How ARCANE Writes Women
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- Опубликовано: 4 май 2024
- #LeagueOfLegends #Vi #Jinx
Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn, Mel, Sevika, Grayson, Ambessa, Sky -- every one of Arcane’s masterfully written women can teach so many fundamentals about how gender can express itself in storytelling. Arcane’s women carefully sidestepped and/or neutralized gendered stereotypes and problematic tropes that so often cripple strong women in fiction. From Action Girls to the infamous Manic Pixie Dream Girl to lack of agency, body types, the male gaze and beyond, Arcane navigates around it all efficiently and deftly. The near universal praise for the female representation in Netflix’s animated masterpiece are proof enough that these characters are worthy of careful analysis.
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LINKS
Amanda Overton’s comment: www.reddit.com/r/arcane/comme...
Character Ages - • ARCANE Character Ages ...
Viktor - • Why ARCANE's Character...
Tattoos - • Arcane's TATTOOS Expla...
Vi & Cait - • Vi & Caitlyn Relations...
Alignment - • ARCANE CHARACTER ALIGN...
Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
1:28 - Mel, Agency, & Beauty
6:06 - Vi & Strength
9:28 - Sevika, Grayson, Ambessa
13:10 - Jinx & Male Dependency
16:59 - Jinx & Manic Pixie
20:10 - Caitlyn & Neutralization
24:44 - Sky & Neutralization
26:39 - Amanda Overton comment
27:24 - Big picture decisions
29:59 - 10 Rules
31:44 - Annies! 
Кино
The thing is one: Arcane is TRUE. It doesn't talk about "men", "women", "children", "adults", it talks about PEOPLE. They made a great, great job in these. I hope every future serie script (not only videogames inspired) will take notes from now on.
Technically there is talk about Children and Adults. There are themes of Lost of Innocence and Coming of Age for most characters. There's a reason why there were episodes of younger years as well as little flashbacks to younger days. But they weren't really the focus. The characterizations in those time lapses were all individually for the character's context.
It talks about the gaps between the privileged and the poor, which is the main plot of the story
YES. It's people, their not out their going "oh look we bent the norms for femininity or masculinity"
It's more then that, it's realistic. I'm so fuckin bored and pissed off about the usual women troupe. Like that girl in the Witcher series , I thought there was going to be potential when she entered the screen but god was I disappointed. Atp it's not only refreshing but remarkable how beautifully arcane not only represents but highlights women. As a woman who's pissed off with classic woke shows all I can say abt arcane is...wow....❤
"It doesn't talk about "men", "women", "children", "adults", it talks about PEOPLE."
Sounds like horrible writing.
No way. Sometimes it is important to acknowledge these things. Like gender plays an important role in The Handmaid's Tale, The Scarlet Letter and Revolutionary Road. Acknowledging issues and focusing on gender isn't necessarily bad writing.
And coming of age stories can also be well. The Last Unicorn comes to mind. Or The Labyrinth.
Arcane just makes you forget that there is a gender issue in the first place. It comes so natural that you forget to think about the whole thing. It’s phenomenal.
Yeah. I love that so much thought was put into the story that they considered how to dismantle all the dumb gender norms. It's like, fuck man Piltover is the kind of place you wish we all lived in.
Couldn't be more unnatural and removed from reality
In my opinion, it is the only way to actually fix it
Exactly this. I couldn't find the right words for it lol. Arcane is insane man.
There is no gender issue
Something you missed: Caitlyn is of upper class who have the luxury of being soft on people. She has the option of showing mercy on an enemy who would possibly come back and try to kill her. Vi does not. Caitlyn has the luxury of long range weapon tech, while Vi must slug it out with bits of metal strapped to her fist. Caitlyn has the luxury of honing accuracy, while Vi has to beat through by sheer brute force.
It is not a matter of feminine VS masculine, but rather haves VS have nots. They highlighted this in the show.
While I agree with the contrast between Caitlyn and Vi in terms of their privileges and resources and not their masculinity /femininity . (Caitlyn, as a member of the upper class, has access to long-range weapons and can rely on accuracy and strategy. On the other hand, Vi, who comes from the undercity, has to rely on her physical strength and brute force due to the lack of resources.)
I feel like Caitlyn’s “softness” isn’t a trait derived from her class. One of the main themes of the show is precisely about class difference and how the upper class can completely dismiss and even stomp on the needs of the lower class for their own comfort. If anything it showed how she was naive to certain realities of the undercity.
I think Caitlyn is just a more naturally more empathic person. Which is a gem in the topside, and what Vi sees soon after she gets her out of prison.
@@cyrusjameskhan Caitlyn could afford empathy thanks to her class. Vi is empathetic as well but she didn't have a choice to be if she wanted to survive down there. A kid died and Vi told Jayce to get over it, which led them to fight. Vi was disgusted by the fact that Jayce, some privileged topsider, mourned the life of a single Zaun child who he killed by accident and tried to call off the whole mission that would save Zaun, while Vi was forced to become numb to it since she'd seen way too much of it already thanks to blissfully ignorant topsiders like him. She already knew from the start what it would take to bring down Silco, and although it lacked in empathy, she knew it was necessary to stop more kids like Powder from falling into his hands.
So I would argue that although both Cait and Jayce's capacity for empathy is inherently a part of their own personalities, their class is a big reason why they can afford to be "soft" while someone like Vi can't.
We as viewers empathize with both sides and Arcane did a really good job at showing that even your class can dictate whether or not you're allowed to mourn the death of an innocent child.
