 |
This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. |
| “ | I'd like to let you in on a very important secret I learned when I was about your age, boy. You see, power, real power doesn't come to those who were born strongest, or fastest, or smartest. No. It comes to those who will do anything to achieve it. It's time to let the monster out. | „ |
| ~ Silco's famous speech to Deckard. |
| “ | Renni: What's that? Silco: Oh, you don't recognize it? Have you forgotten where we came from? The mines they had us in? Air so thick it clogged your throat, stuck in your eyes. But I pulled you all up from the depths, offered you a taste of topside, and fresh air. I gave you life, purpose, but you've grown fat and complacent. Too much time in the sun. We came from a world where there was never enough to go around, Finn. That is why we fight. Do you remember? Finn: Sorry. Please. Please. Silco: Don't forget again. |
„ |
| ~ Silco reminds the chem-barons of their place. |
| “ | I never would have given you to them. Not for anything. Don't cry. You're perfect. | „ |
| ~ Silco's final words to Jinx, expressing his undying love for her as his daughter. |
Silco is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Ambessa Medarda) of Riot Games/Netflix's 2021 animated series Arcane, which is set in the League of Legends universe.
He is a Zaunite gangster and revolutionary who seeks to liberate his people from Piltovan rule and is willing to stop at almost nothing to achieve that goal. He is also the arch-enemy of Vander and Vi, with the former having been his brother-in-arms, and the second adoptive father of Powder/Jinx.
He was voiced by Jason Spisak.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- He tests a newly created drug called shimmer on one of his followers, a teenage boy named Deckard, despite knowing that the drug's effects will eventually kill him.
- He has Deckard kill Grayson and Benzo, kidnap Vander, and then take the latter to his hideout.
- He orders his followers to kill Vander's adopted children - Vi, Mylo, and Claggor - when they come to rescue him and then stabs Vander from behind with a knife when the latter starts fighting back to protect Vi. Although Vander temporarily recovers from his knife wound by injecting himself with shimmer, his injuries finally start to take their toll after he gets Vi out of the building to safety and seemingly lead to his demise.
- After Jinx kills several Enforcers in order to steal a hextech gemstone from Jayce and Viktor's lab, he orders Marcus, the corrupt Sheriff of Piltover, to publicly blame the Firelights for the attack and focus his efforts on hunting down the gang's remaining members in order to prevent them from continuing to interfere with his drug enterprise.
- After finding out that Marcus lied to him about Vi's death, Silco comes to his house and subtly threatens to kill his daughter if he doesn't take responsibility for his dishonesty.
- After his rise to power in the underground, Silco floods the streets of Zaun with shimmer and gets many of his own people hooked on the drug in order to fund his criminal ventures and build an army strong enough to keep the Topsiders out of the undercity. The subsequent addiction epidemic turns many Zaunites into physically deformed junkies and forces them to live in absolute squalor. It also significantly increases the undercity's wealth gap and drastically decreases the overall quality of life in Zaun.
- Despite demanding loyalty from his followers, he gives almost none in return. He also uses them as pawns to achieve his vision of Zaunite independence and shows indifference if they happen to die fighting for his cause. The only person he's truly loyal to is Jinx since he considers her to be his adoptive daughter and the only family that he has left.
- He bribes a drug addict named Huck for information on Vi's location with a dose of shimmer and then uses several other addicts as attack dogs against Vi and Caitlyn, even taunting the two girls demeaningly before he sets them loose.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- While he committed numerous crimes against his own people, his backstory is incredibly tragic, as he grew up in extreme poverty and spent his entire life helplessly watching the Topsiders oppress and exploit his fellow Zaunites for their own gain. At one point during his youth, he teamed up with Vander, his best friend and chosen brother, to free their people from Piltovan rule and create an independent Zaunite nation under their control. However, everything fell apart when they organized an uprising against Piltover, which ultimately failed and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of their own people, including Vi and Jinx's parents. In the aftermath of the uprising, Vander came to blame Silco for their deaths, and was so overcome with rage and grief that he brutally beat Silco and tried to drown him in Zaun's polluted rivers, severely scarring the left side of his face and poisoning his left eye. This event deeply traumatized him and led him to become extremely ruthless in his pursuit of Zaun's freedom, to where he had no qualms with forcibly turning his own people into savage monsters in order to secure their independence from Piltover.
- As Vi and Jinx later discover while exploring an abandoned mine, Vander tried to reach out to Silco after their disagreement and left a letter for him in their old hideout where he apologized for attacking him and offered to make amends. Unfortunately, Silco never found Vander's letter, meaning that he never got a chance to heal from his trauma and reconcile with Vander. Jinx later pointed out that had Silco managed to read Vander's letter, things could have turned out completely different between them. This is later proven when Ekko accidentally travels to an alternate universe where Silco found Vander's letter, made peace with his old friend, and never committed all the crimes that he did in the original universe.
