I'm surprised you didn't mention that two men make the choice to become single fathers (to daughters, even). Nurturing and childcare are often seen as feminine, but these two characters easily "survived" parenting their daughters. Just the opening image of Vander, the burliest male character, dropping his weapons at the sight of crying children, and Silco very quickly switching from being a violent aggressor to embracing a crying girl --- they were both very strong choices to give to male characters.

RE: Silco's makeup - he's not wearing it when he's introduced. He's in his oceanic observatory, interrogating Deckard, and treating his eye. He's got no makeup. Nor does he have that makeup when he's in the factory, interrogating Vander or fighting against the kids. Silco starts wearing makeup after he adopts Jinx. He wears the makeup not to hide his weakness from his underlings, but to look less monstrous for his daughter.

"There is no feminine version of the word 'emasculate'" THAT is a cool ass point

I'd make the case that Viktor's stereotypically masculine trait, more than even sucking up emotions, was his refusal to ask for help. He's dying and he knows it, but it's only once he's absolutely critical will he tell his best friend. If Jayce had known about Viktor's condition sooner he would have worked day and night to find anything to help him.

Another addition to Silco's moments, he has and uses Stuff with Jinx's drawing/painting all over it despite being a strong man dictator.

"We do not get a celebrity male sex symbol" Me staring at the local cuisine:

I also love the fact that Silco despite everything genuinely loves and protects Jinx and it's so often that I see villain male characters casting aside or using female characters as shields or abandoning them because god forbid he lets a woman get in the way of his goal. But Silco literally gave up undercity's independence as not to betray Jinx, even after she killed him he wasn't angry at her. Meanwhile when you see archetypes like Joker and Harley Quinn, Harley will always be used and disregarded by Joker. Whilst both archetypes are valid and show different kinds of personalities I see the latter far more often

Moments of weakness in men that don't create lasting character change is so powerful, thanks for focus on that!

“Validation is the masculine equivalent to professing love” reminded me of the line from Mulan where Shang, instead of telling Mulan how much he’s grown to love her over their adventure together simply says “You.. fight good”

as a girl speaking, i love how everyone in this show gets to be badass in their own way. men and women can be badass without undermining each other. the women can fight well without needing the men to be weak so the writer can push a message about how superior women are. the men get to be badass without women needing to be damsels in distress so men can seem more badass.

Validation is even a theme for jinx. She's the youngest so when we see powder do the things the older kids tell her to do there is never any compliments or congratulations. It's expected of her to just do the tasks like everyone else. I noticed Vander is so compassionate and complimentary and guides the older children. They forget that voice that guidance is what got them through their fearful moments and allowed them to get to where they are. Powder was expected to just catch up to them. Vi is the only one you see compliment and congratulate her but since she's the only one her betrayal is even more painful. The only person who believes in you says you are a failure

As a women I've told another female friend, "I'm so proud of you." We were just sitting in the car after something and then she broke down crying. I said "ahhh shit I'm sorry..." (I don't know how to act sometimes and I acknowledge that irl) and she told me "no, no, you're fine. It just reminded me of my dad, and how I'll never etc.." I'm a pretty masculine woman so I feel like we all know this subconsciously. Like if Mel's mother said "I'm so proud of you, I didn't see it before but I do now." That would be huge and probably hit us all harder than "I love you Mel." Because we can see the love in how protective she is, how she reached out to try to give her daughter advice but she is a masculine woman. (Please correct me if she already said that shes proud bc I need to watch it all for the 3rd time)

“The stereotype of what guys want to hear from their fathers isn’t ‘I love you,’ it’s ‘I’m proud of you.” *not a father but makes a mental note to compliment the men in my life more often*

14:37 Maybe needing validation is why Silco takes in Powder. If he can raise Vander's daughter better than Vander could, it would validate Silco to himself. Additionally, Silco never recieved validation from Vander, who was like a brother. So he empathizes with Powder, who is constantly seeking validation from Vi

As a person which first thought about about writing men and women was "write them without caring about their gender" this was really eye opening, and it's interesting the thought that in one way or another stereotypes for good or bad will always form a part into the human personality. I really liked your video 💯❤️

God damn bro, never really realized that whole “I’m proud of you vs I love you” thing. Well that honestly makes sense for everything I have experienced in my life and in my other male friends lives. Fucken incredible

I actually really find the "local cuisine" character interesting. He doesn't even have any lines, but he has some interesting implications to me. He is using some very feminine qualities to his advantage, he's thin, and kinda soft looking to me, he is using his presentation and sex appeal to get things. Ambessa is very powerful in multiple ways and likely is getting the best of what Piltover has to offer for any given thing she wants. That to me says he is likely pretty expensive. So while Mr. Meal is showing very feminine qualities and using feminine qualities, he is likely getting something that men are usually shown wanting, status and wealth. Look at Ambessa and tell me being her favorite boy toy does not instantly give you power just from association. And just from some lines that Mel says, it is implied that Ambessa also has filthy money that Man Candy is now being given for his services. So it has depth of presentation of men even in a side character we barely see.

i think viktor being disabled ties into the whole “suck it up” mentality as well, as disabled people tend to internalize a lot of their struggles because they’re already perceived as weak/lesser than in society. good video!

