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"You've got a good heart. Don't ever lose it, no matter how much the world tries to break you."
Violet is a selfless person, always putting others before herself. Having lost her parents to the enforcers, and being old enough to fully understand the weight of that loss, Violet doesn't dedicate her life to 'plotting revenge', instead she takes on the role of a parental figure to her younger sister Powder. Because she understands that Powder needs that extra love and affection that their parents could no longer provide. Yes, she still wishes to make the enforcers pay for what they did, still loathes them, but she does not make it her main priority because she understands that she can't.
From not thoroughly thinking through her plans and rushing in head first, to disregarding her own personal trauma to be an active role model to Powder; Vi almost never puts herself first. Always making her group her top priority while still unconsciously putting them in harm's way. She wants them to be safe, doesn't want them hurt because of her. Yet she is the one to take them on a 'heist' at Piltover even though Vander told them it was strictly off limits for very obvious reasons.
Speaking of Vander, just as how both Powder and Ekko looked to Vi for guidance, Vi in turn looked to Vander. When Vi first meets Vander, she sees a part of him that he would live to regret. She sees him fighting, fighting the enforcers, fighting for her people. And that image, that memory of him, ingrains itself into her and makes a lasting impact, both negatively and positively. It reinforces her mindset that the only way to survive is to fight, but it also makes fighting her response to every situation she finds herself in. When she was confronted by the gang of boys in the very first episode, she fights. When Vander informed her that her and the group were wanted by Piltover, her first response is to fight, claiming they could defeat them. When she found out Powder was the cause of the monkey bomb going off and her losing her family for the second time, she fights, striking Powder for the first time.
Vi never understood why Vander changed, why he stopped fighting. Never understood that violence never solved your problems, but simply created more. And when she finally did understand, that her reckless actions did have consequences, it was already too late. But very interestingly, like Vander, she had to lose to learn. Vander in his youth waged a pointless war against Piltover and innocent lives paid the price. Vi actively went against Vander's warnings and had to lose her family a second time to the spiral of events that followed. But if it weren't for them reaping their consequences, no matter how terrible they be, both of them would've went through life blind.
When Violet strikes Powder after having lost nearly everything, she recoils, disgusted with herself. Because even though Powder took everything away from her, even though she hadn't listened and stayed home, she was still her sister, her sister who desperately needed her there in that moment. But Vi recognizes that she isn't in her right mind, recognizes that she's flooded by anger and grief, and understands that she can't let herself hurt Powder any further. So she leaves, takes a few steps away to calm herself down, but those few steps affect her in the long run. Because ultimately, Powder is left alone and Silco seizes the opportunity. And Vi, for the first time, can't save Powder because she isn't by her side. And she can't even run to her, can't scream to her, because Marcus takes her away. Separating her from the only family she has left.
Vi spends the remainder of her life in Stillwater prison. Soaking in her loss, replaying her guilt of 'leaving' Powder behind. In her mind she failed Vander even in his death. His final plead to her was to take care of Powder, yet she hurt Powder and left her on her lonesome to face the monster that was Silco. She couldn't forgive herself, and she never truly does. And this self loathing only worsens when she is reunited with Powder, now Jinx.
The first thing Vi does when she reunites with Jinx is explain why she couldn't be there for her. Trying her best to make Jinx believe that she didn't purposely leave her behind. But it's too late for explanations. Jinx is too far gone. Jinx is too far gone because of her, because of her absence. But Vi doesn't give up. She can't. I think it's important to mention that when Vi was given the choice to return to Piltover, give the orb to the council and better things for the undercity, or stay with her sister, an extremely dangerous and unpredictable murderer, she chooses to stay by her sister's side because she simply can't abandon her again.
But as things do for Vi, everything quickly falls apart and she is forced to return to Piltover with Caitlyn, once again, at least in her mind, abandoning Powder.
When Jinx brings Vi to her tea party, Vi is alarmed but not scared. Trying to convey for the final time her love for her sister, telling her that she never meant to leave, that Jinx was the only reason she survived for as long as she did in that prison. When Jinx tells her that she could get her sister back, that all she had to do was kill Caitlyn, make the monster go away, so that they could never be separated again, Vi can't. Caitlyn helped her, stuck with her through thick and thin, but most importantly, she was an innocent person.
Vi knows that Jinx is unstable, knows she's killed countless, but she still believes that she could get through to her. That she could get her sister back. But she can't, and that fact is only made more clear when Jinx kills Silco and fires her rocket at the council.
And Vi loses the final member of her family. She lost her parents, her friends,Vander. And now she's lost Powder.
