[0:00]The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but it's also paved with our own emotional baggage. While Arcane's Vander wanted what he thought was best for Zaun, he halted when faced with the death and destruction of his past. While he likely thought he was doing the right thing by drowning Silco, he accidentally created one of Zaun's most vicious overlords. And while he wanted what was best for his children, especially Vi, much of what Vander thought was best was shaped by the pain of his own regrets. For a man who only seemed to want what was best, all of what he touched ended up turning to ashes. And just like how trauma can trickle down generations, we also see the hints of a beginning of Vander's path being repeated in season 2 of Arcane. The very last thing that he ever wanted for the people he loved most. Hello, my name is Liddy and welcome to Shaped By Stories where we discuss how and why our favorite stories shape our own. Let's get into it.
[1:19]Vander grew up in Piltover's undercity alongside Silco, and the two viewed each other like brothers. Together they dreamed of a better future for the nation of Zaun, seeking to win the undercity's independence from their overlords of Piltover. By time Vander and Silco were young men, they'd likely been planning Zaun's uprising for some time. Though, while we don't know the details, a rift eventually formed between the two. Something Silco wanted or planned or sought to do, did not sit right with Vander. I think it probably had something to do with shimmer, but that's sort of up in the air. But it was bad enough that Vander nearly drowned Silco in a terrible betrayal. Silco steals Vander's knife as he fights to stay alive, and while we don't know all the details, he did manage to get away. But despite this violent betrayal, Vander still dreamed of a revolution to bring Zaun the freedom it needed. And his people believed in him. Vander is this big, tough, charismatic guy, and he's a natural leader. And while Silco did his dirty work in the shadows, Vander went on as Zaun's chosen leader in the light. Vander eventually led a doomed charge over the Zaun Piltover Bridge, which got countless citizens of the undercity killed by enforcers. It is here amidst the smoke and blood that Vander's idea of the future completely flips. And it is all in the tears and devastation of two children. In Vi's devastation and Powder's cracking innocence, Vander is faced with what is left in the wake of war. The path of violence may lead to freedom, maybe, but who is left to inherit that future? As far as Vander knows, only orphans, the broken, and the lost. Vander had spent years of his life trying to destroy what he hated, the oppression of Zaun. But Vander here abandons the path of violence, dropping his fists and instead taking up a child in each arm. In this instance, Vander makes the important decision to start protecting what he loves.
[3:47]Years later, Vander is the barman of his own tavern, The Last Drop. Everybody in Zaun is in and out of its doors and Vander knows every single one of them. Everybody, for the most part, still sees Vander as the de facto leader of the undercity. But Vander doesn't use his position to fan the flames of rebellion, not anymore. Rather, Vander works to keep the peace, even if that peace is a backwards one. Zaun is still stagnant, forced to bear Piltover's weight on its shoulders, and nothing is changing as Vander has a deal with the head enforcer, Grayson. A woman who, like him, doesn't wish to see more death. Both agree to quell tensions on their own sides and limit undercity and overcity conflict, more or less damning Zaun to its current state of oppression. Vander accepts the stagnancy of the status quo in order to avoid lost lives in the meantime. Vander is still scarred by all those people who believed in him and died for him on that bridge. And the worst part is, whether he realizes it or not, him bowing to Piltover this way, almost renders their sacrifices meaningless. Vander knows that his deal with the enforcers would enrage his people, and so he's kept this deal secret from all but Benzo. Vander considers keeping the peace worth anything, even if it means his people's freedom. He refuses to forget what he considers his greatest failure, and I think that's one reason why he keeps his weapons hung above the bar. It was all such a terrible mistake that day, a mistake he doesn't want to see repeated. It's really hard to blame him for this because I'm sure Vander has some pretty terrible PTSD, and he certainly has survivor's guilt. Another thing that I want to note is Vander's position behind the bar. It's almost kind of like he's held himself back for the most part, as he only ever comes out from behind that line in order to protect the weak, like Twitch, or to keep the peace. Or to serve drinks, and what does alcohol do? It keeps people distracted. So long as people keep drinking the Kool-Aid that Vander is serving, this backwards peace can continue. He won't have to cross those old lines. But Vander's weapons serve another purpose, and how they remind people of his revolutionary past. A lot of Vander's power that enables him to keep the peace for as long as he has, comes from these old stories. But, as we can see, time has passed. The world is changing around Vander, and his grip on power is slipping as those tales become more