The line of "write them the same no matter the gender" always rubbed me wrong but never had a good argument to explain why. A great video

As a woman, Viktor hit me so fucking hard. Viktor is this character who does not posses physical prowess. He's super smart and calm and he always "sucks it up." All he does is work, always seeking this validation, striving for a legacy, craving pride and accomplishment. He is always working in the shadows, in private, on his own. Jayce is the rare exception, but he hides things even from him. I am all of these things. While Viktor doesn't necessarily have to compensate for his lack of physical strength because of the society he lives in, I, personally, feel that I do. The way I connect to Viktor is in the "suck it up" mentality in the way that it is used as a tool for _work ethic._ A huge fear in my life is not being strong enough, fast enough, powerful enough, to achieve what I want. Especially in things like sports. Whenever I feel like I lack the physicality I need, I get this "suck it up" mentality. I'm not allowed to complain. God forbid I ask for help. If I have a problem, I Google it, I work it out, I will willingly spend a long, arduous time solving it by myself instead of asking someone to help me. Because the more work I do, the more I feel that I am living up to that genius ideal I'm supposed to fulfill. Someone really smart wouldn't need help, right? And in school. Academic validation was the only thing that kept me going. It was like a rabid hunger. Relentless studying, ceaseless working, a constant restlessness when I wasn't studying because I felt like I _should_ be doing schoolwork. When I was working, I felt that I could be working _harder._ And just like Viktor, I suppressed the shit out of my feelings. I put concealer on my eyebags, I joked about my sufferings so that they seemed smaller than they were. I minimized my pain if it was exposed. The key was to keep my mouth shut and never tell anyone at all. Not my parents, not my teachers, not my siblings, not my best friend. I kind of felt a connection when Viktor hid his sickness from Jayce. I hide a lot of shit from my best friend, even though I actively encourage her to confide in me and she is very open about her experiences, and I admire her for this. However, it's like something is stopping me from opening up. I never tell her about my problems. Sometimes I even send her texts that sound like we're having a normal, cheerful conversation while I am actively crying lmao. So suppression, ouch. Like Viktor, I am socially inept. After a long string of being outcast due to a difference in interests between me and my classmates, I began to create some unhealthy habits when it came to socializing. See, I have a habit of _assuming_ that I am a negative prescence. I _assume_ people don't want to talk to me, that I am an inconvenience, that I disgust others, that I am an undesireable friend. And so I _automatically isolate myself,_ physically; I stand apart, I wander off, I put distance between myself and others without a second thought. Kind of like how Viktor brushed Sky off because he assumed that nobody wanted to know him any deeper. Plus he was too focused on work. And I, without friends, also dedicated my time to academics, even though I had this crippling self-hatred that told me that I Was Not Enough, that my Work Was Not Enough. So when the dude in the cave told Viktor that "Loneliness is often the byproduct of a gifted mind." I started fucking _bawling._ Because. Validation. _Validation._ I craved it. I blatantly ignored friends and potential romantic interests in favor of _work_ so that I could _impress teachers and parents_ and get _good grades_ BECAUSE I NEEDED VALIDATION. _LIKE VIKTOR._ AND ARE WE NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT HOW WHEN THE STRESSES BECAME TOO MUCH HE ALMOST COMMITTED SUICIDE? _I'm slamming my head into my keyboard I can't with this fucking character my soul oh my god_ And the private breakdown, crippled with both a physical disability and the intangible weight of despair, sobbing his heart out all alone in the face of _failure_ The way Viktor is self-destructive in a way that makes him feel like he is fixing himself, with needles in his skin The lengths he is willing to go to stay alive, just a little longer, to get things done, The lengths I am willing to go to stay awake, just a little longer, to get things done Only to realize that his self-destruction damages _other people too_ and he ends up losing this incredible _oppurtunity_ at having a relationship with someone who loved him for who _he was_ and not for _his work._ I mean, the way he supresses himself is almost hinging on martydrom, the way he crushes his own problems in favor of reaching for a higher goal, a broader purpose: a legacy. It just... screams at me, like a mirror. Damn I ranted Anyway the takeaway is that I really relate to Viktor and a character's relateabillity has nothing to do with gender. (nobody was combatting this fact here, it just needs to be said more in general I think. Also I saw a guy comment about how much he related to Vi because she was an oldest sibling of 4, and he really connected with her, and he also mentioned that relateability is not connected specifically to a character's gender and I thought that was pretty sweet.)

Great thing about how men and women were portrayed in arcane is that they’re all capable in some way or another. No gender triumphs over the other as if they’re more superior. For example, with the jinx and ekko fight, we know that both characters are smart, they have their own way of fighting, and we generally see them as equals. When ekko beats jinx up and completely manhandles her, it doesn’t make us squirm. At least in my experience, I didn’t. I’m a girl and in most media, you just feel an overwhelming difference in power with men and women so seeing a girl get totally wrecked in a fight makes me feel queasy. With ekko and jinx, however, we feel as though they are on even grounds so whoever wins, it’s because of their ability and them as a character, not because of their gender. Pretty cool.

I felt like Caitlyn's dad held a fairly strong "homemaker" role, his wife was a prominent and active political leader, and the scenes with him he often defers directly to her. While not overtly feminine he seems farther down the masculine scale despite an incredible beard.

“Validation is the masculine equivalent to professing love” is so true it scares me. When I was young and just coming to terms with being a gay man I got careless and my father found out, he took me aside and told me he loved me, and it felt so good, but later in that same day right before bed he pulled me aside again and said, "I will always love you, but I will never approve of you." and that love he was expressing went completely hollow, it was like love wasn't what I wanted from him at all and what I did want I know I'd never have. Since that moment I still can't look at him in the same way, its a permanent scar in my image of him and it's impossible to talk to him without it in my head. Validation is important, never be afraid to tell your friends and your family that you are proud of them.

I usually get deeply attached to either the emotionally suppressed yet traumatized male character and the more emotionally open and kind male character in media. I don't actually know how often their portrayals are accurate to real life. However, the way you explained the balance of my two favorite characters (Viktor and Jayce) shows that these are definitely my favorite tropes but mixed in a sense. Jayce visually and physically feels more masculine yet is a lot more emotionally open and thirsty for attention and validation, to the point that his decision-making is very hindered bc he's always dependent on what others think of him. Viktor is perceived as more physically feminine in the fandom, perhaps due to his illness and disability, but also because of his soft-spoken, quiet demeanor, even if he's far more detached from people and emotions in general. Hell, when Jayce was *about to cry while struggling to tell Viktor he was going to die,* Viktor is only numb and resigned when he asks how much time he has. And yet, the more emotional man in this show doesn't cry (he comes close twice), but the more repressed and insecurely attached one does. As you can see, i love these two men and how they were written very much. I also really appreciated learning about how men express care and love, what they need emotionally and how they perceive their relationships. Validation and empathy are two of the most important qualities in my life, so it's wonderful to hear that it's an important way to allowing a man to feel loved and understood, as well as the way that they can communicate love and understanding. I feel like I just found a bridge to understanding men a little better

Bingo! "Arcane shows men surviving emasculating moments," was part of the beauty of the show to me. It reminds me of a quote that read something like, "Being weak is not to be shamed, but staying weak is the problem."