@@cyrusjameskhan I loved as well how much more sympathetic and empathetic Caitlyn has become with the people of Zaun throughout the show after she saw first handed what they had to endure each day, it made for brilliant character development. Arcane is just so fucking good in every aspect, it has to be one of the best shows ever made. If season 2 is at least as good season 1 was, it will be up there with the very best (BCS, Peaky Blinders etc.).
@@anonomyssI totally agree with you and I just wanted to add that I love how Cait does not lose any of her empathy while being down in the Under city. If anything, we see her being more empathetic down there than in the topside (though that may just be amount of opportunities they had to show it).
YES, the characters make decisions based on socioeconomic factors and personality but NEVER is it patriarchy or misogyny based or gender norms based!
As a black girl- Mel was quite literally the best animated black woman I have seen so far.
Well, she's not really the best.
@@notwwwansik *I have seen. I understand there are probably better ones out there but since my main genre of filmmedia isn’t typically animated- she’s been the best and most realistic in my opinion💕
I think she was very well-portrayed as an oligarchic leader of a nation, especially holding the vast amount of influence and power under her belt. All of her behavior, actions and words were believable as a character because she NEVER broke my immersion; no references to modern-day tropes, or moral grandstanding or whatnot, she just LIVED in her world. Honestly, it's such a criminally underrated and S-tier show.
@@anauthor3330 💯💯💯
her character LITERALLY had nothing to do with her being black, she could have been Poison green like an alien and it wouldnt matter, so why are u making it about races and colors now? wtf
As a woman I loved seeing Vi get beat up so much, usually even "fighter" women don't get decked in the face like that. It was weirdly refreshing. And Vi constantly getting the shit kicked out of her is a strong contrast to Jinx almost never getting touched in fights. The one or two times Jinx gets physically hurt, it's a big deal.
Same for this as another woman. It shows her as a realistic person. Every character needs to be shown as taking a hit no matter the gender.
Its cause Jinx is cunning while Vi tries to brute force her way through fights i like how they show that both have ups and downs in combat especially cause there bodies are more frail compared to most of the people they fought so they use their combat knowledge and strengths to win fights or for some characters to completely avoid one like Singed not getting murdered by Silco (lol) it's really nice to me.
Weirdo
@@Spacecrytids lolwut
@@ratboygirl "Lolwut" 🤪 I said what I fucking said.
Arcane does a thing that I wish more media would. It doesn't write women. It writes characters who are women. It's a facet of who they are, but it isn't their identity. And they don't focus on that part more than they focus on the core traits. And I love it.
Ambessa Medarda is the perfect example for this I think. She is a great example on how to portray strong women. She is strong, has a presence and authority, but she has her weaknesses. Most shows tend to show strong female characters as perfect in body and character, because you can't show a woman losing.
I came here to say just this. Women are human beings, we have a lot of the same character traits men do and our own agency. Seeing women portrayed as human first and female second is how you develop a strong female character.
this
yeah, and i think that’s what they did super well with vi and cait’s romance too. they weren’t “the gay ones”, but the ones who also happened to be in a same-gender romance.
I’ve heard a writing tip where you just write characters first and decide their gender later
Mel; a strong, black, complex, nuanced female ORIGINAL character.
Can't be Disney.
That moment when diverse cast is made so you have wide range of characters and not just so you can pat yourself on shoulders for being socialy conscious while also easy cut for foreing markets.
Mel isn`t a character in LOL?
Yeah even if she wasn’t racist will still find a way
@@portul566nope
Best thing about her is that "black" and "female" aren't character traits
I LOVE the “lack of stigma in fantasy world” in any type of media. It is my absolute favourite. I think it does more for representation than having a minority character’s only struggle be bigotry. Visualizing a world where there isn’t a standard for femininity or masculinity, and where sexuality isn’t so heavily defined is so fun and it demonstrates a world I hope we get to eventually
Good comment but,,,,,, there literally is stigma? 😭 Even ones that can be seen IRL?
Class struggle, the Undercity being that name as a literal result of Piltover trying to brush it under the rug. Piltover still refusing to just give them their independance despite seeing them as an eyesore they have literally tried to hide away: out of sight, out of mind.
Using addiction to enslave people in a way, make them incapable of working so they don't have the money to buy the drugs so they have to sell even their morals to get it. Also showing the stigma against addicts as nearly not being human anymore, when they are sick and need help more than ever.
Caitlyn wasn't looked down upon by the other guard members due to her gender but due to another reason she had no control over, even though she had actively proven herself capable people still closed their eyes to it. Most negatively affected by her own parents no less, they were the ones making that stigma against her worse than it ever would've been otherwise.
Point being there is so much stigma but it feels like people have completely forgotten that things other than gender, sexuality and race exist... Leading to stuff like this, or claiming stuff like Dark Souls are apolitical despite being far from it... Just because they don't like having certain things brought up, most of the time being because they don't like that they could be held accountable for something, or that they should make changes to their lives. This is coming from someone who is "woke" and an "sjw", I'm sick of people ignoring intersectionality in these things
It is SO FRUSTRATING when it's a fantasy world and it carries over our real world concepts of race and gender. Like, your world can have systemic problems but don't have it be 1:1 from our world and stop making minorities their only personality trait being a minority.
@@xenosbreed It is immersion breaking to have like 10 sapient races that all have different ideals and yet you somehow have someone racist (as in hating a subset of your own race for some artificial reason).
YESS 100% agree, Shadow and Bone is also like this and I loved that aspect in it as well
Yeah there's no standard coz it's fantasy. Reality has limitations, fantasy doesn't have it. That's why feminazism can thrive in fantasy world, esp in animes coz even in love action fantasies the inability to do the stunts blatantly prove the limitations and reality which the radicals won't acknowledge. Ashoka's terrible stunts, a case in point. You either have to dial down the men or risk exposing the contrast.
