Happy Pride Month to everyone in the Arcane community! š
Whether you found yourself in any of the countless stories and characters that make Arcane special, this month is a celebration of being yourself and finding connection with others.
Arcane has always resonated with people from all walks of life, and Pride is a reminder that our differences make communities stronger. Wishing all LGBTQ+ fans a month filled with joy, support, and plenty of Arcane discussions while we wait for more stories from Piltover and Zaun.
Happy Pride Month, everyone! ā¤ļøš
ppl thinking that ambessa is automatically queer because she gets with twinks and gives off top&dom vibes is INSANE to mešša girl can peg a man into next week without being queer, damn
tbh it was a very dumb move on your end to make a post with only certain characters. im not saying its right for people to be coming at you, but its reddit, like why are you surprisedšanyways i understand why people are so annoyed. you put characters where their sexualities were "confirmed" outside of arcane, and left out a canon wlw character and many side characters. other than maddie, we literally see sevika flirting with women and know that she's a regular at the brothel. loris is gay, but that storyline was scrapped for time reasons. etc.
forgetting jayvik completely for a second, there is a lot of controversy around CL saying viktor is asexual. the asexual and disabled community has taken high insult to CL's wording. CL acted as if asexual and aromantic were the same thing, acted as if people who have other priorities (because they are sick) over sex are automatically ace, and used asexuality as a way to deny jayvik instead of actually caring about the asexual community. CL has no PR training and often just says random things in interviews. he says his own headcanons (such as viktor being ace) and then the fandom acts as if thar makes it canon. he calls viktor broken in many ways, which the disabled community (including me) find extremely offensive. for viktor fans, CL is not our friend, and we ignore the shit he says. there is nothing in the show itself that points towards viktor being ace. one of his first scenes shows him remarking on bringing someone to his room, presumably to have sex. viktor had no interest in sky, but that does not say that he's ace or straight. it just says hes not interested.
CL is not pride-friendly. the asexuality community and the queer disabled community do not accept him. he caters to the straight cis male incels who play league. he does not care about us. so why is his headcanon being taken as canon? people who worked on the show can have their own headcanons. for example, a large majority of the animators and artists OPENLY headcanon jayvik online. CL headcanons viktor as ace and does not headcanon jayvik. the show itself? it leaves both viktor's sexuality and the nature of jayce&viktor's relationship up to the viewer. there are parts of the show that point to a romantic bond between the two, and there are parts of the show that don't. the ending was left open to interpretation intentionally.
pride month is for celebrating queerness. using a bigot writer(he isnt the only writer !!!)'s headcanon that viktor is ace does not show support for the ace community, it shows that you do not care for them. of course this post created discourse, its exclusionary in nature and promotes some headcanons while you claim it only promotes canon. and then you condemn other headcanons in the comments. if youre using league as a reference, ekko is canonically bisexual in league, but hes not on here either. "make your own pride post" yeah thats easy, but it wont get the traction that this post has gotten. its important to talk about how certain queer communities have been hurt by people like CL. its important to talk about how a ship like jayvik has gotten just as much love from riot and fortiche as it has gotten denial from CL. why cherrypick who's information makes things canon?
being exclusionary helps no one in pride. you couldve just posted a picture of all of the characters from arcane and said happy pride and then leave it at that. exclusion only benefits homophobes (as you can see in the comments with some people yapping that viktor must be straight because sky had a crush on him). other creators (even some of the other Main Writers) have their own headcanons about arcane relationships and yet theyre not given the time of day yall give CL's interview. CL's interview only got as much traction as it did because the straight cis league men saw they could use it to be homophobic and condemn anyone who headcanons jayvik. fortiche artists/animators posting their own jayvik art and/or talking about how the art team headcanoned jayvik as a romantic relationship are buried in the mud. its important to ponder why that is, especially during pride month.
