 In Act 3 of Arcane, there's an arc where Silcoe's handle on the reins of Zorn appears to be slipping. The chem barons are unhappy with the way he's running things, and Finn wants them to rise against him. Finn prepositions Seveka, saying that she is the one who's really keeping the undercity in line and cleaning up Jinx's messes. The discussion ends with an open invitation for her to join them in rising against Silcoe. The next time we see them both, they enter Silcoe's office together, and it's not clear who's side Seveka is on. It's clear that Finn thinks she has switched sides. He is cocky and relaxed, flicking his lighter back and forth. Seveka's face is neutral as she stands behind Silcoe. Silcoe's eye is tracking her as she moves behind him. After all of Finn's grandstanding, Silcoe then talks about the importance of loyalty as Seveka draws her blade. You're too young to remember what the undercity was before it became an enterprise. We had nothing. You know what bore us through those times? Loyalty. Brothers and sisters back to back against whatever the world threw at us. Now I'm forced to share the air with parasites like you, who leech off their legacies. Today's the day you die, Silcoe. That's a risk I've known all my life, but I still believe in your heart. What interested me about this scene is how Seveka is positioned as the ultimate loyal partner. Because we know there has been conflict between Seveka and Silcoe, largely about Jinx, but also due to Silcoe continuing to work with Marcus, one of the enforcers from Piltover. And many of the points that Finn raises were right. Seveka is doing a lot of Silcoe's heavy lifting. She is the one who we see on the streets with the people, and Silcoe constantly prioritises Jinx over her, often to the detriment of their common goals. Yet, she is loyal to him anyway. But the truth is that Seveka hasn't always been loyal. In fact, in Act 1, we see her in Vanda's bar with Vanda's crew. In a parallel to Act 3, she is unhappy with Vanda's leadership. She is unhappy with how he seems to be prioritising his children over the future of the Undercity, as well as how he works with the enforcers to keep things running smoothly. She ends up turning her back on Vanda and siding with Silcoe because of this, which is the crux of the conflict between Seveka and Vi in Acts 2 and 3. Yet in Act 3, you could argue that Silcoe is following the same path. He too is working with an enforcer, he too is prioritising his daughter, yet Seveka doesn't turn her back on him. So why is this? Why are there certain types of behaviours that seem to be unacceptable in Vanda, yet she'll live with them in Silcoe? I think this comes down to leadership, and the different ways that leaders can inspire loyalty. As a leader, Vanda wants to maintain the peace and take care of his people, both his children and the people of the Undercity, while Silcoe wants power and doesn't seem to care about the cost. We see Vanda stepping in to protect his people in the bar, we see him working with enforcers to maintain balance without violence, and we see him trying to impart his beliefs and values into Vi. Through Vanda's words and actions, we can see his values. He believes in safety over freedom, communication over violence, and, above all, he believes in protecting family. To achieve this, he is far more likely to bite his tongue or sit back and wait for things to blow over, rather than escalating confrontations. Silcoe has very different values. We see him experimenting with shimmer as a tool of power. In Act 1, we see it as a tool to make individuals more powerful, while in Act 2, we see it as a tool to bring others under his power by making them dependent on the drug. We see him carrying out acts of violence to meet his goals, having Grayson and Benzo killed in the street, kidnapping Vanda, and setting his goons onto Vi when the kids come to rescue Vanda, and keep in mind that Vi's a badass, but she's still a teenage girl at the time, and in his words, we see what he wants. We shared a vision, Vanda. A dream of freedom. Not just for the Lanes, but the whole of the underground. Unitehood is one. The nation of sawn. He no longer wants to live under Piltover, subject to the wealthier residence, whims, and desires. So this raises the question of who is the better leader? As viewers, Arcane encourages us to see Vanda as the better leader. This is largely due to the framing in Act 1. Vanda and his kids are set up as the good guys, while Silco is positioned as the villain. And while Silco does become a more well-rounded character in the later episodes, like most of Arcane's characters, he is morally Gray rather than a strict hero or villain, we're still given clues that imply that Vanda was the better leader. The biggest one is Silco's drug empire and the spread of shimmer through the undercity. If Silco was really a good leader, why would he be manufacturing and distributing such a harmful substance, especially to his own people? Another clue is Jinx, who he has adopted as a daughter. Jinx is a loose cannon, brilliant but mentally unstable, and we see him struggling to control her. And while I'm not a parent, I could imagine many parents or teenagers relating to this dynamic. On one hand, he wants to encourage her brilliance, her potential. On the other, giving someone unlimited weapons and explosives to play with and then seemingly having no rules, limitations or consequences is a recipe for disaster. And we see this when she accidentally kills him in the final episode. As a leader, though, she is not only a risk to his position, but also a risk to the safety of his people and his vision for the future. Her behavior causes friction between Silco and his allies. It