky in genetics. Schizophrenia is hereditary and Powder was the unlucky child."

But Jinx's hallucinations aren't the only way her trauma is shown. Her entire personality is a response to her trauma. Even while lucid, she behaves in such a way that it's unmistakable this girl went through something fucked up as a child. Vi doesn't necessarily have to hallucinate or speak to dolls in order to show her trauma. The show just didn't bother to show it in any way whatsoever.

4) "Vi was hyper focused on her goal of killing Silco, and was suppressing the prison trauma."

So that means it should have been shown in Season 2 right? After Silco died and the dust settled? Guess what. It wasn't. The hallucinations she had in s2e5? All about Caitlyn and her break-up. Nothing about prison, Jinx, Vander, Mylo, Claggor, Benzo, Ekko, nothing. But then again, even Jinx's trauma responses were erased in Season 2 so like I said, Season 2 is another can of worms.

5) "Caitlyn is just that wonderful and kind and perfect and sweet that only 3 days with her undid 7 years' impact of torturous jail time and prior 15 years of class oppression."

Lol. Lmao even. That's all I can say.

TLDR: Vi during the Season 1 timeskip arguably faced a shit ton more physical, emotional, and mental torture than Jinx did, and it's illogical writing that she wasn't equally or even more damaged than Jinx. Even taking into account factors like Jinx's pre-existing mental illness or Vi's super duper ultra internal strength, it's still not believable. The fact is, Jinx has always been the writers' favourite. They did not care about writing/developing Vi's character as much as Jinx's. Season 1 already showed this. Vi deserved better from the start.