Arcane is one of those shows that seems to just get better each time it is watched, proving once again that they were deserving of their recent Emmy Award. Their beautifully crafted world, rich and complex characters, combined with masterfully nuanced storytelling truly brings Piltover and Zaun to life, and a big part of this is the use and creation of the drug Shimmer (very different from the liquid found in Terraria) - but what exactly makes this body altering substance so appealing en masse?
It seems like a strange place to start, trying to find a reason why someone might take a drug that does such horrific things to them, as well as being highly addictive, as this is something rife within the real world today. Motivations to abuse such substances are common, despite the horrific consequences, addiction being a real and terrible issue.
Lonely scientist Singed's creation Shimmer, at first, seems the same, a drug that gives its user a good time, until the effects of it wear off, and they are left crippled and desperate to get their next fix. The deep slums within the undercity, where Caitlyn and Vi find themselves after Vi is wounded, filled with the corpse like unfortunates hooked on the drug, controlled body and soul by the perfect villain Silco. There is one important difference however: the motivation behind taking it.
The unnatural purple Shimmer is unlike any drug found in the real world, a substance that mutates the user's body to give him far superior strength, ability, and power, while notably diminishing their morality and intellect. It doesn't diminish the person within entirely however, the show making a point that while the user seems wild and manic like an animal, there is still something of the person within, and if they fight hard enough they are able to control themselves somewhat.
This is shown most notably within Vander, not killing Silco or Vi when many would have done so. It turns these once ‘normal’ people into what resemble wild animals, clouds their judgment and makes them machines of destruction. It’s not just something that happens within the user's head like the majority of real world drugs, outlining the first significant difference between them. Real drugs are an escapist means used, primarily but not exclusively, as a means to escape the burdens of society - so similar to Shimmer. They are used however to escape mental burdens (pain being a notable outlier), things such as stress, anxiety, even monotony, altering mentality to give users the freedom from mental oppressions. In the world of Arcane the motivations to take such drugs shift drastically to a motivation to avoid physical burdens, things like the constant threat of violence and sickness caused by the horrific pollution.
This is why shimmer is so addictive in the world of Arcane, where it most likely wouldn’t be in the real world, a substance that wouldn’t help with the usual mentality of substance abusers, unable to help them achieve the freedom they find within the drugs. Shimmer alters physicality feather than mentality, dealing with one of the biggest issues plaguing the undercity/Zaun: the feeling of inferiority.
When looking at some of the most notable shimmer users who perfectly sum this up (Huck, Deckard, and Vander) it’s clear that their use of Shimmer follows moments of weakness, their desire to be stronger and less helpless fueling their motivations to take the dangerous and addictive substance. Deckard gets beaten up and embarrassed by Vi, Vander is pretty much killed by Deckard, and Huck just crumbled under the pressure of always being singled out as weak. He is first seen as a meek man trying to cut a deal with some shady types in Vander's Bar 'The Last Drop', and is practically saved, like a damsel in distress, by Vander, who comes over and protects him. This is not a bad thing, showing Vander to be a strong but good guy, sticking up for those who need it, but for Huck this must be a common affair, always being taken advantage of or needing to be saved because of how weak he is. He sums up his frustration and sadness over this perfectly in the following quote:
‘I just wanted to feel what it was like, to be somebody […] to make other people afraid’
Shimmer is used within the plot as a method of control used by The Eye of Zaun Silco, much like many have done in history to control large groups of people en masse. Introduction of the drug into their society cripples them, even with a drug that turns them into powerful monsters, as long as Silco controls the means of production he will maintain control over the people addicted to it. It’s also the perfect metaphor for everything wrong with the Piltover/Zaun in in-balance of power (despite them sharing a staggering amount of parallels), the desire to take shimmer born from the years and years of neglect and obsession from those who think they are better, who care little about the damage they cause or the people they inadvertently kill in their pursuit of science and innovation.