The Most Basic Rule of Worldbuilding is the One NO ONE Knows
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- Опубликовано: 8 июн 2024
- This video is released into the public domain under the CC0 license: creativecommons.org/publicdom...
Music:
Kevin Macleod - Jellyfish in space
Arcane Soundtrack - City of Progress
Kevin Macleod - Sincerely 
Кино
Since I keep getting questions, the map tool is Azgaar. Its a free and open source map generator I use for all my world building. I Highly recommend it.
azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/
They also constantly updating it with new features and have a patreon to support it: www.patreon.com/azgaar
Thank you.
It was the first question that struck me when I saw you using it, went straight to the comment section to ask.
Cheers for pinning the link.
Random question but where did you get the posters in the background from?
for some reason every time I use it I allways read it as "agazar" the first time I read it and then go "no wait, it's azgaar" lmao
Thank you very interesting points and would love other analysis of other arcane videos but here's the biggest question..... WOULD YOU TAKE SHIMMER???....
*Looks around*....hush...*gulps full cylinder& gets inside the turbo chem tank suits INHALES *....
I love how piltover has a steampunk aesthetic, which is associated with wealth and inventions but also hidden corruption and imbalance, zaun is almost more cyberpunk like which is usually associated with rebellion and harsher enviroments, while the ekko's community, around that tree, resembles the solarpunk aesthetic, which is associated with hope and life after apocalyptic and tragic events
Well said, king. 👑
Great observation! It seems inaccurate to define the story solely by steampunk because too many themes are left out that don't fit. Seeing it in juxtaposition to cyberpunk makes more sense. The solar punk is still there (barely), but they set it up to play a larger role in the next season.
Piltover is the city of magic and zaun is the city of gears.
I still think Zaun is steampunk, but I do agree with the suggestion that it’s “more cyberpunk” (but still steampunk) than Piltover
They're both arcanepunk
My favorite detail is that the girl with pink hair that Jinx kills in like episode 4 is shown to be painted in the mural of "people we lost" on the firelight hideout. We don't even know her name but her loss can be felt in other characters
I noticed that too! It's very interesting how they remembered that little detail. To us, it's just a random Firelight member out of the picture, but in the world of the series, it affects characters.
@@iclynnx yeah!!
@Spidercreature Alright, what Gender would someone called "Alex" be?
One does not imply the other. If you can't infer from one, you can infer from another. Unless you get more info, it's useless trying to be correct about everything.
@Spidercreature Alright, I can repeat simpler:
The name has nothing to do with the gender, because naming convention is different everywhere, resulting in one name being used for either gender.
You can't guarantee to know the gender from the name, so making that the requirement is pointless. >_>
@Spidercreature But that's the point. Even if you knew the name, you wouldn't be able to tell their gender. So why not just go with the info you have to refer to a person in a way that ensures that most people will understand?
Clearly, by calling the character a girl with pink hair, everyone immedeatly knows who it's refering to.
If we only allow the use of information about unknown people we know is absolutely correct, we'd refer to everyone the same and end up not knowing who we talk about.
There is simply a need for a bit of free interpretation of a character, especially if their role in a story is too short to even get dialogue...
My favorite "aha connection" was the bugs and the butterfly bombs that was shown initially at the fair. Jinx was always seen as working on them in passing and the bugs were always shown in the background. Then the bridge scene with the bugs that turned out to be the butterfly bombs. Mindblowing
Even better - Caitlyn asks about the bugs in passing and Vi explains that they're called fire lights ... But that she's never seen that many in one location before. This is a hint that something is unnatural and wrong here. And this ties back into what we saw before: Jinx was working on a butterfly styled explosion. Everything about this sets up the eventual conflict on the bridge. It's master class writing and foreshadowing.
There's also the scene with Jinx getting the idea of creating firelight bombs by being inspired by an actual firelight after her encounter with Vi and Caitlyn. Just show how terrifying Jinx's creative skills and tinkering really are.
@Thalassa Oceanphrite When I saw the bridge explosion I thought Jinx was attempting to frame Ekko and the Firelights as the terrorists since that’s what Silco was doing. The way he always says “Jinx will handle it.” I just figured Jinx is intelligent enough to accomplish multiple goals at once, kill a few birds… if you will.
I do love how she adapts and learns and keeps absorbing things she sees and adding it to her own arsenal and skill set.
Some enforcers also got their mind blown.
@@DanteYewToob
She did how ever do something better got the gemstone back.
Willing to die for it.
Arcane is such a masterpiece in many areas from storytelling, animation, and scene composition, but the one thing I'll never get over is how seamlessly it feeds us countless different information about both the top and under city, as well as the League of Legends world in large from a political and economic sense. Its worldbuilding layers are truly next level.
I would not say next level. But it did have time and resources to tell a story.
I would say it was next level because it did have time and resources to tell a next level story.
@@Elidec And that attention to detail is what leads to the massive cliffhanger unfortunately...
Vi and caits relationship in the show wasn’t next level
The only thing I hate about Arcane is how it could potentially ruin other TV shows for me because not a lot can compare to Arcane imo. Is it worth it? Yes.
And, there are so many scenes that happens on bridges.
1. Vi and Powder witnessing the brutality of Enforcers in the opening scene
2. Vi fighting Silco's goons using Vander's gauntlet
3. Vi and Jayce fighting using the Hextech weapons
4. Ekko and Jinx childhood game fight
Those brigdes scenes alone show a "connection" between two places, two sides, two stories.
