As a quick note neither Arcane nor Nimona were created by Netflix. Netflix was only the distribute, so I would give the credit for the amazing animation to Fortiche for Arcane and DNEG Animation for Nimona.
I saw Arcane on Netflix when it first dropped, and I remember thinking "a League of Legends show? That'll be trash. I'll watch the first five minutes just to see how bad it is" and thirty seconds later I was hooked. I haven't stopped thinking about the show since, and I've never been so happy to be proven wrong.
Arcane animation actually have NOTHING to do with Netflix. Riot Games made it 'in house' over 6 years. Netflix is just the distributing platform and had zero artistic input.
One of the things I love most about the Mel v Ambessa dynamic is that Mel is doing a really well-portrayed escalation ladder, where one of the classic pitfalls is normalizing the current stage one is at making it easier to escalate a bit more. Then Ambessa comes in and says "weapons can't be unmade, and they are always used" and Mel is like "oh shit, what have I done?" The great thing about Ambessa is that everything she says rests on a rock-solid historical and political foundation, even the "kill her now..." line. Brilliantly written villain and she's been made a character in the game so we can expect to see more from her in S2.
In several interviews, the writers spoke about the core of the show. They mentioned this core to be - “The Impossible Choice”. Imagine: You have family. A daughter. Would you give them up for your dream of a nation? For peace? Vander gave up Silco - for peace. Silco would not have given up Jinx, “What could be more undoing…than a daughter?”, which is something so many people missed, initially. Most characters in Arcane had similar choices to face - impossible decisions. The writing made this show. It’s right up there with “Last of Us” (Game writing). The show was good, but they had to condense it for TV.
Silco and Vander's fallout most likely predates the featured rebellion against Piltover by several years if not well over a decade. This is shown both through the character's age (Silco is way too young in his flashback to just be ~5 years younger than in Act 1) and the timeline his dialogue with Vander unveils. He definitely makes it sound like Vander kept his respect for a long time before he made peace with with the enforcer. So the timeline is probably something like this: around 20 to 15 years before act 1, Silco and Vander work together (or rather Silco follows Vander like most other trenchers, like a teen Sevika who's probably worshipping Vander by that point) to mount an opposition to Piltover who's exploiting them in the fissures. 15 years before act 1, Vander "betrays" Silco for reasons unexplained but considering Vander has had little to no contact with Silco since then, and calls Silco "worse than enforcers" it couldn't have been good. Vander remains committed to the fight after that even if he has limits he won't cross, and he keeps Silco's respect until it all crashes and burn when the full on rebellion happens around 10 years later. At that point Vander is done with fighting and contacts the Sheriff to try and find a way to keep the peace, thus losing Silco's remaining respect, and then 5 years later act 1 happens. Vander and Benzo clearly know Silco is alive though since Vander mentions him in Episode 1 with the aforementioned "worse things than enforcers" quote. We know he's talking about Silco because he glances toward (and touches) his wristband which we'll later learn is covering a knife wound caused by Silco when the later escaped Vander (seriously, the amount of story-relevant details this show has is insane. "Every frame a painting" is not a joke here). "she knows it's powder's fault" an interesting detail that explains a lot of plot points in the show is that none of the kids know how the appartment blew up, not even Powder until she sees the crystal producing lightning in Episode 3. And Vi never figures that out at all, hence why she is surprised when Powder tells her she caused the explosion even though Vi saw the Monkey, she still thought at the time Silco caused it because how would Powder even do that? And the monkey just showed her Powder followed them and probably got caught up in the blast. That's also why Vi doesn't seem to know the literal blue ball of death that murders her family in Episode 6 when Jinx shows it to her (sure it looks a bit different but come on...). Vi also doesn't abandon Powder and says (or implies) she never wants to see her again after hitting her, it's the other way around. She leaves only a corner away *because* she intends to come back once she has calmed down. She looks down at her hand, realise what she's done and that she cannot be trusted near her sister right now and make the stupid decision of delaying their depart so that she can get her temper under control. But at no point in this episode does she ever intend to abandon Powder, not even for a second. I say all this less as a correction, and more because I'm in awe of what they manage to convey with the tiniest details. I didn't catch half of that shit on my first or even second watch. In fact, the viewing in which I caught the most amount of details was my third watch which was literally in theatre. Seriously that helped so much with figuring out little things, and I'm sure I still missed half of them even now. "It's because they're in a polycule" YES! Why choose between Jayce/Mel and Jayce/Vik? Prevent wars with polyamory. Also yes, Arcane is basically a perfect season of television. I try to be chill about season 2 because the odds they replicate that success are low (it won't be bad, mind you, unless something has gone very wrong, but it could be good but disappointing. Hopefully it's too far along for the RIOT restructuration to fuck it up). Let's try to find some flaws with Arcane anyway: The one that struck me immediately is that Jayce, who is a fricking scientist, uses the word "theory" incorrectly, using its colloquial meaning instead of the scientific one even when discussing with another scientist. No scientist would get defensive when their work is called a "theory" by another scientist. This is the most nitpicky shit ever but when looking for flaws in Arcane, you got to look deep. Sometimes the show is *too* confusing. They use "show don't tell" very well, but sometimes they don't tell and also barely show. Fortunately that almost never leads to any actual plotholes because they always have enough subtle elements planted here and there to prevent them, but it can lead to *perceived* plotholes. An example of that last one for example is when Vi sees Powder's blown up monkey. Pretty much everyone's reaction is "Oh, Vi figured out Powder killed Mylo and Claggor" which is incorrect as proven just afterwards when she is completely taken by surprise when Powder admits to it. This adds confusion for people who thinks it's the second time she figures the same thing out which cuts through the emotional tension (not a lot, the scene is still a masterpiece xD). Vi thinks Powder followed them and died in the explosion at that point, she doesn't think Powder caused the explosion yet. Another example is the teleportation spell. Almost no one understand what Jayce and Viktor are doing even if they remember that they're copying a teleportation spell and while the show eventually explains it in the smallest way possible with the nut teleporting 1 foot in a way that's barely visible because of the bubble, it's too late because so much magical stuff has happened before that, that people figure they should already have seen the effect of the spell and they probably missed it or something leaving everyone very confused about what was actually achieved here at least until the start of Episode 4 (which was a week later). In any case, great video, I had so much fun listening to the whole thing and particularly loved the passage about silhouettes and the paralles mentees/mentors.