You don’t understand how important it was to see Ekko, a black man, cry. I love this show so much.

This might actually be teaching me lessons about my male and masculine friends :O I've got a close, very masculine, enby friend, whom I've told numerous times that I love - because I hold such deep love for them, and want to express it. They've never, ever, said it back. And that used to bother me a bit. Until I learned that they say it with their actions instead. They agree to hang out. They hold me when I'm sad. They bought me a very thoughtful, though somewhat inexpensive, present for my birthday, because they remembered me saying that I wanted it. Some people don't say "I love you" with words. And that has to be okay. So thank you, for making me understand my male and masculine friends a little better - while delivering excellent analysis of an excellent show.

"What men want to hear from their fathers isn't 'I love you' it's 'I'm proud of you'" is a line that is so true it made me cry. Thank you for this. Amazing video!!

Conclusion: they successfully subverted gender tropes and expectations for both men and women, respecting the difference in paradigm between the way we have culturally portrayed the two genders. Arcane just keeps getting more and more genius

Powder in general gives Silco a way to be emotional. He sees her as a young version of himself equally wronged by society. Where Silco fought bitterly against Vanders betrayal and it permanently turned him colder and more distant, Vi's betrayal to Powder made her cry and run into Silco's arms. She reacted to crisis with emotional instability and vulnerability, which was probably a huge shock to Silco. He saw the raw emotions he felt being displayed outwardly and felt the protective and simultaneously vengeful urge to push that to it's max. This pairs pretty well with the father-daughter bond archetype, where one is cold and the other isnt, but it embodies it in a whole new way by having the composed and intelligent father be the clear-cut villain, and the unstable emotional daughter being both the villain and the victim.

Just to let you know 7 months later, this video is so good that I'm writing my final for gender studies on masculinity purity culture. It's such a profound and excellent way of viewing how masculinity is valued by men that I got inspired when I saw I could choose my topic. I'll be crediting you in the essay but just a thank you in general for this video, definitely one of the best

The bit about validation hits me hard personally only time I cried in the last 6 years was from just a text from my dad when I was going through a tough time was “whatever happens I’m proud of you”

you’ve singlehandedly created two of the most eye opening, comprehensive, and effective video essays about writing characters in fiction

As someone who got the "suck it up" and "deal with it" too many times to count, Victor is a very relatable character for me. About two years ago my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was a nightmare to see her in this state. My aunts and grandparents from her side helped her a lot, but always complained that we (me, my brothers and father) don't do enough even though we live with her and do help however we can. Because I was told to suck it up so many times, I ended up not crying at my mom's funeral when it finally happened and to this day I'm unable to shed tears. Now here is the kicker: when I complained and asked for mental help in dealing with the situation or wanted to do something for myself to help my mental state, just to talk with someone and release some stress, I always got: "This is not the time, we need you here doing X" or as the video says: "suck it up". My mom is literally dying from cancer, and I'm told to "deal with it". This is the extreme part, but it always was like that. For example: a relative will tell a joke about me and embarrass me in front of everyone, I complained, and told to suck it up. However, if I sucked it up, the embarrassment will continue and get more extreme. "What is a man if he can't joke about himself?". Because I got told "suck it up" so many time, I usually work alone and don't complain when something bad happens. "Suck it up" is a curse on us men.

My most eye opening moment about the writing of men in Arcane has to come from my emotional connection to the characters coming so easily and naturally outside of making a connection based on gender. As a woman, I completely relate to Viktor and his struggles with emotional suppression and the need to prove his worth to others and himself. Honestly, until watching this video and actively thinking about the gender aspect of these characters, I didn't question my connection to Viktor at all because of the character first approach to the writing. It's so important to validate these struggles, first, for the men that deal with some if not all of these "be a man" stereotypes, and also, for anyone who feels any of these struggles regardless of the traditional role they might fill in society (gender related or not). Arcane's characters are truly and purely human in the way that, while still filling story archetypes and plot points, they are so complex and gender is never a solely defining trait.

I really like the idea of women typically being more protective than men, especially mothers. There's actually a good reason Steve in Stranger Things is considerd the mother of the group, he's not even a female but people see him as the mother not just becuase of a joke but because he's protective of the group.