The same goes for men in expressions, reason why no male actor can ever out express an actress unless the script contributes to him. But radicals don't want different but equal. Fools.
Something kinda specific-but I love, LOVE that women in the show *scream*, They *cry* they sob & panic in such a human way & it’s never played in a ‘pretty’, fetishized way. They also get the snot beat out of them, they fucking fight like humans fight, not in a ‘sexy’, voyeuristic way
But let's be honest. Women and men fight differently, and all it takes is watching Cop Shows or googling Walmart fights.
@@JJokerMoreau you sound like you're responding to what you want that comment to say and not it actually says.
Is this the response you want:
Typically men grow up seeing fights in a romanticized way and so they only throw "clean punches" and the men that use "underhanded tactics" are called weak even if they win and women aren't socialized to see fighting like that so women typically "fight dirty," but "fighting dirty" is such a dumb term when used in reference to a street fight because it's a funking street fight, rules are for the ring.
Anyways none of that matters because gendered fighting DOES NOT apply to the world of Arcane, as the video explained. ALSO, there is no pretty way to get punched in the gut, much less anywhere else.
The scene were Powder cried after Vi left her hit really hard, because she screamed and sobbed in such a realistic and painful way.
@@Aria-666 thank you for responding so I didn’t have to 💀
@@JJokerMoreau sure, as we all want anime fights to look realistic, which is why the males in arcane fight like men do irl 🤣 oh, wait… they dont
As a wise man once said
“Don’t write FEMALE characters,
Write female CHARACTERS.”
👍👍
Yes
100%!
Yesssssss
Yeah, one of my biggest frustrations with media the last decade or so is all the people who looked at “can we have more strong female characters please?” and went “ah, you’re saying you want a cardboard-cutout waif who can kick a man through a brick wall? Say no more!”
Like, no. Strong Female Character meant we wanted to see women with the same agency, motivation, characterisation, and flaws that men get, rather than just being Bitchy Wife, Sexy Lamp, or Helpless Ingenue. But yeah, fine, throw another Mary Sue on the pile, just remember to have everyone in-universe keep talking about how strong and amazing she is, because fuck knows she’ll never demonstrate any of it on screen, other than maybe punching a few people before getting captured.
Writing women characters well, doesn't require making poor male characters. Arcane avoided that trap. They did a GREAT job writing this series.
A video game adaptation has no right being as nuanced and well written as Arcane was.
except when you actually have an vague idea of their background with League lore and quotes in game
@@NonnerieYTByeah but shit don't you get that so many big film companies, huge director's spend millions to billions makes shows and movies but do you ever see women written even nearly as good as arcane? Hell no. But arcane, a video game company made better progress from an adaptation of a fuckin game than any of those billion dollar director's and companies.
The game is so shit but they spit out this masterpiece of a show. And you just hv to go...What the actual fuck? 😂
The genius thing about Caitlyn's shower scene was that it's different from most shower scenes in that it just wasn't... sexy? There are no objectifying angles, every time we see her in the scene she's weirdly (yet believably) hunched over, we're basically shown only three parts of her body: extremely tense shoulders, her bleeding wound, her exasperated face. The point of the scene isn't to show us she's attractive of objectify her, it's to a) show that she's extremely tense and frustrated and b) create a parallel between her, in water, and Vi, under the rain. As you said, the center isn't her body, it's her as a character. The viewer is forced to feel what she feels to the point where you don't even think about her naked boobs or whatever
I observed that as well. When the shower scene showed up I was pleasantly surprised by how non-objectifying it was. It showcased Caitlyn's mental turmoil and her leg wound rather than using angles to emphasize her sexuality.
Thats exactly what i was thinking, im so glad they didnt objectify her in the shower scene.
We must remember that nudity still has a symbolic meaning. A naked body directly and figuratively shows someone's defenselessness. In this scene Caityn recalls her last conversation with Vi and her frustration is evident. Mo doubt she's thinking over and over again about what she should say then to keep Vi from going away. It's possible that she's angry with herself too for not knowing how to forget and that the few days spent with Vi made her completely vulnerable to recurring memories. So yeah, naked shower scene can have hidden meaning.
@@Ferytowa Nudity in different contexts has a LOT of meaning. I mean Mel's Mom showed us a completely different kind of nudity earlier in the show.
It's because they 'shot' the scene exactly how they would for a male character.
This is what people mean by 'the male gaze.' Everything that they didn't put in this scene.
Also, I like how Mel is a very skilled and somewhat antagonistic manipulator, who, if you think about it, never RELIES on her physical beauty to manipulate others. It’s definitely there, but in the background. It’s an auxiliary skill that she uses as an extra layer of insurance while relying on her conversational skills and political pull to get what she wants. And even then, she isn’t promiscuous, she didn’t “sleep her way to the top” she uses her beauty in the way most traditionally attractive MEN use their looks. People just sort of, trust her, assume she knows best without any real reason.
Absolutely. She never actually weaponises her femininity with the other council members. Just her wit/persuasive skills or bribing them with gifts/favours. She's only ever seductive towards Jayce, whom she actually starts a relationship with.
The black rose would be proud...if they existed, which they DONT! 😰😰
Dont tell them I'm here.
@@tonydanatop4912 Le Blanc wants to know your location.
Is that an aurora pfp!? Nice!
@@hawkins347 and the guard, but it's a minor plot point, she could easily have convince him because she is a counselor but as the comment says is an extra layer of insurance
Even as a female writer, I find this analysis and advise very eye opening. Just a lot of ideas i hadn't even considered previously.
@@user-kt1oq9oq6b *utterly defenestrated*
Same!