If it makes you feel any better in regards to the possible quality of Season 2, they had it all written out in the exact way they wanted by the time the first season released, and I'm pretty sure I recall some of the actors being back in the recording booth well before the SAG-AFTRA Strikes, so we're *probably* okay
What's funny about her first misunderstanding with Vi where she misses her defending her is that its resolved by the end of the episode. Powder brings it up and they talk it out which is nice and later juxtaposes her listening to Silco. The difference is now her trust, paranoia, self-worth (she just tried to murder suicide on the bridge), and PSYCHOSIS are at all time lows by episode 9 while also being hopped up by the recent shimmer operation. Silco admits she's a problem and says a line just vague enough "is there anything so undoing as a daughter?" that she thinks its possible he'd give her up because he'd get what he's wanted since before they met. Just great writing.
Powder's VA was MIa Sinclair Jenness for episodes 1-3. Ella Purnell picked up VA duties for the remainder of the series. Both were fantastic and deserved some award show nods for their work on Arcane.
I reccomend you to watch "Arcane: Bridging the Rift" a documentary on how they made the show. Its pretty compelling too on how they put the documentary together.
I actually have seen it a few times! I love 'making-of' style docs, and this one is one of the better ones I've seen! I particularly loved their episode on the sound design of the show--it's such a good behind-the-scenes look at an aspect of TV production that gets WAY less love than it deserves
I'm so happy people are still talking about this masterpiece. I watched it over two years ago and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that I think about it every day. It has become the benchmark against which I measure everything else.
To answer your curiosity, yes there is a LOT of lore in League of Legends, novels upon comics upon short stories upon expositions upon many side indie game releases, a very deep realm that goes into arguably too much specfics. Covering the distant past, "present" and present characters, and even the future; Arcane fitting solemnly as a prequel to the stories of Piltover and it's twin city. And although there are liberties, deviations, original characters, and ideas from the game's story, a lot of the story is mostly kept with the same spirit and idea in mind, and to flesh out the characters. Arcane serves to show us their journey's start, which there's plenty to host multiple seasons of, not even getting into their famous adventures when they're realized characters. Which is why it's so unfortunate and disappointing to see how the creators said Season 2 will be the final season as we know it. PS. Thank you for spreading your love of the story lol, I too can go into so much discussion, depth, and emotion of the story as an English major. PPS. Also don't feel bad about calling it better than GoT ^_^, as a fellow GoT fan myself, there are flaws scattered everywhere intermittently throughout the early seasons, much less the latter lmao.
sorry that I love villains that literally act like they would twirl a mustache if they had it! Plotters, schemers, and general mob boss behavior will never go out of fashion
As I'm starting this video (as an Arcane obsessed person, as you do) I figured I'd check your channel and see what else you've done. 3 full ass videos on The Magicians? YES PLEASE! More people NEED to know about this show.
Hi Ella, 6'3, full-time model and people's princess candidate, this was indeed moderately unhinged and really well done! First time on the channel for me; RUclips has been giving me a lot of Arcane video essay recommendations lately (I have no idea why, but I'm not complaining). I've only played LoL once - someone called me a f*ggot in my first game, which was true, to be fair, but I didn't _know_ that yet - so I was going into the show pretty much blind. I think this is one of those shows that I liked well enough when I watched it, but I ended up adoring the more I thought about it. You've hit on a lot of what makes it so good for me, but I'd also just like to add that this show is so good at making me invested in each and every that I completely forgot that Powder kills Mylo and Cragger (and Vander technically) despite it being kinda important, because my favourite manic pixie nightmare girl can do no wrong. Mel is my second-favourite character too (Vi is my fave because I'm very gay. Victor is my third-favourite character because I'm very bi) and Silco's also one of my favourites (because he is -daddy- a very interesting character). As you can tell, I think very deep thoughts. I'm so hyped for Season 2! I'm especially excited to see the new music, because the soundtrack for S1 had some of my favourite songs of the year. Thank you for the great video and I love your humour btw! [Also, your hair is simultaneously giving _slay_ and *help*. I love it you look gorgeous
arcane is like one of my favorite things ever!!! it’s insane how so many people are missing out on it because they can’t get over the league of legends adaptation aspect of it all 😭😭 which like i get it i had my reservations too but oml this show changed my entire brain chemistry it’s wild
great rant! Indeed unhinged but not entirely unhinged. Seek help on the Silco thing. Your obsession is great, as is the show! ok, few notes: - Jinx realizes the girl isn't Vi before she shoots her. The girl is both too young and too small. - The doc, Singed, gives Victor a shimmer variant. Basically over the years in the time jump, Singed has refined Shimmer (which he somehow synthesizes from or using Rio) and has created various versions, like how street pharmacists (and also Big Pharma do). We see at least six variants: Sevika's arm juice, a milder smokable version, a concentrated mist in the mechs, the version he gives Victor, the version the medicine woman puts a drop of in the vial, and the raw version that the junkies want that leaves them mutated. The smoked version we see has eaten away the user's nose. Oh! I forgot, the variant that Silco injects. Actually, one more: whatever version he injects into Jinx that doesn't disfigure or even cause her to transform but leaves her fundamentally mutated. - Jinx was already on the bridge, she didn't follow them (they came from the firelight hideout), she was there to wipe out the blockade, which is why she was making the butterfly bombs. - The show didn't convey it super-clearly, but when Victor goes back to do even more rune work, high off his success, he sees he's got like a corner of the vial left. He forges ahead (because Victor is reckless - he was reckless with the boat, with stones, with the bomb, with the matrix, and now with his own body). He then is in trouble because the matrix is requiring life force and his isn't sufficiently jacked like the first time. In comes Sky, and the matrix likes her life force just fine. - Jinx hears everything Silco says, her abandonment issues are just triggered and also she's not alright after her time on Singed's table.
