Arcane (2021-2024)

Arcane is high-fantasy animated drama based on the League of Legends game that tells the story of two sisters who grow apart. It's a phenomenal watch even if you know nothing about League or its champions.

I wanted to write a review of Arcane when the first season came out but I was going through a lot that year and never found the motivation to write one. Now that I'm on break I've finally made the time to watch season 2 and write a review about the show in its entirety. Here's my review of Arcane.

Season 1 and season 2 differ considerably in my rating so I reviewed them separately.

Plot ¶

Arcane uses the universe behind the League of Legends game to create its characters. It tells the story of two sisters, Vi and Powder (Jinx), as they grow up in Zaun, the run-down undercity of the wealthy city of Piltover. The sisters grow up divided and eventually fight for two different sides of the city: Jinx aligns with Silco and believes fighting Piltover is the path to freedom while Vi aligns with Vander and believes peace can be brokered between Piltover and Zaun. This divide creates the base conflict for season 1.

Season 2 focuses more on the arcane and alters the fight between the two sides of the city into a battle against magic. In the beginning, Ambessa begins manipulating the city to gain power while other characters join forces to stop her. In the meantime, Victor becomes obsessed with perfecting humanity to a fault and the remaining characters team up to prevent Victor and Ambessa from completely destroying humanity.

Characters ¶

One of Arcane's strengths is its characters. Most of the characters are astonishingly well-written. Here are some of my favorites:

• Jinx is a character born from the pains of never being good enough, bringing harm and death to people around her. As the show progresses, she grows less fearful and regretful of her past and more confident in herself, embraces her flaws, and lets her rage guide her actions.
• Marcus is a Piltover enforcer who only wants to provide for his daughter but gets entangled in the undercity's crimes. He wants desparately to break free of the system and be a hero but he can't bring himself to figuratively (and literally) pull the trigger. As easy as it is to criticize his actions, I might do the same thing in his shoes.
• Jayce is a humble inventor who gains wider recognition with the invention of Hextech. He loses his dream of making the world a better place when he is dragged into the politics of Piltover. It's a painful process of watching a beloved relatable character lose his original vision.
• Silco is introduced in the beginning of the show as an irredeemable villain. However, as the show reveals more of his personality, his treatment of Jinx, and his vision of undercity, he becomes a more complicated character who wants only the best for his nation of Zaun and will do anything to get it.
• Sevika becomes Silco's bodyguard. She's tough and strong but also empathizes with Silco and understands him. She too fights for a better Zaun.

World and Atmosphere ¶

Arcane does a great job building the world of Runeterra. There are all sorts of small details in Piltover and Zaun that make each feel like real places. Just looking at cups is a visual indication of the class divide.

The show uses contracting color choices to represent the different statuses of both parts of the city. Cool tones (blues and greens) are used to represent the undercity, while warm tones (reds, oranges, and yellows) represent Piltover.

Visuals ¶

The visual art and animation alone make this show worth watching. Arcane uses a soft, painted artstyle to match its game counterpart. Its animation looks fluid and semi-realistic thanks to artists acting out many of the scenes themselves^[1]. It makes all the characters' movements and facial expressions genuine:

I can't stress enough how phenomenal the facial expressions are. Here is an example of one of my favorite scenes because of how much emotion you can see expressed in Silco and Sevika's dialogue:

Even brief eye flickers and eye movements are animated with precision.

The animators have done a phenomenal job with body language as a whole. Watch how the body language and facial expressions of Caitlin and Jayce change from open to closed as they discuss a sensitive subject:

There's even an animation of Caitlin brushing back hair that falls over her shoulder (00:24) while talking. It's the small details like these that bring the characters to life and make them and their emotions feel all the more real.

To create a more cartoony feel, the artists chose to layer 2D animation on top of 3D animation. This technique adds a nice bit of detail to every scene in the show. You'll find yourself staring at all the breathing, smoke, and liquids after noticing this detail.

Needless to say, the visuals of this show are astounding.

Another small detail I love is Arcane's cinematography. Most the scenes are captured with the illusion that a cameraman stands behind the screen:

I love the way the camera zooms, focuses, and pans around some scenes. There are also some post processing effects added in after the fact that add even more. For example, watch how the scene dims very subtly around Jinx's eyes when she notices something in her peripherals and her "eyes narrow":

This is all an intentional directing choice^[1:1] that adds just a bit of flair and a nice touch to every scene:

"when you think about the final look, that painterly look that's integrated into 3D,

the super subtle, nuanced camera work, where everything feels like it's hand-held and really human and real,

a lot of that is [one of the directors]."

