I really enjoyed the show as a whole, and it is one of the most visually striking shows around. Buttttt…season 2 had a lot of issues. Short list:
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I think they had a real issue with the “We should work together to beat this bigger enemy” when they did not resolve the existing class disparity issue. To me, Echo had the best storyline, but the others were lacking/unexamined. Vi working for Piltover could have been a cool season unto itself, but it was just “Watch us gas Zaun to find Jinx.” Ending with a single person from Zaun on the council and calling it good is the most naive “Let’s all just get along” shit I have seen in a long time. Piltover was never swayed away from fascism, so is Zaun just part of it now?
Overall it felt like some cool ideas they decided not to explore or did not have time to, and it just came out as “We can work inside the system to fix it” which literally never works.
Neoliberal art cannot answer these questions. Arcane is great and at times even better than great but it is a platform to advertise League of Legends. They can’t properly resolve Piltover/Zaun for the same reason newscasters can’t say out loud “Luigi Mangione is based as shit”. That fundamental truth about our society is like yellow cake uranium broken up into fine powder and lying on the ground to the media and artists working on corporate IP.
For the same reason I was struck in season 1 by how amazingly well done the characters are and how it doesn’t matter because like the protagonists of a Marvel movies, their character arcs bend inexorably toward them becoming video game superheroes. As if caught zipping around a black hole at the speed of light as they dance toward the event horizon, there is no path that leads to peace for any of them because their characters have to be in position to become League of Legends champions who battle it out in toxic gamer Valhalla forever.
Arcane is so much better than Riot Games deserves and its because its a Riot Games property that held it back from saying the things it clearly was thinking about (Jace and Victor, Piltover should be fucking dissolved, Caitlyn should necessarily do jail time). I hope Arcane inspires people to always be critically examining their favorite stories for the untold stories still inside them because that’s what made the show great for me. But it was only as earnest as it could be given the circumstances.
so so so so so well put. I want to say that I hope the studio goes on to do more than just LoL fanfic, but it really seems like Riot themselves were very integrated into the actual storytelling of Arcane. So really I guess I’m hoping that Christian Linke and Alex Yee leave Riot to go do something more bold, if it is them that wrote the really cool story pieces that were unfortunately left to wither in Arcan. And I’m hoping that Fortiche Production gets tons of new, great projects following Arcane. Blades in the Dark animated show when?
Edit: well it sounds like Linke and Fortiche were planning on doing more LoL related projects as of earlier this year, so I guess we’re cursed with more really beautiful and well-produced fan fiction. I hate our neoliberal hellscape.
For the same reason I was struck in season 1 by how amazingly well done the characters are and how it doesn’t matter because like the protagonists of a Marvel movies, their character arcs bend inexorably toward them becoming video game superheroes
That right there is a huge part of why season 2 felt lacking. It felt much more like fan service without any real character development
Would love to hear your thoughts on Arcane Season 2 in this thread! I just finished it last night.
Personally, I had a great time watching it! I’ve heard the sentiment that Season 2 feels like they had 3 seasons’ worth of plot, which they crammed into just one because Netflix didn’t want to fund it anymore, and I definitely agree with this. I think that is really my only critique of Season 2. Well…besides Imagine Dragons and 21 Pilots 🤪
Pretty much my thoughts, too. There were several elements that seemed really interesting but weren’t ever fully explored, and the main drive or goal of the story kept changing. Definite pacing issues.
One in particular was this idea of Jinx as an icon of rebellion. They spent several episodes building up this idea of Jinx taking Silco’s place as the decfacto leader of Zorn, but uniting them in a way Silco never could because she has become such an icon to the people. Then the werewolf daddy plot hit like a freight train and that whole build-up was forgotten about.
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yeah it felt like there could have been a season 2 that ended somewhere around the Jinx prison break at the end of EP4, and then you have season 3 open with the situation of Jinx seeking out Vi to help her find Vander. Though so much happens in the story AFTER that point that idk, maybe that would be too much to crunch in. But it would have been nice to spend a season in the situation where Caitlyn is mad about her mom’s death and she’s on the warpath, while she and Vi are slowly fighting more and more. Would have made it hit way harder when Cait realizes she’s wrong and she and Vi reunite.