Moral of the story: the more women you have in your show playing different roles, having different motivations, positions, opinions and personalities, the easier it is for you to escape making bad women characters.
There is no correlation between quantity and quality.
@@KangMinseok did you miss the video? Or reality? Any character type can be damaging to a community if it’s the only type of character they’ve been given. The more variety you have of character types, the easier it is for you to do female characters well. Partially because it helps to broaden how we see women. Also partially because it can encourage you to make the female characters more diverse and different from one another.
@@andthatsshannii women are not "a community", that's irrational collectivist nonsense. What you are describing is a pseudo Cheerleader effect, not actual quality writing. A well-written female character can appeal to anyone. If you require multiples just to appeal to specific demographics, that's not a sign of better writing, duh. And again, I'm only commenting in relation to what you have written.
@@KangMinseok wow you’re really dumb. The more variety a group of people gets, the easier it is for them to not look monolithic. That’s really logical.
I agree. If there are ten characters and only one is a woman, there is a big chance she's going to end up as a token woman, maybe because some male character needs a love interest and the writer doesn't want any gays in the squad. I have always hated when there is one female character and her personality is literally "girl". If there are around five female characters, it's near impossible for them all to be tokens, stereotypes or poorly constructed subversions, because they all have to be different.
The underlying reason why Arcane can get all these female characters right is that the story has a lot of them. Female characters make up half the cast, almost as if half the population of humanity is female or something. It allows them to do so many things without overloading any single character. No one character has to be the "science one" and the "caring one" and the "fighting one" and "crazy one" all in a single package.
huh what a weird coincidence XD
It also helps having rich characters. There is no ' one.' Pretty much every character trait is shared by multiple characters who express it in different ways. Simply being forced to go a second step deeper in character development makes many of these tropes a lot harder to fall into.
I was going to say the same thing - Arcane's writing team made their job SO much easier by having a large and diverse cast of female characters - not just background crowd characters, but ones that matter. So each one could be different and uniquely interesting. You didn't have the 'one woman in an otherwise male cast' who has to be all things to all people (and so often is nothing but a shell of a character) like you do in other shows and movies. (Btw, same goes with POC - having multiple POC in this show removed a lot of the pressure to keep a single token POC character from being typecast as the villain, or the magical shaman/wise old advisor, or reduced to being the sidekick, etc. I definitely look for this in most movies I watch these days, and sadly more often than not I am disappointed)
@@hopeofdawnI couldn't agree more. Finding good representation and actual quality writing like this is trying to find clothing that isn't mass-produced, factory made polyester. It really does feel rare but having little crumbs are better than none, I suppose.
@@wcookiv Yup.
I mean we have 3/4 main "scientist/inventor" types but they all range in everything else.
Viktor is closest to the traditional nerd type.
Idk if someone's mentioned this, but I also really like Cait's shower scene because of the way it frames her. She is not shown scrubbing at her shoulders sensually, and there's no long shots of her legs in motion- she is braced against the wall, thinking about her fight with Vi and the camera focuses on the blood from her leg mixing with the water. The focus in this scene is not on her (evident) sex appeal, but on her contemplation and consternation over her relationship with her friend (cough future lover cough). I just really enjoyed that, and also how the only time someone is really framed all that sexually is Jace's money shots. Ambessa's nudity is a show of power, Cait's a show of vulnerability, and Jayce's is to frame how Mel sees him- sssmokin'
sssmokin i died
sssmokin' indeed
"Sssmokin'" I'M WHEEZING-
The end part 💀💀💀💀
ok but ambessas scene was just chefs kiss
One aspect I appreciate about Powder is that she DOES show very subtle signs of "Jinx" early on. For example:
Go look at the scene in the first episode where she first tries using a homemade bomb against the boy chasing her. Besides loading the thing with nails, notice how she doesn't try to get away while her pursuer is distracted by the explosive. Instead she stays to watch with a hint of eagerness. We get a similar situation when she blows up the warehouse in episode 3, where being thrown backwards by the explosion is portrayed as a moment of bliss.
Even as Powder, her fascination with explosives resembles something akin to fledgling pyromania.
at the start of the show as well, when she's walking with vi after the battle, you can see the flickering camera and the white drawings like the ones she experiences as jinx in her mental breakdowns. And the sound of the monkey triggers her so much that she destroys it. It's really cool how they managed to show smaller signs of her future mental instability that makes it a lot more natural for jinx to be so unhinged.
In addition, during her temper tantrum in episode 3, she seems to be hitting herself in the face several times. Throwing tantrums is normal for kids at that age, but self harm... is not. And that's one of our first signs of her psychosis. Honestly, I think "Jinx" was there from the start to some extent.
As a woman who grew up as the oldest sibling/ cousin (my cousins and I are close) it was great to see someone like Vi. She’s strong and takes no crap from anyone, but she still has a heart, still just wants to protect the people she cares about. I related a ton to her. I’d go through hell and back to protect the people I love and seeing someone like me mindset wise was amazing
Same same and same
Absolutely same
This may seem strange but I also really appreciated that the women looked very different! They had different body types owing to their different experiences/jobs (you know, like everyone does). They also had different faces!!! Which is extremely basic but shockingly hard to come across in animation for women regardless of style. While male characters often can have different nose shapes and body types, in designing female characters, most studios will just change hair and eye color (and maybe breast size) on the same attractive but bland frame. I think Arcane's approach really helped visualize the diversity within the female cast and made them actually feel like their own characters and not variations on each other.
I think in a lot of movies, the beauty of a woman comes from the apparent perfection of them, whereas in Arcane people's beauty is in their uniqueness, so it doesn't disappear when they have imperfect moments, allowing for much more story depth than with a 'glass vase' type of beautiful character.
