Felt some real love there, and it was made even better considering ekko is my favorite character. Their bond in this episode really hit me harder than any other pairing in the show. Shit man I’m still obsessin over em
@@SecretMagician I started from season 1 last weekend and binged the whole show, but I don't regret not doing it sooner because A) I didnt have to wait for season 2, and B) I had all these analysis videos I could immediately watch
With Arcane, The Wild Robot, Transformers One, Look Back, Inside Out 2, Ultraman Rising, Smiling Friends and X-Men 97, animation has been on a generational run this year
The scene with Ekko and Powder dancing is such a perfectly crafted "never want this moment to end" scene that it almost feels dangerous and irresponsible to produce. My heart aches every time that french hip-hop beat echos in my head.
I watched the finale in a call with four of my friends. I got into the show just as season 2 was dropping after three years of sitting around postponing it and I’m so glad I didn’t wait longer. Once in a lifetime experience watching something so incredible and artistic.
Same. I watched the entire show the week before season 2 Act 3, and was completely hooked. It’s been a long time since a piece of media made me cry, but this show did it several times. It’s become probably my favorite show ever
Same here, I started watching when S2 Act 1 dropped. My favorite show to date. Glad I was able to witness the last acts with everyone else, truly a once in a lifetime experience.
I think the reason Sky’s death was underplayed was because viktor didn’t have any strong feelings for her. It plays into Viktors psyche. He didn’t have the same feelings for her but he cared about everyone and didn’t want to bring harm. That’s why he spent most of season 2 with her, to make amends for killing her. Despite him feeling bad about killing her she wasn’t as important as others like Jace.
this is how i see it too. he didn't really have any kind of bond with her, but when he was responsible for her death (especially after reading her letter) he was consumed by guilt and that's why he kept her "spirit" around. the "no, you won't" moment pretty much solidified that imo.
Arcane is just phenomenal. Season 2 was amazing, not quite the perfect masterpiece season 1 was, but still just beautiful. I genuinely cried when Vi desperately reached for Vander in the finale. At the end of the day, Vi and Jinx are two traumatized kids forced to grow up too fast and had to watch the ones they love ripped away from them. Season 1 is actually perfect. There are literally no faults and the characters, the story, the complexity, is beyond anything else coming out today. Silco soon became my favorite character because of how complex of a villain he is. Jinx’s end in the finale was depressing but satisfying for her arc. I believe people who say she’s alive. I think she finally accepted who she was and knew Silco was right. She had to walk away. She truly is a Jinx and she knows she is too mentally far gone to maintain any relationships without something awful happening. Piltover/Zaun is a reminder of everything and everyone she lost. And she finally wants to let Vi move on and be happy. It would be too hard for her to be torn between Jinx and Caitlyn. Isha was the final straw that really forced Jinx to grow into her adult self as she was always a kid at heart. Episode 7 with Ekko and Powder was beautiful yet heartbreaking. Genuinely my favorite episode of the season. It really hit Ekko hard to know Jinx wasn’t a monster. She had just gone through so, so much trauma it destroyed her. It’s insane for us to know that the perceived abandonment from Vi hurt Powder on an unimaginable level. AHHH amazing show I can’t believe it’s over. I really hope this a turning point for media and we’ll see art and passion return to shows/movies.
Hope this version of the video does better in the algorithm this time, always youtube fucking up something man lmao. Anyways the description is so damn real, I thought about Arcane a LOT over the past 3 years, I really hoped it would last for like 5 seasons, one cus after watching S2 it feels like it really easily could've, and 2 because I would've been totally fine obsessing over it for another 10 years 💀
When animation is treated with respect, you get Arcane, Hilda, and the Spiderverse dulogy. When animation is treated with disrespect, you get Spongebob seasons 6-8, Big Mouth and Boss Baby.
Boss baby (the first movie) had an amazing animation style!!! The second movie was shit and the series even worse. But the first one?? I might even say it revolutionized the way babies are animated now, all squishy with a visible "weight" to them. I haven't seen such realistically animated babies since Disney's renaissance
I got pretty much everything i wanted from S2. yeah, the pacing was fast and each episode needed an additional 10-15 minutes but the story and all plotlines are pretty clear. the ending worked well for all characters too imo. I think it's pretty obvious Jinx is alive based on all the hints and I see no reason to not believe Viktor and Jayce are together in some magic/cosmic realm considering arcane and that rune with multidimensional qualities. Heimerdinger is a question but he's a yordle so idk. It feels like the creators left some things ambiguous to bring certain characters back in the future shows if they want to (even as cameo only). I also fully expect Black rose/Mel's plotline to be continued in the show about Noxus. my personal favorite plotline was Viktor and Jayce's one. it's just so beautifully executed with such a satisfying resolution. the cosmic soulmate bond across all universes which became so essential on such a scale. their last scenes were just pure art.
Agreed, I thought it was too fast originally but after watching s1 again I’m changing my mind. They did so much setup. There’s really only a couple of scenes I might add but overall, best show in years
Maddie is such a hilarious character. She shows up, sleeps with Cait, and then just disappears for the majority of the show, is revealed to be a traitor in the finale, dies, and then no one acknowledges her. Even during the CaitVi scene, they just brush her off.
I’m honestly not surprised that Arcane is the masterpiece it is. Riot has always been amazing at cinematic projects, even their music videos are a marvel to watch. If only that applied to League-
True true. Even the old cinematic videos are really good. I think the only other cinematic videos as good as these are the ones from Blizzard on WoW and SC
takes several years for the animation alone but its the story and characters that keep you watching if that fucks up then all that time will be for nothing
the entirety of watching season 2 i was thinking "theres no way they top this scene it looks way too good" then they show me the coolest thing iv ever seen less than a min later
Was so confused about what happened about the original video. Until I saw your tweet. Glad it seems like the video is doing well than before. I guess the algorithm was messed up yesterday
I absolutely love Arcane, and I think this video goes a great job at explaining why. The one place I disagree is that I believe the music video segments in season 2 are even better than season 1. Because the show has limited time, they're able to convey the emotions out main characters are feeling, the status of both sides of the city, and set up plot points all at once.
I think season 2 maybe had too much of them (I think season 1 had less but I might be wrong it's been a while) that being said, those from the third acts are all fantastic. Best in the serie by far.
Even the show runner said the first draft of the finale was over an hour and they were forced to prune it pretty aggressively. Still, given the limitations I think they landed it as best as possible
i knew she was alive as well as heimerdinger because they are playable characters, heimdingers made me most shocked as it made me question whether he was playable or not
Arcane is the only show I can think of that actually would have benefited from filler. A filler episode about the bond between Heimerdinger and Ekko or an episode dedicated to the reunion or Jinx, Vi, and Vander would have been great.
That's my thoughts on Season 2. I know some people would have wanted the plots of Season 2 (Piltover vs. Zaun, and Messiah Viktor and Ambessa) to be split into two seasons, but this just needed better streamlining that could have been done with one extra episode.
I'm so much agree with the fact that season 2 need more time and actually the final episode were normally way longer than it is, they just had no time to finish like they wanted. But i personaly think that the music scenes of season 2 are incredible for showing us what's happening without telling it. Geat video and sorry if my english is bad i'm french x)
cmon putting gravity falls in teh same league as avatar and and arcane is alittle generous. Like I love gravity falls but the story it tells doens't have teh weight that arcane have and even atla is a step below that.
@@aminyapussi4740 while I understand your sentiment, I don’t necessarily agree that a story has to be weighty in order for it to be a great narrative. There are a multitude of ways to tell a good story, and not all of them need the weight that arcane has. Simplicity can be a powerful tool as well sometimes. But we can agree to disagree.
I can see where the criticisms of the second season being rushed, I wouldn’t complain if there was at least another season before the show ended. However, I don’t regret watching as each act came out and seeing the community’s reaction to the episodes, especially the parts with Jinx, Ekko Vi and Jayce.
It's honestly crazy how amazing Arcane is. You'd think a show based on such a memed and disgraced game wouldn't be any good, but it absolutely blows you away with it's phenomenal writing, pacing and animation. It proves itself as one the best animated shows, hell one of the best animated pieces of media in general, in the past decade. I came to the show late (I'm a crazy procrastinatinator), but I'm so glad I was able to catch this show and have the lightning in a bottle experience that was waiting for and watching the conclusion. So glad this show exists, I absolutely adore it. Can't wait to see what else is done with this exciting world.
League of Legends is very irritating but league lore world building animation and music has always been on point. So I get why arcane was so amazing Riot for their faults does so many things well. Team fight tactics is very fun and even legends of Runterra has no right being as good as it is. Like go check out some of riots other cinematics they all are extremely high quality some id recommend are Warrior, Still Here, Kin of the stained blade, Awaken.