They really did a good job on making those fight scenes in the bridge. Bridges often represent connection so….
Cant wait for season 2 when Jeff Bridges fights Jeff Bridges on a bridge
And notice that connection is almost always a place of violence
The Genius of Arcane was to look at all of Runeterra and pick out the most interesting and politically charged place of them all to base their story in. A little isolated place big enough to feed us info about the city itself without us feeling like we are missing out on the outside world.
idk, it feels like an almost uninimous opinion I see from league fans that piltover and zaun are one of the less interesting parts of runeterra, if thats to be believed then all these locations are gonna be pretty amazing to base a story in.
@@AshEshyr I never thought Piltover was that interesting until Arcane, but I always loved Zaun!
While I wouldn't call it boring, until arcane there wasn't a very big conflict that impacted the entire region, something you would call the main story of the place. Noxus is in constant war and the power struggle between Swain and the black Rose. Demacia has the mage rebellion. Frejriod (I'll edit the spelling on pc) has the three faction war of Avarosan, Winter's Claw and Frostguard. Shurima has Azir vs Xerath. Ionia has the side of balance, which includes most vastaians as well, and the part that wants to become very militant for the next time Noxus invades. Shadow isles are very different, since a very static place by nature. And finally Targon has a few key players that are aiming to cause change, Aurelion, Aatrox and Atreas. Piltover and Zaun by comparison, while having champions with their iwn unique stories, didn't have something you would call the main show, since the two cities were just uneasy at the current timeline of the lore.
@@AshEshyr Zaun was always an interesting location. Piltover was thought of as boring because it's the least fantastical of them all. Strip away the magic and all you're left with is rich snobs, and we've got plenty of that IRL.
@@AshEshyr Piltover didnt have much attention focused on it until now, zaun had a tiny bit more with ekko's story but it wasnt very fleshed out. I'm convinced it was a deliberate decision from riot since they knew Arcane was coming since a long time (seems like it was a great decision given the hype around Arcane). When you think about it, the other regions didnt have that much lore either a few seasons ago, i think riot kept piltover and zaun away from the flashlight so the series would feel fresh and unique
Their method of storytelling where they add other world elements in casually, I.E. "He's got a taste for fine *Noxian* wine", "My suppliers in *Noxus*" in order to introduce them later, adds so much to the already juicy experience of being able to watch the show without any previous lore knowledge. Almost makes me wish I could temporarily delete Runeterra Lore from my brain to watch Arcane with a fresh perspective.
Yeah i think Noxus might be a more important part in the next season specially with Mel and her family conflict
It flat out makes the show better because then all you have to deal with is keep up with the pace to ignore the consequences after every event cut instead of having the "CEASE RETCONNING THE RETCON OF THE RETCON YOU RETCONED FROM YOUR OWN LORE RIOT" moment every other episode.
I hope they have a season or two fully focusing on Noxus too. There's also Ionia, Freljord, The Shadow Isles, and more! Arcane could go on for 10 fucking seasons.
@@mackielunkey2205 I hope it does!
As someone without LoL knowledge before Arcane, it was a LOT to soak in, and I was sad we didn’t get to explore other areas.
But not on rewatch, and knowing there’s a season two helps a lot.
And I’m glad they didn’t equally focus on other countries; the story was jam-packed already, but only to the point of mastery.
Just to add to the conversation but they already started doing connections to runeterra as a whole in arcane with stuff like Vastayans, the ionian/Shuriman looking passerbys in zaun, kindred masks in the brothel, the musical freljordian play, Targon in Mel's flashback, the fish dude from bilgewater, and noxus being a straight up key plot point etc etc. I feel like that adds to the feel of "global connectiveness" and we could get a pay off if they expand on those things.
Aha, it WAS a Kindred mask! I knew it looked similar but I wasn’t sure.
The guy that was wearing the mask in the brothel looked similar to the guy that was escorting Ambessa Medarda througher her whole trip across Piltover.
Wait, what fish dude ?
@@lordtrollage2819 the butcher
@@lordtrollage2819 i guess Jericho.
I love how the enforcers look completely different in the two places, despite it being the same uniform - just the light and the mask changes everything
Real glad this took off. I love the lore of league and seeing it become a good show without being overstuffed despite having so much to draw on is really amazing.
For me the fact that there's a whole rest of the world outside the Piltover/Zaun hugely adds to immersion. I've always kept a believable models of politics and history in fantasy universes in high regard.
9:50 I'd say to just world build whatever you need. For example, when Mel's mom appear, then you need to worldbuild the mentality of the noxians and their fashion style, the noxian characteristics that are important to the story and the character. But you don't have to start talking about noxus, and how they are an expansionist empire and all that. They don't even mention the immortal bastion, which is a very important element of noxus. They don't mention yordles even though heimmerdinger is a character in the story. They also don't mention the ruination, the void, the rune wars, etc. Because those elements are not important to the story right now. What's important to the story, and therefore explained, is hextech, shimmer, and the diference between piltover and zaun, so that's what needs worldbuilding
thinks its implied shimmer is related to the void
Hell, you will never have everything connected to everything else in a world anyways.