@@No-ue5pi with darker skin slapped on them part made me laugh out loud am I racist lmao
agreed! that was actually one of the first things i noticed about arcane that really drew me to it and made me realize that it was different.
Agreed, one of the things that really stands out is how liberally they represent multiple ethnicities on screen. Cait has eastern traits she inherited from her father, there are plenty of black people with different skin tones and traits, and (crucially) none of that is ever pointed out with a flag saying "diversity quota".
You are right! I love that the characters did not look like what a girl or a guy is expected to be according to the then body trends. I especially loved that the size of the character was not correlated to the strength(physical and mental) of that character. I major selling point for me was Jinx. She was the reason, I transitioned from liking the show to loving it. She's small and at first sight, people don't expect much from her. People that knew her on the surface expected her to be clumsy and not in control. But people that actually knew her, like Vi or Silco, understood how much potential she had which we see with the number of gadgets she creates with minimal education and the runes thing that she understands solely on the basis of Jayce's research and no additional data. She's clearly a genius.
A really small detail that I absolutely loved, loved, loved to see: Jinx has painted nails. Whenever I saw them, they made me remember, in that moment, that she is more than a chaotic mess: she is just a girl. At some point, she just sat down and painted her nails like many of us do. It added so much dimension to her character.
@Katie Cramton Yes! They were so intentional about every detail, right? And I feel like that intentionality is the only reason why Jinx's nails can even mean something: Arcane doesn't throw in random design elements just to "prettify" their woman characters. If Jinx has painted nails, we can safely assume she paints her nails.
the small detail that i love is vi's eye make up
@Katie Cramton i also noticed that polish on some of her nails had came off (?sry idk how to say it properly). And it's adding that extra thing - Jinx might paint her nails but she's not so concerned about their conditions
@@feathery_machine you said it right, i just wanna add that a good word to describe what you mean is that her nails are "chipping" or "chipped." and i agree with what you said as well
@@rayna7055 thanks!
"She's a character with an amazing story, so who cares about the trope." Nailed it right there.
My favorite detail is Caitlyn's father being the source of her compassion and empathy. I love this video. It puts to words what we all saw in Arcane.
Holding women accountable for actions you’d condemn or dismiss in a man is important thematically, character wise, and avoiding favoritism.
Obviously bias is an unavoidable factor, but pausing to ask yourself “How would I feel about this if a character of another gender was doing it?” is a great way to avoid pitfalls, and examine personal bias.
but the thing is, there is a bias in the real world, so there could be(focus on could, not should) one in this fantasy world
Like, could you right a movie where every single person from every gender is treated absolutely equally? sure
But, for example, in the real world women get less time for the same crime(or none at all) than a man
Women are usually innocent until proven guilty while men are usually guilty until proven innocent(unless he's pretty)
So, in order to create a sense of similarity to the real world, you could add biases some of the bias present in the real world.
But to get a sense of novel, you could also add some not present and remove some of the present too.
@@99temporal Excellent point!
I meant bias from the standpoint of the writer, or plot UNINTENTIONALLY favoring specific characters where it wouldn't favor others.
But adding fantasy bias adds plenty of depth.
Really fantastic advice. This need to be practiced especially by managers 😂
Me wanting to bitch slap Jinx.
That is true, you know a series wrote their charecters well when you dont even think about their gender, when the charecters and their actions make you forget their gender. That is why when we write a charecter we shuld'nt think about their gender at all. Women are basically men so the writing process sould'nt be any diffrent. In general a character should'nt be defined by one trait (like gender in this case)
One thing I'd like to add to you point about Mel's agency is that furthermore she never once actually takes away Jayce's agency either. He's still free to and makes his own decisions along the way, for better or worse, which is another neat subversion of the archetype she's introduced as - women of her position and persuasion tend to be controlling, but she is not. He's her partner and not her puppet. And I just love that so much.
Very true, important that they had that balance
@@schnee1 Another note about the "man fixes woman" thing you mentioned. There are undeniably ways in which Jayce sort of "fixes" her in that he provides a safe space for her to become more vulnerable and emotionally expressive, basically steadily undoing Ambessa's mental conditioning that Mel grew up with, and showing her healthy ways of expressing her affection (like touch and emotional intimacy... as opposed to "gifting" people with political positions that they didn't ask for 😂), but she still has agency in this. She chooses to make these changes, and she's arguably already on this path before they get in the relationship and he speeds up the process a little. And it goes both ways, because she "fixes" him in turn. He becomes more decisive and asserts himself and his needs more as result of her influence, whereas before he was always prioritising others first and seeking their validation. Interestingly, this emotional distance is traditionally portrayed as a masculine quality and prioritising others over self a feminine one. So it's an interesting reversal of gender dynamics here.
@@hawkins347 yes
Her mother is a good example of using personal agency against those under her though, which is *really cool* to see in terms of well presented contrast. Ambessa was a good demonstration of the ‘typical’ use of that character type
@@sinnamonchai Yes! This makes for a such a great contrast especially when you consider Mel's relationship with Jayce. If Ambessa was in Mel's position, she would totally not hesitate to exploit his attraction to her for her gain. But Mel waits until they're societal and political equals, and thus have equal amount of agency, before she initiates the relationship because she's actively trying to not be like her mother. Which imo just further nails in the point that seducing him is an action of Mel the Woman, who is attracted to Jayce, and not Mel the Politician.
