Arcane & Severance have a big ‘JayVik’ connection and it’ll blow your mind

Daisy Phillipson
Viktor in Arcane Season 2 and Irving and Burt in Severance Season 1

Severance and Arcane are not two shows you’d normally put together, but it turns out that Burt and Irving (Birving?) have a mind-blowing connection to JayVik, aka Jayce and Viktor.  

Arcane’s second and final chapter dropped on Netflix last November, wrapping up the story in Piltover with a heart-wrenching finale as Jayce and Viktor made the ultimate sacrifice to save their people. 

As we wait for updates on the next League of Legends series, Severance Season 2 is airing on Apple TV+, serving up more intriguing clues and corporate horror as it dives deeper into Lumon’s secrets.

While Arcane and Severance exist in completely different worlds – one’s a live-action dystopian sci-fi thriller set in an office, the other’s a steampunk animation about the war between science and magic – they share an unexpected link you may have missed. 

Severance and Arcane share unexpected connection

If the “cosmic yaoi” scene between Jayce and Viktor in the Arcane Season 2 finale reminded you of the romantic moment Burt and Irving touch heads at Lumon, that’s because they were both written by Amanda Overton. 

Irving and Burt in Severance Season 1

Overton served as an executive story editor, writer, and co-producer on the Netflix animated series, but you might not know that she was also heavily involved in Severance Season 1, having written the standout Episode 6, ‘Hide and Seek’.

If you remember, this is the episode where Mark and the MDR team storm the O&D department in a bid to find out what Lumon is making them do. But before this happens, Burt shows Irving around the plant room he found. 

The pair grow even closer, but both are hesitant about their relationship due to Lumon’s strict rules. 

“It could be just for us. Our secret place,” says Burt, to which Irving replies, “Finally. What I mean to say is that your O&D colleagues are very nice, but they’re also…” Burt finishes his sentence, saying, “Always around.”

Burt brings up the fact that the “Lumon manual doesn’t say anything about lip-to-lip contact,” but Irving points out it “does discourage romantic fraternization.”

Although they nearly kiss, clearly both wanting to, Irving says he’s not ready yet and apologizes. Instead, they touch their foreheads together, with Burt saying, “It’s fine. Just stay. Stay here with me.”

The scene has been described as “yaoi”, a Japanese term for fictional media that depicts romantic relationships between men. Over on X/Twitter, one Severance fan used this term while highlighting the fact that Overton wrote this heartwarming moment. 

“Does everyone know the old man forehead touching yaoi in Severance was written by Amanda Overton of Arcane and JayVik fame? Because I really need everyone to know that,” they said

“WHAT,” replied another, to which the OP stated, “Genuinely life changing information.” 

A third added, “I worked with Amanda on Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and I can assure you she is a LOUD defender of accurate and genuine queer representation in what she writes. Cannot express enough love and appreciation for her.”

Burt and Irving moment mirrors JayVik’s final scene

The parallels between the Severance scene and Jayce and Viktor’s final moment were also highlighted in the thread. 

Right at the end of Season 2, when JayVik make their final sacrifice, they come together and embrace, with their foreheads touching – just like Burt and Irving.

Viktor and Jayce in Arcane Season 2

Although JayVik were never officially a romantic couple, they were one of the biggest ships of Arcane, and Overton has left it open to interpretation. 

In a chat with io9, the interviewer highlighted the “intimacy of their [Jayce and Viktor’s] writing throughout the show and how they go out, as the fans say, in a ‘cosmic yaoi’ style,” and asked whether fans are justified in seeing their relationship as romantic. 

“Fans are always justified in reading things the way they want to because that’s part of making art,” she told the outlet. 

“When you do a thing for it based on you, it doesn’t actually have meaning until other people give it their own meaning. 

“My backstory is very different from your backstory and my experiences are very different from yours so I can only speak from my experience. When I put a thing that I’ve written out in the world, then everyone brings their own different experiences to it.

Viktor and Jayce in Arcane Season 2

“We were writing them as a loving, brotherly relationship that unambiguously [had] love between them. 

“When it got to that final moment, it was so romantic and beautiful to me when I saw it for the first time – the way Fortiche put it together – I was like, ‘Oh, well maybe there is hope [for] these guys to have some future beyond what the show intended.’ That was really cool for me to see. 

“If people want to imagine that, I think they can, and that’s wonderful. Now that the show is over, if there’s the potential for that out there, then that’s potential that our fans can realize for themselves.”

Arcane Season 2 is streaming on Netflix now, and you can find out when the next episode of Severance Season 2 drops with our release schedule. Also, read about why Arcane Season 3 will never happen and read our recaps to Severance Season 2 Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode 3.