Tbh, as a fan of Arcane with no prior League of Legends knowledge, I'd have appreciated some details about Heimerdinger and his fluffy species. To me, it felt odd that he's such a high ranking member of Piltover and he's not human - and it's completely ignored by the plot. I guess it wasn't necessary to explain how a non human became so relevant to the council, but as a fan, I'd have been interested to hear a bit more about his kind.
@@l.n.3372 I guess the idea here was that people would just accept that there are other species apart from humans, and if you know aboul lol lore it's even easier to forget how unique yordles are.
Then again, as far as I know his species doesn't affect his character at all in arcane, so maybe they just didn't consider it important to explain, like the fish coock
Anyway, glad to see new people enjoying the league of legends world, hope you enjoy it :D
@@Odisher7
Yeah I agree, we've seen enough "weird" non human species in Arcane to simply accept that other species do coexist together in Piltover and Zaun. But tbh, it COULD have been important. Like, say, if Piltover was both classist AND racist, while only Zaun had non human species. But obviously, that's not the case because Heimerdinger is a council member and he's not human.
But look, my sister and I came in with absolutely no background knowledge and we just called Heimerdinger as "Fluffy" for the entire season because we thought he looked adorable. His introduction scene was just too cute.
Thanks! I'm enjoying Arcane so much, that I'm glad that I went in spoiler free with no background knowledge of the world/franchise.
The show also uses the colours of shimmer and hex tech (violet vs blue) to connect to the main conflict between Vi and Jinx (violet vs blue)
Shimmer is more purple tho
@@helloill672 it’s violet, just like Vi. I’ll edit the comment
The reason I love worldbuilding, without talking about the "building" part, is that, it can easily become the modernity in fantasy world.
Like Hextech, it's obviously the kind of transportation technology which can redraw world map in a decade. The way I do magical worldbuilding is, I building the semi-real-history world first, then I put ONE magic into the world, break certain physics limits, then building history after that.
If I put too many physics-breaking magic into a world as complex as Arcane? I can guarantee normal society will not exist more than one century of period. System as complicated as Orientalism, Colonialism, Imperialsim, Neo-liberalism are a large part of our recent history, but if you put something crazy like Hextech or Shimmer onto Earth? You might have to rebuilding entire world like From The New World.
I think the most important part of worldbuilding is the context part, but it's just a more academic way to say that connection is important. And connection is often shown in how people live their life. Most of people won't travel often, so there are certain need to develop recurring locations.
I think LOTR makes most fantasy fans into travel-log fans. That's really a shame, but I think there are more people appreciate single-location-story nowadays, since fantasy have so many different iterations and developments now.
Or you can try to integrate the magic into your universe, his society, and its history. It's harder because you can't copy/paste our world, at least, not as easy. But some people do that really well, like Brandon Sanderson.
Also, other magic exists in Runeterra, as shown in the Jayce flashback. Riot generally did a good job to integrate each one in the society of each region.
The thing I have more difficulty in Runeterra is the disparity between technology. Piltover has guns that are reloaded by the breach and not the barrel. That is the end of XIXe century technologies when the rest of the world use polearm, bows, swords, and, XVIe/XVIIe century like black powder(except if you are Jhin). It's harder to justify, even is not impossible: distance of communication can be a thing, or maybe their metals are so strong that some armors are bullet-proofs. And magic also.
to jump into the reason we've shifted away from world spanning adventures to stories focused more on one or two key locations has to with the convenience of having any character interact with any other as the story requires. LotR can't have sam and frodo interact with anyone else from the fellowship past the first book. By contrast a story set in a city can meet anyone else at any time - to reinforce the thesis of the video, connections and relationships of places, factions and characters are way more obvious when they clash in a limited space.
The reason League has interesting lore is that it was rebooted a few years ago and they got a writer from Warhammer to help pen the new lore
11 years ago?
@@forgiveness7959 around 6 years ago the lore was reboteed
@@michapiasta3072 I knew that part, was just wondering where they got 11 years from if there was something I didn’t know from before my time in season 1. Was a really good change to be honest. Summoner lore wasn’t the easiest to work with if they wanted to take their world-building seriously.
Arcane had a lot to build off of already. The key plot points of Vi, Jinx, and Caitlin were written years ago. They just had to translate that story into a visual medium and spruce it up. They're doing similar things with their game, Ruined King.
Well considering how riot ruined their ruination event so the ruined king game need to fix each part of the ruins right
@@TrapTrax Ruination crawled so Arcane could fly
Too bad Yorick, one of the main dudes who is actively wanting toi fight back against Viego, is not a prominent figure in the ruination event.
@@redhatpat Yeah that was kinda sad for all 9 people who play Yorick.
@@theninjaofmusic My boi Yorick deserves a chance 😢
I think this is why people say "realism" is the foundation of worldbuilding, or that good worldbuilding is built on real world inspiration. It's because real life things have connections we already understand. As you pointed out, we understand that a big mountain behind the city is connected to the city feeling safe and fortified. It's just that connecting things can be done without realism if you put in the effort to forge those other connections.
“This can change everything!”
“Real power!”
Quotes said a LOT in other stories that really just feel empty but seeing the devastating/helpful potential of the item/goal those quotes are tied to does a lot to give the quotes impact. Seeing the city change and now a multi continental instant teleportation system be built and become such an integral part of the city that the idea of it shutting down to protect citizens makes the council go into an uproar, it feels like it has a great impact. Fantastic world building
As you said, connection, for someone who just jumped into League's lore, Arcane works extremely well establishing things important for it's narrative and doing some bits for the whole world, but for a lore fan perspective, the connection is far more immense and deep.