One of my favorite relationships that was explored in Arcane is the dynamic between Jinx and Cait, and while it isn’t really gone into deeply the “younger sibling and older sibling’s partner” is a dynamic that a lot of people understand, especially between sisters where the younger sister idolizes, looks up to or depends on the older sister. Personally, as a younger sister who has an older sister when I was younger I felt like I needed to compete with my sister’s friends and boyfriends for her attention, and although it’s obviously very different I think it’s an interesting thing to allude to and I hope to see it explored more later in the story.
but Cait and Jinx aren't sisters
@@johnfox1991
No they are not, but you got the comment wrong. the person was talking about younger sister's (Jinx) attitude towards older sister's (Vi) romantic partner (Caitlyn). Bit of a difference
@@IsraeliGirl1997 ohhhh true
"younger sibling and old sibling'SSSSS partner"
true ture
Arcane is something that I feel has made everyone happy, which is hard to do. There is no sense of forced diversity, the women aren't painted as incapable or annoying, but the men aren't painted as toxic or emasculated. Everyone regardless of their gender expression, race, sexuality, etc, is written perfectly, represented properly. Wherever you come from on the political spectrum, wherever your social beliefs lie, Arcane manages to right everyone with equity in a way that doesn't step on toes, and it has made some of the most beautifully relatable characters.
At least by progressive standards, this is not equity, it's equality. Equity would be if they'd pick favorites and gave more screen time based on who is or isn't socially oppressed, to "offset" the presumed social imbalance.
@@KangMinseok which you unfortunately see too much of in modern media
"Arcane empowers women, but not at the expense of men." BOOM. And there you have it... THE best summation in a single short sentence of how women are written in this show and should always be. Well said...
well said...
actually it does. every situation where women win was a zero sum game for a man . every powerful leader is a woman "convincing" a man to do her bidding. doesnt matter if she does it using her painting skills or the way rocky would've done it. which, by the way, what makes rocky amazing isn't the fact that he's a brawler. in fact, he lost his match at the end of rocky. he was humbled.
this show is dumb. the fights have no tension because you know the main characters won't lose to a male characters or be injured permanently.
by the way, a character eating shit isnt the same as a character being humbled. especially if it has no negative repercussions. even less so if its in a world where eating shit is the norm. and if men are also eating shit, then women eating shit doesn't mean it's not some woke crap or plot armor, even more so if she avoided being killed when male characters are systematically killed for much less.
this video was nothing but red herrings, straw men and rationalizing. also, you cant analyze a work of art by using the work to justify itself. that's like how christians use the bible verses to "prove" the existence of god. this "review" never once analyzes the creative process.
this reviewer telling me how great it is that jinx is underaged so people won't jack off to her (hint: they will because viewers are also underaged and the not underaged viewers also will because jynx, from the start, was designed to appeal to a subgroup of degenerates, the same group that this show appeals to) is akin to a weeb telling me the great thing about his loli gf is that she's actually a 2000 year old dragon. i fail to see how that proves the show's good but okay. thats called stanning.
writing unconventional female character doesn't make your show good. giving a backstory behind every of jynx tattoos is like giving meaning behind the dice hanging in the millenium falcon's cockpit; it's unnecessary. not everything about a character needs to have deeper meaning. people who get tattoos get tattoos because thye like the process, they like they look and they appreciate the art. people who have dozens of tattoos didn't all lose dozens of people, nor would you get a tattoo of your grandma's favorite sewing needles after she dies.
also, unconventional women in a world where every person, society and object is unconventional makes them.... well, conventional. what makes leia unconventional is that she's a strong woman in a world where women aren't like that. being strong also doesnt stop her from needing rescuing from, oh lord help us, A FUCKING STRAIGHT WHILE MALE. Oh my me im about to faint that a woman needs a man to save her in a male-driven fantasy story. this 100% proves that women are oppressed in real life. men risking their lives to save women means thye dont love and respect them. what???
in our world where 97% of couples are heterosexual, it's somehow become a crime to display a heterosexual relationship on screen.
@@jsmith434w is the little straggot mad??
This might sound kind of strange but I love the way they do the noses for all of the characters in Arcane, like not all the women have those dainty noses and not all the men have those sharp larger noses. It’s really nice and super refreshing to have a show where they have that type of diversity and are willing to throw out a lot of the social norms we see all the time
I mean fair. The facial designs of these characters are pretty great.
It's a shame Hollywood doesn't seem to be as invested in... 'noses' as Arcane is, there's so much more to diversity.
(This wasn't sarcastic or anything)
😂 ok thought it was just me ..I appreciate they all have realistic noses couldn't stop staring
Everything about the faces are so good. They're even asymmetrical. Look at the lips. One part of the lips is often higher than the other. The nostrils are usually inconsistent. They'll sometimes have a loose hair stuck to their face on one side... and so much more
Nasal diversity: 100%
Exactly! I have a very similar nose to the one Vi has and I really hate it but seeing an objectively pretty character that looks like me made me feel a lot better about my nose.
(I know I’m late to this comment, I finally decided to watch arcane this week and now I’m obsessed with it)
Arcane is literally a masterclass in writing characters. Every character is perfectly executed with their own struggles, arcs and goals.
Arcane isnt just one of the best animated shows in recent years, its one of the BEST SHOWS EVER MADE. From the story to the characters, representation, animation and art style and much more, every single thing about Arcane was handled with so much care its ASTONISHING
I also love that you can clearly see the fighters having muscles. I hated seeing women fighters who looked fragile and thin like a stick. It was always hard to believe they are actually strong. That´s one aspect I really love about Vi, aswell as her nose looking like it has been broken at some point. THAT´S how a fighter like her looks like!
That's so trope true! It's so refreshing to see women with real muscles. Most of the in "tough girls" are just women who are beautiful measured by the standards of the norm and know martial arts, which itself could be fine but only when it isn't the only representation of strong women.