makes it impossible for him to negotiate with Piltover and it costs lives. Good leader, in fact, a good parent, should recognize this and be taking steps to address it. And before anyone asks me about Silco being the best father, yes, there are things he does right as a father. His unconditional love and acceptance of Jinx is beautiful. The part of being a parent is also setting those rules and limits, not to mention ensuring that there are consequences for breaking the rules. And this is something we never see him doing. This probably makes things worse for Jinx because she rarely sees any fallout from her actions. So she never learns to act with consequences in mind. She never learns restraint. As a result, the few times she does see consequences, they are so big that there is no coming back from them. Anyway, back to leadership. We have Vanda who prioritizes protecting his people and he will compromise in order to do this. Then we have Silco who prioritizes his vision and will pursue it at any cost, even if his own people get hurt in the process. I'm not going to make a judgment about which approach is the right one here as we can see that both of them have costs. However, I do think Arcane pushes us to feel like Vanda's the better leader. So if this is the case, why does Savika betray Vanda? I think it comes down to vision. We've established that Vanda values protecting his people over all else. When it comes to vision though, Vanda doesn't have one. We learn that in the past, he and Silco used to share the same vision of an independence on and they fought his brothers in arms to achieve it. When Vanda learned the cost of achieving that vision though, he chose to let it go. He decided the cost wasn't worth it and focused on protecting his people instead. And from what we can see, he does a good job of this. The under city obviously doesn't have the same privileges and wealth as Piltover but people seem to be doing okay in Act One. I mean, they must be if everyone in Vanda's bar is prepared to defend him when it looks like he is coming under threat. The problem is that while Vanda is keeping his people safe, he isn't offering them anything beyond that and humans are wired to want more. Even if you take like advertising and marketing and social media out of the equation, humans do want to continue learning and striving and growing. Some people want to build something. Some people want to travel. Some people want to achieve physical feats and others want to teach and nurture to help other people grow. But ultimately, most people want to do or have something more than what they have now. It's one of the reasons why we are more likely to find happiness in the pursuit of the goal than in the achievement of the goal itself because we enjoy working towards something or building something. And as a leader, Vanda isn't offering his people more. Yes, he is keeping them safe. And after a time spent in a war, this could be exactly what they need because you need time to recover to lick your wounds to rebuild. But every fellow period comes to an end and after that point, people are ready to plant something new. And this is where Vanda fails as a leader. Because he values safely so highly, he can't risk losing that to go after something bigger. Instead, he stays stagnant and the longer he does, the more people will become dissatisfied. Silco, on the other hand, has a vision for something greater, the nation of Zorn. Free trade routes, blanket amnesty, unrestricted access to the hex gate sovereignty. You really think you're in a position to demand all this? You want peace. This is the price. He believes the undercity can have more and he is willing to do anything to achieve it. And while he might initially be presented as a villain for this reason, having an ends justify the means perspective is very common in antagonists, this is what inspires Savika's loyalty. She is frustrated with Vanda for not standing up to the enforcers, for letting them walk all over the undercity. When she sides with Silco, she knows he wouldn't let that happen because he is just as angry as she is. And even when tensions start to arise after the time skip, when she thinks he should do something about Jinx, when she doesn't prove if Silco's deals with Marcus, she knows he is still pursuing that vision, which is what leads to loyalty. If we then look at Finn, the alternative to Silco in Act 3, we can see why Savika wouldn't switch sides. Finn is also frustrated with Silco. But what does he offer as an alternative? We have no idea. He complains about what Silco is doing wrong, which implies that he thinks he could do better, but we don't know anything about what he would change. Maybe he would improve some processes and trade routes to ensure all the kingpins are getting paid on time. But once that is done, what is Finn's vision for the future? If he has one, we don't hear about it. Instead, his focus is on solving existing problems. Once that's done, unless he finds a new vision or goal to move towards, he would be in the same position as Vanda, one of maintaining the status quo rather than moving towards something new. So this is ultimately what wins Savika's loyalty. Not someone who is the perfect leader, someone who does everything right and keeps the people happy. It's someone who brings hope, hope of building a better future, the hope of something more. So I hope you enjoyed this latest take on Arcane. I cannot get over how much there is to unpack in this show. If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe and leave comments. I am awed by the insights a lot of you are sharing in the comments, so please keep them coming. I love to read them. Other than that, I will see you next time. Bye.