If you want another great "adult" (as in gritty and swearing) animated tv series, please check out legend of vox machina! It came out the same year as arcane, so it got a little overshadowed, and its third season is also releasing later this year. It's again really well written and character driven. Oh, and it's based on dnd, but you don't need to know anything about dnd for it
great vid, but there is a lot of focus breathing. i'd reccommend going a bit up in f stop number to reduce it unless you have one of the more recently released cameras where you can fix the auto focus by setting up facial recognition
as someone who similarly had arcane rotting their brain for the past 2 1/2 years or so, i can't agree with every single point you made in this video enough. also you are pretty you are gorgeous and you look like Linda Evangelista
Great recap. The only thing I would say is this: Silco didn’t freak out and shoot at Vi because he thought Vi was gonna turn Jinx to Vi’s side or whatever. When Vi is naming all the dead people who Jinx used to love, Vi wasn’t helping Jinx at all. Vi believed she was “pulling Powder out” but that’s not what was happening. Vi was triggering the fuck out of Jinx, making Jinx relive all of the most traumatic memories of her life. Vi was hurting Jinx, albeit unintentionally. Silco wasn’t trying to manipulate Jinx here, he was trying to stop Vi from further harming Jinx’s psyche and stop Vi from triggering her. Silco knew Jinx far better than Vi at this point, he knew what Vi was attempting and he knew what those actions were actually doing. I agree 100% though, Arcane is a perfect show, I don’t think I have seen a more perfect show. As Jinx says, “ten outta ten toots”.
Everyone is very well aware of magic. Piltover was literally built to escape the mages. A place free from magic. The revolutionary thing Jayce is doing and why no one takes it seriously is that he is trying to control magic with science. Something no onw ever managed. You were eiter born with the ability to control magic naturally or you couldnt do it. Jayce technology would allow anyone to use it. Its kinda of a big deal and something no one believe is possible.
The story of piltover and zaun is just like 1% of the whole league of legends lore...thats why every player who love there character's want to see they favorite character on series or big screen
After Arcane, everyone is GOATed Vouce Actor. It by far the best ive ever come across, at least in english. Mia Sinclair Jenness as Powder being the absolute star of this particular show tho. That allyway scen was the most soul crushing, eerily realiatic acting imaginable and she was only friggin 11 years old when recording, like *_HOW!?_* Jason Spisak was fakking phenomenal, even in this company. Silco is my favorite villain of all time. Absolutely flawlessly brought to life by Jason. Im a guy who normally dont put any weight on voice acting, if the story is good and the VA isnt _absolutely_ horrendous, its fine. In Arcane its one of my absolute favorite things, I could go on forever about this libe up. The _"worst"_ VA in Arcane is still better than the *best* one Id heard before Arcane. Absolutely unbelievable.
My biggest pet peeve about the Arcane fandom is horrible opinions around Mel/Mel hate so when you said she was your 2nd fav I breathed out a sigh of RELIEF. But yes, there is absolutely an extensive amount of lore around league of legends, even though its barely presented through the game. Every champion has lore set in the Runeterra universe and short stories about them. (most of it is on their website, more lore can be discovered through voice lines). Basically there's the MAIN universe of Runeterra, where Piltover and Zaun/the undercity both reside along many other nations. KDA is one of the skin AUs, which are basically just. yeah, aus with little bits of lore sometimes that only exist to sell skins. For Jinx and Vi specifically, they've had mysterious origin stories since 2012. We knew Vi had a past in Zaun, and Jinx has some... disaster in her life that caused her to become unhinged, but we didn't know what. We also got frequent hints that the two were sisters, but it was never confirmed. When Arcane was released, it was finally confirmed that Jinx and Vi are indeed sisters and we finally got to learn about their past and what happened. This story has been a long time in the making. (It also confirmed Caitlynn/Vi, which was a VERY popular fan ship for many years due to them having a close working relationship and Vi looking... how she does lol. Theyre pretty much canonically a couple now its awesome. And actually, not the only queer characters in league by a longshot.)
I'm into the league universe, i play the two spinoff games wild rift and teamfight tactics and used to play league, playing in the universe made the show feel different. Viktor name dropped himself it was a crazy ass moment. Like Wtf? (Because we dont know him as a movement impaired weak man) Knowing the games characters made it worse for us because it seemed to have given the characters plot armor. There is no story in the league games so everything here was so fresh and new. As a matter of fact the game is talking about putting more arcane into league because it was so damn good. If you watch Jinx in Episode 1 you can see the hate for those "monster" enforcers she has there in her eyes that makes Cait the enemy later down the line. In her eyes its just so different to not see the monsters that killed your parents as the enemy. I love Arcane i got shit on my car and stckers everywhere lol Season 2 can't possibly match the level season 1 brought, temper expectations. Spoiler Alert! In game Ekko has time travel for a few seconds i wonder if when he breaks the watch its how he activates it. Or if he has yet todo so.
This show is sooo fucking good. Im beyond excited for season 2. Why is riot better at animation and music prodution than game design lol? Im still devastated we havent gotten more KDA music. Like genuinely, go listen to Villain by KDA. All the KDA songs are so good. Also the other LoL band True Damage has the song Giants which is great too.