I didn't mind waiting 2 to 3 years for Season 2. If that is what we got, I say more shows should do that instead of waiting 1 year as fast as possible ❤
Honestly it says a lot about the current industry. They just don't make good shows like that we tend just to see the safer option of making sequels to existing Ip's.
This is totally the best adaptation that outshines the source material since GoT. Truly a one of a kind thing! I especially adore the artstyle of Arcane
@@seankent7282 game of thrones peak even arcane cant match now tbf its like 80% there, aracne IS the better adpatation ssince it became the official canon or something meanwhile the show never really beat the books and from 5 onwards especially changed from the books which is why you have euron greyjoy in the show being shite compared to him in the books
I totally agree with the pacing issues in season 2. I think that’s why me and so many others love Episode 7 as much as we do. Episode 7 felt like the best paced episode of the second season to me. It felt like a season one episode in many ways. It allowed the scenes to have the time needed to breathe without breaking out into a music video every 5 minutes, and when they finally do break out into a music video it’s the most earned moment of the entire season to me. Wonderful show, easily the best show to come out in a long time to me
I love Episode 7, especially the Ekko-Powder-Heimrdinger plot. But I also thinks the contrast in peace and relaxation of the alternate universe compared to the rushing chaos and destruction makes it all the greater. The original timeline is set after a terrorist attack by Jinx followed by the green lady just when they were mourning the deaths of their councilors. Then you have mass riots as Cait and Vi DESPERATELY try to catch Jinx. The fact the rest of the show is so rushing is a perfect fit for how the characters would feel. The scenes in Episode 7 and in Viktor's sanctuary are the only scenes where characters get to truly breathe out and relax. At all other times the world is rushing around them, war, revolution and terrorism are on the horizon and the characters are thrown into it. Ekko is really the only character who gets a in the story. All the others are in near constant turmoil.
I think Vi was done really dirty by Season 2. She feels like a background character for everyone else’s stories. She did exactly one thing with any impact on the plot, convincing Caitlyn to turn on Ambessa, and even that scene should have had way more time to be convincing.
Honestly I see it as the show just becoming bigger than vi. It kinda reminds me of mcu with the multiverse. The original characters were seen as some of the strongest characters in the movies but with the multiverse it kinda just threw them to the side.
@@Kyjack1556 there comes a day where you encounter problems no longer solvable with HULK SMASH (and in fact, make the problem worse… like hitting Powder and calling her Jinx after the monkey bomb accident)
I kinda agree that Vi's story is one of the weaker ones of the bunch, especially considering she's like the main character of season 1, but I disagree that she isn't important to the plot. You can't write episode 3, 5, 6, 8, or 9 without her in it. I'd say Cait and Jinx are in the spotlight for alot of the season, and those character's arcs are tied directly to Vi. Plus, there's nothing wrong with not having the spotlight or taking a more "supportive" role in the story. Mel in season 1 does very little besides tell Jayce to do stuff and be related to someone else, and she's great; Ekko has like 2 episodes and a couple scenes worth of screentime, and he's fantastic.
@@Kyjack1556that's a really good point. The scale of the story just began to outpace her. She's just a girl who wants to protect her family, not deal with interdimensional magic, empires invading and time travel
This video…completely sums up my thoughts about the show as a whole. Season 1 being a masterpiece and season 2 also being a masterpiece, but flawed with bad pacing. If only we had like two more episodes. Or even a few more minutes in each episode. Then this show would be the peakest of peak fiction.
I have watched a few vids critiquing Season 2, but I liked it just as much as Season 1. I never thought the pacing was off, as I have heard many complain and all the characters still made perfectly reasonable decisions. With reasonable, I don't necessarily mean best, or logically reasonable, but rather they make sense with the characters and emotion. The tension between Vi and Cait in the first act was wonderful, as they clearly had too much going on in their heads and were lashing out and blaming each other. I think the "rushed feeling" of their relationship is exactly that. They don't have time to grieve for their loses and are under extreme stress. Cait thrust into the position of her mother after a devastating loss and Vi just failed to get her sister back and saw the destruction she can bring. They are completely emotionally overloaded and in over their heads, but the world around them doesn't slow. I think I was in Cait's shoes, I'd feel just as overwhelmed as the show conveys. So much going on and happening with little time for breaks and time to juts process your emotions. Jinx and Vi with Vander in act 2 were also amazing. Some may say the Vander arc felt rushed, but I think if it were longer and Vander was "back" for a long enough time to truly talk with Vi and Jinx it would make his season 1 death less impactful and give Jinx and Vi too much time to reconciliate and mentally stabilise and reset. Jinx blamed herself for what happened to Vander and her family. When she sees Vander in the beast, she is shown a glimpse of the man that was her father. He was the cornerstone of their life and if he was back, all would be good with both her and Vi, at least in her mind. She is clearly desperate for this, which is why she seek out Vi, as she probably imagines bringing Vander back together with her will undo the rift between them and mend the scars. The fact they got their father "back" only for him to be torn away and Jinx also losing Isha, sending her into depression was wonderfully done. A glimpse of hope, of peace in Viktor's sanctuary, shattered by Jayce and the Noxians. Tearing their father away again and throwing them back into the lives they had just escaped. With all the misery and conflict and loss. Episode 7 is an absolute banger imo. No words (or rather if I get started, way too many). Episode 8, exploring the aftermath of Jayce actions, the battle and how Cait, Vi and Jinx deal with the loss fits well imo. Even the talk between Ekko and Jinx at the beginning of Episode 9 works perfectly in my eyes. Jinx is extremely unstable mentally and, from my experience, when someone is that unstable it doesn't always take much for them to 180° mentally. So I think its reasonable that an old friend turned enemy suddenly turning up and "forgiving" you for your past mistakes would shake her up and potentially out of her suicidal trance. I think on one hand she realises that Ekko might be tampering somehow with reality, as he starts smoking, bleeding, seems to have burns and is carrying a Hextech device. He also refers to her as an old friend. Lastly, when he talks to her it's like this "I learned from someone special. That no matter what happened in the past, it's never too late to build something new. [Cut from Jinx face looking at Ekko's Z-drive to the Z-drive that contains monkey used by Powder/Jinx and then to Ekko also looking at them, basically acknowledging what she is looking at] .... Someone worth building it for." In my eyes that clearly communicates to Jinx that she is the special someone or at the very least the "someone worth building it for". If I was in her position, that would definitely get me rattled. As for the final fight including Viktor and Jayce I also really enjoyed this. Sure, Viktor's power and the Arcane are not entirely explained, but if it were, it would be boring, at least imo. The mystery to how exactly it works is intriguing and in my eyes, the point was not Viktor's power, no whether he could turn everything into one soulless expanse, but whether he should. If we can accept that Vander can be turned into Warwick, Viktor can create these evolved robots or creature using the anomaly, without any in depth explanation, to me it is also fine that he can "undo"what he has previously wrought. Thanks for reading my essay.
This is easily the best review of arcane season 2. Giving it the respect it deserves while respecting giving constructive criticism to it. A lot of ppl will see reviewers and think the season is like a 7/10 cuz they bash it for most of their review lol.
I read somewhere that apparently in an interview with sb from Riot it was said that the episodes of season 2 (at least all the ones from act 3) were supposed to be around 1 hours and 30 minutes each, but they were denied by Netflix. That explains the rushed feeling I got in this season at many points and I will never understand why these polishers can't just let the creators do their thing and let greatness shine.
(Spoilers for Season 2) I was rewatching the whole show and realized that Mel’s back was glowing gold, which I found as a weird choice the first watch through but rewatching after they explained she shielded her and Jayce since she’s a mage it just shows the attention to detail and the fact that they had foreshadowed it from there was great!
Not sure if you’ve seen the people mentioning how jinx is alive. The end credit scene with cait looking at the map of the tower while holding a piece of jinx’s grenade. Also the airship at the end. They really set this up for a spin off series or 200
I want to mention that the Studio that draw Arcane deserves recognition. Fortiche has given soul to Arcane. I m not sure if i will get the same feeling about the serie if the it was produced by the like of Disney or Pixar.
definitely agree that S2 could have used 1-2 more episodes to really give everything more breathing room and to wrap up all the different plot points much better
Arcane consumed me after I watched it and would not let me go for months. Even now after Season Two the brainrot continues to strangle my focus and productivity in everything else. I am in general agreement that Season Two principly suffered from the problem of being a bit overstuffed. Despite that it was a fantastic season worthy of of the highest praise. What I found remarkable about Arcane is how efficient, concise yet effective its storytelling is. Every scene adds to the story and is connected to the central themes and threads. Via microexpressions, short but sharp dialogue, music and cinematic framing it tells what it needs the audience to know in a few seconds. It never has to use more scenes to explain and flesh out every little thing cause that is not what the story needs. It is lean yet full and powerful. Yet considering how much more dense Season Two is with how many themes, plots and arcs it had to carry over and wrap up from S1 and what was introduced, it was inevitable they had to lean very hard into the efficiency of editing and storytelling in order to wrap things up in nine episodes. It needed at 2 - 3 more episodes total. In order to give the plot and arcs time to breathe. To allow us watchers to digest such powerful stuff, to at least better explore some of the subplots and themes like Zaun's failed uprisings and Pitfighter Vi or Dictator Cait's struggles. Ultimately I feel this season was a tad overstuffed without the runtime to accommodate it. It left it feeling more plot-driven as a result even when the characters are the ones driving things. The scope and focus for Season One worked perfectly with the 9 episode and three act structure, Season Two should have been a bit bigger to accommodate the greater scope and stakes involved. Let things be as big as the story requires, within reason of course. Ultimately however given their self-imposed limit of keeping this show within a two seasons of eighteen episode, they did a masterful job.