Noxus, akin to the Roman Empire of Arcane's world, is already introduced in a way that make justice to it's importance, we also see people from almost every other nation in here and there, also a freljordian tale being played at the concert, there is just so many many things there it's hard to talk about them all.
I still think the best example of world building I've ever seen was a scene in Attack On Titan, where a few characters are talking as their horses are lowered over the wall by an elevator connected to the rail track at the top of the wall. No special attention was called to this fairly minor detail, and if the characters had just been chatting on their horses outside of the wall, I wouldn't have even wondered how they'd got there. But when I saw it, I had a moment of, "Of course, that'd be the best way to get their horses over the wall". There are plenty of less subtle examples, like characters mentioning meat is a rare treat, but that one always stuck with me.
To me, world building relies on tangibility. Little details that show how life works in that place usually do it for me, or showing how characters respond to specific situations, with your suggestion of connection falling into that as more narrow umbrella. The bridge between Piltover and Zuan is a location, but its also the connection between the 2 cities, and the embargo stresses and changes the location.
But the stress point comes from when it becomes unbelievable for the audience, which is tricky because everyone has their own tolerance for it. Personally, I notice world building in stories that are too excited for me to dig further into their settings, with a rich and detailed history waiting beneath the surface of any given feature. Arcane was smart to only mention Noxus, and completely avoiding the wars being fought across the rest of Runeterra beyond allusions to the Rune Wars by Heimerdinger. Had it spent time trying to explain more about the warmongering of Noxus, or the other regions of Runeteraa, we would've lost time that was spent making Piltover and Zaun feel like places by meeting characters from those settings that were clearly molded by their environments.
Shinzou wo sasageyo my friend
TATAKAE!!!!
Now seriously, once you mentioned it, I think a great way to reinforce the differences between Marley and Paradis would be to have the marleyan generals or the normal soldiers enjoying meat casually; I mean, **SPOILER ALERT FOR ANIME ONLYS** an ice cream is a good way to show the technological gap, but the meat could've been great because it connects back to the rareness of it within the walls and how the characters acknowledged this fact.
Or maybe I'm thinking it too much, lol.
@@aqswdeaqswde3655 I think that could have worked, but the subtilty of the authors choices worked too. There are plenty of things in Marley that Paradis doesn't have, and I think that's been conveyed more than well enough in the current state of the story
@@cameronjohnson918 Well, yeah.
But I was thinking more in line with Uniquenameosaurus' idea of connection, it's a direct link that could reinforce the idea; not necessary, but a nice addition.
I couldn't agree more, it's definitely the little details that makes a world feel like a real place.
Riot's art and music teams have been cracked for years.
Every animated short and trailer they have done has been incredible and consistently good.
I knew it would be great, but didn't expect groundbreaking.
The styles of Piltover and the Undercity have names, they're called Art Deco and Art Nouveau respectively.
And they're very thematically consistent, too. Art Deco is often associated with objectivism and industry, whereas Art Noveau was emblematic of many progressive social movements throughout Europe in the early 20th century, as well as resistance against occupation (eg Finnish posters calling for independence against Russia).
I think synergy would be a better choice of word than connection. The elements of the world synergise with each other.
I agree with this!
Another victim of English being complicated
Synergy*^
I thought "layers". synergy is good, but adding layer upon layer is a better metaphor. Although "layered synergies" is twice as good!
Agreed, but I think both could work
People like to rag on Jayce a lot or say that the council at large are the real villains, but lets all remember that Heimerdinger sat in his lab for 200 years and was completely oblivious to the sheer deprivation right across the river from him.
Having read/listened to A LOT of SCP contentent, I have to correct you. It doesn't have to stop. It never stops. It continues ad infinitum as long as people are creative enough to write for it
The entirety of the SCP wiki is just an elaborate prank so people can write more ways that things won't kill 682
Since you brought up SCP I've been reminded of some bad examples of world building. Sometimes elements of a world can be built up to be more important than they need to be or should be. SCP 173 for instance was originally just a creepy statue that moved and killed people whenever it wasn't being observed. Now it's the avatar of an omnipotent god that protects the multiverse from universe devouring demons and is apparently indestructible and can kill anything which is just way too much detail and hype for something the Foundation was able to contain by essentially just locking it in a concrete box. Then there's the Star Wars movies which seem pathologically incapable of NOT putting the Skywalkers in the center of freaking everything.
@@mirrorzone5224 I've never seen anyone talk about 173 like that but okay
@@mirrorzone5224 Yeah, I personally liked SCP back when it was just a collection of strange things, but now it's full of insane things that it's so hard to reconcile how the foundation works anymore if almost everything can rewrite reality on a whim. I know that it's a community writing project, but it has gotten so big that everything feels disjointed.
You hit the nail on the head with this one.
Worldbuilding is not about cool ideas, they have to connect and work together, with their side-effects and ramifications fleshed out.
It seems that "Consistency" is what one looks for in World building.