and more faded. Sevika is the first person we see who calls out this weakness, specifically in regards to his willingness to do nothing when the enforcers cracked down on the lanes after Vi's botched burglary job. Vander might protect the weak from other Zaunites, but he holds back when it's enforcers picking on Zaunites. And the fact that Vander is not willing to give up his kids to the enforcers, only steals his resolve to continue to do nothing. Vander holds back and he sort of stonewalls his own people. Sevica and many others are not keen to sit around and let Piltover shove them whichever way they want. The people don't know about Vander's deal with Grayson and the enforcers, so naturally, Vander's willingness to do nothing looks like complete weakness. But Vander is holding himself back in order to protect his children and also to avoid the disaster of what happened on that bridge. There is a lot of strength that needs to be exercised, I think, in holding yourself back like that, but that doesn't make it a good thing. This part is also interesting because it shows that there's sort of the stages of empire going on here between Silco and Vander. We see Vander's empire is on the decay stage, and Silco's is on the rising stage. Sevica leaving to join Silco represents that really well, I think. Where she goes, there is the empire. The other thing too that I want to point out is that this moment where Sevica leaves Vander, sort of undermines Vander's whole guilt complex. Vander has spent so many years blaming himself for all the Zaunites who died on that bridge, Vi's parents included. But, Sevica leading her own people away, in favor of fighting for Zaun, directly challenges Vander's own concept of guilt and responsibility. Because all of these people are adults who choose, of their own volition, to fight. They are all veterans of Zaun's crappiest circumstances, and they know the stakes of what they're up against. They're not throwing themselves into a fight that they don't understand. This to me, this sort of shows that Vander in feeling guilty and regretful, and like it's his fault that everybody died. It's understandable, but it's sort of also shows a little bit of removing the agency of all those people who chose to fight that battle. And the saddest thing is, he passes on this habit to his eldest child, Vi.
[9:28]Vi is the kid that Vander feels closest to, and I think this is because Vander feels accountable to and for her. Vi is the one who really forced him to recognize where his rebellion led, the moment he met her on that bridge. Vi saw and experienced only the horrors of his choices, and she's old enough to remember the brutality of the enforcers that day. When Vander looks at Vi, he remembers that little girl crumpling over on the bridge, sobbing over the sight of her dead parents. Vi grew into an aggressive, hot-headed teenager. And above all, Vi wants to be strong like Vander. I think Vander likely saw a lot of similarities between her and him, especially in how she protects Powder. Part of me can't help but wonder if Vander once played that role for Silco. Vander serves as Vi's shield, but Vander also equips Vi with the skills she needs to protect Powder. And Vander also tries to nurture in Vi a more cautious mindset, but it's unfortunately a type of caution that was shaped by his regrets. Vander learned the hard way where the path of violence leads, something that he didn't really consider when he was Vi's age. So now, in order to help her avoid making the same mistakes and feeling the same regrets, he tries to hammer in this message to Vi. That she is responsible for her siblings. Vi is the leader of these kids and her brothers and sister would follow her into hell. When something goes wrong, Vander says, Vi is the one responsible. Not only that, but at the bridge, when Vander takes her back there, Vander really passes on the torch of his trauma in asking Vi to consider what she's willing to sacrifice, should she choose a violent path. Vander isn't telling Vi these things to be hard on her or to make her life more difficult. He's just trying to do what he thinks is the best thing for her. But in this, this still sort of carries on Vander's habit of viewing people's agency as non-existent or irrelevant. The people who chose to follow Vander on the bridge that day had agency. Just like Sevica and her people. Vander is almost denying that Vi's siblings, even as they near adulthood, will have agency of their own. Feeling guilty and regretful is one thing, but letting it warp you is another, especially when that affects your children. And the other thing to note is that Vi is also a child. Along with this heightened responsibility she carries, Vi is also juggling the self-esteem of a teenager in a ridiculously oppressed society. With Vander trying to teach her about caution and responsibility in this way, he's unintentionally planting the seeds that will sprout into Vi's tendency to blame herself for things beyond her control. While Vander relieves some of the pressure of her role as a protector to Powder, he's indirectly burdening her with more here. And because Vi looks up to Vander, in the same way her siblings look up to her, she takes what he says very seriously. Vander's lessons on responsibility and sacrifice, though they meant well, backfire. Because Vi decides to turn herself in to the enforcers.