Music ¶

Arcane's soundtrack fits incredibly. Most songs are punk, hip hop, heavy, or trap to reflect the grungy shady nature of the undercity. The soundtrack selects some amazing artists such as Linkin Park, Denzel Curry, Misha Mansoor (lead of Periphery), and Ashnikko. These songs sync perfectly with fight sequences and atmosphere shots.

Themes ¶

The main theme of Arcane is the class struggle. The wealthy, comfortable citizens of Piltover are afraid of the the dirty, working class residents of the undercity. The takeaway is that people are afraid of things they don't understand. Most of the conflict arises from Piltover not taking the time to understand and care for the citizens of the undercity.

There's also a lesson that accepting your mistakes and the consequences of your choices make you who you are. The entirety of season 1 is Jinx making mistakes and taking actions without thinking about the consequences. At the end of the season, she finally embraces her inner demons and makes a stand for herself.

Criticisms ¶

Every piece of art has its flaws. Here are major criticisms I have with this show:

Season 2 writing ¶

Season 2 has a distinct drop in writing quality when compared with its predecessor.

The plot of season 1 is understandable and convincing. It's completely propelled by character conflicts, their actions, and the opposing reactions. Zaun takes an action against Piltover, then Piltover retaliates against Zaun, and so on. With each act of violence or suppression, tensions on both sides increase until the cliffhanger finale ends the season. It's a great way to develop the opposing characters and the relatively morally gray nature of the conflict from the perspectives of both sides.

The plot of season 2 feels pale in comparison, however. Season 2 introduces new character motivations and plot points that can only be explained by the fact that "the wild arcane rune acts in mysterious ways". The introduction of real magic provides convenient and unconvincing plot fallback. It means that we don't need to understand why Viktor suddenly wants to enact a "glorious revolution" (and why Sky is there to help him do it), or how Ekko is thrown into an alternate universe, or how Ekko creates a time machine, or what Mel's magic powers do, or how Jayce is thrown into a potential future. It's never explained why the limit for the time machine is four seconds, but Ekko can go well past four seconds in the final battle with no repercussion. There's no rhyme or reason behind the magic. Fantastical plot elements like this only work if the audience understands the rules governing the magic. As a result, it makes the season's plot fragmented and convenient.

We don't know either, Mel.

In addition, there are many subplots that lead to nothing. Mel's side adventure with the Black Rose gives her unexplained super powers but does nothing to deepen the characters or drive the narrative. Caitlin follows Ambessa's orders, only to betray them shortly after for no apparent reason other than speaking with Vi. The chembarons scramble for Silco's empty throne only for nothing to come from the aftermath. The season ends with a lot of unanswered questions and unresolved conflicts. It makes the end of the season feel abrupt and empty even if the show was always planned to be exactly two seasons^[2]:

Arcane was always written to be two seasons.

The confusion is because internally there was a budget conversation about “approving 5 seasons” - which simply means we were setting aside a bunch of money for lots of development and is completely irrelevant to the Arcane creative. The creative and making something great is what the priority should always be for Riot and our teams.

At the end of the show, the original conflict of season 1 still remains unresolved. I was expecting Zaun to gain sovereignty or have more autonomy but all they've done is add a council member.

I wonder if the 2023 WGA strike affected the production of season 2... but that's just speculation on my part. I wish the producers spent six years refining season 2 like they did with season 1:

Character development ¶

Another criticism I have of Arcane is the poor development of some of the show's characters (particularly in season 2).

Some characters in season 2 revert to one-dimensional husks of their former self, or their personalities are overwritten to fit the storyline. For example, the season finale of season 1 marks the turning point for Jinx when she embraces "Jinx" and learns to live with her actions and decisions. It's a powerful final scene to watch her shoot the Hextech weapon at the Piltover council chamber of her own volition rather than due to Silco's urges. In contrast, season 2 reverts Jinx's character back to her scared and reactive former self. She has to relearn how to stand up for herself and make her own decisions, rendering her growth in season 1 pointless.