This is one of my favorite videos of yours that you’ve made so far and i would love to hear your expanded thoughts on Arcane in particular. i can’t wait to see what you’ll make in the future.
I don't think Maddie's turn is out of nowhere at all. We see her spying on Cait/Vi in episode 8. She's the first of the Enforcers to start beating her chest in episode 3. She also introduces herself to Vi as "junior officer", likely meaning she's fairly knew to the force. She was an Ambessa plant from the start.
Honestly, thank you for making this. It gave me a greater appreciation for season 2 than I already had, and also helped me process the more conflicting parts of it. I ADORE what you said about how Jinx is basically dead inside and how Isha gives her life again. I was surprised with how blatantly they portrayed her suicide ideation which later went into outright attempts, but it really hit me.
Thanks for a great video. Yes, I agree that season 2 feels to crammed and some of the most epic moments like Maddie's betrayal felt very small for how much impact they could have made if gotten more time to build up. Still the last episode managed to feel more epic in 40 minutes than the entire last season of GoT (Not mention all its other multitude of failures) did in 6 hours.
Ekko has always been my favorite League character as someone who doesn't play League and although only a side character I am so glad how much love they put into him. LIKE THAT FINAL ACTION SCENE OH MY GOD THAT'S MY GOAT THAT'S MY GOAT RIGH THERE.
they really knew how to hurt us. they gave us a glimpse into a perfect world, we along with Ekko got to see things be better, we got to see things that were perfect. they gave us the perfect, and I mean perfect "what could have been and what will not be" episode. that dance with Eko and Powder... god that hurt. seeing them actually be happy together, seeing them in a world where neither experienced the hurt they did in the main world, it was beautiful. and they took it away, they needed to take it but it didn't hurt any less. this show was a masterpiece
i decided to finally watch it on a whim last week after discovering that an artist i really like had a song in season 2. i watched the entire first season in one night, binged the rest the following day. it's been all i can think about for about a week straight. season 2 has it's flaws but even those couldn't bring down it's overall ranking for me. hell, i'm trying to get my own mother to watch it.
Honestly I’m impressed that Arcane is capable of getting me engaged and interested in the lore of League of Legends, a series I was never interested in.🐱
Act 3 made Act 2 better. You can see why the story had to be told in this order, especially the story of Jayce. Also Mel becomes relevant, at the right time for the story. Yes, her liberation from those magical bonds is kind of deus ex machina, but the point of the story is her conflict with her mother. And of course ep7 is necessary for Ekko, to be able to crucially change the outcome. Even More mentally than technologically.
I find it funny the biggest issue everyone has with Arcane is that there's not enough of it and we need more. That should be a clear sign the show is goated.
I think season 1 is a masterpiece, but season 2 stumbled the ball around act 2 as I agree that they felt rushed and could use 3 more episodes to fix the pacing. I fell the final battle was over stuffed and we didn't have the character interaction to the degree where use to, in order to ground/invest us. I mean the gaurd who looks like Vander felt like it had a lot of unused scene to make vi/the audience care for him. Not to mention that some long running side characters got shafted like Sevika who didn't even get a line in the last episode despite being their since the start of zhan vs Piltover plot that drove most of the story.
Honestly despite Netflix being.. well Netflix.. The animations that they make are pretty good quality. Like Arcane is peak, Cyberpunk is peak, Castlevania is peak, LD&R is pretty good, so yeah, in the animation department they do quite a good job.
I watched S2 in one day. It was very good. But it was also a lot. Like after finishing it I had to just sit and think. There were some parts that I just “missed” because so many things were happening at the same time. Like the whole “happy family” part with Jinx, Vi, WW, and Isha. It happened in the middle of a lot of other stuff and it ended so fast that I didn’t even have time to fully realize what was happening. Therefore at that time, that scene wasn’t as impactful. Now as I had more time to think about it I appreciate it a lot more. This is why for me s2e7 is really peak. It is a bit slower paced and has more or less a concrete focus on Ekko/Jinx and Jayce and it is not bouncing between 10 characters each minute. But yeah these are some small complaints, other than that absolute cinema.
The only thing I really needed in addition to what was there was a 10 minute sequence of Ekko pulling Jinx out of her depression, the rallying of Zaun and the launching of the airship.
I initially didn’t really like the ending, but upon rewatch it’s much better Tbh I think if we just had a bit more of Sevika and Zaun it would’ve been peak
I think people miss 1 thing about Heimerdinger's sacrifice. He waited 3 years in this universe waiting for Ekko. And while being there he took to heart every moment he had with Ekko previously and, at least, helped to shape this reality. So for him those 3 years were spent with the lessons that he learned from Ekko, thus making his sacrifice logical in his eyes. Though I would have loved couple of more scenes between then.
The only bad thing about Arcane is how they going to retcon some of the characters featured in mainline LOL, like jinx for example to be where they are at the end of the show. Like how they handled Deadshot in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.
Originally, Act 1 *was* an entire season. They wrote it, they animated it, looked at the result. And decided that while it was good, it wasn't good enough. So they started over, completely rethought season 1, turned it into just the first act, and ended up creating a masterpiece. That's one of the reasons it took 6 years, and I'm so happy they did. Because it's perfect.