When Vi release in the game... Back in 2012 december... She and Caitlyn always teasing... Even they enemy or ally... So yeah they lesbian... But but... Caitlyn is the one not Vi 🥰
Star Wars has been a life long obsession for me (and keep in mind, dating myself as ancient, I was alive to see Star Wars -- the OG episode IV -- at a drive-in theater when I was five years old, sitting on a blanket on the hood of Mom's Datsun Honeybee, staring up at that gigantic screen in the dark while that teeny, bad radio quality speaker fed the movie straight into my veins. I bleed Empire. I wanted Vader to carry me off and do naughty things. When the prequels came out, I wished on every star between here and the heath death of the universe to be in a polycule marriage with with Anikin and Padme. Fanfiction. SO MUCH fanfiction -- humorously, very little of it romantically intimate, aside from a dream of taking a shower with Chewy decades before Solo (didn't everyone have an emo furry phase? don't look at me in that tone of voice) -- written, read, consumed like Cheetoes after a 420 bender. I pour one out for Rogue One every time someone lambasts it for being unapologetically "politically infinite cringe nostalgia bait propaganda shyte" (loved it -- an unpopular opinion for a while -- even liked Solo. Once again, Chewy, and Qi'ra, my queen, tell me more about yourself). With this as the preface of just how much Star Wars has meant to me, my whole damn life, Andor was WAY too good for Star Wars. It just-- was. Phenomenal from start to finish. Some of the best, tightest most character first storytelling I've seen in... forever. Please, PLEASE give it a chance. Arcane was much better received actually, and for that I'm grateful. Arcane IS a masterclass in superb storytelling, dialogue, plot, world building, characters, dichotomy and interweaving of narratives -- the list goes on and on and on. Don't even get me started on animation -- the insanely smooth motion and character expressions make me weep -- and music; there are no words. It's had fairly uniform praise from the critics, the LoL fanbase (though that's a divisive hot take now that Riot's embraced Arcane's lore as THE ONE RING cannon), the internet reaction sphere, and curious intellectuals. Lots of pleasant buzz when it came out, and it's benefiting from a resurgence as Season Two creeps closer. Your commentary was intriguing; forthright and well spoken. Your perspective was an engaging lens from which to re-enjoy the story. It proves to me that despite the ground in cynicism of many voices clamoring focal unity is the only way forward, one can have (well, a one way, as this is your video, and my comment, and the twain may never meet) open and impassioned discourse on beloved subject matter without deteriorating into clique circling hate crimes against one another. Your point of view was fun! Enlightening! Pointed out parts of the story I interpreted differently. It was, to TLDR, a blast. Thanks for sharing! As a personal plug of another show my meager self thinks is worth giving a glance, Hazbin Hotel (if you like eclectic musical theater, and plot/story beats expressed through song) is an eight episode banger on Amazon Prime. The music, my god. Just my opinion. Cheers!
I wouldnt recommend playing league but if you do your Heimerdinger oppinion is gonna flip lmao. Hes the WORST to play against. I ban him every game because its miserable to fight Heimer
And you see in the series arcane piltover and zaun is separated but the prequel this two nation is one... The story title is like...EXPLOTION ON THE RIVER PILT its like that the title i think so... Where they need to make a whole in that island because if you see the map of league of legends if tou want to cross in east to west cost.. you need to go around the world thats why they they need to make a way but accidentally they put many bomb that cause this island became piltover and zaun
It’s funny that you think the two magical people on the council saying magic dosent belong is funny cause they are the only two who can with first person experience say that magic is bad.
Yea no, Jayce is insanely intelligent. He is just thrown into a political position he has absolutely 0 clue how to navigate, so he leans on everyone elses guidance. This is not stupidity, this is both common sense and human nature. Misguided? Perhaps. Stupid? No. He is rather young and naive on top of his mentor being on the council, he has no reasons at all to believe they would mislead him. His hesitation and tendency to lean on his seniors is perfectly reasonable. This is exceptionally true for highly intelligent people. If youre not familiar with the Dunning-Kreuger effect, its basically that the dumber people get the more confident they are that they are correct and knows better. Consequently, the smarter people get the more likely they are to question their own proficiency. They even highlight his complete lack of political understanding with Bolbuk explicitly saying "Does the boy have any experience? " and Mel replying "only that of a scientist, like Heimerdinger". The entire point of those lines it to tell you that Jayce has absolutely no clue about politics in any way.
As a quick note neither Arcane nor Nimona were created by Netflix. Netflix was only the distribute, so I would give the credit for the amazing animation to Fortiche for Arcane and DNEG Animation for Nimona.
i have never loved a series as much as i have arcane
Real
I saw Arcane on Netflix when it first dropped, and I remember thinking "a League of Legends show? That'll be trash. I'll watch the first five minutes just to see how bad it is" and thirty seconds later I was hooked. I haven't stopped thinking about the show since, and I've never been so happy to be proven wrong.
took me a year to give it a chance, but DANG
You’d never turn yourself in for your daughter. Spoken like Silco before his.
an arcane video not from 2 years ago???!?! I'm eating this up
Arcane animation actually have NOTHING to do with Netflix. Riot Games made it 'in house' over 6 years. Netflix is just the distributing platform and had zero artistic input.
You are technically correct. They made with fortiche...but, since they partially own fortiche, it can technically be considered 'in house'.
And they basically built it out expressly for this show, hiring people and expanding for that purpose, which is nuts to think about @@severedproxy
@@severedproxynetflix absolutly don't own fortiche
@@sneakysunset1765 the "they" meant Riot's games not Netflix
@@BeeCygNus my bad !
One of the things I love most about the Mel v Ambessa dynamic is that Mel is doing a really well-portrayed escalation ladder, where one of the classic pitfalls is normalizing the current stage one is at making it easier to escalate a bit more. Then Ambessa comes in and says "weapons can't be unmade, and they are always used" and Mel is like "oh shit, what have I done?" The great thing about Ambessa is that everything she says rests on a rock-solid historical and political foundation, even the "kill her now..." line. Brilliantly written villain and she's been made a character in the game so we can expect to see more from her in S2.