One of my favourite things about how Jayce is written is how unapologetic he is about his emotions. He's very emotionally expressive and very in touch with his emotions (not always with those of others' but that's a whole different topic). He freely expresses both positive and negative emotions and isn't emasculated or punished for it. He's extremely physically affectionate with his loved ones regardless of gender and it's never questioned or ridiculed in-universe. Traditionally the only emotion men are allowed to express is anger, which is then either brushed off as "boys will be boys" or critiqued. And I love especially how this quality comes into play in his relationship with Mel who spends most of the show as emotionally closed off but for some brief moments slipping here and there. She is initially caught off guard by his vulnerability and openness in ep. 6 but then she encourages it in the next episode, she goes into his space when he's working off his frustration and encourages him to speak about his feelings. And she starts sharing in return and opening herself to the possibility of being vulnerable and in touch with her emotions. In the last episode you see her channel all of her hurt, anger and sorrow in the confrontation with her mother, who immediately chastises her for it: "I taught you better." This open display of emotion is clearly Jayce's influence. Furthermore he's a character whose closest personal relationships are mostly with women. His best friend is Caitlyn and the show implies their relationship is much closer than even that between him and Viktor, which gets way more screentime. He loves his mother. He loves and admires Mel and comes to value her opinion over anyone else's: "You were right. You were always right." and validates her at every turn. Hell, even the sex scene with Mel positions him as a giver, caring more about Mel's pleasure than his own. And there is a begrudging respect for Vi even though their interaction don't start or end with the two of them on the best of terms. Man drinks his respect women juice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I love your analysis of how arcane writes men, but I think you forgot to mention a very important part, that seeking and giving validation or love, isn't something inherently bound to gender, but the characters themselves. For example, when you mentioned how jinx or other female characters seek love, protection etc, you forgot to mention how they also seek validation, for example jinx is looking for validation and respect from sevika just like mel is seeking it from her mother, just like how Ekko is seeking for Powder's love/past friendship or Vander is protecting his family instead of just seeking validation. So while love and validation can be a recurring theme for women and men respectively, they aren't really something solely based on gender, but rather characters and the expectations society put on them, because ultimately our current perception of gender and prooving who we are is honestly just based around society's expectations of us and Arcane showcases this very well with how society is structured and how inferiority or superiority plays a part in who they are. Vi per say tries to be this strong and impulsive person who doesn't show weakness specifically because of the sense of inferiority put on her shoulders by Piltover where as Jayce isn't afraid of showing vulnerability or his idealism because he doesn't have that weight on his shoulders, Piltover never gives him the burden of having to be a scientist, it's his choice alone lead by his determination. Anyway, this is just an opinion I wanted to share. Amazing video as always Edit: omg thank you all for the likes! 😀

I can't believe how you were able to sum up the common issue in parental male relationships, is the child seeking validation. Wanting their father figure to be proud of them. My dad died 2.5 years ago and I got a tattoo with his hand writing except it wasn't him writing "I love you" it was "Make me proud" because growing up that's how he showed his love, by telling me how proud he was of me. I think I will add to the tattoo though. I still have his hand writing saying that he loves me. Just wanted to share that your effort in making this video was incredible and you hit so many things right on the head, in the show and in real life.

you know its a good show when you dont realize HOW good it is until you think about

Adding on to the whole point of "Validation is essentially the male version of love." I believe that this mainly comes from the idea that, as men, a lot of our worth as people (self, interpersonal, and societal) is tied to how much we can provide. Love is culturally seen as a powerful, but "unearned" alternative to validation. For example, most parents will love their children dearly no matter what they can "provide" because it doesn't have to be earned. And while this is obviously very good for the child's mental health, it can also lead to them stressing over "making themselves useful" in order to not feel like a burden, especially if they're male. This also applies to most other examples of love towards men as well. So, from a male perspective, if someone says "I love you," it can feel hollow and painful because we feel like we're taking something away from that person due to its relatively unconditional nature. However, if someone validates us through phrases like "I'm proud of you," it reinforces our belief that we are useful to others, and thus *worthy* of love. Anyways, let me do some validation of my own for a second. Amazing video as always, absolutely love how thorough and thoughtful your analyses are, and I can't wait for season 2 of Arcane!

The "men express love through validation"-thing hit me deep. I've been struggling with the fact that I'm too embarrassed to tell my closest group of friends that I love them. I never thought I'd have movie-tier best friends, but these guys are really some of my favourite people in the world. And we sometimes say something to that extent, but I'm always embarrassed when things go in that direction, even though I don't want to be. In many ways I'm a pretty feminine guy, and as such I think I value directly telling people I care about them more than guys usually do. But despite this, this video made me realise that I already tell my friends that I love them in all these other ways you described. I never hesitate to compliment and validate them whenever I can. We spend lots of quality time together, having a drink when we get to meet up in person, playing videogames when not, or just hanging out in the voice chat (because I'm currently living in a different city). And I do feel this deep bond when we do that. I still wish I wasn't so damn embarrassed to just say it with words, but this does make me feel a lot better about myself, 'cause it turns out I've been saying "I love you guys" all along, I just didn't know it. EDIT: I did it, guys! Told my friends I love ‘em, and it felt amazing. Gotta thank some of the comments here, especially the one saying I’d regret it if I don’t say it out loud. That one stuck in my head ‘till I couldn’t take it anymore. And I’m glad it did.

Funnily enough, I just had a discussion like this with one of our Arcane servers on why I love Viktor, his character and his design so much. The one thing I love about Arcane is, it's not afraid of showing its male characters being fragile and imperfect in comparison to the countless swathes of media that generally tends to present its male characters like these perfect badasses who are only allowed to cry for the sake of hamming up drama. Like this is something I picked up on just this recently after going to the cinema to see Black Adam. A lot of writers are too afraid to make their male characters too vulnerable and too imperfect. But for me, I like to cite him as one of the most beautiful characters I know because there's just so much personality and storytelling in this character that when you see him at first is so subtle on him that many barely pick up on it at first, and this is all in a character that's not really seen much. His brand of masculinity is such a subtle, unconventional brand of masculinity that you barely see it at all in most media from the way he carries himself right down to his design from the beauty marks on his face to the way he's built and presented. And from what I learned from an old video of Pop Culture Detective's on Newt Scamander, it's because a lot of men in real life is kinda discouraged from carrying themselves the way Viktor does because people seeing it as being "too soft". But that's what I love the most about him. What I've always loved most about him on every facet is, they're not afraid of showing him being vulnerable and ESPECIALLY, being imperfect. Like, we've seen him at his most fragile, whenever he'd experiment on himself, we've seen him at his worst moments throughout the show including in his life and all his mistakes so far and his emotions around it as well as how he owns up to his mistakes. We've seen how he is with his relationships in these highly fragile moments, like with Jayce at the ledge, and with Singed, and in pretty much every scene that he's in, he just feels, refreshingly human. Not to mention how this is all reflected in his character design, when he's on his death bed, he actually looks like he's dying, as opposed to this highly Tim-Burtoned up, romanticized way people in his predicament are usually framed, like the old Victorian novels used to do with women who suffered from Tuberculosis. When we see him experiment on himself, we see him at his most fragile mentally and physically where, he literally looks like if you touch him the wrong way he'd break a bone or wind up bruised for months, but at the same time, to an extent we see him being a little animalistic. There's just this continuous sense of being scared for him AND being scared of him at the same time because by this point we know what shimmer does, and we have no idea what it might do to someone who at this stage looks like a living skeleton. They're more than happy to show him at his best where he's at his most stunning, healthy and most content in life, where we get to see what he could've been essentially had things been different for him, but at the same time they don't hold back on being messy with him, being dark and solemn and kinda gruesome in a sense, and showing him bounce back a little to a degree. Which, considering where he ends up in LoL, kinda makes me batcrap terrified of what they're going to do to the poor guy once Season 2 rolls around because, god forbid, has this poor man been through a lot already.