I think arcane should have had another season. So, here's my skit for how it would've looked: (warning: ‘tis long) The end of the season 2 would be when Embessa makes Caitlyn a dictator, Vi and Jinx teaming up to go after Vander, and Mel being kidnapped somewhere at episodes 8-9. The end of episode 6 will be pretty much the same as the end of the current episode 3, with the epic fight and the anomaly. Arcs: Mel throughout the season tries to hold off the production of hextech weapons, combating her mother on the political front while trying to uncover her family's secrets. Until episode 6, Vi will try to protect both Jinx and Caitlyn until she's left with no one to protect. Then, she'll start her arc for her understanding she also needs to look out for herself. That arc would accompany her spiral, which will take place in the third act. We'll further explore how Ekko can't see the reality for more of what it is, with interaction of Vi and her strike team. In episode 6 he and Himerdinger will go to Jayce and to the hexgates. Jayce will grapple with the concept that the Arcane has a destructive nature. He’ll interact with Embessa a lot, as he'll fall more and more towards the production of weapons, until in episode 6 he disappears. Embessa will precue Salo, Caitlyn and Jayce. At the last act Embessa will need to face the consequences of hextech and how it can be unsafe, and is going to start exploring looking for other weapons. Singed is going to get kidnapped by the cambarrons. Yep. They'd need him for shimmer manufacturing, which will make him a target for Caitlyn’s strike team, which will set Warwick loose in the undercity. Jinx's arc is the same as act 1 of season 2 in episodes 1 to 6. Then, after separating from Vi and being more with Isha, her hero part of her arc is going to appear, which will take form in the menace which is Warwick harming Zaun. She’ll eventually fight him, knowing he exists previously, to save people from the undercity, but only because Isha’s there and she's trying to save her, just like in episode 4 of season 2. Then she'll find out that Warwick is Vander, which will cause her to come to Vi at the end of the season. We'll see more of Victor, even though I'm not sure what can fill the fart of his arc between his appearances in episode 2 and episode 6. I think it's important to see how he develops his community but that's a part I can't really figure out because in this part of his arc he's really isolated, and I don't want this to be a documentary about Jesus. I have a tough time understanding what was Himerdinger’s arc in season 2, because he seems pretty complete, but maybe we'll see Himerdinger as a firelight more actively trying to help people. Maybe he'll meet with Victor in his ventures as a firelight in the undercity. How will season 3 basically go: Along with necessary changes, the ending of the show will be pretty much the same. The first act of season 3 will be about catching up with everyone - first will Caitlyn, Embessa and Sevika in the war effort, then with Mel at her captors and with Jinx Vi and Isha as they look for Vander end reconcile, and then with Jayce, who will appear back at the end of the first arc to kill Salo. 4 will be the infamous episode 7 of season 2, and will be pretty much the same. We'll explore a lot more the war through Sevika (and a little bit with what's left of the cambarrons) as she's trying to unite Zaun, and ally with the firelights. When Ekko comes back (still not certain when) before he’ll help Jinx, he'll first meet Sevika, and they'll do kind of a team up like Vi and Caitlyn did in season 1. When Ekko helps Jinx he'll already do it with the entirety of Zaun behind him. The major turn point of Jayce shooting Victor will still happen at episode 6, but we'll have 3 episodes instead of 2 to wrap up the series. War - for a war there need to be objectives. While Sevika’s objective is a united Zaun, and maybe independence, I don't think it'll work out. I think somewhere at act two Sevika will abandon that idea, because the people who now “follow her”, the firelights, the Jinxers, and united Zaun she worked for - they don't all want independence, and also because it wouldn't seem realistic. I think an interesting thing for her will be to connect to that bold councillor who I can never remember her name, and together they would start working towards a diplomatic way to end the war, with Zaun getting a seat (maybe two so Ekko or Scar?:-)) in the council, because considering what I've said about objectives, what's Piltovetr’s objective in this war? They wanna find Jinx but she hasn't been seen for months nor is she causing problems for Piltover, shimmer is already dismantled, and the cambarrons are mostly defeated. Sure, there are still insurgents, more than before, but that's a product of the war, not an end goal to end insurgency. Embessa out there looking for other weapons after she's given up on hextech. Considering all of this I wrote in this war paragraph, I think it'll explain how the war fades out, thanks to the efforts of Sevika and - is her name Shilla? The Zaunites won't join the final fight immediately, but with Jinx and Ekko, because of something in the third arc that will be a bump in that peace process, but that's the general idea. I think also another thing is that we could see more of Vander, and how he's affected and affects Victor. As for Caitlyn, as she's already met Singed in season two in her strike team days, when Embessa teams up with Singed… Actually now when I think about it, I don't really know how Embessa will meet Singed. She'll obviously know about Warwick and will try to catch him… Maybe dictator Caitlyn will hear about this monster ramping in the undercity, and will conclude that the war could not end as long as it's alive. She'll know Singed so she and Embessa will go to him demanding to know how to take the beast down, but when Embessa will make Singed her advisor, will Caitlyn already knowing how he is, that he made shimmer and the beast, she'll start to lose trust at Embessa, and after she'll remeet with Vi after almost five episodes, her betrayal will be way more felt. Side characters: We'll obviously explore more Maddie, Lorris and Steb at the first two arcs of season 2 with Caitlyn's strike force. We'll really explore Lorris and his connection to Vi in the third act as he tries to support her. As for the bold councillor, we'll get a lot more out of her in season 3, and also a lot more from Salo in season 2. With Smeech down in episode 2, we'll explore more the remaining Cambarrons and how they're dealing with the strike force in Zaun. One of them will kidnap Singed to get more shimmer or stronger shimmer or whatever, and the other will maybe join Sevika? I don't know. Scar will definitely join forces with Sevika at some point, with him practically being the leader of the firelights at act 3 of season 2 and act 1 of season 3. I don't care about Rictus. Elora will help Mel uncover her family's secrets and her death at the end of season 2 will be more felt. Other stuff: Sevika will be with Jinx throughout season 2. Up until episode 6 she'll help her with her plans to “kill the rest of her family” and afterwards she'll accompany her hero arc. But I need to emphasize - we won't have a lot of screen time with Jinx in season 2 (just like in season 1). We'll have a few scenes of her teaming up with Sevika, eluding Vi, (maybe meeting with Caitlyn? And other members of the strike team) meeting with Ekko, but not a lot. I really want to further explore the things about the consequences of hextech, to the point of maybe we'll see less use of hextech, or maybe a new generation of hextech. Maybe part of Jayce’s arc at the end of the show would be about what he promised to do - to use hextech to fix the undercity. Maybe that's what will stop the peace attempts with Sevika, as he'll be more focused on Victor. Himerdinger, Jayce, Victor, Embessa and Jinx (presumably) will all still die. (I don't know about Lorris) The last episode will still be the same as the current last episode, but if will be longer (it's customary for last episodes to be longer) as we'll see more of the aftermath, we'll see the firelights with Scar and Ekko, we'll see that Caitlyn is now a sheriff, we'll she more of the council, maybe a scene of them addressing something with Zaun, we'll get a scene of Mel leaving Piltover, and we'll take time for characters to recognise the deaths of characters. And maybe, maybe! We'll get hints that Warwick survived.;) So yeah that's my semi general semi specific idea. Of course there's a lot of things to tidy up and holes to fill in, but I think it's a better template for what I truly believe was the greatest of arcane season 2. I truly believe it was good, genius, felt, and with good directions. I just think it didn't feel like it earned a lot of its moments, including the ending, because we didn't get enough time exploring the ideas that were presented. This is my attempt to fix that.
Dude that Ekko scene when he danced with powder made me feel emotions I haven’t felt ever truly a masterpiece of a scene
Like what? Love?😂
@@orbboom6119 something you clearly have no idea what it is.
Felt some real love there, and it was made even better considering ekko is my favorite character. Their bond in this episode really hit me harder than any other pairing in the show. Shit man I’m still obsessin over em
I really wish we saw more Ekko this season
Md pfp ‼️‼️‼️
“Arcane has consumed my life for the past 3 years.”
He’s just like me fr
Genuinely
This happened to me too.
Better late than never. I started watching last weekend and REGRET not doing so sooner, but I enjoyed watching the entire show from beginning to end.
I watched it and I regret nothing.
@@SecretMagician I started from season 1 last weekend and binged the whole show, but I don't regret not doing it sooner because A) I didnt have to wait for season 2, and B) I had all these analysis videos I could immediately watch
With Arcane, The Wild Robot, Transformers One, Look Back, Inside Out 2, Ultraman Rising, Smiling Friends and X-Men 97, animation has been on a generational run this year
True, I like how 2024 started rough, though the last 4-3 months were peak
Until Disney cancelled Moon Girl
it's awesome. so many new ideas and shows. still hoping for a Transformers Two.
THE WILD ROBOT HAS A MOVIE ADAPTATION?????? THOSE BOOKS WERE MY CHILDHOOD
@@julialungan4722 yeah! it came out back in September apparently.
The scene with Ekko and Powder dancing is such a perfectly crafted "never want this moment to end" scene that it almost feels dangerous and irresponsible to produce. My heart aches every time that french hip-hop beat echos in my head.
same and even though the emotions in this moment are real, AU Powder is a lie and her whole world an illusion.
I watched the finale in a call with four of my friends. I got into the show just as season 2 was dropping after three years of sitting around postponing it and I’m so glad I didn’t wait longer. Once in a lifetime experience watching something so incredible and artistic.
I was the same (I'm an absolutely crazy procrastinatinator), so glad I caught the second season as it came out.
Same here, I just caught up with everything a day before act 3 of Season 2 released
Blew me away, what an incredible show
Same. I watched the entire show the week before season 2 Act 3, and was completely hooked. It’s been a long time since a piece of media made me cry, but this show did it several times. It’s become probably my favorite show ever
Same here, I started watching when S2 Act 1 dropped. My favorite show to date. Glad I was able to witness the last acts with everyone else, truly a once in a lifetime experience.
I think the reason Sky’s death was underplayed was because viktor didn’t have any strong feelings for her. It plays into Viktors psyche. He didn’t have the same feelings for her but he cared about everyone and didn’t want to bring harm. That’s why he spent most of season 2 with her, to make amends for killing her. Despite him feeling bad about killing her she wasn’t as important as others like Jace.
this is how i see it too. he didn't really have any kind of bond with her, but when he was responsible for her death (especially after reading her letter) he was consumed by guilt and that's why he kept her "spirit" around. the "no, you won't" moment pretty much solidified that imo.
FINALLY SOMEONE GETS ITTT MARRY ME PLEASE
I haven't loved an animated show this much with Arcane since Attack on Titan. Masterpiece.
My brother was a diehard fan of that one
same but naruto and bojack horseman
@@AdaminTranzit Naruto is actually my favorite anime. It means a lot to me.
@@manuelinacio4038 same, especially since i got a comfort character I heavily relate to (if not identify as) can you quess?? xDDD
Attack on Titan was fantastic, but Cowboy Bebop and Dandadan are two of my favorite anime.
Arcane is just phenomenal. Season 2 was amazing, not quite the perfect masterpiece season 1 was, but still just beautiful. I genuinely cried when Vi desperately reached for Vander in the finale. At the end of the day, Vi and Jinx are two traumatized kids forced to grow up too fast and had to watch the ones they love ripped away from them.