[13:09]Vi takes Vander's lessons to heart, and believes this is the right thing to do, as she led the burglary that stirred the enforcer hornet's nest. Even though Powder caused the ensuing explosion, Vi is not willing to sacrifice her little sister. Vi leaves her bunny behind with Powder, and I do believe this is a last cry for help from the child that Vi still is. It's especially sad because by the bunny still being up in the wire, this means that Vander never helped her get it back either. Vander could not get Vi's innocence back and in a way, almost took her further away from it. Vander realizes that in his attempt to prevent the loss of his kids, as well as watch them live with regrets, his own regrets led to the worst possible thing. His kid willing to give up her entire life in a horrible prison in order to save her family. And it's all out of a sense of responsibility that he helped to nurture. Vi does the brave thing out of a twisted sense of self-sacrifice. And Vander can't abide by that. Vander is not willing to sacrifice Vi in order to maintain the path of stagnancy. He's feeling like he doomed the person who trusted him the most and looked up to him. It's like the bridge all over again, and Vander throws himself on the fire in her stead. He exercises his own choice here, but Vi, much like Vander, blames herself for this. And she will for the rest of the season. The cycle repeats. Vander always saw in Vi her good heart. I think this is something they share, as well as their tendency to have that heart warped by guilt and regret. And although Vander tells Vi that he thinks she has a good heart in their parting words, he burdens her with a greater responsibility. He tells Vi to protect the family. And Vi only really knows one way to protect the family. The only other way she tried, sacrificing herself, or choosing a path of non-violence was blocked. I think this moment sort of solidifies Vi's tendency to punch first and ask questions later. So Vi goes and mantles Vander's fists. I think it's very fitting that they are so big compared to her arms, because this is a big set of shoes to fill. Almost uncomfortably and unreasonably so. I think that imagery of her with the fists on the bridge is really powerful. It shows just how much Vi is carrying and we see how unfair it is. And so, from here, Vi decides to carry out that last burden that Vander laid upon her. She's going to rescue her family.
[16:09]At Silco's layer, Silco tries to get some form of what I think is validation from Vander. All those years ago, Vander refused Silco's way of doing things. What Silco wants, all these years later, now that he has Vander in his clutches and has shown him shimmer, is for Vander to say that Silco was right. Silco was strong enough. Silco was smart enough. Vander even asks Silco if all of this, of what he did, was out of pride. And while I think Silco is being honest when he scoffs at the suggestion and says, he's doing what he's doing to help Zaun, I think him trying to get Vander to go along with it is definitely out of pride. I also think that Silco, sort of like Jinx and Vi later in their lives, is also desperate to have that protector figure back in his life. I feel like it's super plausible that like their respective daughters, they once shared a similar bond, one that was shattered irreparably by that one betrayal. Vander is, like Silco, haunted by this betrayal. But no amount of regret can fix what's been corrupted. Silco's eye wounded from that struggle and tainted by the chemicals in the water of Zaun is a solid example. You really get to see here where Silco and Vander are in respect to one another. For Silco, you see a guy who still thinks he has a chance to change Zaun, but his method is beating Piltover at their own game and fighting back harder than ever before to make them respect him. But Vander has hit the wall. He's tried the revolutionary route, and I feel like it's implied that he did attempt diplomacy. Vander feels like his only hope, his only option is to work with the enforcers. Silco still has some hope, whereas Vander has none. To Silco, Vander's past with the enforcers has left him unworthy of respect, which makes it really ironic when Silco begins to work with Marcus, after the next time jump. Vander tells Silco to kill him if he has to, but to spare the undercity. Silco saying you'll die for a cause, but you won't fight for