I just wanted to say how fantastic this video essay is, and how accurately it hits the nail on the head as far as the core of actual masculinity. Now, if you who are reading this feel like indulging me, I've an experience to share: I'll start off by saying that I have not watched Arcane (something which I plan to correct once I get home), but that even through this video essay I relate to the struggle of 'surviving emasculation'. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I always felt really insecure about my masculinity. In short, I do not - and have never, really - fit the 'traditional ideal' of masculinity. I've chronic asthma and tendinitis, and have since I was little. It made playing sports difficult, and, being that by my personality I was and am only a passing fan of them, I did not enjoy playing nor going out of my way to watch them. While I appreciate being outdoors, and love nature, I'm not one for riding motorcycles or mountain bikes or hiking. I'm tall, and have been fit at points in my life, but aren't really able to make any muscle show. I prefered writing, and music, and telling stories. I watched movies instead of sports, read instead of playing football, listened to classical and blues instead of listening to rap or country music. I felt like a fraud, and struggled with trying to fit myself to what I thought was the idea of masculinity, and while I was able to put on a facade (surprise surprise, acting/roleplay is one of my passions) it was, in the end, always sort of a lie. This went on until 2021, in my second year of college. I was diagnosed with Bipolar II and, at first, I did not want to be given medication for it. I wanted to 'suck it up' and handle it on my own. But then my dad asked me if I wanted to stop taking my allergy medication. I thought he'd lost it (I've really bad allergies), and said no. He replied, "What's different about this than your allergies? You don't have the right chemicals being produced. The medicine makes that happen. It's the same as your allergy medication." Suffice to say, I started meds, and decided that I wanted to find the source of all this insecurity of mine, and why I thought taking medication for what is ostensibly an allergy was a sign of being emasculated. After a lot of soul searching and reading and a touch of therapy, I found that how I describe masculinity at its utmost is security. The ability to project security, so that those I care about feel safe. The ability to let people feel safe in my company, not only from outside sources, but also me. The ability, in the far future, to make certain my family is secure and provided for. And, most importantly, security within: acceptance of who I am, the flaws I may have, but without giving into them. Developing them, so that they might serve me, and accepting and wearing my personality proudly, and being secure in it. I always thought that this idea of the primacy of security was the case, but what I failed to realize is there is a difference between creating an aura of security and forcing security onto others. One is passive, and pure, and comes from within to reassure those without. The other is active, imposing, toxic, and is not about security for all, but about control and predictability for oneself. It's this inner security, this inner peace, that is healthy, that is the essence of being a man. I am a nerd. I do eschew many traditional definitions of masculinity. I do feel my emotions and, though I control them and they do not control me, I refuse to hide them. But I *am* a man. I am all of those things, but I'm also a gentleman. On a sinking ship, women and children *will* go before me. I am unafraid to defend myself and others. I *will* tell my friends I love them, that I'm proud of them. And I will *absolutely* talk to random dogs and cats in a baby voice, without shame. *That* is masculinity to me, at its purest. Thank you for reading, if you've made it this far. This turned into a longer post than I originally planned, lol. My one request is that if you are a man, or even a woman feeling the same struggle, please do not be afraid to be you. So long as you hold yourself to the values that you think are important, that define you, and that encourage you to do better and be kind, you are the pinnacle of yourself. Define your ideals of masculinity and femininity not by the will of others, but rather the aspects of it that you value that do not discount who you are. Thanks again, I wish you all the utmost love and wellness. May you improve the lives of others. - Connor

What I love about the "Jayce is vulnerable with Mel" moment is, while yes she is a bit taken aback by it at first, nothing in the scene implies judgment to Jayce responding this way. The reason (I think) she's a little surprised at his vulnerability is rather because she's used to the logical, cold and compassion-lacking politics in Piltover. Cait for example regularly expresses her discontent with the dishonesty and ignorance of her city, so it's safe to assume genuine connection and vulnerability are rare in their society. This is why I believe Mel would have been surprised by anyone in Piltover showing true vulnerability and also why Cait's mom doesn't show any form of compassion towards Jayce when he's basically begging for validation (that whole segment in your video was incredibly eye-opening btw!) at the gates of her house in the rain during arc 1. It's not that men specifically can't behave this way, but rather anyone who wants to be part of Piltover's elite.

I appreciate that Arcane doesn't mark femininity as weakness, but rather as power in a different form, and we can see that with characters like Mel. Men in Arcane aren't shamed or ridiculed by the story's narrative for being emasculated, because being less masculine isn't equated to being less strong or less valuable. Both masculinity and femininity are valuable in their own rights, and I think Arcane does a good job of expressing that. I also think one thing to consider would be that the concepts of "masculinity" and "femininity" might not exist in the world of Piltover and Zaun. Those are categories that developed due to our association of certain traits and behaviors with certain genders, but since Arcane takes place in a world "free from stigmatization," as Overton puts it, characters in that world wouldn't tie emotional vulnerability or a muscular physique to a specific gender - those things would simply exist as they are. Because of that, I think it's safe to say that no man in Arcane would be ashamed of losing to a woman, or of being saved by a woman. Since they don't associate submissiveness and physical weakness with the opposite gender, they would not perceive those events as belittling to their own power and strength as a person. Awesome video! I love your analyses.