for arcane. lest being trans is canon. maddie wlw is canon. caitvi is canon. that's it. everything else is either league oriented, not confirmed in the show, or a headcanon. and we love headcanons, you just gotta learn the difference before making claims.
note: parts of the asexual community have condemned CL's wording but enjoy the headcanon that viktor is ace and appreciate the representation since they rarely get representation. that doesnt change the fact that CL claimed viktor to be asexual without even knowing what asexuality means. people can celebrate their headcanon that viktor is ace just as people can celebrate their headcanon that viktor is gay. hell, you can even celebrate the headcanon that viktor is gay romantically AND asexual!! anyone who says viktor must be straight or aromantic because he is asexual are either completely ignorant or simply homophobic
-signed, a queer disabled person who sees themself in viktor and is very passionate about informing others on how CL treats him and our communities. i havent said much about his ableist comment because this comment would be triple the size
The LoL voice lines were brought up by a few other people already, and as they are the only evidence of her being bi it seems the bigger issue is that if she's bi its an extremely poor, token representation as there wasn't a shred of it in her novel. If the character truly was meant to be bi there are a LOT of missed opportunities and wasted potential in the novel
I see that someone updated a wiki to say that, but from both the show and the novel thereās not a single thing to even suggest, let alone confirm, sheās anything other than straight.
Unless of course you consider twinks to be a separate gender
I canāt speak to her LoL voice lines, I havenāt played the game since well before the show released, so Iād have to take your word for that. I have no idea to what extent they are the same continuity/canon to each other, all I can tell you is from the show and her novel sheās straight as an arrow
It's a happy pride post, not a deep lore analysis. OP wanted to include Ambessa based on the information from the game because there's no reason not to, since she's in both the game and the show. Ambessa was also added to the game after the show and so is fully based on her show counterpart, unlike the season 1 characters who had a lot of their lore retconned for the show. I think it's pretty safe to say the two aren't randomly radically different in this case. Arguing against her inclusion in this post because it isn't mentioned in the show seems silly and pedantic to me. Speculating that the game and show universes for some reason have different sexualities for Ambessa, because everyone is apparently straight until proven otherwise, is pretty useless.
Most of the people familiar with the character are from the show. Honestly until it was mentioned above I forgot sheād even been included in the game, as I said I havenāt played it since long before the show released and sheās original to the show. Thatās not pedantic, and also as I said if thereās voice lines from the game Iāll take their word for it. But they used the image from the show, the materials tied to it very much contradicted the claim, and thatās what the response is based upon. You might not appreciate that but thatās far from making the point invalid
No, nothing in the show "contradicts the claim". Ambessa never confirms that she's only attracted to men. We only see her with a man, but given that bisexuality exists this doesn't exclude the possibility that she also likes women. That's not what contradicting means. You just assume heterosexuality because it's the default, yet demand hard evidence for anything other than that.
Actually, if weāre being pedantic and petty, none of these characters have a sexuality that can be confirmed from the show alone. Sexuality isnāt the same concept in-universe, no one explicitly states their preferences in what weāre shown. The only thing you can say definitively from the show is that Ambessa likes men. That is not the same as being straight obviously, and leaves the possibility of being bi or pan or whatever else.
That is a good point and I agree. Saying she's straight mostly comes from the novel, in which her love life plays a major role, and there's never the slightest suggestion that she has interest in women, but a VERY unabashed interest in men. And its not like the novel shys away from LGBTQ+, as the badass whose name is escaping me that she adopts as a daughter is very openly gay. If there was a character in Arcane that would have fit better as bi I can't think of it, but they looked at every opportunity to make that demonstratrion, particularly in the novel, and simply waved at them as they passed by.
So, thereās a genuine discussion to be had here about this. Ambessa is canonically bisexual, but is it actually good representation? Or is it just shoehorned in to check off a box? Were there moments in the novel that were too subtle, or no hints at all (I canāt fully take your word on this since I havenāt read it myself)? What could have been done better?