Yes!
So you want women to be portrayed as men. Why not remove them all together and just have men instead?
@@elhaymvanhouten7963 Well what differs a woman amd a man as a fighter?Overall nothing.
@@noonelooksatusers You don't think there's any differences between a man and a woman? Ok, cool story, but even infants can tell there's a difference.
As a woman who isn’t feminine it was super refreshing to see multiple, well-written masculine women on screen. And masculine in a way that doesn’t feel like they’re just a re-skinned male character. So good.
yep, I feel really identified with vi and jinx but not cos I'm a woman, I'm a man, it's because of their character.
@@fidboi2715 that's not even true? We don't tell anyone what they are and aren't, that's more common among cis people
@@fidboi2715 I love and support the trans community. They do nothing of the sort. Take your ignorance elsewhere.
Not gonna Lie as a bi sexual guy VI is super hot. Lmao she’s pretty and a badass. Edit: also I’m really glad arcane made women powerful with out excluding the men or always making the men lose, I think it’s really beautiful when both genders are Portrayed as equal and not more or less because of stereotypes.
Yess
Honestly, when the show came out I was crying TEARS because I finally got to see well written women on screen. As a woman myself who could never identify with most female characters since childhood, I found it so refreshing and I hope that future films and series take Arcane as an example.
I’m not an entirely feminine girl, and I think Arcane has good balance in female characters. There isn’t just *one* kind of woman, they have individuality and genuine good writing and portrayal. You have your macho women like Sevika and Vi, outcasts like Cait, Manipulators like Mel, and finally blue haired pixie maniacs like Jinx. I think Arcane has one of the best women portrayals that I’ve seen, it’s one of my favourites.
Male and female. Just awesome character writing.
As a Black woman, I think it's also really important to get that one of the reasons Mel is so revolutionary is that we rarely get this type of representation, ever. A Black woman, a beautiful woman with power and who wields her power with cunning, who gets to be soft and feminine, and to have agency, whose choices impact the narrative in important ways, who is complex, sexy and falls in reciprocated love and is *not punished for it or any of these factors in the story*. My first watch of this show was filled with anxiety for her because I was so used to being disappointed by shows but Arcane surprised me at every turn.
Amazing analysis. Thanks for this!
One of the biggest thing you should also note is, EVERY character here can get race swapped to a black women. Or men, and they would still work. Mel can also be swapped to a white woman....and IT WORKS!!! That is the biggest point. They wrote an incredible character, not that they wrote a black character, that just so happened to turn out well.
Mel is like an avatar of agency that's so refreshing to see on so many levels. Even at the very end, she's really the freest of all of the characters to both choose and enact her own choice, after Jinx. Everyone else is pretty much forced by the systems and circumstances around them but she gets to make a decision for herself. I feel like I'm still just missing what I mean to say but I hope it came across.
Right? I feel like IF there ever is a beautiful black women there's almost always a beautiful white woman with more screentime/more power/more whatever. Mel's beauty AND influence are pretty much unmatched and that's something that i don't feel like we see too often. arcane won an Annie award for best character design for Mel :)
@@admiralomega shut up
@@BexMcInulty Or they pair her almost everytime with another black dude. Like white men doesn't find these gorgeous black women beautiful too. But my fear is there's a possibility that Mel's going to die for Jayce story to move forward and I'm scared.
As a lesbian I always see lesbian relationships being inserted into shows for “inclusion” that feel super unnatural and only used for “representation”. I also see lesbian relationships having one woman have the “man role” and the other woman having the “female role” in a relationship. But with arcane the relationship between Vi and Caitlyn is not just an after thought. The relationship is not heteronormative or unnatural. It’s important to the plot and it feels real. It is so refreshing as a queer person to get a deep queer relationship that isn’t just dropped in for “diversity”.
Yes!
THIS.
YESSS
agreed
It's so refreshing to finally see us be represented well, I just love this show so much because of it. I never thought I'd see the day lol, most of us are just background characters for inclusion most of the time and it's annoying.
I've never felt like a girl from a very young age. To the point of questioning my gender and if I would want to be a boy. However at some point I felt like there's nothing wrong with my body, or my gender, so there's no need to want to be a boy. This thought occurred when I was in third grade, and since that point, I've been doing my own thing by liking both masculine and feminine things. I feel like I've related to each of the characters at some point of the show, but especially Vi. Throughout my life I've been in typically masculine environments where there are a lot of men who feel like they need to test me like I need to be worthy. But on the other hand, there have been many men and women who like me not because I'm a woman, but because I'm me. Whenever I saw media in which a woman is in masculine environment, she's either such a try hard and never asks the guys for help, or she's stupidly good at it on the first try. You 100% got that point down in the vid and I'm so so so glad you mentioned it. There's hardly any characters that are so much like me as the characters in Arcane.
Just watched Arcane recently (yes, I'm late to the party), but the thing I picked up on initially is that each character carries themself differently. They way they walk/stand and gestures when talking, those all play into how a character is received by the audience. Most of what we say is nonverbal, so when there is attention paid to the nonverbal element in the show, instant success! None of the characters were static and you could see it on one of the the most basic levels of communication. Even live action movies fall short in this area, so a fully animated series is incredibly impressive to me. 10/10
Arcane makes me feel like I'm seeing a world where sexism simply doesn't exist. And that's so relieving when you are used to it all around you. I'm glad you pointed that all out
guess it's the same world where biology doesn't exist 💊
Why does it make it any better? People in Arcane treat each other well for a variety of reasons and treat each other like shit for a variety of reasons? Does it matter if you are treated like shit because of your gender versus because someone just wants to be cruel to you? Did it make the cruelty better because it didn't have to do with your body? Or was it still just as brutal?