I think what's an even more important connection is that the world directly reflects the story. If there's one thing I've taken away from a worldbuilding class I took last year, it's that the most important purpose of worldbuilding is to serve the story that's being told in it. A story about an alien invasion would make absolutely no sense in Piltover/Zaun, nor would a story about mythical beasts fighting. But a story about contradiction and duality makes so much freaking sense in this specific place. If they do the smart thing, Arcane will last for maybe two or three more seasons, then they should wrap it up and come with a new story, in a new setting that perfectly serves *that* particular story.
Sorry but Piltover and Zaun do NOT need more than two seasons.
@@juliogomesdesouza9035 why not? I kinda think three would be the perfect number.
@@cvbattum Next season will touch up on even more of jinx's insanity, singed's connection with noxus which will lead to zaun's connection to Ionia, and warwick. After all of that, I can't see what else they can do.
the "breaking point" depends on the writer and their resources, time being one of them, but its good to remember that you don't need to make a whole planet, you only need a space big enough for your story, you can make story that are based only on one place, one town, or maybe multiple neighboring towns, but when you are the writer you can make it as big or small as you need or want.
It really is funny to consider how the world of Runeterra/Arcane can grab the attention of anyone, but not so much that it could drive you to play the moba.
Still, between the card game and TeamFight Tactics, there is still a means to still explore the world without actually “playing the main game” as it were. But it’s fair to assume that above all else, Arcand did grab the attention of a lot more than just your on and off League players.
To be honest though, the moba (League of Legends) has very little connection to the universe other than it uses the characters to fight in an Arena.
So it makes sense that people who really loved Arcane don't necessarily want to play LoL.
For me the Lore of the LoL universe and LoL itself are two very separate things. Changing stuff in the lore doesn't really change anything for the game, and vice-versa.
@@Nata-ch2bk This is why I have always been sort of put off by games that do that kind of thing. It's the same with Overwatch, all the promotional material for the games are these cool cinematics filled with some supposed lore and stories around characters but the game itself really has very little to do with it. It's also why I luckily never got into gatcha games on mobile, again some awesome cinematics, interesting character designs, and apparently even interesting character stories and lore but the only way you ever see that in the actual games is through flavor text or some easter egg here and there.
The games themselves just aren't for me, I want to interact with the world itself, explore, find out about it through the game itself.
But I guess that's just me.
@@drfoto2673 Agreed. Riot does have a MMORPG in production so I'm guessing that'll be the ideal game to get into the universe from a lore and story perspective.
But to be honest as far as I'm concerned I'll mostly stick to their video content and reading the universe website
@@Nata-ch2bk it's because the game exist before the lore even put into consideration. The og lore is what makes League the moba make sense as it's about summoning characters to fight but it's too boring. They've done a good job to remove the game from the actual lore but what ties these characters to the lore is not the settings but the characters themselves. The way the talk, move, or even just their skills. That's one of the reasons why Genshin Impact has such bad world building.
it is the best experience for ppl who have quit the game but are knowledgeable enough to spot references and actually enjoy how intimate the characters feel
If Arcane gets more than two seasons, there will be plenty of time to flesh out Runeterra, I am sure. If every season keep it concise and don't bounce too much between locations, I am sure it will work out fine.
That being said, another thing that makes worldbuilding work is when the world feel lived in. As you said, you see things like Hextech and Shimmer a lot after the timeskip, given the viewer at feeling that these new technologies have had an impact on the world. Not only that, we see that Hextech has made Piltover much richer, while shimmer has made the pushers richer, but has transformed overusers into mutants or disfigured humanoids.
Another thing I just realized is their purpose. While Jayce, Viktor and Heimerdinger are all worried about the ramifications of using Hextech for weapons, Shimmer is already being used to foreshadow that it might be necessary for them to break that rule, because Zaun already have Shimmer powered soldiers, mechanical arms powered by the stuff and probably other uses of the drug that I don't remember as if writing. It fits nicely into the theme of duality the show is working on, and I really hope the next season(s) will take a theme and run with it, just like season 1 did.
You know arcane has reached the masses when everyone, even your fave anime content creators, are making vids about it. if only league was as good as the show Anyway great vid 👉👉
My boy Gigguk on this shit day 1
the game is pretty good, but some of the players...
MOBAs are not for everyone, this is a strange ultra-competitive genre you can't really relax playing. But the lore is pretty cool, and the artwork is beautiful. Check Necrit's channel, he puts League's lore in an easily approachable manner.
@@Miraihi lol you can totally relax and play league. Have you seen yuumi?
@@privatedoorknob7408 The cat? Couldn't try her, she costs a lot of currency. Also you can't deny that the game requires a deal of unique moba-esque knowledge and gamesense.
I'm not a writer, but I think it is very difficult to properly write a villain that readers can connect to. Silco is easily my fav character.
To me, world building has always been about connection and impact. How do these disparete elements connect and interact with one another, and how do they affect the world? Magic would have a massive impact on the world, and how it functions would alter how people respond to it. Carefully considering these elements is how you make a world feel real and lived in. And then you throw in culture, politics, religion, geography, economics, technology, and all that good stuff and once again consider impact and connection, and you have a functional, breathing world. Especially if you remember what elements arise from what. Geography, environment, and climate form the basis, from that arises history, religion, philosophy, and politics. From that arises culture, technology, and economics. And then throw in some unique elements like magic or monsters and how they affect the world, and you have the makings of a potentially cool setting
I really appreciate this, I never thought of how a reuse of wouldbuilding elements connects aspects of the world itself more.