one, just shows how different these two characters are right now. But the funny thing is, Silco, in a way, is looking at himself in the future because he will be there eventually too. But more on him in the next, well, in his analysis. Vander is disillusioned with fighting and all his regret has drained every last bit of desire for a fight. But the fighter in Vander is not truly dead. Not when the people he cares about most are in danger. Even after Milo and Clagore end up killed, and Vander is badly injured, he fights again, before Silco stabs him with the knife that he took from Vander all those years ago. Vander nearly kills Silco here, but at the last second, he can't bring himself to do it. And though Vander falls, seemingly to his death, that ain't the end for him, because Vander sacrifices himself by consuming shimmer. The thing that I personally think he was ready to kill Silco for the first time, all those years ago, but speculation. I believe that Vander wished he could carry burdens at a superhuman level. He wished he could have been ridiculously inhumanly strong, so that he could save more people. And here, Vander does become much more than just a guy, he becomes a monster.
[20:03]Vander saves Vi, but he's horrified to see how she looks at him, her protector in terror. Much like Vi and Powder in the next scene. But even in this roited out state, Vander still has the ability to choose between protecting what he loves and destroying what he hates. He resists the urge to kill Silco and chooses to save Vi instead. Vander is not willing to sacrifice his daughter, and he almost certainly feels responsible for what's happened to his sons. He can't let Vi perish either. As Vander seemingly lays dying before the fire, now turning his cherished family to ashes, he tells Vi to look after Powder. Powder, who caused the blast that killed their family, burdening Vi once again, before leaving her alone in the world, blaming herself for his loss and asking if she even has anything left to lose. And it's here that Vander is gone from the story. Except he's not. Vander doesn't appear in humanoid form again for the rest of Arcane's first season. Aside from in flashbacks and dream sequences and a statue. But his mark on the rest of season one is very, very, very powerful. For Vi, she still carries Vander's lessons with her, both to good places and to bad ones. She uses his memory as a fuel in some really toxic ways, and I get into that in Vi's video, which you can find on my channel. And Silco spends the rest of season one learning why Vander couldn't fight again for Zaun. Silco, like Vander, learns his lessons in the hardest possible way. As he later puts it, as he speaks to Vander's statue towards the end of his story, is there anything so undoing as a daughter? As Silco's empire decays, he understands that it wasn't so much about weakness or fear when it came to Vander and his refusal to fight. It was love. And to quote a certain maester on the wall, love is the death of duty. It's just a shame that despite Vander's love for his family, he was never able to quite move beyond his quote of you can't run from the past. Because you can't, he's right, the past is done, it's there, you can't change it, but that doesn't mean you can't move forward with it. But you know, I'm sure we'll be seeing more of a certain Hound of the Underground in the next season, if you know what I'm saying. Thank you very, very much for watching Shaped By Stories. Vander is a tragic guy. I I do feel for him. He's not a bad person at all, it's just I think he's far more sensitive than his appearance would betray. He's a good guy, he tried his best, he loved his kids, just. But I'm excited to see if he, you know, comes back in season two. But I don't think they've confirmed that entirely yet, so I'm I'm not gonna say anything. Thank you so, so much to my members whose names are scrolling in the credits, because I figured out how to do credits. I got this. I'm becoming a content creator, Mom. I can make credits do things now. Thank you so, so much for your support of the channel. It means a lot and it helps me out like crazy. And of course, thank you very much to everybody for simply watching, or liking, or sharing, or subscribing, or commenting. If you disagree or agree, tell me in the comments. I want to see it. But until the next one, which will be Jinx, have a good one, guys. Goodbye.
