What’s wrong with Silco’s eye in ‘Arcane?’

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Arcane season one.

In Arcane, it’s impossible not to notice that one of its center-stage villains, crime lord Silco, has an unusual-looking left eye. Unlike his right eye, in which the iris is blue and the sclera is white, this particular eye has an orange iris and a black sclera. Also, during Silco’s flashback at the start of Arcane‘s third episode, we see that both of his eyes were once blue and white.

It’s obvious that Silco can see out of both eyes, even being able to dilate his left eye, which makes its odd appearance even more puzzling. So, did Arcane‘s Undercity villain simply decide to get a creative left-eye tattoo in his past life, or is something else going on?

What happened to Silco’s left eye?

The story behind Silco’s black-and-orange eye in Arcane is pretty straightforward. In years past, after getting into a life-or-death brawl with former friend Vander — most likely over an ethical divergence regarding their strategies for winning Zaun’s independence — Silco ended up being submerged in The Undercity’s toxic river, where a small wound under his left eye (received during the fight) became infected by the water’s polluted chemicals. This, in turn, led to the mutation of his left eye, accompanied by some scars on the left side of his face.

How does he deal with it?

Near the end of Arcane‘s first episode, before we even see Silco’s face, we’re introduced to the object he uses to keep his problematic eye infection under control. To keep it from spreading, the Zaunite crime lord relies on a metal device to inject an unknown substance (probably restorative Shimmer) into his left eye via needlepoint.

Arcane is available for streaming on Netflix.