It’s so nice to hear you excited for another series even with some critics! Arcane was a joy to experience and I think that also adds into the spectacle of world building as well! Being able to make the connections yourself really brought the world to life rather than explicitly saying what the creators intended. I haven’t enjoyed just watching a show want to show off it’s universe through characters and the dichotomy in their ideologies in a long time and I’m super excited to see where it goes as well. Thanks for the video!
When the items and places get reused it feels more like those things actually exist and not just some plot item
Another great video my guy. You are the man
Yes that's what I love about this show. Every object seems to have a purpose or meaning. Even the music box Powder picked up in episode 1 is used later on in episode 9 during the dinner scene.
This show has made me consider playing a game I barely ever remembered existed most of the time, so they did an amazing job with this in so many ways. I am so impatient for season 2!
Arcane is simply amazing. Everywhere I look, I see another video essay about a different aspect of the world. Here, the world building. Another video, the detail in the characters' micro-expressions. Another, a breakdown of the best scenes in the show and why they were so artistically and emotionally good. The list goes on...
I'm so glad more people are finally talking about how incredible Arcane and all of its components are!
You explained how world building works wonderfully, I can’t wait to use these elements in my own story!
worldbuilding is causality- every event in the world must have some impact on another part of the world, else it may as well not have happened
arcane does this insanely well because we dont just see a setting which is detailed in the present, its also detailed in both the past and future as well in a way that connects everything together. I care about the world in arcane because I've seen where it comes from and I want to know where its going.
Having causal connections across both time and space in a world is what makes it exciting follow, cos wheres the fun if I'm not playing along?
Consistency is the word that explains it the best in my opinion. Visiting the same places over and over again and knowing it will still be the same place gives the same secure feeling you feel when you explore your neighbourhood. Atleast thats how i can explain it myself
I think worldbuilding should be mentioned when it impacts the experience of the characters and stop where the characters in the world are no longer impacted by the absence or presense of your extra world building information. For example. If I mention the main cast seeing a bunch of warbanners over the hills and starting to flee I may have given too little information. Who's banner are those and why are they fleeing? If I mention ''the waves of white and red Crosses of Saint George slowly lurking over the Scotish highlands scaring off our humble band'', you now understand much better that we are following a small group Scots as the larger English army is invading thus they start to flee. But if I tell you: ''the white fields and red Crosses of Saint George, which Richard the Lionhearted had used during the crusade in Jerusalem, are now appearing over the Scotish highlands and causing our party to flee'', I am probably saying too much. Our party knew they should flee because A the approaching were English and B they are with more men, but fact C, this being the same banner that was used during the crusade, is not impacting their choice and is therefor needless exposition.
Dude you broke it down soo well and i played the game a lot before i watched the show and boy did it blow my mind how a couple of the characters were related, this show has made jinx my favourite character in the game and i wreck with her, i hope to start posting some game play footage and you have inspired me.
This is an amazing video, I never thought about world building this way before and makes so much sense! Definitely will be using this tool in my writing
Finally comin' around to watch this after finishing the damn show.
"Yeah, Vander disappears I guess"
Warwick: "Am I a joke to you?"
Well... Vander as a person really disappear.
even stronger that "connection": *causality*
great breakdown! you made me realise a lot of things about arcane tt i did not before!
I think the best summation of worldbuilding is as follows:
"The constant feeling that you experience in the world is only the tip of a much larger iceberg."
The things that *cause* you to feel that way, are world building. Sometimes that's nuance and details, sometimes it's the inter-connectedness of various plots. Sometimes it's just a visualized rooftop. Each one makes you feel the boat you ride on extends far below the waves on the surface.
Great video and very good point.
When going through the lore stories and biographies on the LoL universe website, what intellectually satisfies me the most is finding the clues and things that directly connects that particular story/biography to the rest of the universe AND to other stories and biographies of other characters.
Example : when reading through Ionian characters biographies and stories, everything is about connecting the Ionian characters to the thematics of that region, to places in Ionia we already know about, to other Ionian characters, to the context of the Noxian invasion and other similar historical events, to the traditions of Ionia, etc..... all those connections are directly building the Ionian region itself, and when connections are made from these stories to the other parts of Runeterra, it builds the universe itself.
Well said! World building is Connections! Thanks for posting!
Your explanation is unwillingly actually a great advice for DMing in TTRPGs!!
Very interesting and lots of food for thought - thank you!
7:00 Now that you mention "The last Drop": I also recognized something about showing some important locations.
Instead of just advancing the story, they first show a few slightly moving views from the place we are in now, each being shown maybe a few seconds.
That's a nice stylistic tool to settle the mood and to be able to focus.
I've been thinking about Jhin since the first time those masks were shown. I'm expecting Jhin and Camille at least in season 2. Noxus is going to get dragged in, and one powerful person who you don't want to cross there that I'd like to see introduced is Swain. I wouldn't be surprised if that's who Mel's brother got mixed up with. I'm still wondering if... can't remember his name... the first human they tested Shimmer on. The dopey eyed moron with a prominently featured tongue. Dr. Mundo maybe? His mind obviously seems to be going after years of shimmer abuse, but he isn't showing the same kind of side effects as the shimmer addicts. Though, as one of Silco's top thugs, he might be receiving additional treatment from Singed. And I'm stoned and rambling so I'm just gonna go wander off now.