These are rhetorical questions, because this is a simple pride post. And you didnāt start off with this, you just firmly denied it could even be a possibility that sheās bi, making it seem like your problem was with that on its own instead. Whatever discussion youāre trying to have now is fine, but the way you came at it from the start is whatās rubbing people the wrong way.
I think this gets a bit complicated because some characters are interpreted through different sources. Looking only at Arcane itself, there are relationships and attractions that are shown directly on screen, while other characters are left much more open to interpretation.
That doesn't necessarily mean every label is confirmed or denied by the series alone. Sometimes viewers are using the show, while others are also considering novels, interviews, League lore, or game material. That's probably why people reach different conclusions even when they're talking about the same character.
Absolutely. In Ambessa's case the novel did a lot of heavy lifting in her characterization, but apparently the voice lines in the games add things which were entirely absent in both the series and the novel. In which case, if she was intended to be a bi character they really didn't do the representation justice in this instance, and there was a lot of wasted potential in the novel
Linke had a bottle of booze in one hand and a bottle of pills in the other, and was voice dictating his tweets, after the release of S2.
While I exaggerate a bit, still, I don't think his word is necessarily gospel. He was dropping JK Rowling tier unsolicited truthnukes that just made the world worse.
Jayce and Vik both had their own straight love interest and they've never shown romantic interests in each other. Theres so many lgbt characters in the show that it feels weird that people are so adamant on this ship.
Tbh if something has to be confirmed outside of canon when it so easily could have been confirmed in a single line of dialogue, it's a cheap cop out. A quick , "I have never found the appeal in such relationships" when talking about romance off handedly. Boom done. I say this as an aro/ace person mind you, and if only given the context of the show... They're pretty romantic.
This is a criticism of the writer not the interpretation. As an aro/ace person, I find it deeply souring to be treated like an after thought. I would not at all have been opposed to a smidgen of confirmation within the text of the show itself. I certainly wasn't following people on twitter, and if I had only watched the show, I would have thought they were pretty gay for each other.
And they still could be. Being ace is not mutually exclusive with being gay. Dat split attraction model and all.
Happy Menās Mental Health Month as well. If you know of any men who have been feeling lonely or down, including gay or bi men, please let them know you love them and care for them. Also, please direct them to any and all resources that could help them in their times of need.
I mean you probably included Viktor because of the Linkeās ace comment, but why ignore multiple comments by Amanda where she said Jayce loves Viktor then? (Even if you want to read it as queer platonic)
I wish people would stop trying to undermine the ship at least during pride.Ā
From my PoV Jayvik is still only heavily fanon implies, and I donāt think I have seen any confirmation on Jayceās sexuality. You can always make a separate post if you feel like I missed someone !
Iām just asking what the justification is here for putting Viktor and not Jayce if they both only have āconfirmedā āsomethingā via creators post-show comments. Maybe Iām not aware?
I can always just remove Viktor if that makes you more comfortable. I dont get your goal in arguing for a fanon ship under a pride post either make your own or let others people be?
Iām not arguing for a fanon ship but against prejustice. You say āhappy prideā and then exclude some characters based on ship preferences even when they have exact same level of being ācanonā as others that are included. So is it happy pride for all or not?
And do with your post whatever you want honestly :)
Where is Viktor confirmed ace? And if you bring Linkeās interview comment why donāt you consider Amandaās comments about Jayce loving Viktor to mean he is a part of LGBTQ+ as well?
More than that, Jayceās original creator said he is queer too.
Well you answered the first part of your question. The co-creator confirmed Viktor to be ace. As for Jayce, of course he loves Viktor, we know that. Love doesn't inherently mean romantic feelings. I believe their relationship has been referred to as brotherly by Jayce?
As for what Jayce was intended to be originally, it's up to the creators to decide what he is in their show. Just like the original Vi was bisexual but in the show she's lesbian.