In several interviews, the writers spoke about the core of the show. They mentioned this core to be - “The Impossible Choice”.
Imagine: You have family. A daughter. Would you give them up for your dream of a nation? For peace? Vander gave up Silco - for peace. Silco would not have given up Jinx, “What could be more undoing…than a daughter?”, which is something so many people missed, initially.
Most characters in Arcane had similar choices to face - impossible decisions.
The writing made this show. It’s right up there with “Last of Us” (Game writing). The show was good, but they had to condense it for TV.
Silco and Vander's fallout most likely predates the featured rebellion against Piltover by several years if not well over a decade. This is shown both through the character's age (Silco is way too young in his flashback to just be ~5 years younger than in Act 1) and the timeline his dialogue with Vander unveils. He definitely makes it sound like Vander kept his respect for a long time before he made peace with with the enforcer.
So the timeline is probably something like this: around 20 to 15 years before act 1, Silco and Vander work together (or rather Silco follows Vander like most other trenchers, like a teen Sevika who's probably worshipping Vander by that point) to mount an opposition to Piltover who's exploiting them in the fissures. 15 years before act 1, Vander "betrays" Silco for reasons unexplained but considering Vander has had little to no contact with Silco since then, and calls Silco "worse than enforcers" it couldn't have been good. Vander remains committed to the fight after that even if he has limits he won't cross, and he keeps Silco's respect until it all crashes and burn when the full on rebellion happens around 10 years later. At that point Vander is done with fighting and contacts the Sheriff to try and find a way to keep the peace, thus losing Silco's remaining respect, and then 5 years later act 1 happens.
Vander and Benzo clearly know Silco is alive though since Vander mentions him in Episode 1 with the aforementioned "worse things than enforcers" quote. We know he's talking about Silco because he glances toward (and touches) his wristband which we'll later learn is covering a knife wound caused by Silco when the later escaped Vander (seriously, the amount of story-relevant details this show has is insane. "Every frame a painting" is not a joke here).
"she knows it's powder's fault" an interesting detail that explains a lot of plot points in the show is that none of the kids know how the appartment blew up, not even Powder until she sees the crystal producing lightning in Episode 3. And Vi never figures that out at all, hence why she is surprised when Powder tells her she caused the explosion even though Vi saw the Monkey, she still thought at the time Silco caused it because how would Powder even do that? And the monkey just showed her Powder followed them and probably got caught up in the blast. That's also why Vi doesn't seem to know the literal blue ball of death that murders her family in Episode 6 when Jinx shows it to her (sure it looks a bit different but come on...).
Vi also doesn't abandon Powder and says (or implies) she never wants to see her again after hitting her, it's the other way around. She leaves only a corner away *because* she intends to come back once she has calmed down. She looks down at her hand, realise what she's done and that she cannot be trusted near her sister right now and make the stupid decision of delaying their depart so that she can get her temper under control. But at no point in this episode does she ever intend to abandon Powder, not even for a second.
I say all this less as a correction, and more because I'm in awe of what they manage to convey with the tiniest details. I didn't catch half of that shit on my first or even second watch. In fact, the viewing in which I caught the most amount of details was my third watch which was literally in theatre. Seriously that helped so much with figuring out little things, and I'm sure I still missed half of them even now.
"It's because they're in a polycule" YES! Why choose between Jayce/Mel and Jayce/Vik? Prevent wars with polyamory.
Also yes, Arcane is basically a perfect season of television. I try to be chill about season 2 because the odds they replicate that success are low (it won't be bad, mind you, unless something has gone very wrong, but it could be good but disappointing. Hopefully it's too far along for the RIOT restructuration to fuck it up).
Let's try to find some flaws with Arcane anyway: The one that struck me immediately is that Jayce, who is a fricking scientist, uses the word "theory" incorrectly, using its colloquial meaning instead of the scientific one even when discussing with another scientist. No scientist would get defensive when their work is called a "theory" by another scientist. This is the most nitpicky shit ever but when looking for flaws in Arcane, you got to look deep.
Sometimes the show is *too* confusing. They use "show don't tell" very well, but sometimes they don't tell and also barely show. Fortunately that almost never leads to any actual plotholes because they always have enough subtle elements planted here and there to prevent them, but it can lead to *perceived* plotholes.
An example of that last one for example is when Vi sees Powder's blown up monkey. Pretty much everyone's reaction is "Oh, Vi figured out Powder killed Mylo and Claggor" which is incorrect as proven just afterwards when she is completely taken by surprise when Powder admits to it. This adds confusion for people who thinks it's the second time she figures the same thing out which cuts through the emotional tension (not a lot, the scene is still a masterpiece xD). Vi thinks Powder followed them and died in the explosion at that point, she doesn't think Powder caused the explosion yet.
Another example is the teleportation spell. Almost no one understand what Jayce and Viktor are doing even if they remember that they're copying a teleportation spell and while the show eventually explains it in the smallest way possible with the nut teleporting 1 foot in a way that's barely visible because of the bubble, it's too late because so much magical stuff has happened before that, that people figure they should already have seen the effect of the spell and they probably missed it or something leaving everyone very confused about what was actually achieved here at least until the start of Episode 4 (which was a week later).
In any case, great video, I had so much fun listening to the whole thing and particularly loved the passage about silhouettes and the paralles mentees/mentors.