Season 1 is actually perfect. There are literally no faults and the characters, the story, the complexity, is beyond anything else coming out today. Silco soon became my favorite character because of how complex of a villain he is.
Jinx’s end in the finale was depressing but satisfying for her arc. I believe people who say she’s alive. I think she finally accepted who she was and knew Silco was right. She had to walk away. She truly is a Jinx and she knows she is too mentally far gone to maintain any relationships without something awful happening. Piltover/Zaun is a reminder of everything and everyone she lost. And she finally wants to let Vi move on and be happy. It would be too hard for her to be torn between Jinx and Caitlyn. Isha was the final straw that really forced Jinx to grow into her adult self as she was always a kid at heart.
Episode 7 with Ekko and Powder was beautiful yet heartbreaking. Genuinely my favorite episode of the season. It really hit Ekko hard to know Jinx wasn’t a monster. She had just gone through so, so much trauma it destroyed her. It’s insane for us to know that the perceived abandonment from Vi hurt Powder on an unimaginable level.
AHHH amazing show I can’t believe it’s over. I really hope this a turning point for media and we’ll see art and passion return to shows/movies.
Jinx is probably alive
If you think S1 is better than S2 then you are blind.
@@thatgermanview5721100. Season 1 was amazing but 2 WAS EVEN BETTER
Vi didn’t abandon Powder(not intentionally though) but i love your analysis 😔
@@Cocobeans-xo That’s why I said “perceived” abandonment. Perceived means Jinx thought she abandoned her even though she didn’t.
Hope this version of the video does better in the algorithm this time, always youtube fucking up something man lmao.
Anyways the description is so damn real, I thought about Arcane a LOT over the past 3 years, I really hoped it would last for like 5 seasons, one cus after watching S2 it feels like it really easily could've, and 2 because I would've been totally fine obsessing over it for another 10 years 💀
There will be more. I dont know how people dont see how much was teased in Season 2
You know a show is peak when one of the few critiques is that it'll benefit with more episodes
I think it’s a fine line, and personally I’d rather have it be too fast than drag on. The rewatchability of arcane is very high
tbf that is a major criticism that it was rushed, doesnt make the show bad though
When animation is treated with respect, you get Arcane, Hilda, and the Spiderverse dulogy.
When animation is treated with disrespect, you get Spongebob seasons 6-8, Big Mouth and Boss Baby.
Boss baby (the first movie) had an amazing animation style!!! The second movie was shit and the series even worse. But the first one?? I might even say it revolutionized the way babies are animated now, all squishy with a visible "weight" to them. I haven't seen such realistically animated babies since Disney's renaissance
oh the spidervese animators weren't treated with any type of respect though..
I got pretty much everything i wanted from S2. yeah, the pacing was fast and each episode needed an additional 10-15 minutes but the story and all plotlines are pretty clear. the ending worked well for all characters too imo.
I think it's pretty obvious Jinx is alive based on all the hints and I see no reason to not believe Viktor and Jayce are together in some magic/cosmic realm considering arcane and that rune with multidimensional qualities. Heimerdinger is a question but he's a yordle so idk. It feels like the creators left some things ambiguous to bring certain characters back in the future shows if they want to (even as cameo only). I also fully expect Black rose/Mel's plotline to be continued in the show about Noxus.
my personal favorite plotline was Viktor and Jayce's one. it's just so beautifully executed with such a satisfying resolution. the cosmic soulmate bond across all universes which became so essential on such a scale. their last scenes were just pure art.
Agreed, I thought it was too fast originally but after watching s1 again I’m changing my mind. They did so much setup. There’s really only a couple of scenes I might add but overall, best show in years
Apparently, each episode was supposed to be around 1 hr 40 mins long, but Netflix forced them to cut them short.
you would be surprised to know that MOST viewers missed her being alive entirely...
Lmao, it was very bad and you can't convince me otherwise.
Maddie is such a hilarious character. She shows up, sleeps with Cait, and then just disappears for the majority of the show, is revealed to be a traitor in the finale, dies, and then no one acknowledges her. Even during the CaitVi scene, they just brush her off.
Completely unnecessary in the grand scheme of things
thats what happens when its rushed out now tbf had it been 3 seasons its possible it would have been dragged out so its a gamble
Real fans know this was a re-upload.
Yep was confused there for a moment
Yep. I knew it at the moment it dropped...
I saw it thought it was new then realized it was the same one
Yep!
yep yep
I’m honestly not surprised that Arcane is the masterpiece it is. Riot has always been amazing at cinematic projects, even their music videos are a marvel to watch. If only that applied to League-
True true. Even the old cinematic videos are really good. I think the only other cinematic videos as good as these are the ones from Blizzard on WoW and SC
I think the credit has to go to Fortiche. The Studio that gives soul to that serie.
I hope they make more of these types of shows, like Arcane’s animation looks great.
takes several years for the animation alone but its the story and characters that keep you watching if that fucks up then all that time will be for nothing
the entirety of watching season 2 i was thinking "theres no way they top this scene it looks way too good" then they show me the coolest thing iv ever seen less than a min later
I will forever argue that if season 2 just had 10-20 more minutes per episode it would've about as close to perfect as you can get
yeah i think the last two episodes should’ve been over 1 hour
Was so confused about what happened about the original video. Until I saw your tweet.
Glad it seems like the video is doing well than before. I guess the algorithm was messed up yesterday
After everything, Singed got to settle down with his daughter after committing countless war crimes and making everyone’s lives worse 😂
I absolutely love Arcane, and I think this video goes a great job at explaining why. The one place I disagree is that I believe the music video segments in season 2 are even better than season 1. Because the show has limited time, they're able to convey the emotions out main characters are feeling, the status of both sides of the city, and set up plot points all at once.
I think season 2 maybe had too much of them (I think season 1 had less but I might be wrong it's been a while) that being said, those from the third acts are all fantastic. Best in the serie by far.
same! those are my absolute favorite scenes!
Even the show runner said the first draft of the finale was over an hour and they were forced to prune it pretty aggressively.
Still, given the limitations I think they landed it as best as possible
Fun fact, Jinx is still alive, a pink streak is seen escaping the explosion
And Catlin looking at the vents
And the final shot of Season 2 is of an airship, which Powder wanted to ride in as a kid.
I honestly can't believe I missed those little details. Granted, I was suffering from post finale PTSD, but still...
And it says The End in her writing!
i knew she was alive as well as heimerdinger because they are playable characters, heimdingers made me most shocked as it made me question whether he was playable or not
I broke down just by getting reminded of this show, it’s so good and sad 😭😭😭
Arcane is the only show I can think of that actually would have benefited from filler. A filler episode about the bond between Heimerdinger and Ekko or an episode dedicated to the reunion or Jinx, Vi, and Vander would have been great.
That's my thoughts on Season 2. I know some people would have wanted the plots of Season 2 (Piltover vs. Zaun, and Messiah Viktor and Ambessa) to be split into two seasons, but this just needed better streamlining that could have been done with one extra episode.
I'm so much agree with the fact that season 2 need more time and actually the final episode were normally way longer than it is, they just had no time to finish like they wanted. But i personaly think that the music scenes of season 2 are incredible for showing us what's happening without telling it. Geat video and sorry if my english is bad i'm french x)
Yeah I do agree, i noticed since act 2 how really fast paced it was, its amazing but jesus its speed
I put Arcane right up there with Gravity Falls and Avatar as one of the absolute best cartoon shows ever made.
I put it right up there with Gravity Falls, Avatar, The Owl House and Adventure Time
cmon putting gravity falls in teh same league as avatar and and arcane is alittle generous. Like I love gravity falls but the story it tells doens't have teh weight that arcane have and even atla is a step below that.
@@aminyapussi4740 while I understand your sentiment, I don’t necessarily agree that a story has to be weighty in order for it to be a great narrative. There are a multitude of ways to tell a good story, and not all of them need the weight that arcane has. Simplicity can be a powerful tool as well sometimes. But we can agree to disagree.
I can see where the criticisms of the second season being rushed, I wouldn’t complain if there was at least another season before the show ended.
However, I don’t regret watching as each act came out and seeing the community’s reaction to the episodes, especially the parts with Jinx, Ekko Vi and Jayce.
Arcane-both season 1 and 2-is an absolute masterpiece. Definitely in my top ten shows of all time, maybe top 5
It's honestly crazy how amazing Arcane is. You'd think a show based on such a memed and disgraced game wouldn't be any good, but it absolutely blows you away with it's phenomenal writing, pacing and animation. It proves itself as one the best animated shows, hell one of the best animated pieces of media in general, in the past decade. I came to the show late (I'm a crazy procrastinatinator), but I'm so glad I was able to catch this show and have the lightning in a bottle experience that was waiting for and watching the conclusion. So glad this show exists, I absolutely adore it. Can't wait to see what else is done with this exciting world.