The validation point was actually really useful for me, I often find it difficult to write "masculine" men in my own stories because I have never experienced "being a man" (because I am not a man) and I often struggled with how they express emotion and, when together, seek validation from each other. This was a really useful insight and I will take it away and into my own stories hopefully. Maybe I can actually write some decent male characters now lol

Entirely unironically, this video actually made me realize a lot of things about myself and other men in my life that I never even realized. This is such an incredibly insightful video, even beyond the topic of characters, stories, and gender. This is super applicable to real life and understanding the motivation for things some MEN ACTUALLY DO in the real world. My love language is Quality Time, and I have always felt strongly that I can hang out with a friend (or multiple), and we can be doing absolutely nothing, just hanging out and maybe not even say a single word to each other, and to me that feels like a genuinely valuable use of my time. I feel happy and comfortable in those moments. On the flipside, right now where I have basically no friends in close proximity anymore and no one to really hang out with, I have drastically felt as though I lack friendship entirely in my life. I never once considered the motivation and driver of validation within myself and why that makes Quality Time my love language. You described it absolutely perfectly in this video, and it really opened my eyes to things I didn't even really consider about myself. Incredible breakdown video tbh. This is some next level psychological understanding.

The Vander moment of 'whatever happens, it's on you' was pretty striking. It's from a father figure to a daughter, but I think the resulting fear of being a failure or a disappointment is something a lot of guys get. And Vander did love Vi, and was doing his best, but I think the series illustrates pretty well that the 'tough love' approach frequently winds up making love conditional, even if that isn't the intent.

i was kinda lost and then you described how validation plays a role in the representation of men and then it clicked. as a girl who loves to create stories, i’m just now realizing how important it is to gain a new perspective. yeah, the women video was great and perfectly embodied a lot of feelings i associate with feminism that i had yet to consciously understand, but i’m now realizing what an immense lack of perspective i have on men. the saying that goes along the lines of “just write women as people” is important, but it doesn’t always apply. your take was phenomenal and eye-opening-men and woman do share different struggles based on societal norms of both masculinity and femininity, and therefor can be addressed in a story in a very empowering way if done right. the stories i have been creating sofar in my life have been VERY reliant on a female perspective. yes, this is because it connects to me more as a female, but seeing it now, it was the easy way out. writers that only stick to their one perspective in life probably won’t get very far in terms of characters. of course, this is because a writer will likely run the risk of not having very diverse characters or that they won’t be very deep, considering that they’re all just the embodiment of the writers lone perspective. this idea also kind of relates to writing characters that embody tropes because it’s the easy way out of seeing a new perspective. you take a stereotypical character that’s about as shallow as a puddle and then input them into a story with no explanation for these traits or experiences to back it up. coming to this new conclusion about how character’s experiences affect who they are seems to be a really effective tool to create characters. sure, it’s obvious, but for some reason it can be difficult to include in the character creation process mostly because it feels intimidatingly complex. i’ll still have to do some trial and error with this concept so i can dumb it down enough for myself, but otherwise this is very helpful. i adore all the insight these videos give :)

Silco is the manliest man in the show, he valued loyalty to the one he loves more than his own life and dreams.

Silco and Viktor are my favorite characters in this show the way Silco changed from being brutal\strategical\unforgiven to being capable of throwing it all away for Jinx her daughter someone who was just like him forsaken\abandoned, we get to see him at his weakest point when he speaks to the statue of his brother and he dies while showing it. The way you get to see him become a true father is exquisite I wished there were more Silco scenes. And Viktor a character that I would describe as despair & hope someone who had talent yet wasn't recognized yet the moment he had a chance Jayce steals the spotlight pushing him back to square 1 and when he finally manages to cure his leg he gets hope of fully curing himself yet despair appears once more by realizing he doesn't have more liquid yet he still foolishly hopes for a better outcome and proceeds' with it resulting in him losing the only person that truly cared about him showing how his obsessiveness on his research and not asking for help truly ended up hurt him.

Hm, interesting. Not sure I agree with all of it, but I still love the analysis. Also I would love to point out one interesting thing: Jayce is _almost_ always pretty. It's relatively usual for female characters to always be pretty, e.g. never get ugly injuries and make ugly facial expressions. They're pretty when fighting, they're pretty when emotional... And I hate that trope. Out of all the main characters Jayce was the prettiest, others have some form of realistic ugly crying, or ugly rage or get hit and their face becomes ugly for a moment. Vi's a prime example of that, a beautiful person whose face does have face physics when fighting xD But Jayce is pretty all the time *until* the moment where he has that short bloodthirsty moment seconds before he kills a child. And I think that's masterfully done. It's the only moment when his face isn't pretty in some way and it's there for the storytelling. Love it.

i just like the way the women are allowed to be powerful without being one dimensional, and the men are allowed to be vulnerable without being seen as weak

Just wow... You gave me a lot to think about with how I interact with my two sons, man to man. I tell them all the time that I love them, because I genuinely do, but how often do I let them know that I am proud of them, when I genuinely am. Or how often do I validate their opinions and experiences as important to me, because they very much are. And this is something I never realized for myself, but that validation is really important to me, so of course it makes sense that it probably is to them as well. Something to remember going forward, with making sure I let them know fully how I feel, and not just the parts that people traditionally talk about being important to express.

For me it has to do a lot with the setting in which arcane is on... the majority of characters have rough backgrounds with a not-so-kind childhood, and being forced to grow up quickly in dangerous surroundings can make people want to become "stronger" and since being strong can be associated with being masculine (there are exceptions) that's the behavior they show others. It's hard to allow yourself to be feminine and open in a world where you have to fight others physically almost daily.