- His death is also played for sympathy, as the music in the background is very somber when it becomes clear that he's dying and Jinx breaks down after realizing that she accidentally killed her father figure for a second time.
- Despite his violent methods and extremist ideology, his ultimate goal is to free his people from Piltover's control because he doesn't want to see them continue to suffer from the excessive poverty and injustice that has plagued Zaun for generations. He cares so much about achieving this goal that he is willing to negotiate with the Topsiders, return the hextech gemstone, and shut down his drug enterprise in exchange for the independence of his people. The only reason why he ultimately refuses to accept their terms is because they also demand that he hand over Jinx so that they can punish her for the crimes she's committed against Piltover.
- He genuinely cares about certain people in his life:
- Despite their bitter history, he still cares about Vander, views him like a brother, and admires him for the brutal and fearsome fighter that he used to be in their younger years. After he captures Vander, Silco admits that he still sees him as a worthy partner in the coming revolution against the Topsiders and offers him another chance to fight together against Piltover just like old times. Even years after Vander's death, Silco still held his old friend in high esteem, as shown when he paid his respects to a statue of Vander that was made in his honor and eventually came to understand why Vander gave up on their shared dream of freedom for the sake of his family.
- He truly cares for his adoptive daughter Jinx. When he meets her for the first time and learns that her older sister abandoned her, he comforts her and decides to take her under his care. Over time, Silco develops a strong father-daughter bond with Jinx, as demonstrated when he advises her to make good use of her natural talents in engineering and weapon design, and gives her a break to cool off after she has a traumatic flashback during a battle with the Firelights. When he finds her grievously wounded from her fight with Ekko on the bridge, he rushes over to her to make sure she's okay and then carries her to Singed so that he can save her life. When Jayce eventually promises to give his people independence from Piltover in exchange for Jinx, Silco takes the blame of Jinx's actions to protect her and ultimately refuses to accept Jayce's terms. After Jinx fatally shoots him by accident, Silco doesn't blame her for his impending death and comforts her in his final moments by assuring her that he never would've traded her to the Topsiders for anything and telling her that she's perfect the way she is.
- He was good friends with Felicia, the mother of Vi and Jinx, and respected her decision to raise a family in the undercity after learning that she was pregnant with her first child. He also promised her with a toast that he would keep fighting for Zaun's freedom in order to give her children a better life in the underground and was distraught when she was later murdered during the failed uprising against Piltover. Even years after Felicia's death and Vander's betrayal, Silco never broke his promise to her and went out of his way to adopt Jinx as his daughter when she had nowhere else to go.
- He has a sense of honor and values loyalty, due to his personal belief that his generation only survived to the present day because of the loyalty they had towards one another. As a result, he's extremely disdainful towards the chem-barons for forgetting their roots and what they fight for. He also views them as parasites who take the luxuries that they have for granted, leech off the legacies of their ancestors for their own benefit, and are only loyal to themselves. This was eventually proven to be true when Finn and Renni betrayed him even though he was the one who originally gave them their wealth and positions of power. When they voice their intent to kill him and take his throne, Silco lectures them for their inadequacies and how he still believes in loyalty, which motivates Sevika to take his side and kill Finn by slitting his throat.
Trivia[]
- The character of Silco has received critical acclaim from both audiences and critics alike for his ruthless and complex nature.
- Despite all the crimes he committed during his revolution against Piltover, Silco is still considered to be less heinous than Ambessa and Viktor. Part of the reason for this is because they both had significantly more resources at their disposal than Silco ever did and would've completely destroyed Piltover had they successfully accomplished their goals.
- Ambessa was born into House Medarda, a noble family hailing from Noxus, which itself is one of the most powerful nations in Runeterra. As a Noxian general, she was also a battle-hardened warrior and had an entire legion of Noxian soldiers under her command, which she brought with her to Piltover as support in her goal to trick Jayce into building her a hextech weapon that she could use to fight against the Black Rose.
- Viktor was drastically enhanced by his transmutation procedures with the Hexcore, especially the one that Jayce used on him to save his life after he nearly died from Jinx's rocket attack on the Piltovan council building. These experiments granted Viktor hextech abilities so advanced that they enabled him to build an army of mindless slaves only loyal to himself, easily overpower Jayce in single combat even when they were both wielding hextech weaponry, destroy all of Piltover with his so-called "Glorious Evolution", and freely travel through time and space, which made it possible for him to save Jayce from a snowstorm as a child.
External Links[]
- Silco on the Villains Wiki
- Silco on the League of Legends Wiki
- Silco on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