World building is one of my favourite topics. Great Vid!
Piltover and Zaun don't need too much explicit expository worldbuilding because ultimately it is 'just' a big city with a rich side and a poor side - essentially everyone knows that dynamic, at least everyone that lives in a city. I agree that this will be harder to pull off when/if the story goes out into the world - I expect that season 2 will stick to Piltover/Zaun and one other locale.
BTW Arcane is amazing and I really hope that can keep the magic for season 2.
Fr fr fr. I felt that “good luck s2” at the end.
Very well said.
Also your hair is fabulous.
The amount of "doubles" used in arcane is insane, its what makes all the characters feel connected
Well, one detail I noticed was the similarity between the two shots where Singed hands young Viktor the flower to feed Rio und the shot where he gives him the Shimmer. The position is nearly the same except from Viktor in the first shot standing further away. He basically helped keeping Rio alive so that he could supposedly save his live with the product.
The concept of world build was very well explained and that idea of a breaking point is absolutely correct. The larger a world gets the harder it becomes to keep track of all the things going on in it.
Subtle example of reusing stuff: the gadget powder picks up during the robbery in the first episode is the same one jinx puts in front of Vi at the start of the table scene in the final episode (its the thing that has sparklers in it that go out before jinx asks is they're still sisters)
amazing video, thank you for this
World building if done right can be very beautiful ……Arcane does it good as far as we’ve seen…….also one piece’s world building is great everything you mentioned about one thing impacting the other and everything being connected one piece does it almost perfectly and if Arcane can take some point from one piece about world building it’ll be great
you explained it so well!
Thanks so much for the video! Love all your work as always
"The last drop" is such a cool play on words for a tavern where fences hang out.
Legitimately brilliant definition
Easing into new connections slowly through a minimal amount of figures having noticeable influence on key players could be a decent way to add new stuff to the mix. I think the Maedarda Noxian addition had sufficient exposition for the ruthlessness vibe that pseudo Ancient Rome is trying to express without demanding too much focus all at once
First things first, I'm not a gamer myself and never heard of LoL until recently (believe it or not). So, I heard good things about Arcane regarding its animation and decided to give it a shot based on that. The animation was really good from the start and the overall look and feel was impressive. At first some characters and story elements felt like stuff from other shows, but as episodes went by, I was more invested than I expected. Small nitpicks aside, it's GOOD.
Really looking forward to Season 2, but man, the makers now have a really tough act to follow. Best of luck!
Arcane was an incredible show that managed to take some of the objectively more boring champions and regions and turn it into something incredible.
One of the main problems I foresee is the fact that the lore itself is still trying to catch up to the game. Janna is a very weird champion in League that was created in 2009 without a single thought into how she could possibly work in a larger world, so introducing her as a Zaun character (where she is worshipped and inhabits) would be the most jarring thing they could possible do, though that is canonically what her lore is.
The simple solution is to just ignore her, but where do they stop with just ignoring champions?
Will champions like Fiddlesticks get an anime adaptation in the future? What about Shaco, Nocturne, Alistar, Annie, Jax, Gragas, or one of the other tens of champions who were made without lore in mind or who just wouldn't fit well?
Not to mention things like Syndra or Aurelion Sol who are so insanely powerful that the anime's power creep would reach a level that something like Vi and Jinx wouldn't even be on the same scale of in terms of power.
I imagine this show is going to be a very muted and basic representation of League and will just mainly be focused on the more human side of things without going too far down the magic rabit hole. That or they just admit that the world isn't going to be a single entity and stuff like Nasus, Xerath, and Aatrox are just going to have to exist in a different world as Vi and Jinx. (even though they kind of hinted to Xerath with Heimerdinger's fears).
Himers fears come from the Ruination wars 2 centuries ago. Xerath comes from the fall of Shurima 1000's of years ago. unless they retcon that event Xerath is not what Himer fears from hextech.
Rune wars.
I've always liked steampunk and chemtech themes. So I love Piltover and Zaun and the champions from there. When they announced this I flipped out.
They already mentioned that if they want to include other regions they have to change the art style so i think ‘arcane’ will just focus on zaun and piltover. And make seperate series for other regions
also they said it's not really canon just so they are probably not restricted if they want to do a creative choice. Jinx by the end of season 1 was giving more terrorist or killer Joker vibes.
Great video! Very insightful. The idea of "societal" storytelling in My Hero Academia hinges a lot on connections. The story is really that of a society than of a specific character, and events are used to progress the world rather than a particular character's arc. Of course, arcs progress too, but things like the League of Villains arc establish critical ideologies, their origins, and their larger consequences through the lens of different, interacting characters. I love what was done with All-Might's retirement. We got to see just how critical a lynchpin the "Symbol of Peace" was to society, and the consequences that come with relying so heavily on a single, transient pillar of justice - such as a boom of gang violence explored through Overhaul.
Thank you for reminding me of the masterpiece that is Dye - Fantasy.
Oh my God, I was super excited for this video. So I set it aside to really enjoy it, and completely forgot!