I wish you had talked more about how men in arcane don't live at the expense of women. The fact that there is no need for these male characters to "establish dominance" or don't care about losing against a woman or opening up o a woman is a statement by itself. There is no trying to make Vi softer, or a man decided to win a fight with her, Jace has no problem in being "weak" with a woman or following a woman's orders, no one questions a woman's authority just because they're women. Really good analysis but I just felt like that missed, but honestly you did amazing with the validation theme

Speaking as a man here: validation is something so many men will spend their whole lives chasing. Vander and Silco perfectly embody this through their dream of the nation of Zaun. Vander fought tooth and nail to see it come true, and have Piltover validate the entire undercity as equal, until he nearly murdered his own brother on the path to achieving that validation. Then, after Vander strayed from that path once he saw the human cost of it, Silco chose to walk it. Silco was willing to turn everyone in the undercity into henchmen, dealers, and junkies, all to have his dream of an independent Zaun be validated by Piltover. But in the very end, Silco strayed from the path for the very same reason Vander did: family. Just as Vander wasn't willing to sacrifice his people for it, Silco wasn't willing to sacrifice Jinx for it. The validation of family was more important to them than the validation of Piltover. The way Arcane writes the human animal is truly genius.

I think your description of Victor finally helps me understand why he's my favorite character. I never really understood it till now, cause so many people seem to prefer Jinx or Vi etc in my experience. So far I've not seen anyone putting Victor super high on their faves list, which made me wonder why I put him at the top. The whole "suck it up" mentality is one that resonates with me extremely strongly. And I think it just has to do with my situation in life. I've had lengthy periods of aimlessness and self-pity because of things that happened to me, but it wasn't until I "sucked it up" and moved on that my situation improved. Not only that, but it also gave me a real sense of control over my own fate, after years of feeling like I was always at the mercy of the many malicious people around me. But even though it benefitted me a lot, I also have the same problem with the "suck it up" strategy that Victor does. I also have a hard time with my emotions. Emotional numbness is a big problem for me. Not so much intentional suppression of emotions, more like I've somehow become disconnected from my emotions so now I rarely feel things very strongly at all. Pretty sure that developed as a defensive mechanism when I was a child and which I still haven't quite managed to overcome. But anyway, I think it's kinda funny that I have this supposed super masculine trait/weakness that Victor has. Just goes to show, you don't need to have anything physically in common with a character to identify with them. Who they are at their core is more than enough.

I feel like Arcane can teach people a lot about themselves as well. Im a woman, but I express love the way most men do. This was the first time that I watched a series and actually felt changed afterwards, and not just for an hour or two, but for good.

The problem I have with the "write female characters just as people" is that it tends to ignore that one's gender does play a big part in how one might be socialised. Character does come first.... but wait, where does the character come from? From your past life. And gender can paly a big part in that. Not into your INHERENT ways of thinking and acting, but in those you learn beacuse of how people treat you.

To paraphrase the old Extra Credits host: gender or sexuality should INFORM a character, NOT DEFINE them

You're a terrific analyst. One of the most grounded and thoughtful i've seen on youtube.

Fantastic video. There is one small bit near the end I think is missing. Near the end, you mentioned Silco's application of make-up as an example of him caring about perception. Obviously true giving his use of theatrics, but I think it had a different purpose. I think it was there as a small, early, nod to his character growth. In the first arc, Silco has the same goal but wears his scars proudly and openly a testament to his ability to survive. He understood that power in Zaun and didn't care how it made him look to Piltover. It's only after adopting Jinx that he begins wearing makeup. My theory on this is that either his scars scared her as a child, and he didn't want to do that, or that he wanted her to see his as a man and not a monster. The make-up is the first instance the viewer sees of Silco compromising. It's the foreshadowing to the scene where he's speaking at Vander's statue of how raising Jinx influenced his growth as a person.

"Arcane doesn't need femboys to work" Femboy Viktor Artists: I felt my heart crack

As a daughter I can see this difference between parenthood and motherhood, like my father says to me”you would accomplish great things” or “You will be better than me and your mother” and my mom says more “I love you” and thing like that.

Amazing video. One thing you noted was vi's more "neutral" gender ballance, which I thought was something only I noticed. I've looked at all the characters, and I"m pretty sure that Vi was the only character who sort of aligns with the write women as people trope. She is a pretty decent ballance, and her fitting in the role as a sister, guardian and daughter wouldn't differ too much if she was a brother, male guardian and son.

Just watched the whole bunch of your Arcane videos, and it's so brilliant I'm amazed how you've noticed all those things and structured them

Growing up female with a macho father, I learned a lot of anxieties from both sides. Sports teams would tell me to "man up", and yet would berate the boys if I ever one-upped them. "You let a GIRL beat you??" I prided myself on suppressing emotion, playing up my "tomboy" aspects, and judging people for something as simple as expressing joy with friends rather than keep stoic. Children pervade these stereotypes, and it really has a devastating effect on your psyche. Arcane hit every sweet spot for me. They allowed characters to freely interact with each other in unique ways. Mel wasn't immediately receptive when Jayce opened up to her; she was still dealing with her own impression of the night prior, along with everything else, and the show allowed her those feelings, even when the situation wasn't about her. It didn't shame or make her look stupid for having misread the situation, and inversely, it didn't shame Jayce for having run off in the first place. The audience wasn't forced to side with anyone. I think this especially, the lack of "shame" or "choosing sides" in the show, is something that really stood out to me. Princesses always huff angrily when the prince runs off recklessly to fight instead of running away, and you always get that one scene that turns out to be a needless misunderstanding. People mis-hearing a more damning part of a conversation and leaving before context is provided, for instance! I was actually worried that Mylo-Vi's overheard conversation was going to go in the same direction, but it seemed like it was used later to avoid re-hashing Powder's insecurities, summed up instead by her line: "you were twice the person at half my age". Another factor that absolutely solidified my appreciation for this show that I don't see anyone mentioning: the world seemed to canonically not have rape or sexual harassment. It not only wasn't brought up as a threat when it many times could have been used as one, but it was not even a possibility. I love gritty and grim movies, but those scenes just break immersion for me and make me feel uncomfortable. I already know the feeling of being targeted, harassed, etc; I don't need escapist media to remind me of that! Thank you for making these videos. Your perspective and break-downs are very refreshing, and I appreciate you sharing insight from your father as well!