Another example is Sevika, who grows in her physical ability and her loyalty to Zaun (and Silco) as the show progresses. She plays a pivotal role in helping Jinx get back on her feet at the start of season 2. However, somewhere in the middle of season 2 she becomes a forgotten character with brief screentime and zero relevance until the resolution at the very end of the show.

There are also characters that barely grow at all. Of all the main characters, I dislike Vi's character the most because she doesn't exhibit growth from her mistakes. She always punches her way out of every situation with varying results. In her defense, I think the second season develops her character a little more to be able to think for herself.

Then there are characters with unclear motivations. Ambessa's primary goal is finding stronger and stronger weapons, but it's never explained why she is looking for weapons. It's also unclear why Maddie chooses to betray Caitlin for Ambessa's cause - was she that bitter about their breakup?

This is all not even mentioning the unnamed characters that have no character personality but all the screentime. I'll give you $5 if you can name any of these characters.

In some cases, the characters explicitly speak their motivations or internal struggles aloud, defeating the purpose of character writing. For example, here is dialog from Jinx while pointing at a wanted poster of herself:

"Yep, that's me. You ever need to curse a sibling or a family or a society... my card."

Another example is one of the chembaron Smeech's grunts talking to him:

"Well, you know, far be it from me, but, uh, you hired me to run the numbers? And ever since we've gone up against the other chembarons, the numbers are in the, uh..."

The audience doesn't need a verbal explanation of who a character is or what they represent. It's not tasteful or sneaky and unfortunately comes off as cringey. I'm not sure how much of this is due to Riot's character writing or due to Netflix executives' conflicting interests^[3]:

Several screenwriters who've worked for [Netflix] told me a common note from company executives is "have this character announce what they're doing so that viewers who have this program on in the background can follow along."

One tag among Netflix's thirty-six thousand microgenres offers a suitable name for this kind of dreck: "casual viewing." Usually reserved for breezy network sitcoms, reality television, and nature documentaries, the category describes much of Netflix's film catalog — movies that go down best when you're not paying attention, or as the Hollywood Reporter recently described Atlas, a 2024 sci-fi film starring Jennifer Lopez, "another Netflix movie made to half-watch while doing laundry."

Champion plot armor ¶

The characters in Arcane that are champions in League of Legends never die. Once you know a character is a champion, it becomes dull to watch them fight or endure perilous circumstances because you know that character will survive to the end. It feels particularly irritating when the characters experience deadly force and barely suffer injuries. For example, Ekko's fight with Jinx on the bridge should probably leave him mortally wounded, right? Jinx herself barely survived her injuries from this:

Nope. He's fine. Here's Ekko in his next scene.

There are multiple instances where a character presumably dies in one scene, only to see them miraculously resurrected in a later scene or episode. Here are a few images of characters that are "dead" but live in later scenes:

If characters with unblinking eyes or gaping holes in their chests can still live, I'm not even sure what death should look like.

Incomparable levels of power ¶

Every power fantasy story I've ever read or watched struggles to capture the power of one character relative to another. Unfortunately, Arcane is no different. In Arcane, it can be difficult to grasp how strong the protagonists or their weapons are compared to their enemies. In the first episode, we know that an unrefined hextech gemstone can blow up an entire building. In the third episode, we know that a handful of unrefined gemstones can destroy a warehouse, killing multiple people. As part of the audience, I expected every council member to have been killed at the start of the second season from the new Hextech weapon Jinx spent most of the last season designing. However, many of the council members survive the encounter. This is retroactively explained by Mel subconsciously protecting Jayce using her hidden powers, but the explanation feels unsatisfying and lazy.

You're telling me this missile doesn't kill everyone in the room?

Another example is Jinx in any of her fights in the second season. She has physically enhanced abilities after the doctor saves her life:

And yet, Ambessa's bodyguard Rictus is able to keep up with her in season 2. Does he have superhuman abilities as well?

Another example is Mel. With her newfound abilities she easily overpowers the other Black Rose sorcerer, but she can only create golden shields in the fight against Ambessa - even if the aforementioned sorcerer was almost able to overpower Ambessa. How is the audience supposed to know how strong her abilities are?

Memes ¶

What would any show be without memes? Here are my favorites:

view memes

Conclusion ¶

I give Arcane season 1 an 8.5/10 and season 2 a 6.8/10 for an average total of 7.7/10. Arcane's beautiful animation, art, and characters make this show well worth watching, although I strongly recommend you only watch season 1. I recommend this show to anyone interested in action or fantasy stories.