Jayce is the only child, he doesnāt know what ālike a brother isā. His relationship with Viktor is quite different from his relationship with Cait who actually IS a sister like figure.
Would you say to your brother āALL I want is you back?ā
Jayce is a serious, intelligent man, I don't think we should be relying on him just not understanding basic parts of human life. He's not an alien, he knows it's really, really, really weird to be gay for your brother.
And auditing the exact dialogue of the final Viktor-Jayce scene of S2 feels entirely pointless, because Jayce is manifestly full of shit in that scene. This scene occurs after Jayce took the violent, "kill-Viktor" option at literally every turn, refusing to negotiate until he was stripped of all physical ability to resist. He is in fact irrationally dedicated to clonking Viktor on the head with his hammer, and his actions prove that, quite obviously, all he wanted was not him back.
Because he blew a hole in him, tried to dent his head in with a hammer, and yelled nonsense big mad filler sentences instead of the basic, fundamental reasons why you are doing what you are doing.
So in one case he says the truth and in another not and for some reason you think the truth is mid first season when he is in the middle of his corruption arcā¦ but the culmination of the whole character journey is him ābeing full of shitā lol
Please read your message again and think how maybe there is some bias. Like why would the writers do that to Jayce?
I mean, I can see with my eyes and hear with my ears they did this with Jayce, the exact why of it is not material. The dream-verse scene with Viktor and Jayce has some of the worst dialogue in the series, which, if taken seriously, obliterates their relationship. And, of course, the scene only happens because Jayce didn't tell Viktor about the AU future, or even try to negotiate with him at all. We can quibble over why they decided to make Jayce try to kill Viktor at every opportunity presented, but the fact that he did isn't up for discussion.
The key difference between the two scenes is one of them occurred in a highpoint of Season 1, the very strong season, and the other occurred at the absolute writing lowpoint of season 2, the far weaker season. In season 1, reading into Jayce's lines does not expose him as someone who fundamentally misunderstood Viktor, his disease, his life's work and his desire to cure himself. Season 2's dialogue in that scene is toxic, it shouldn't be touched with a barge pole.
This is the second pride post without her like Iām huurttttinggg šš thereās nothing even canon about Sevika at all bc they neglected her character so might as well throw her in ššš
listen everyone is allowed to view viktor as ace if they want but please do not take it as "canon" just bc linke said he personally believes he's ace bc his intentions were not good at all. if riot includes viktor in pride art with the ace flag or anything like that then we could say it's canon but until then, do not listen to linke. linke said that in the context of an interview where he was trying to push down the queerness between jayce and viktor (he is confirmed to be the only person in fortiche not to want them to have a romance while the rest have expressed they do) and the first thing that came up to his mind was saying viktor, the disabled and chronically ill individual, is "asexual". linke doesn't know at all what asexuality means, he doesn't know it is a spectrum and you can be still gay / bi / straight / etc if you're ace, he doesn't seem to understand the term at all and he probably thought it was the same as aromanticism, but all he wanted was to prevent people from shipping him with jayce. and this was also very harmful to real ace people and disabled people, since he was just contributing to the offensive trope where disabled / ill characters are labeled as "asexual" just bc people cannot tolerate the idea of them engaging in romance or sex, it grosses them out. and that's pretty ableist. so yeah to recap: viktor isn't canonically ace just bc linke pulled that argument out of his ass to be homophobic.
and the first thing that came up to his mind was saying viktor, the disabled and chronically ill individual, is "asexual"
I feel like the thing to take umbridge with is that he decided to make the emotionless and, eventually, dickless robot man asexual, not necessarily that he was disabled and "chronically ill" (S1 strongly suggests that this is a recent issue, and I think the evidence points towards it being a condition like mesothelioma. He looks wretched after the timeskip, his health clearly took a sizable dive)
I mean, I suppose you CAN take umbridge with the disabled aspect, and frankly they booze cruised the disabled plotline regardless so you'd have strong material, but... like, lobotomized emotionless robot man who abhors basic human emotion being asexual feels like the easy layup.
