League of Legends: The Story of Vi and Caitlyn Explained (2024)

Arcane: League of Legends has turned out to be a smash hit for both Netflix and Riot Games. With the spectacular animation made by Fortiche Productions, along with writing that welcomes both League of Legends loyalists and new fans entirely, Arcane has been praised as one of the better video game TV show adaptations to come out in recent years. While the nine-episode show showcases a fair deal of champions from Piltover and Zaun, there are two in particular that not only get to form their in-game bond, but also get to show that it's deeper than previously thought.

Caitlyn, Piltover's Sheriff, was the first champion added in 2011. A year later saw the release of Vi, who was revealed to be Caitlyn's crime-fighting partner. As a result, the two have several in-game interactions, as well as lore tying the two together. However, the amount of content the two have had together has led some fans to question just what the state of their relationship is. It seems that with the release of Arcane, as well as a cosmetic adjustment to Caitlyn, the truth is that the sheriff and her partner are romantically involved.

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Caitlyn and Vi in League of Legends

Ever since Vi was added to League of Legends as a new champion, there have always been special interactions between her and Caitlyn. Caitlyn and Vi get a cosmetic buff called "On the Case" when they're on the same team together that gives them extra gold when they score takedowns, but it needs to be done together for it to count. Teaming up for kills and assists in League also activates special voice lines of the two complementing each other. For other matches, Vi has special taunts that annoy enemy Caitlyns when they aren't on the same team.

One notable part of their interactions is that Vi tends to call Caitlyn "Cupcake" every so often as a nickname, one example being that she compliments her by saying "nice shot, Cupcake" after scoring against enemies together. The nickname is used even more in the card game Legends of Runeterra. Two of Vi's lines when in play with Miss Fortune's card deal with Vi saying rather specifically that she prefers cupcakes as a gift instead of flowers, and another has Vi specifically saying "Cait has a sweet tooth for bad cops," among several others.

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Caitlyn's New Adjustments

As of November 17th's patch to League of Legends, Caitlyn was given an entire cosmetic revamp that resulted in a few incidental nerfs to the Piltover champion. Alongside that, however, came new voice lines that call attention to the relationship between her and Vi once again. The sheriff now has a fair deal of lines that only play when in matches with her partner, and some suggest that they're more than just friends.

For starters, when Caitlyn is either working with or against Vi in a match, there will either be a line that plays that's either fond or sad depending on which side Vi is on. Caitlyn even feels remorse when fighting an enemy Jinx, specifically mentioning that Vi, as Jinx's sister, will be upset if she's gone.

The most interesting of these voice lines is a new line Caitlyn says when she dies, which is simply "Tell Vi that I..." as some sort of last wish. While it might not ever be confirmed what Caitlyn meant to say there, similar lines in media usually deal with the person speaking using their last breath as a love confession, and it may be the same here. In total, as part of the adjustments, five lines got added that specifically reference Caitlyn's partner, when there weren't nearly as many before the update.

Vi and Caitlyn's Relationship In Arcane

It's rather interesting that Caitlyn's latest update with all of the voice lines was added to the game shortly before Arcane was scheduled to be released onto Netflix. As the origin story for many of Piltover and Zaun's champions, Vi and Caitlyn are notable, and even main characters in it. The two meet for the first time and the show answers just how they worked together for the first time after years of League of Legends' official lore leaving it vague. Arcane however takes them in a direction that makes it incredibly hard to argue that they're simply just friends.

In Arcane, the two share a strong bond built by what they went through together as the two learn to trust each other despite where they differ. As that connection grows, the two are seen embracing one another, and even caressing the other one's face tenderly in quiet moments. Vi in one prominent scene brings back her nickname for Caitlyn in LoL by very bluntly saying "you're hot, Cupcake" right before trapping Caitlyn up close and personal against a wall. Even Jinx is aware of just how close the two are, getting jealous of Caitlyn's relationship with Vi, and referring to the sharpshooter as Vi's "girlfriend" in one scene.

With everything Riot Games has led up to with these two champions, it's rather clear that they're not just partners in crime-fighting, but partners romantically as well. Where there weren't too many lines between these characters before, their involvement with each other has been made very clear through the sheer amount of interactions between them that have been added to Riot's games and shown in Arcane since. While it's possible that Vi and Caitlyn's dynamic wasn't meant to be romantic at first, these updates give the sense that the relationship evolved over time with Riot Games reflecting it with every adjustment.

There's a chance that this relationship was just something that came out of the characters organically as the game's been updated, and Riot decided to act upon it. While the two have yet to fully confess in either League of Legends, Arcane, or any of the other installments towards the lore of Runeterra, Arcane's second season is in production. For fans wanting to see how Vi and Caitlyn's relationship develops from where it is now may want to tune in, as the teaser trailer hints towards more of it, including how they got to where they are in League itself.

League of Legends is available now on PC.

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