Was waiting for u to make an episode on Arcane
Yeah that's another thing I love about this show and I especially love the animation and plot and everything else is overall really good
I'm glad someone else has been thinking about worldbuilding as much as I have, because I had reached the same "worldbuilding is connection" idea also. The reason I spend hours on my worlds is because of two things. One, I love making connections with the information have and two, I love exercising my brain. Worldbuilding is a perfect outlet for that and honestly I wish it was a bit easier. Worldbuilding is the perfect way to flex my depth of knowledge in how the world works and applying that to something fantastical. My favorite thing to do is to create magic systems from the ground up, figuring out how it interacts with the laws of physics. This has been a fantastic motivator to learn more about the world and has taught me much more than the school system. Anyway, that has been my little rant, uh... It didn't really have a point outside of excitement about worldbuilding, I wish more people talked about this more, its such a fascinating concept and has so many applications outside of writing.
this is so insightful, good video!@!!
I saw the use of the eye stabber to be one of the best uses of non verbal storytelling, because not only does it show the story of trust and relationship between Jinx and Silco, it also, in that second scene, shows that, between him and Vi, he's the one who would never hurt her. The way he clenches his fists and lets her keep stabbing him is at once indicative of a codependent desperation and love, and foreshadowing his eventual downfall. He will never do anything, on purpose, to hurt her. He does, granted, hurt her. He's abusive without intending to be, like many abusers. But it's still such good and complex storytelling.
*Thank You For Changing My Mind On The Subject, I Have Never Made That Connection ;)*
Piltover has an Art Deco aesthetic and the under city is Art Nouveau. I loved that so much because those styles are from roughly the same time period and they play off of each other but Art Nouveau is more nature inspired for example.
Somehow you made me appreciate arcane even more
Also the way they actually seemed like a really did a good job when it came to make the problem in the beginning seem as an actual thing that’s happening instead of something they added to make the story just start i love this show smm
In one of my stories I have a huge empire, and one thing I've done is make a detailed description of when each place was brought into the empire, what relation it had to the empire, and what the relationships between the different kingdoms is like - really trying to interconnect things. Each place is connected politically to at least two other places in a meaningful way, and then there are various sub-categories splitting the world into fractions. While this isn't something that takes huge center-stage in the story, it gives a deeper backdrop and automatic back-story for any character I want to create, because I know the politics of whatever place I choose for their birth-place. It also means that whenever I need a minor character for a specific role, I can look at the political stage and ask myself who would fit that role best.
One of the best examples of world building done well is in the Anime Ascendance of a Bookworm.
It's fantastic how engrossing it is considering the utterly small area covered.
Arcane really inspired how I write my DCU. Individuals and technology have a big effect on the world that reappears over and over again and has connections with other characters.
That is why I think the foundation for every good worldbuilding is based in themes, these create the connections, the through line, and by picking them up again and again, decontextualizing them when needed and of course occasionally also subverting them is what makes the worlds become alive.
I agree 100% with the idea of connection making a world feel alive and one-off locations not really sticking the landing a lot of times.
The multiple POV novel I am working on spans the globe, though most of the POV characters are most often in a single greater city area. I connect the different sections of the city to one another in a number of ways, including describing the first journey made between one part of the city to the other. That way the audience gets a feel for how close or far away these locations are from one another, and what lies between them. I have a social web to connect characters to one another, and make use of "background noise" like news broadcasts or characters discussions that pertain to a high-profile characters or events that happen so it feels like they all exist in the same world. Does character A know character B exists? No, but character A has a long distance friend that works closely with character B and has a habit of talking about them "a bit too much." Little things like this really brings the world together compared to other stories I have written, which made the mistake of plotting out individual locations without considering how (or even if) they impacted each other.
I would definitely recommend applying both connection and re-use (which feel a little different to me) in pretty much every story to bring the world to life. A note-able exception to the rule perhaps being realm hopping stories where the entire point is none of the locations are connected to one another, and each new location should feel entirely detached from the last. Even then, the re-use aspect could be re-used to foreshadow or even lead to some greater, over-arcing theme for the story. I am now imagining this strange symbol the protagonist keeps coming across in not all, but some, of the realms they find themselves in. Having some kind of subtle connection between the realms this symbol is found at could foreshadow a greater villain/theme/plot line the audience can get invested in discovering. Wait, my hypothetical story just had connection *and* re-use in it. Like I said, heavily consider using these techniques in any story you write.
What u got from thsi is that world building is kinda like a character.
You gotta give a character interactions and connections to other characters like how u have to connect a place to another.
And the more connections you make, the less contradictions make sense, like if u had a fiercely loyal character betray their best friend.
4:36 Dann that phrase gives me chills of how true it's
Themeing! consistency! Purpose! Context!!
The meaning of world building is to give a proper or inspiring place to put a story, what's the point of a world if you can't make a story, use it to move your story, or inspire story.
Also yee conections that stuff is super important also consistency to make things make sense to viewers and emotionally reward them for paying attention
This actually helped me with dnd. I have created my own custom world but none of the places really feel unique. They're treated more like stop/hubs until their next mission. With the concept of colorizing and unique tools per place actually helps grow the town and can be used in other places. Thanks for pointing this out
Brandon Sanderson's 3 laws of magic can also be used for worldbuilding and just good storytelling in general.
An old formulation to his 3rd rule: "Depth is better than Breadth" was "Make everything interconnected" which I kind of see as advice on how to create extra depth--by making connections between things.
I think an incredibly important aspect of worldbuilding is how the world effects the characters.
Parallels and juxtaposition are a helluva thing for storytelling that often are left by the wayside
Great analysis