Whoa, who said the game is a disgrace?
@olleselin By disgraced I meant so many people clown on it, not that people consider it a disgrace.
League of Legends is very irritating but league lore world building animation and music has always been on point. So I get why arcane was so amazing Riot for their faults does so many things well. Team fight tactics is very fun and even legends of Runterra has no right being as good as it is. Like go check out some of riots other cinematics they all are extremely high quality some id recommend are Warrior, Still Here, Kin of the stained blade, Awaken.
I didn't mind waiting 2 to 3 years for Season 2. If that is what we got, I say more shows should do that instead of waiting 1 year as fast as possible ❤
Honestly it says a lot about the current industry. They just don't make good shows like that we tend just to see the safer option of making sequels to existing Ip's.
27:54 [ AND EVERYONE CHEERED ]
This is totally the best adaptation that outshines the source material since GoT. Truly a one of a kind thing! I especially adore the artstyle of Arcane
Arcane blows GoT out of the water
@@seankent7282 game of thrones peak even arcane cant match now tbf its like 80% there, aracne IS the better adpatation ssince it became the official canon or something meanwhile the show never really beat the books and from 5 onwards especially changed from the books which is why you have euron greyjoy in the show being shite compared to him in the books
League world building and lore has always been fantastic
Another tv show that was perfect in only 2 seasons
I totally agree with the pacing issues in season 2. I think that’s why me and so many others love Episode 7 as much as we do. Episode 7 felt like the best paced episode of the second season to me. It felt like a season one episode in many ways. It allowed the scenes to have the time needed to breathe without breaking out into a music video every 5 minutes, and when they finally do break out into a music video it’s the most earned moment of the entire season to me. Wonderful show, easily the best show to come out in a long time to me
I love Episode 7, especially the Ekko-Powder-Heimrdinger plot. But I also thinks the contrast in peace and relaxation of the alternate universe compared to the rushing chaos and destruction makes it all the greater. The original timeline is set after a terrorist attack by Jinx followed by the green lady just when they were mourning the deaths of their councilors. Then you have mass riots as Cait and Vi DESPERATELY try to catch Jinx.
The fact the rest of the show is so rushing is a perfect fit for how the characters would feel. The scenes in Episode 7 and in Viktor's sanctuary are the only scenes where characters get to truly breathe out and relax. At all other times the world is rushing around them, war, revolution and terrorism are on the horizon and the characters are thrown into it.
Ekko is really the only character who gets a in the story. All the others are in near constant turmoil.
I think Vi was done really dirty by Season 2. She feels like a background character for everyone else’s stories. She did exactly one thing with any impact on the plot, convincing Caitlyn to turn on Ambessa, and even that scene should have had way more time to be convincing.
Honestly I see it as the show just becoming bigger than vi. It kinda reminds me of mcu with the multiverse. The original characters were seen as some of the strongest characters in the movies but with the multiverse it kinda just threw them to the side.
@@Kyjack1556 there comes a day where you encounter problems no longer solvable with HULK SMASH (and in fact, make the problem worse… like hitting Powder and calling her Jinx after the monkey bomb accident)
I kinda agree that Vi's story is one of the weaker ones of the bunch, especially considering she's like the main character of season 1, but I disagree that she isn't important to the plot. You can't write episode 3, 5, 6, 8, or 9 without her in it. I'd say Cait and Jinx are in the spotlight for alot of the season, and those character's arcs are tied directly to Vi. Plus, there's nothing wrong with not having the spotlight or taking a more "supportive" role in the story. Mel in season 1 does very little besides tell Jayce to do stuff and be related to someone else, and she's great; Ekko has like 2 episodes and a couple scenes worth of screentime, and he's fantastic.
@@Kyjack1556that's a really good point. The scale of the story just began to outpace her. She's just a girl who wants to protect her family, not deal with interdimensional magic, empires invading and time travel
This video…completely sums up my thoughts about the show as a whole. Season 1 being a masterpiece and season 2 also being a masterpiece, but flawed with bad pacing. If only we had like two more episodes. Or even a few more minutes in each episode. Then this show would be the peakest of peak fiction.
I have watched a few vids critiquing Season 2, but I liked it just as much as Season 1. I never thought the pacing was off, as I have heard many complain and all the characters still made perfectly reasonable decisions. With reasonable, I don't necessarily mean best, or logically reasonable, but rather they make sense with the characters and emotion. The tension between Vi and Cait in the first act was wonderful, as they clearly had too much going on in their heads and were lashing out and blaming each other. I think the "rushed feeling" of their relationship is exactly that. They don't have time to grieve for their loses and are under extreme stress. Cait thrust into the position of her mother after a devastating loss and Vi just failed to get her sister back and saw the destruction she can bring. They are completely emotionally overloaded and in over their heads, but the world around them doesn't slow. I think I was in Cait's shoes, I'd feel just as overwhelmed as the show conveys. So much going on and happening with little time for breaks and time to juts process your emotions.
Jinx and Vi with Vander in act 2 were also amazing. Some may say the Vander arc felt rushed, but I think if it were longer and Vander was "back" for a long enough time to truly talk with Vi and Jinx it would make his season 1 death less impactful and give Jinx and Vi too much time to reconciliate and mentally stabilise and reset. Jinx blamed herself for what happened to Vander and her family. When she sees Vander in the beast, she is shown a glimpse of the man that was her father. He was the cornerstone of their life and if he was back, all would be good with both her and Vi, at least in her mind. She is clearly desperate for this, which is why she seek out Vi, as she probably imagines bringing Vander back together with her will undo the rift between them and mend the scars. The fact they got their father "back" only for him to be torn away and Jinx also losing Isha, sending her into depression was wonderfully done. A glimpse of hope, of peace in Viktor's sanctuary, shattered by Jayce and the Noxians. Tearing their father away again and throwing them back into the lives they had just escaped. With all the misery and conflict and loss.
Episode 7 is an absolute banger imo. No words (or rather if I get started, way too many).
Episode 8, exploring the aftermath of Jayce actions, the battle and how Cait, Vi and Jinx deal with the loss fits well imo. Even the talk between Ekko and Jinx at the beginning of Episode 9 works perfectly in my eyes. Jinx is extremely unstable mentally and, from my experience, when someone is that unstable it doesn't always take much for them to 180° mentally. So I think its reasonable that an old friend turned enemy suddenly turning up and "forgiving" you for your past mistakes would shake her up and potentially out of her suicidal trance. I think on one hand she realises that Ekko might be tampering somehow with reality, as he starts smoking, bleeding, seems to have burns and is carrying a Hextech device. He also refers to her as an old friend.
Lastly, when he talks to her it's like this "I learned from someone special. That no matter what happened in the past, it's never too late to build something new. [Cut from Jinx face looking at Ekko's Z-drive to the Z-drive that contains monkey used by Powder/Jinx and then to Ekko also looking at them, basically acknowledging what she is looking at] .... Someone worth building it for." In my eyes that clearly communicates to Jinx that she is the special someone or at the very least the "someone worth building it for". If I was in her position, that would definitely get me rattled.
As for the final fight including Viktor and Jayce I also really enjoyed this. Sure, Viktor's power and the Arcane are not entirely explained, but if it were, it would be boring, at least imo. The mystery to how exactly it works is intriguing and in my eyes, the point was not Viktor's power, no whether he could turn everything into one soulless expanse, but whether he should. If we can accept that Vander can be turned into Warwick, Viktor can create these evolved robots or creature using the anomaly, without any in depth explanation, to me it is also fine that he can "undo"what he has previously wrought.
Thanks for reading my essay.
I still cant believe the only character that got what he wanted without buts and ifs is singed the war criminal
I didn't finish Arcane. Arcane finished me.
This is easily the best review of arcane season 2. Giving it the respect it deserves while respecting giving constructive criticism to it. A lot of ppl will see reviewers and think the season is like a 7/10 cuz they bash it for most of their review lol.
Cartoonshi's outro song has grows on me everytime i hear it i am getting scared
arcane is the best show I've seen in the past 5 years!
Great Video !
I read somewhere that apparently in an interview with sb from Riot it was said that the episodes of season 2 (at least all the ones from act 3) were supposed to be around 1 hours and 30 minutes each, but they were denied by Netflix. That explains the rushed feeling I got in this season at many points and I will never understand why these polishers can't just let the creators do their thing and let greatness shine.