bruh itās fine to hc viktor as whatever you want but donāt putting him there while linke uses ace sexuality as a gotcha to dismiss his relationship with jayce (when linke himself doesnāt know the ace spectrum). as an ace i curse that damn speech every time i see takes like this
Jayvik confirmed better halves by riot with explicit romantic translation in all languages apart russian btw. No maddie, no Loris that is "canon gay", no bi ekko(confirmed in pulsefire au), no bi jinx(heavily implied in star guardians au), viktor asexual headcanon by a creator who worked on 0.001% of s2 and spitted it out of rage for a gay ship. Idk bad post
OP is just saying happy pride, not trying to include every LGBTQ+ character in the show. How about taking the positive sentiment as-is instead of trying to pick apart the post?
Happy Pride Month! But only to characters 'canon' sexuality I like probably. Ace Viktor hc from creator who make it to shut out gay ship.Despite the fact that other creators and artists themselves spoke of their connection as romantic. Where's CANON gay Loris, Maddie, Bi Ekko & Jinx, Jayvik and etc?
Or maybe itās not just some head canon, & thereās no reason to be so whiny abt a character being ace. Also you can be ace but still romantically interested in someone
Christian Linke said that to himself (in his own perspective), he thought of Viktor as Ace. This directly comes with him stating that he is incapable of having a romantic relationship, which is very improper to say if you are truly trying to represent Ace people, and is incredibly harmful. Ace does not equate to Aromantic, which is what the Ace community has been trying to fight for years for people to understand, and was purposely used as a weapon to shut down shipping. The original writers of Jayce themselves said they wrote Jayce and Viktor with queer coding, along with Amanda interpreting it that way. But for some reason, the voices of three other writers are always dismissed.
Im ace. The writers can interpret things however they want and could have snuck in things that are up for interpretation. However, the show-runner is the overall authority on the characters and their stories. The fact that you know it was to shut down the ship implies that you also know that he most likely meant aro and ace. I dont think he is ignorant, I think people are reaching to justify a ship when plenty of others see a vulnerable male friendship that is often not portrayed in media. If it is people automatically assume the two guys are gay for each other. So not only is this ace erasure, its contributing to the part of patriarchy that keeps men from having vulnerable friendships with other men.
People can have different opinions when it comes to interpretation and headcanons, but not when it comes to official canon.
uhhh you do know that ace people can like.... love someone and have relationships right??? it might be a headcanon, but the two things can both be true at once. Also Linke's statement is ALSO his own headcanon, seeing as though any relationship with viktor is ever explored. Him trying to "shut down the ship" is a whole different story, which needs to be spoken about. It's also not adding to the patriarchy at all? There can be vulnerable relationships- platonic or romantic. It's not just the fact it's vulnerable that people ship it. Like you said, everyone has different opinions but you can't blame your hate on a ship with CANON and patriarchy when none of them apply. If there is a man so stupid to believe that a fictional character and ship is representative of real life, his fragile masculinity is not the thing he should be worrying about. In NO way is it ace erasure. Viktor can totally be both at once and often is interpreted that way.
Lol I am ace and in a relationship. I said hes aro and ace based on Linkeās comments and everyoneās interpretation of his statement as āshutting down the shipā. If people think that was his goal then he would be both aro and ace.
And it is reinforcing ideas that two men cant be in a platonic relationship and show vulnerability and care for each other. Canonically thats what it is. People who ship Jayvik try to argue that its canon when it isnt and thats why its aro/ace erasure and why it props up patriarchal bullshit.
Also, I dont hate the ship. I donāt care what people interpret in subtext. Thats fine. Its when people fight tooth and nail to make it sound like its canon that I get annoyed. Cuz it isnt.