If it makes you feel any better in regards to the possible quality of Season 2, they had it all written out in the exact way they wanted by the time the first season released, and I'm pretty sure I recall some of the actors being back in the recording booth well before the SAG-AFTRA Strikes, so we're *probably* okay
What's funny about her first misunderstanding with Vi where she misses her defending her is that its resolved by the end of the episode. Powder brings it up and they talk it out which is nice and later juxtaposes her listening to Silco. The difference is now her trust, paranoia, self-worth (she just tried to murder suicide on the bridge), and PSYCHOSIS are at all time lows by episode 9 while also being hopped up by the recent shimmer operation. Silco admits she's a problem and says a line just vague enough "is there anything so undoing as a daughter?" that she thinks its possible he'd give her up because he'd get what he's wanted since before they met. Just great writing.
Powder's VA was MIa Sinclair Jenness for episodes 1-3. Ella Purnell picked up VA duties for the remainder of the series. Both were fantastic and deserved some award show nods for their work on Arcane.
17:26 the thing is that it’s Marcus who has the actual Australian accent
I reccomend you to watch "Arcane: Bridging the Rift" a documentary on how they made the show. Its pretty compelling too on how they put the documentary together.
I actually have seen it a few times! I love 'making-of' style docs, and this one is one of the better ones I've seen! I particularly loved their episode on the sound design of the show--it's such a good behind-the-scenes look at an aspect of TV production that gets WAY less love than it deserves
I'm so happy people are still talking about this masterpiece. I watched it over two years ago and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that I think about it every day. It has become the benchmark against which I measure everything else.
To answer your curiosity, yes there is a LOT of lore in League of Legends, novels upon comics upon short stories upon expositions upon many side indie game releases, a very deep realm that goes into arguably too much specfics. Covering the distant past, "present" and present characters, and even the future;
Arcane fitting solemnly as a prequel to the stories of Piltover and it's twin city. And although there are liberties, deviations, original characters, and ideas from the game's story, a lot of the story is mostly kept with the same spirit and idea in mind, and to flesh out the characters. Arcane serves to show us their journey's start, which there's plenty to host multiple seasons of, not even getting into their famous adventures when they're realized characters.
Which is why it's so unfortunate and disappointing to see how the creators said Season 2 will be the final season as we know it.
PS. Thank you for spreading your love of the story lol, I too can go into so much discussion, depth, and emotion of the story as an English major.
PPS. Also don't feel bad about calling it better than GoT ^_^, as a fellow GoT fan myself, there are flaws scattered everywhere intermittently throughout the early seasons, much less the latter lmao.
YOU DONT KNOW HOW MUCH I SCREAMED YESSSSS WHEN I HEARD YOU SAY SEVIKA WAS UNDERRATED AND SILCO WAS YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER WOOOO❤❤❤
sorry that I love villains that literally act like they would twirl a mustache if they had it! Plotters, schemers, and general mob boss behavior will never go out of fashion
The energy of this review is fantastic. Really like your approach here. Enjoyed the hell out of this
As I'm starting this video (as an Arcane obsessed person, as you do) I figured I'd check your channel and see what else you've done. 3 full ass videos on The Magicians? YES PLEASE! More people NEED to know about this show.
Hi Ella, 6'3, full-time model and people's princess candidate, this was indeed moderately unhinged and really well done! First time on the channel for me; RUclips has been giving me a lot of Arcane video essay recommendations lately (I have no idea why, but I'm not complaining). I've only played LoL once - someone called me a f*ggot in my first game, which was true, to be fair, but I didn't _know_ that yet - so I was going into the show pretty much blind. I think this is one of those shows that I liked well enough when I watched it, but I ended up adoring the more I thought about it. You've hit on a lot of what makes it so good for me, but I'd also just like to add that this show is so good at making me invested in each and every that I completely forgot that Powder kills Mylo and Cragger (and Vander technically) despite it being kinda important, because my favourite manic pixie nightmare girl can do no wrong.
Mel is my second-favourite character too (Vi is my fave because I'm very gay. Victor is my third-favourite character because I'm very bi) and Silco's also one of my favourites (because he is -daddy- a very interesting character). As you can tell, I think very deep thoughts.
I'm so hyped for Season 2! I'm especially excited to see the new music, because the soundtrack for S1 had some of my favourite songs of the year. Thank you for the great video and I love your humour btw!
[Also, your hair is simultaneously giving _slay_ and *help*. I love it you look gorgeous
arcane and atla are the two best animated shows ever made
oh my god your channel deserves so much more, this video was so well made im obsessed 💌💌💌
You’re too kind !!! Thank you for the sweet comment!
I love this!!! Also the intro made me laugh
I’m glad! I was worried it was too much haha
@@ella.k.d.123 im back, and this is just as great as the first time i watched it XD p.s. are you calilng us australians Waluigi?!?!
I wish they would release it on DVD. I want a physical copy of this art
Good news, they're gonna do that!
arcane is like one of my favorite things ever!!! it’s insane how so many people are missing out on it because they can’t get over the league of legends adaptation aspect of it all 😭😭 which like i get it i had my reservations too but oml this show changed my entire brain chemistry it’s wild
great rant! Indeed unhinged but not entirely unhinged. Seek help on the Silco thing. Your obsession is great, as is the show!
ok, few notes:
- Jinx realizes the girl isn't Vi before she shoots her. The girl is both too young and too small.
- The doc, Singed, gives Victor a shimmer variant. Basically over the years in the time jump, Singed has refined Shimmer (which he somehow synthesizes from or using Rio) and has created various versions, like how street pharmacists (and also Big Pharma do). We see at least six variants: Sevika's arm juice, a milder smokable version, a concentrated mist in the mechs, the version he gives Victor, the version the medicine woman puts a drop of in the vial, and the raw version that the junkies want that leaves them mutated. The smoked version we see has eaten away the user's nose. Oh! I forgot, the variant that Silco injects. Actually, one more: whatever version he injects into Jinx that doesn't disfigure or even cause her to transform but leaves her fundamentally mutated.
- Jinx was already on the bridge, she didn't follow them (they came from the firelight hideout), she was there to wipe out the blockade, which is why she was making the butterfly bombs.
