The Silco Hidden Agenda Theory That Rewrites Arcane’s Entire Conflict

Silco is Arcane at its most complicated: a liberation pitchman who runs a drug empire, a self-styled savior who happily breaks the city to fix it. He wants Zaun free and recognized as its own nation, and he is very clear-eyed about what that would actually take.

What Silco wanted, and why a handshake was never going to cut it

Season 1 puts the Piltover–Zaun split right in your face: the topside glows, the Undercity coughs. Silco grew up under that, literally working the mines while Piltover thrived, and it calcified into a mission. As the Eye of Zaun, he argues independence is the only way forward. But in his mind, a peace treaty is just paper; it won’t rewind the damage or loosen Piltover’s grip. So he builds leverage the ugly way: Shimmer.

He floods Zaun with the stuff, making people reliant on him while turning bodies into tools, then scales up with a Shimmer-boosted army and the Chem-Barons to enforce it. It’s not subtle and it’s not benevolent, but it scares Piltover. That’s the point.

Vander, the broken revolution, and a very personal heel turn

Silco and Vander come from the generation that ate the worst of Piltover’s boot. They started a revolution together; Vander’s later compromise (call it betrayal from Silco’s view) hardens Silco into a colder, more controlling version of the cause. In Act 1, he’s the show’s clear villain: responsible for Vander’s death and, indirectly, the deaths of Vi and Jinx’s adoptive brothers. Vander wasn’t a perfect leader, but Silco drugging his own people and empowering the Chem-Barons is a far darker trade-off.

How he kept Piltover off-balance

Silco didn’t just muscle the streets. He bribed his way upstairs. Enforcer Marcus was on his payroll, keeping Piltover from exposing the rot. And when Jinx enters the picture, Silco’s operation evolves again. He’s furious when she blows up Enforcers on Progress Day right by the Piltover Council building — too loud, too messy, bad for business. But the second she reveals she snagged the Hextech gemstone, he pivots: turn it into a weapon.

The almost-peace, and the plan behind it

By Act 3, Silco is close to what looks like a breakthrough. He and Jayce work out a peace deal to avoid full-blown war. The catch? Silco knows Jinx is still building a Hextech-powered weapon. Between his Shimmer-enhanced bruisers and the Chem-Barons, he has already spooked Piltover; now he’s aiming to turn Piltover’s own crowning invention against them. The treaty buys time. The weapon changes the balance.

He dies, but his playbook survives

Silco doesn’t make it to Season 2, but his fingerprints are all over it. After losing him, Jinx fires the Hextech-charged Fishbones and obliterates the Council — a grief-struck, catastrophic follow-through on his philosophy. Piltover reels. Paranoia spikes. And that vacuum lets Ambessa push the conflict even harder. Most of Season 2’s bloodshed traces back to her moves, but Silco’s death is the door she walks through. One person, one spectacular act of violence, and an entire city-state starts tearing itself up from the inside.

So was a free Zaun ever actually possible?

Silco believed he was doing what Zaun needed, method be damned. Arcane keeps arguing that polite negotiations were never going to deliver real freedom for the Undercity — not by themselves, anyway. We’ll never know exactly how Silco would have dismantled Piltover; he dies before the endgame. But his impact? Unmistakable, and still shaping the board long after he’s gone.

Arcane is streaming on Netflix. What do you think: did Jayce’s deal have any real shot at delivering an independent Zaun, or was Silco always going to need more time — and more pressure — to get there?