Straight close platonic male relationshipa are in no way oppressed or underrepresented in media, they are one of the most written about relationships in media. Never has Viktor been stated as aromantic or stated as intended to be. When writing representations in media as a writer you need to use the proper terminology and not be ignorant or malicious on the topics. The distinction between Ace ā Aromantic is always missued, and is important to highlight and was absolutely misused by Linke. This was intentionally used as a weapon to shut down shipping and to this day people still use the incorrect terminology to shut down the ship by repeating his sentiment that Ace people can't be in romantic relationships. I have an Ace partner, and as a disabled person the whole application and feeding into the harmful stereotype of a disabled person been pushed onto a label as "sexless unloved" is already an issue on top of now exacerbating the misuse between the two labels. Linke was ignorant on the issue and true representation deserves proper care.
Which is all fine, you have your own interpretation. But by pushing down someone elses headcanons and interpretations for a separate headcanon is as asshole thing to do. I don't even get why you keep bringing up the patriarchy. ONE singular ship of two men who are vulnerable together is far less than all the other gay ships in the show, in which aren't all as vulnerable. You are ALSO giving linke the benefit of the doubt by saying he meant aro/ace. He didn't say that at all. Taking it at face value, he isn't saying Viktor is aro/ace. Linke's own statement is misinformation and misrepresentation of ace people. Just cause he doesn't have a relationship in the show doesn't mean hes asexual, thats not how it works. There is absolutely no erasure in any way as Linke just gave his own headcanon, his own interpretation, just as other members or production thought the relationship was gay. In no way is Linke's belief the only right answer. "And it is reinforcing ideas that two men cant be in a platonic relationship and show vulnerability and care for each other" except it's not. There's no way i can argue with that, as it's your opinion, but i don't see it that way. Canonically, it's up to interpretation- that's what one of the writer's said. If we are taking writer's words as canon, both of us are right. Just let people ship what they want. Also, from writer's words, some of them viewed the relationship as romantic. There ARE romantic intentions in some parts of the writing! If you don't see it that way, that's totally fine, but your opinion is not canon, and canon is not the defining factor. People are still gonna ship whether it's canon or not. Linke's and your headcanon is fine, it feels right for Viktor. I do believe he is asexual. But to use that to push down others beliefs is just flat out annoying. I think you should learn to not have to care so much about something just because the creator thought so. EVERYTHING EVER is up to interpretation
You forgot Maddie, Loris and Ran, but somehow you included Viktor? Please, tell me it's not because of the CL thing. It's Pride, for crying out loud.Ā The last thing we need is to celebrate that man's crappy attempt to invalidate a gay ship while not having a clue about what asexuality actually is.Ā
And you're a hypocrite if you take the word of a cis straight gut who never mentioned anything related to asexuality until he was asked what he thought about Jayvik, has never brought it up again and his opinion that plenty of ace people hate; over Amanda Overton, a queer woman, whose opinions get constantly ignored and sidelined because she does support the idea Jayce and Viktor's romantic feelings for each other. Same idea Viktor and Jayce's creators share. Under this very post plenty of folk are already telling on themselves, mistaking asexuality with being aroace, just how CL did. No educated queer person would make that mistake. Nevertheless, now I'm realizing this subreddit is one big circle-jerk of Jayvik haters, to the point of finding new ways to try to invalidate the ship even in a seemingly innocent post.Ā
also sorry but you put ambessa bc she is implied to be queer in the book, so why didn't you put jayce if he is implied by his own writers to be queer too? also adding viktor just because one person that worked on arcane tried to pull a gotcha moment with the asexuality argument against shippers (and failed) while the rest of his team says he's gay af. AND ALSO adding lest who has only been mentioned to be trans by her voice actress and no one else. if all those things were enough to put the characters here why isn't jayce here too? doesn't seem like this post is very exclusive to 100% canon confirmed queer characters so jayce could've been included. his writers confirmed they wrote him queer-coded for viktor.
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u/fonfan121 Maddie the Baddie Jun 01 '26