- The show didn't convey it super-clearly, but when Victor goes back to do even more rune work, high off his success, he sees he's got like a corner of the vial left. He forges ahead (because Victor is reckless - he was reckless with the boat, with stones, with the bomb, with the matrix, and now with his own body). He then is in trouble because the matrix is requiring life force and his isn't sufficiently jacked like the first time. In comes Sky, and the matrix likes her life force just fine.
- Jinx hears everything Silco says, her abandonment issues are just triggered and also she's not alright after her time on Singed's table.
Great essay mob wife!!!
I truly enjoyed your unique way of summarizing the show. I too, believe it was a masterpiece.
You are gorgeous and I loved your thoughts on Arcane. It's a masterfully done show and you explained it well. Hope to see more from you!
If you want another great "adult" (as in gritty and swearing) animated tv series, please check out legend of vox machina! It came out the same year as arcane, so it got a little overshadowed, and its third season is also releasing later this year. It's again really well written and character driven. Oh, and it's based on dnd, but you don't need to know anything about dnd for it
Great video!
great vid, but there is a lot of focus breathing. i'd reccommend going a bit up in f stop number to reduce it unless you have one of the more recently released cameras where you can fix the auto focus by setting up facial recognition
i think that the contrast between viktor and jayce/mel is bc theyre both merging with someone or something and both are kind of creating life
Great video, pretty lady! I've argued with people about where this show ranks. It impacted me deeply. Good to see other people enjoying it!
as someone who similarly had arcane rotting their brain for the past 2 1/2 years or so, i can't agree with every single point you made in this video enough. also you are pretty you are gorgeous and you look like Linda Evangelista
Great recap. The only thing I would say is this: Silco didn’t freak out and shoot at Vi because he thought Vi was gonna turn Jinx to Vi’s side or whatever. When Vi is naming all the dead people who Jinx used to love, Vi wasn’t helping Jinx at all. Vi believed she was “pulling Powder out” but that’s not what was happening. Vi was triggering the fuck out of Jinx, making Jinx relive all of the most traumatic memories of her life. Vi was hurting Jinx, albeit unintentionally. Silco wasn’t trying to manipulate Jinx here, he was trying to stop Vi from further harming Jinx’s psyche and stop Vi from triggering her. Silco knew Jinx far better than Vi at this point, he knew what Vi was attempting and he knew what those actions were actually doing.
I agree 100% though, Arcane is a perfect show, I don’t think I have seen a more perfect show. As Jinx says, “ten outta ten toots”.
Everyone is very well aware of magic.
Piltover was literally built to escape the mages.
A place free from magic.
The revolutionary thing Jayce is doing and why no one takes it seriously is that he is trying to control magic with science.
Something no onw ever managed.
You were eiter born with the ability to control magic naturally or you couldnt do it.
Jayce technology would allow anyone to use it.
Its kinda of a big deal and something no one believe is possible.
if you liked Nimona, put She-Ra on your list
if you ship Cait and Vi, REALLY put She-Ra on your list
Ey b0ss, thats a pretty fine video, youre mighty good at this.
The story of piltover and zaun is just like 1% of the whole league of legends lore...thats why every player who love there character's want to see they favorite character on series or big screen
After Arcane, everyone is GOATed Vouce Actor.
It by far the best ive ever come across, at least in english.
Mia Sinclair Jenness as Powder being the absolute star of this particular show tho.
That allyway scen was the most soul crushing, eerily realiatic acting imaginable and she was only friggin 11 years old when recording, like *_HOW!?_*
Jason Spisak was fakking phenomenal, even in this company.
Silco is my favorite villain of all time.
Absolutely flawlessly brought to life by Jason.
Im a guy who normally dont put any weight on voice acting, if the story is good and the VA isnt _absolutely_ horrendous, its fine. In Arcane its one of my absolute favorite things, I could go on forever about this libe up.
The _"worst"_ VA in Arcane is still better than the *best* one Id heard before Arcane.
Absolutely unbelievable.
Arcane also made me unhinged. I've seen it 10+ times
This show also bridges divides. Everyone really enjoys the show because it was written, animated, directed extremely well.
My biggest pet peeve about the Arcane fandom is horrible opinions around Mel/Mel hate so when you said she was your 2nd fav I breathed out a sigh of RELIEF.
But yes, there is absolutely an extensive amount of lore around league of legends, even though its barely presented through the game. Every champion has lore set in the Runeterra universe and short stories about them. (most of it is on their website, more lore can be discovered through voice lines). Basically there's the MAIN universe of Runeterra, where Piltover and Zaun/the undercity both reside along many other nations. KDA is one of the skin AUs, which are basically just. yeah, aus with little bits of lore sometimes that only exist to sell skins.
For Jinx and Vi specifically, they've had mysterious origin stories since 2012. We knew Vi had a past in Zaun, and Jinx has some... disaster in her life that caused her to become unhinged, but we didn't know what. We also got frequent hints that the two were sisters, but it was never confirmed. When Arcane was released, it was finally confirmed that Jinx and Vi are indeed sisters and we finally got to learn about their past and what happened. This story has been a long time in the making.
(It also confirmed Caitlynn/Vi, which was a VERY popular fan ship for many years due to them having a close working relationship and Vi looking... how she does lol. Theyre pretty much canonically a couple now its awesome. And actually, not the only queer characters in league by a longshot.)
Really great channel gonna need to now go and watch all your videos
Thank you so much !!! So sweet :)
Correction. Jinx isn't a MPDG. She's a Manic Pixie NIGHTMARE Girl.
