My thought on Arcane (long)

This is my thoughts on the show as raw as they come. I have not been on the sub in months and I am writing this having just watched the finale if season 2. 

Before watching season 2 I decided to rewatch season 1 to get fully immersed in the world of Arcane again. My thoughts on Arcane only kept getting better. I regard Arcane season one as one of the greatest pieces of animated media ever produced. And I will stand by that. The characters and their stories, their relationships, their trials, it was all so beautifully developed and you could really feel the characters, which was enhanced by the brilliant score on the show. The setting was fleshed out and gave further insight into the characters as they navigated Piltover and Zaun. The most remarkable thing about the first season was the ability of the story writers to make every line feel necessary. Every sentence has something buried ready for the viewer to uncover, to learn more about their world. The story was fleshed out and well developed. It flowed seamlessly teasing the viewer around every corner, being mysterious yet predictable, a formula so well done that one episode was never enough to satisfy. These elements culminate in show so rich in emotion and wonder that I believe it to be the best piece of animated media, if not of all media, every written and created.

Naturally I was extremely excited with the announcement of season 2. I remember speculating about what would happen. Diving into the lore of runeterra to try and guess at what may be to come. When the time came for the release of season 2 I had high hopes. As I began to watch the show I was immediately engulfed with the love I had for the previous season. The story was shaping up beautifully as be a continuation of the revolution that was brewing. An attempted assassination on Jayce followed by a squadron deployed to hunt Jinx, it all seemed to flow the same way the story that had come before did. The peak of the excitement arrived with the rally around Vander’s statue, only for the rally to be turned into a battle ground as piltover and noxian forces started arresting the people of Zaun. Warwick was introduced and seemed to add an element of uncertainty to both Zaun and Piltover. Especially following the prison break where Jinx frees the people of Zaun. Surely this will lead to revolution? The people of Zaun will rise up and claim sovereignty or at least a seat the councillors table. …right? Well first we have to look at Viktor’s story. Being saved by the hexcore was the clear way to prevent his death and makes sense when you know the lore of Runeterra. He wanders out to the fissures and begins his group of followers by being a healer. This seems all well and good. Viktor is getting to do what he always wanted to do. Free people of their suffering and create a peaceful place to live. 

I thought maybe this is where Viktor’s cult would start. These healed people who have received enlightenment are the glorious evolution. Well… no. Instead Viktor wants to change everyone into robots and to become a hive mind. But Viktor from other times doesn’t actually want that. So he goes to Jayce in every time line to make sure that in one of them Jayce will stop Viktor. And here I was thinking  this would be a story of cultural conflict and fighting for economic and social justice.

We went from intense class conflict between topside and the undercity for 5 episodes. 5 episodes riddled with fights, emotions, losses, forgiveness, all building towards something great. Will Jinx be redeemed? Does she create a family with Aesha? This is what I was thinking as I watched the first few episodes. But then episode 7 comes along and throws a wrench in things. It starts exploring the journey of Jayce and Ekko and Heimerdinger into the anomaly. The whole time I was thinking, ‘this is cool, but why?’ It seemed out of place and filler. I started to get scared. I need to know what happened to Aesha and Warwick. What happened to Jinx and Vi? Is Viktor still alive? These were all left undetermined at the end of episode 6 and then episode 7 refuses to elaborate. I was almost annoyed that the beautiful flow of the story had been so violently interrupted and put on pause. I was nervous as I realized only 2 episodes remained. How would they wrap up all these different stories. How were they going to do it in only 2 episodes?

In my opinion they did not do a great job with the last two episodes. They flew by to quick. Viktor suddenly became the bad guy. Warwick was now a Viktor puppet. Ekko has no gripes with Jinx in the world where she nuked the council. Jinx dies? Jayce and Viktor turned into magic soup after finding out Viktor is a time god. Mel is now the noxian queen and also a mage. Heimerdinger—who knows? It all went so fast. Characters seemed to just appear from having been away and suddenly shifted the tides of battle. So much went on that I got whiplash and couldn’t really appreciate all that was happening.

I love this series so much I wanted it to be perfect, perhaps that I why I critique it so harshly. It’s not that the story was bad. The writers mostly stuck to the Riot canon. It’s just not where I thought it was gonna go. The energy shifted fast and hard and didn’t leave enough time for me to refocus and reengage. I wish they would have either switched the course of the actual story in the last three episodes, or established the energy for the ending we got early in the season. The anomaly was introduced early but explained so late. It felt like a side plot that was actually the main plot at the end. 

Looking at Arcane as one whole continuous story I think it slipped at the end. I know I can not change it but here is what I was imagining. I thought that Jinx would become a symbol of power to the undercity. They would unite to try and gain independence or at least more rights and a seat at the table. Piltover and Zaun start fighting like when Vander originally fought but this time Noxus is trying to get something, which is slowly revealed and ends up being Mel’s story as a mage. Jinx and Vi go soft as they find Vander, the twin cities are still fighting but then Viktors plot of the glorious evolution comes in as he slowly starts taking over and converting his followers. Ambessa sees this and decides to team up with Viktor to capture Mel. This leads to an obvious revelation of about Jayces journey and that Viktor needs to be stopped. Because Viktor is taking both people of Piltover and Zaun they realize they need to team up to fight something bigger than them. Then the ending is similar where zaun gets a seat at the table. Maybe you see the undercity starting to look like the version Ekko got sent to. There is not much difference here to the actual story. I think that 3 more episodes would have really allowed the story to flow in the way it did in the first season. Its simply unfortunate that a good story was slightly to long and complex to comfortably fit in the 9 episodes budgeted for.

Overall I would still have to say that this is the best piece of animated media I have ever seen. I don’t know that I can season 2 can be the best of all media. But rarely is perfection replicated. So even though the show did not meet my expectation, I am now very excited to rewatch it with proper expectation and see how my thoughts change.

Even though I have a lot of critiques there is still more to love than be disappointed with in this show. For starters, I think the various forms of every character is awesome. There are like 3 different Jinxs. 2 Vis. 2 Kaitlyns. 2 Jayce. And so on. The ever evolving characters really helped to keep the mind engaged and working to piece things together. Another thing I loved was the emphasis on relationships. My favorite was the flashback to the girls’ mom and Vander and Silco. I love that we got to see that part of the story. And although the time travel felt out of place I absolutely love the relationship built between Ekko and Powder (and later Jinx). I think this is incredibly sweet and something that felt right. Vi being ready to accept Jinx back into the family when they find Vander was wonderful as well. An obvious thing was the art style. The switching of styles and techniques was awesome to capture different emotions and energ through the show.

This show is still incredibly even though season 2 did not top season 1. The characters, the world, and the stories are still my favorite. I can’t wait to share this show with more people. Feel free to let me know your thoughts as well! I want to hear how other people felt and what the like or didn’t like. And Fortiche if you see this. I know there will be no season 3, but there is still a lot of Legends of Runeterra whose stories need telling…