I think when people say 'write characters as people', what they're trying to say is to 'write characters as a culmination of experiences' without understanding what that really is. Some experiences are gendered, some experiences aren't, and all of them are influenced by the setting and society. It's a very 'from the ground up' approach that people don't realize takes a lot more effort to make work, but the approach they had with Arcane had a very similar result that will be a phenominal influence on a lot of people in multiple creative spheres.

Maaaan your videos are so interesting ! Thank you !

I think that with so much nuance in this series as he has multiple videos about so many subtle and very hard to point out details regarding characters, story and overall theme, it is hard to believe they just sat and thought so deeply for each detail but more like they were just very good at their job and many of details were result of their incredible intuition due to experience.

I went to a Brandon Saderson signing one, my mom is a huge fan, and part of it was that he had a q and a just before the actual signing. So I asked how he writes women and one of the things he said was that he had an issue when he first got into writing with writing men and women "the same", he said the issue was that gender is very important to factor in when writing characters. I don't remember it exactly cause it was like a decade ago and I was a kid, but this made me think of that advice about keeping in mind how characters gender is important when writing them and to factor in mind that gender shouldn't define a character (that was something he also mentioned). Great video btw.

“I’m proud of you” being the masculine form of “I love you” is such an amazing take that I’ve never thought of before but it’s so true! I can think of countless examples from both healthy and unhealthy relationships where that’s the case. A child trying to be the best in everything to get the attention of an uncaring father. Friends hyping each other up and congratulating them for their accomplishments. An older brother or father teaching a child to play catch and how much that means to the child especially when they’re told they’re getting the hang of it. As always this is incredible analysis. I don’t know how you do it but please keep up the good work.

That's so interesting! thank you for the analysis!

Very interesting video essay. you bring up well thought out points, and it was intriguing to listen to. Thank you!

There’s Caitlin’s dad who fits a traditionally motherly role whilst her mom fits the fatherly role

Mr. Kiramman I believe is stereotypically "feminine." Seriously. From what we've seen in Season 1, Caitlyn's mom was more of a "traditional dad" to Caitlyn than her father.

You expose a lot of ideas and observations in these videos. Great content!

The idea of using humongous shifts to female gender norms but on the other hand using moments to challenge male masculinity is genius in a way that I would've never thought of. Man and women have different challenges, therefore they can't be written identically. Great breakdown!!

I saw a trans man talk about the same sorts of things. Once living as a woman, he assumed that men did very little emotional labor, emotionally supportive work like talking through emotionally draining topics and being compassionate to struggling others (etc.), which is work that often falls to women (e.g., women/feminine teachers are the ones students share their personal struggles with and ask for flexibility from over men/masculine teachers). However, after transitioning and passing as a man to other men, he realized that men did emotional labor, too, but it was all about validating other men and their masculinity as you describe. The tough greetings, the brushing off of perceived emasculating moments, and more was the emotional labor he found he did as a man, which he doesn’t think is always useful if it prevents men from getting the deeper levels of support they actually need and if most other emotional labor gets pushed onto women as a result.

I agree, the characters were specifically designed for their genders. Vi and Jinx’s conflict and motivations would not nearly be as impactful if they were men, there are a bunch of things that wouldn’t make as much impact if the characters were genderswapped

this guy is great at talking about and understating so many topics it’s so cool

I’ve been binge watching your arcane videos, they’re so good

The segment about emasculation is absolutely brilliant and hits close to home. I rarely show emotions (has nothing to do with me being a man, this is just how I am), but sometimes I have these outbursts, and most of the times they were judged as "feminine" by people around me. That's one of the reason I like Jayce so much - he is musculine in every way possible, but he is not afraid to be vulnerable and to show his emotions, and he is also not judged for that by people around him.

Theres at least one female gender stereotyped male character. Vic perfectly fits the stereotype of women trying to make it in a male dominated field. People look down on him, they don't take him seriously he doesn't get credit for his accomplishments, the credit is given to his male partner. Nobody expects anything of him except eventual failure. They pity him and think he's out of his lane.

Love this video man!

i think being able to name what you feel is one of the best indicators of intellect and talent. Its like what seperates a good teacher from a great teacher; the ability to know what their students are struggling with. Its like that friend that not only understands or knows about a topic, but is able to explain it well enough for you to understand it as well. I believe you did great job breaking it down here.

I've been falling down the rabbit hole of arcane essays for 3 months now and I'm so glad most of them are from you, Schnee! Love this quick and to the point style you do.

The closest feminine equivalent for emasculate I can think of is the saying, “Thats not very Lady-like”

Speaking if validation, i really do enjoy the video discussions you make about writing it really expands my writing limits and i look forward to the recaps for season 2

This is a fantastic video and j oh love your channel. I just found it yesterday haha. You gave me a better am understanding and appreciation of men as a women. I think it’s so easy to demonize people that we don’t really understand (which I think i might have been doing with men). I needed a new set of eyes. For a while now I’ve been wanting to find a literary analysis channel and j just stumbled upon this. I LOVE listening to peoples ideas/analysis’s about things I haven’t even noticed. Keep up the good work

"We don't get a male sex symbol." "We don't get femboys." Me looking at Viktor:

You put it perfectly "you didn't think there was that much there" to talk about. The women video while enlightening was more or less expected. Of course many of the women characters are masculine, of course they skip the cliches or apply them differently but this? These were perspectives I never thought about. Well done! To you and even moreso to Arcane! Damn man this show keeps getting better and better.

Incredible video! This one was easy to understand and had great talking points too.

Most of my character writing these days happens in tabletop rpgs. It is really interesting to hear such a positive example of effectively writing masculinity and being able to embrace what makes it unique. This has helped me to put words to a lot of the thoughts that I've had on the topic. Excellent work.

Aye, Arcane has strong (I mean giga chad level of strengths) women without needing weak men. And I am loving it!

this video has taught me so much about my own masculinity and how its tangible affects play out in my life. thank you

great video, ive never watched anything from you before but this was really well done. subbed.

That was an incredible and insightful analysis. Thank you!