I'm into the league universe, i play the two spinoff games wild rift and teamfight tactics and used to play league, playing in the universe made the show feel different. Viktor name dropped himself it was a crazy ass moment. Like Wtf? (Because we dont know him as a movement impaired weak man) Knowing the games characters made it worse for us because it seemed to have given the characters plot armor. There is no story in the league games so everything here was so fresh and new. As a matter of fact the game is talking about putting more arcane into league because it was so damn good. If you watch Jinx in Episode 1 you can see the hate for those "monster" enforcers she has there in her eyes that makes Cait the enemy later down the line. In her eyes its just so different to not see the monsters that killed your parents as the enemy. I love Arcane i got shit on my car and stckers everywhere lol Season 2 can't possibly match the level season 1 brought, temper expectations.
Spoiler Alert!
In game Ekko has time travel for a few seconds i wonder if when he breaks the watch its how he activates it. Or if he has yet todo so.
11:50 Jayce literally makes exclusively incorrect decisions across the entire 9 episode runtime.
This show is sooo fucking good. Im beyond excited for season 2. Why is riot better at animation and music prodution than game design lol? Im still devastated we havent gotten more KDA music. Like genuinely, go listen to Villain by KDA. All the KDA songs are so good. Also the other LoL band True Damage has the song Giants which is great too.
"You are pretty"
When Vi release in the game... Back in 2012 december... She and Caitlyn always teasing... Even they enemy or ally... So yeah they lesbian... But but... Caitlyn is the one not Vi 🥰
You look like
ELLA PURNELL jinx VA 🥰🥰🥰
It's helpful that her name is also Ella. 😅
Star Wars has been a life long obsession for me (and keep in mind, dating myself as ancient, I was alive to see Star Wars -- the OG episode IV -- at a drive-in theater when I was five years old, sitting on a blanket on the hood of Mom's Datsun Honeybee, staring up at that gigantic screen in the dark while that teeny, bad radio quality speaker fed the movie straight into my veins. I bleed Empire. I wanted Vader to carry me off and do naughty things. When the prequels came out, I wished on every star between here and the heath death of the universe to be in a polycule marriage with with Anikin and Padme.
Fanfiction. SO MUCH fanfiction -- humorously, very little of it romantically intimate, aside from a dream of taking a shower with Chewy decades before Solo (didn't everyone have an emo furry phase? don't look at me in that tone of voice) -- written, read, consumed like Cheetoes after a 420 bender. I pour one out for Rogue One every time someone lambasts it for being unapologetically "politically infinite cringe nostalgia bait propaganda shyte" (loved it -- an unpopular opinion for a while -- even liked Solo. Once again, Chewy, and Qi'ra, my queen, tell me more about yourself).
With this as the preface of just how much Star Wars has meant to me, my whole damn life, Andor was WAY too good for Star Wars. It just-- was. Phenomenal from start to finish. Some of the best, tightest most character first storytelling I've seen in... forever. Please, PLEASE give it a chance.
Arcane was much better received actually, and for that I'm grateful. Arcane IS a masterclass in superb storytelling, dialogue, plot, world building, characters, dichotomy and interweaving of narratives -- the list goes on and on and on. Don't even get me started on animation -- the insanely smooth motion and character expressions make me weep -- and music; there are no words. It's had fairly uniform praise from the critics, the LoL fanbase (though that's a divisive hot take now that Riot's embraced Arcane's lore as THE ONE RING cannon), the internet reaction sphere, and curious intellectuals. Lots of pleasant buzz when it came out, and it's benefiting from a resurgence as Season Two creeps closer.
Your commentary was intriguing; forthright and well spoken. Your perspective was an engaging lens from which to re-enjoy the story. It proves to me that despite the ground in cynicism of many voices clamoring focal unity is the only way forward, one can have (well, a one way, as this is your video, and my comment, and the twain may never meet) open and impassioned discourse on beloved subject matter without deteriorating into clique circling hate crimes against one another. Your point of view was fun! Enlightening! Pointed out parts of the story I interpreted differently. It was, to TLDR, a blast. Thanks for sharing!
As a personal plug of another show my meager self thinks is worth giving a glance, Hazbin Hotel (if you like eclectic musical theater, and plot/story beats expressed through song) is an eight episode banger on Amazon Prime. The music, my god. Just my opinion.
Cheers!
SEVIKA FANDOM REPRESENT!
I wouldnt recommend playing league but if you do your Heimerdinger oppinion is gonna flip lmao. Hes the WORST to play against. I ban him every game because its miserable to fight Heimer
And you see in the series arcane piltover and zaun is separated but the prequel this two nation is one... The story title is like...EXPLOTION ON THE RIVER PILT its like that the title i think so... Where they need to make a whole in that island because if you see the map of league of legends if tou want to cross in east to west cost.. you need to go around the world thats why they they need to make a way but accidentally they put many bomb that cause this island became piltover and zaun
teemo sound off am looking for teemo...and shrooms too 😂😊
You can cosplay jinx also 🥰🥰🥰
It’s funny that you think the two magical people on the council saying magic dosent belong is funny cause they are the only two who can with first person experience say that magic is bad.
Shit was soo good yet so depressing
Oh looks ~ your obsession is back
Yea no, Jayce is insanely intelligent.
He is just thrown into a political position he has absolutely 0 clue how to navigate, so he leans on everyone elses guidance.
This is not stupidity, this is both common sense and human nature.
Misguided? Perhaps.
Stupid? No.
He is rather young and naive on top of his mentor being on the council, he has no reasons at all to believe they would mislead him.
His hesitation and tendency to lean on his seniors is perfectly reasonable.
This is exceptionally true for highly intelligent people.
If youre not familiar with the Dunning-Kreuger effect, its basically that the dumber people get the more confident they are that they are correct and knows better.
Consequently, the smarter people get the more likely they are to question their own proficiency.
They even highlight his complete lack of political understanding with Bolbuk explicitly saying "Does the boy have any experience? " and Mel replying "only that of a scientist, like Heimerdinger".
The entire point of those lines it to tell you that Jayce has absolutely no clue about politics in any way.
good recap. and you *are* pretty.. ;)