(Spoilers for Season 2) I was rewatching the whole show and realized that Mel’s back was glowing gold, which I found as a weird choice the first watch through but rewatching after they explained she shielded her and Jayce since she’s a mage it just shows the attention to detail and the fact that they had foreshadowed it from there was great!
i binged it and ended up sobbing
it made me feel alive yet broke so many emotional blocks
it was borderline masochism to let that shit flow
Not sure if you’ve seen the people mentioning how jinx is alive. The end credit scene with cait looking at the map of the tower while holding a piece of jinx’s grenade. Also the airship at the end. They really set this up for a spin off series or 200
I want to mention that the Studio that draw Arcane deserves recognition. Fortiche has given soul to Arcane. I m not sure if i will get the same feeling about the serie if the it was produced by the like of Disney or Pixar.
definitely agree that S2 could have used 1-2 more episodes to really give everything more breathing room and to wrap up all the different plot points much better
Arcane consumed me after I watched it and would not let me go for months. Even now after Season Two the brainrot continues to strangle my focus and productivity in everything else.
I am in general agreement that Season Two principly suffered from the problem of being a bit overstuffed. Despite that it was a fantastic season worthy of of the highest praise.
What I found remarkable about Arcane is how efficient, concise yet effective its storytelling is. Every scene adds to the story and is connected to the central themes and threads. Via microexpressions, short but sharp dialogue, music and cinematic framing it tells what it needs the audience to know in a few seconds. It never has to use more scenes to explain and flesh out every little thing cause that is not what the story needs.
It is lean yet full and powerful.
Yet considering how much more dense Season Two is with how many themes, plots and arcs it had to carry over and wrap up from S1 and what was introduced, it was inevitable they had to lean very hard into the efficiency of editing and storytelling in order to wrap things up in nine episodes.
It needed at 2 - 3 more episodes total. In order to give the plot and arcs time to breathe. To allow us watchers to digest such powerful stuff, to at least better explore some of the subplots and themes like Zaun's failed uprisings and Pitfighter Vi or Dictator Cait's struggles. Ultimately I feel this season was a tad overstuffed without the runtime to accommodate it. It left it feeling more plot-driven as a result even when the characters are the ones driving things. The scope and focus for Season One worked perfectly with the 9 episode and three act structure, Season Two should have been a bit bigger to accommodate the greater scope and stakes involved. Let things be as big as the story requires, within reason of course.
Ultimately however given their self-imposed limit of keeping this show within a two seasons of eighteen episode, they did a masterful job.
This is one of my favorite videos of yours that you’ve made so far and i would love to hear your expanded thoughts on Arcane in particular. i can’t wait to see what you’ll make in the future.
did the last video get Thanos snapped by RUclips or something? 😭😭
I don't think Maddie's turn is out of nowhere at all. We see her spying on Cait/Vi in episode 8. She's the first of the Enforcers to start beating her chest in episode 3. She also introduces herself to Vi as "junior officer", likely meaning she's fairly knew to the force. She was an Ambessa plant from the start.
Plus Ambessa says to Vi "You captured Caitlyn's heart and left a vacuum. I was able to fill that vacuum" SHE LITERALLY SAYS IT
Pixar: look at these beautiful lights.
Arcane: how about you look at this Glorious God.
(Also this show is peak).
real og's know that this is a reupload
Honestly, thank you for making this. It gave me a greater appreciation for season 2 than I already had, and also helped me process the more conflicting parts of it. I ADORE what you said about how Jinx is basically dead inside and how Isha gives her life again. I was surprised with how blatantly they portrayed her suicide ideation which later went into outright attempts, but it really hit me.
arcane is the peak 🧐
Thanks for a great video. Yes, I agree that season 2 feels to crammed and some of the most epic moments like Maddie's betrayal felt very small for how much impact they could have made if gotten more time to build up.
Still the last episode managed to feel more epic in 40 minutes than the entire last season of GoT (Not mention all its other multitude of failures) did in 6 hours.
Totally agree with this
Ekko has always been my favorite League character as someone who doesn't play League and although only a side character I am so glad how much love they put into him. LIKE THAT FINAL ACTION SCENE OH MY GOD THAT'S MY GOAT THAT'S MY GOAT RIGH THERE.
0:36 that’s not about being impressive that’s a Cannon event Cartoonshi
At some point in everyone’s life you realize Shadow the hedgehog Is awesome.
Everybody fell in love with arcane
arcane is genuine perfection
Masterpiece of a show
they really knew how to hurt us. they gave us a glimpse into a perfect world, we along with Ekko got to see things be better, we got to see things that were perfect. they gave us the perfect, and I mean perfect "what could have been and what will not be" episode. that dance with Eko and Powder... god that hurt. seeing them actually be happy together, seeing them in a world where neither experienced the hurt they did in the main world, it was beautiful. and they took it away, they needed to take it but it didn't hurt any less. this show was a masterpiece
Well said man, I’ve never played the game but watched the show and I love it
i decided to finally watch it on a whim last week after discovering that an artist i really like had a song in season 2. i watched the entire first season in one night, binged the rest the following day. it's been all i can think about for about a week straight. season 2 has it's flaws but even those couldn't bring down it's overall ranking for me. hell, i'm trying to get my own mother to watch it.
No-one expects the inqu... black rose.
Honestly I’m impressed that Arcane is capable of getting me engaged and interested in the lore of League of Legends, a series I was never interested in.🐱
I like that you had scenes from Stien's Gate in there when talking about how rare exceptional shows come along. That was a good one.
Yes! I’m happy someone talked about the pacing? I wish that season 2 was just slightly longer
Act 3 made Act 2 better. You can see why the story had to be told in this order, especially the story of Jayce. Also Mel becomes relevant, at the right time for the story. Yes, her liberation from those magical bonds is kind of deus ex machina, but the point of the story is her conflict with her mother. And of course ep7 is necessary for Ekko, to be able to crucially change the outcome. Even More mentally than technologically.
i just realized is your censor guitar sting buddy holly
I was locked in to the finale, I didn't find it rushed.
Alright this already looks good so i'm gonna watch this later and watch arcane first.
arcane more like arcade
Ha ha ha
wow, so funny :[
I find it funny the biggest issue everyone has with Arcane is that there's not enough of it and we need more. That should be a clear sign the show is goated.
I think season 1 is a masterpiece, but season 2 stumbled the ball around act 2 as I agree that they felt rushed and could use 3 more episodes to fix the pacing. I fell the final battle was over stuffed and we didn't have the character interaction to the degree where use to, in order to ground/invest us. I mean the gaurd who looks like Vander felt like it had a lot of unused scene to make vi/the audience care for him. Not to mention that some long running side characters got shafted like Sevika who didn't even get a line in the last episode despite being their since the start of zhan vs Piltover plot that drove most of the story.
How didn’t this show up in my feed was this suppressed or something I love Cartoonshi and Arcane how wasn’t this recommended
I think another great animated series on Netflix is "Love + Death + Robots"
LD&R has some hits and misses, but when one of their shorts is good, it's *_REALLY_* good. Still waiting for the next volume of shorts.
Honestly despite Netflix being.. well Netflix.. The animations that they make are pretty good quality. Like Arcane is peak, Cyberpunk is peak, Castlevania is peak, LD&R is pretty good, so yeah, in the animation department they do quite a good job.
@@kalmansandor572 Don't forget BoJack Horseman and Blue Eye Samurai.
I watched S2 in one day. It was very good. But it was also a lot. Like after finishing it I had to just sit and think. There were some parts that I just “missed” because so many things were happening at the same time. Like the whole “happy family” part with Jinx, Vi, WW, and Isha. It happened in the middle of a lot of other stuff and it ended so fast that I didn’t even have time to fully realize what was happening. Therefore at that time, that scene wasn’t as impactful. Now as I had more time to think about it I appreciate it a lot more.
This is why for me s2e7 is really peak. It is a bit slower paced and has more or less a concrete focus on Ekko/Jinx and Jayce and it is not bouncing between 10 characters each minute.
But yeah these are some small complaints, other than that absolute cinema.
I love Arcane, and am so happy you did too!
The only thing I really needed in addition to what was there was a 10 minute sequence of Ekko pulling Jinx out of her depression, the rallying of Zaun and the launching of the airship.
I don’t care what anyone says Jinx isn’t dead, she escaped through an air vent
Agree with you on everything tbh
I never get your videos recommended to me anymore.. AND i have the bell notifs on
Seeing cartoonshi being so positive has the same chances of my father coming back with the milk
I initially didn’t really like the ending, but upon rewatch it’s much better
Tbh I think if we just had a bit more of Sevika and Zaun it would’ve been peak
I think people miss 1 thing about Heimerdinger's sacrifice. He waited 3 years in this universe waiting for Ekko. And while being there he took to heart every moment he had with Ekko previously and, at least, helped to shape this reality. So for him those 3 years were spent with the lessons that he learned from Ekko, thus making his sacrifice logical in his eyes. Though I would have loved couple of more scenes between then.
