‘Arcane’ Has a Great Start, but a Rushed Finish

Imagine the politics of "Dune," but a little less realistic with a lot more action. "Arcane" is an animated TV series based on the video game "League of Legends." This Netflix show has a good premise behind it: it captures a tug of war between social classes and the battles going on inside each group and between groups.

Compared to the many other movies or shows that have been made from video game storylines, "Arcane" is definitely the best one. The world-building is phenomenal, with the clear atmospheric contrast between the clean, silver upper class, Piltover, and the ashy underlevels of Zaun.

The art depicting these societies is captivating and full of symbolic meaning. Drawn graphics give the general 2D feel of an animated show. However, the artists put a lot of effort into plastering the drawings on a 3D model. They make the characters look more realistic. This special effect gives a more interactive feel to the show, allowing the viewer to be immersed in the environment.

Season 1 set a good start for the story in terms of reputation and quality because it captures the stories of multiple characters with well-rounded personalities and storylines. Given a show with so many characters, it would be extremely hard to give depth and relatability to every single one, but Arcane Season 1 pulls it off flawlessly.

I’ve had so many of my friends gush over Jinx, Season 1’s main antagonist, and her complicated emotional turmoil. She is split between her current self and her past persona, Powder – a clumsy innocent little girl, who was happy even while living in the underground suburbs of Zaun. When the main story happens, Jinx is no longer Powder. She has become a hateful, violent person who invents crazy things like bombs and shark-shaped machine guns to attack the rich.

Season 1 felt like a bomb ready to explode. When you watch the first episode, you already know things are going to go south, but what keeps you on your toes is the question of how things are going to fall apart. The show writers built a sense of oncoming doom around the main characters’ unfair circumstances to add more suspense and depth to the show.

Viewers are slowly given all the puzzle pieces of how the characters from both upper and lower classes became so numb to violence. Flashbacks, revelations, and cuts to new perspectives help viewers put the cast’s lives together as they watch the show. The suspense of trying to figure out what roles the characters play and why they do the things they do keeps viewers hooked.

I won’t spoil it but I saw the tragic end coming. At the end of Season 1 is a cliffhanger with multiple people dying and getting hurt. Season 2 begins with a replay of that scene – very characteristic for the show.

However, all of the work that has been done in Season 1 is tossed aside in Season 2, when it tries to build itself around an unrealistic breakup and healing of a relationship between two characters, Caitlyn and Vi.

Caitlyn - a Nepo-baby sympathetic to the Underworld - is understandably stricken with grief after the tragic ending of Season 1. Given that Season 1 spent a lot of time building up a relationship between herself and Jinx’s sister, Vi, there is a lot of tension when Caitlyn turns against Zaun in her grief. 

After a sentimental scene where Caitlyn is sad that everyone around her is changing, Vi promises that she won’t change, but Caitlyn quickly becomes a dictator, who makes many bad decisions. For a time, Vi becomes a “flat” character, kind of dumbed down into an emotional punching bag for Caitlyn, who tries to kill her after Vi refuses to turn against her morals for the cause.

Caitlyn ends up breaking up with her instead. This drives Vi into a mental state that isn’t really explored a lot, aside from Vi being shown teaming up with her sister to fight more. Any sadness and emotional exploration is dropped.

By the end Caityln is suddenly supposed to be a good guy again, completely redeemed, unrealistically restoring her romance with Vi, despite never feeling any guilt or taking time to work through the things she has done.

Given that the relationship is the endgame for the season, the failure to develop the relationship makes the whole season fail. It didn’t have enough time for viewers to process the multiple plot points that were thrown at them, and the characters weren’t given enough time to process them either, making their personalities feel flat. So, to end with a scene where Vi and Caitlyn get back together was very sudden and almost out of character. There was no closure, talking or communication. They don’t spend time having the hard conversations they should have had. The show never gives enough time for the two to have another breakthrough again.  

I’m slightly disappointed how many fans are rushing to defend Caitlyn and hate on people who have criticized her character “redemption.” In Season 2, she didn’t have much of a redemption process.

To my knowledge, the producers of "Arcane" are soon going to be working on a completely different show, so there might not be a Season 3. This leads me to believe that this is the ending we’re given to the Arcane series, and that doesn’t feel like enough and doesn’t seem to do the characters justice.

In contrast to Vi and Cait’s very inconsistent relationship, the relationship between Jinx and her childhood friend, Ekko, finally got the recognition and development it deserved this season. Although they also suffered many tragedies and were pitted against each other at some point in time, their feelings for each other felt more genuine. Many fans like to describe their romance with the quote “maybe in another universe” which refers to how Ekko traveled to an alternate timeline where nothing bad ever happened to Jinx and they ended up having a lovely dance together that was heart-filling and -breaking at the same time.

I would recommend "Arcane" Season 2 considering the effort that's put into it and the quality that this show has despite it falling a little bit flat in the final season. Maybe lower your expectations when watching Season 2, but still be ready to have your heartstrings pulled on.