Great video
The only bad thing about Arcane is how they going to retcon some of the characters featured in mainline LOL, like jinx for example to be where they are at the end of the show. Like how they handled Deadshot in Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.
That’s not really Arcane’s fault, Riot is just being stupid by trying to integrate it with League canon
The age old Hollywood troop must apply, unless you see a body the character is not dead Heimerdinger and Jinx is not dead unlike Ambessa
i wish i could erase every moment from this show from my memory so i could experience it for the first time again. thanks for your thoughts.
Arcane gives me motivation to draw more and more and more, to keep doing animation as my career bc this show is a love letter to art itself
Originally, Act 1 *was* an entire season. They wrote it, they animated it, looked at the result. And decided that while it was good, it wasn't good enough. So they started over, completely rethought season 1, turned it into just the first act, and ended up creating a masterpiece. That's one of the reasons it took 6 years, and I'm so happy they did. Because it's perfect.
I think arcane should have had another season. So, here's my skit for how it would've looked: (warning: ‘tis long)
The end of the season 2 would be when Embessa makes Caitlyn a dictator, Vi and Jinx teaming up to go after Vander, and Mel being kidnapped somewhere at episodes 8-9.
The end of episode 6 will be pretty much the same as the end of the current episode 3, with the epic fight and the anomaly.
Arcs:
Mel throughout the season tries to hold off the production of hextech weapons, combating her mother on the political front while trying to uncover her family's secrets.
Until episode 6, Vi will try to protect both Jinx and Caitlyn until she's left with no one to protect. Then, she'll start her arc for her understanding she also needs to look out for herself. That arc would accompany her spiral, which will take place in the third act.
We'll further explore how Ekko can't see the reality for more of what it is, with interaction of Vi and her strike team. In episode 6 he and Himerdinger will go to Jayce and to the hexgates.
Jayce will grapple with the concept that the Arcane has a destructive nature. He’ll interact with Embessa a lot, as he'll fall more and more towards the production of weapons, until in episode 6 he disappears.
Embessa will precue Salo, Caitlyn and Jayce. At the last act Embessa will need to face the consequences of hextech and how it can be unsafe, and is going to start exploring looking for other weapons.
Singed is going to get kidnapped by the cambarrons. Yep. They'd need him for shimmer manufacturing, which will make him a target for Caitlyn’s strike team, which will set Warwick loose in the undercity.
Jinx's arc is the same as act 1 of season 2 in episodes 1 to 6. Then, after separating from Vi and being more with Isha, her hero part of her arc is going to appear, which will take form in the menace which is Warwick harming Zaun. She’ll eventually fight him, knowing he exists previously, to save people from the undercity, but only because Isha’s there and she's trying to save her, just like in episode 4 of season 2. Then she'll find out that Warwick is Vander, which will cause her to come to Vi at the end of the season.
We'll see more of Victor, even though I'm not sure what can fill the fart of his arc between his appearances in episode 2 and episode 6. I think it's important to see how he develops his community but that's a part I can't really figure out because in this part of his arc he's really isolated, and I don't want this to be a documentary about Jesus.
I have a tough time understanding what was Himerdinger’s arc in season 2, because he seems pretty complete, but maybe we'll see Himerdinger as a firelight more actively trying to help people. Maybe he'll meet with Victor in his ventures as a firelight in the undercity.
How will season 3 basically go:
Along with necessary changes, the ending of the show will be pretty much the same.
The first act of season 3 will be about catching up with everyone - first will Caitlyn, Embessa and Sevika in the war effort, then with Mel at her captors and with Jinx Vi and Isha as they look for Vander end reconcile, and then with Jayce, who will appear back at the end of the first arc to kill Salo. 4 will be the infamous episode 7 of season 2, and will be pretty much the same.
We'll explore a lot more the war through Sevika (and a little bit with what's left of the cambarrons) as she's trying to unite Zaun, and ally with the firelights. When Ekko comes back (still not certain when) before he’ll help Jinx, he'll first meet Sevika, and they'll do kind of a team up like Vi and Caitlyn did in season 1. When Ekko helps Jinx he'll already do it with the entirety of Zaun behind him.
The major turn point of Jayce shooting Victor will still happen at episode 6, but we'll have 3 episodes instead of 2 to wrap up the series.
War - for a war there need to be objectives. While Sevika’s objective is a united Zaun, and maybe independence, I don't think it'll work out. I think somewhere at act two Sevika will abandon that idea, because the people who now “follow her”, the firelights, the Jinxers, and united Zaun she worked for - they don't all want independence, and also because it wouldn't seem realistic. I think an interesting thing for her will be to connect to that bold councillor who I can never remember her name, and together they would start working towards a diplomatic way to end the war, with Zaun getting a seat (maybe two so Ekko or Scar?:-)) in the council, because considering what I've said about objectives, what's Piltovetr’s objective in this war? They wanna find Jinx but she hasn't been seen for months nor is she causing problems for Piltover, shimmer is already dismantled, and the cambarrons are mostly defeated. Sure, there are still insurgents, more than before, but that's a product of the war, not an end goal to end insurgency. Embessa out there looking for other weapons after she's given up on hextech. Considering all of this I wrote in this war paragraph, I think it'll explain how the war fades out, thanks to the efforts of Sevika and - is her name Shilla?
The Zaunites won't join the final fight immediately, but with Jinx and Ekko, because of something in the third arc that will be a bump in that peace process, but that's the general idea.
I think also another thing is that we could see more of Vander, and how he's affected and affects Victor.
As for Caitlyn, as she's already met Singed in season two in her strike team days, when Embessa teams up with Singed… Actually now when I think about it, I don't really know how Embessa will meet Singed. She'll obviously know about Warwick and will try to catch him… Maybe dictator Caitlyn will hear about this monster ramping in the undercity, and will conclude that the war could not end as long as it's alive. She'll know Singed so she and Embessa will go to him demanding to know how to take the beast down, but when Embessa will make Singed her advisor, will Caitlyn already knowing how he is, that he made shimmer and the beast, she'll start to lose trust at Embessa, and after she'll remeet with Vi after almost five episodes, her betrayal will be way more felt.
Side characters:
We'll obviously explore more Maddie, Lorris and Steb at the first two arcs of season 2 with Caitlyn's strike force. We'll really explore Lorris and his connection to Vi in the third act as he tries to support her. As for the bold councillor, we'll get a lot more out of her in season 3, and also a lot more from Salo in season 2. With Smeech down in episode 2, we'll explore more the remaining Cambarrons and how they're dealing with the strike force in Zaun. One of them will kidnap Singed to get more shimmer or stronger shimmer or whatever, and the other will maybe join Sevika? I don't know. Scar will definitely join forces with Sevika at some point, with him practically being the leader of the firelights at act 3 of season 2 and act 1 of season 3. I don't care about Rictus. Elora will help Mel uncover her family's secrets and her death at the end of season 2 will be more felt.
Other stuff:
Sevika will be with Jinx throughout season 2. Up until episode 6 she'll help her with her plans to “kill the rest of her family” and afterwards she'll accompany her hero arc. But I need to emphasize - we won't have a lot of screen time with Jinx in season 2 (just like in season 1). We'll have a few scenes of her teaming up with Sevika, eluding Vi, (maybe meeting with Caitlyn? And other members of the strike team) meeting with Ekko, but not a lot.
I really want to further explore the things about the consequences of hextech, to the point of maybe we'll see less use of hextech, or maybe a new generation of hextech. Maybe part of Jayce’s arc at the end of the show would be about what he promised to do - to use hextech to fix the undercity. Maybe that's what will stop the peace attempts with Sevika, as he'll be more focused on Victor.
Himerdinger, Jayce, Victor, Embessa and Jinx (presumably) will all still die. (I don't know about Lorris) The last episode will still be the same as the current last episode, but if will be longer (it's customary for last episodes to be longer) as we'll see more of the aftermath, we'll see the firelights with Scar and Ekko, we'll see that Caitlyn is now a sheriff, we'll she more of the council, maybe a scene of them addressing something with Zaun, we'll get a scene of Mel leaving Piltover, and we'll take time for characters to recognise the deaths of characters. And maybe, maybe! We'll get hints that Warwick survived.;)
So yeah that's my semi general semi specific idea. Of course there's a lot of things to tidy up and holes to fill in, but I think it's a better template for what I truly believe was the greatest of arcane season 2. I truly believe it was good, genius, felt, and with good directions. I just think it didn't feel like it earned a lot of its moments, including the ending, because we didn't get enough time exploring the ideas that were presented. This is my attempt to fix that.
Lol you're writing is awesome coz the way you set it up, we both said "does" at the same time 1:20