@@terrys.2342 Why does their reasoning matter? How does it affect you? Are you asking genuinely or just criticizing their point of view with questions? Maybe they have personal reasons they like gender isn't a focus of insults in this universe, is all.
@@terrys.2342 Because sexism is everywhere in real life and in almost every piece of literature or show out there. Arcane's world is a far cry from any kind of utopia, but it helps us imagine a different kind of world that we are so tired of.
Hope that makes sense? I don't think anyone is saying Arcane's reality is better than ours as a whole. But it is *different*, it frees our minds in some ways, and it can make us hopeful.
@@terrys.2342 But also to answer your second set of questions, yes there is a difference between people being brutal to you because of your gender vs people just being brutal to you. Sexism is almost something you are born into, because it's something society decided before you were even born. So it follows you every step of your life. This makes sexism really heavy and oppressive even if the severity is "relatively minor", and it affects you differently than say, a group of criminals being brutal to you for some other reason. (Not saying which is worse - every case is different. I find that comparing who suffers more is really toxic and unproductive anyway).
I do have a comment on the fridging of Sky. The scene where Victor spreads her ashes over the Undercity adds a different element to her death that we don't see with most other examples of fridging (and I do absolutely think that Sky was fridged). Victor says that he doesn't know where she would have wanted her ashes spread, and that changes things. Sky wasn't just killed without character development to further Victor's character development from the audience's perspective; Sky died without character development to further Victor's character development from *Victor's perspective* too. Victor feels the same injustice for Sky that we do; he's torn up that he never really got to know her, and she still sacrificed herself for him - so much so that he is willing to attempt suicide presumably out of some sense of giving Sky her due. Most fridgings are purely non-diagetic - we, as the audience know that the character died only to advance another character's story, but the characters in-universe treat the dead character as if there was much more to them. This fidging is both non-diagetic, *and* diagetic. Sky's death isn't just needless and tragic because we as the audience didn't get to see her as a person in her own right, it's needless and tragic because Victor didn't get to see her as a person in her own right either... and he's devastated by that fact. Yes, Sky was fridged, but Victor, the man she was fridged for, *KNOWS* that this is the case, and his actions for the rest of his arc are coloured by this knowledge. Victor spends the rest of the show basing his decisions on the fact that a woman he barely knew died so that he could continue living and become a "better?" person. This meta-fridging gives a very different reading to the event.
In that way, even Benzo is a clearer example of straight fridging than Sky is.
Excellent points!! I definitely felt like there was more to her death that I was missing and you nailed it. Would you mind if I made a short out of your comment? (crediting you ofc, and I'll happily shout out a place to follow you if you want)
@@schnee1 Go right ahead! I'd love to see it! I'm not really a creator of any sort, so I don't have much of anything for people to follow. Maybe some day. ;)
@@prophetisaiah08 Thanks so much! I'll def shout out the "prophet isaiah" but people may mistake you for the other one :/ I'm sure you're used to it XD
@@schnee1 Not a big deal. I'm not on a lot of social media anyway, and I'm pretty sure no one outside of my immediate family follows me where I am, lol!
@@prophetisaiah08 I'm gonna sub to you just in case you ever post anything! You seem like a chill person lol
Not only did they write a huge cast of greatly written female characters, they were ALL unique.
Arcane gives me such bisexual panic, all the characters are written so well and are attractive in their own ways both physically and for who they are as people
I hope that one day we can reduce stigmatization to the point where the world of Arcane is a little more realistic. not asking "are you gay or straight" but asking "do you like guys or girls? (or both)"
Uhm, those literally mean the same thing though... one is a description about the third person (guy or girl) and one is an expression of your sexuality (identity).
And yes, it helps when characters are attractive.
@@KangMinseokwell the difference between the First question and the second is that, when you put a name to your sexuality, its kinda like a label, you can only like men if you're straight, or only women if you're gay or you must like both if you're bi. But there's a lot more categories of sexuality than just these too. Which reduces inclusivity. Also you're forced to choose or follow a specific set of rules when you're in a category or label. It's restricting in a way.
But when Vi literally asks, "man or woman?" its not a label, it's just asking what you'd prefer at this moment in time. It cud change in future, or maybe it's not what you're normally into but prefers a change now, it cud be anything... It kind of freeing in a way...
If you ask me, "are you a tea person or coffee person", if I normally drink tea and prefers a coffee right now, what am I supposed to answer? If I say I'm a tea person, I'm forced to drink tea. If I say coffee person, I'd be lying. So I'd have to explain myself to you. Which cud potentially lead to more questioning as in why I chose coffee now when I usually drink tea?
But if you ask me, tea or coffee, I'm not obliged to stick to something or lie or explain. Just about my preference in the present.
That's the difference in wording it. Hope that helps!
What I found really interesting about Mel's relationship with Jace was that she also doesn't totally take away his agency - which is another trope of female characters. She manipulates many of the other characters in the story, but she only asks Jace to help her, and ultimately the decision is totally up to him.
And the way his face lights up when she decides to support him in suing for peace instead of pushing for war. She isn't doing it for him. But his opinion does matter and is part of her decision. What is so amazing about that relationship is that it is a relationship between two powerful people who truly care and with their actions and words enchance each other's agency, instead of one having to be torn down for other to rise.
Because other characters are clowns
Mel influences Jayce but he's still the one making decisions in his life. Just because Mel wants something doesn't mean Jayce will agree immediately.
When Mel brings the subject of hextech weapons on the table, Jayce isn't immediately building his hammer. He discusses the subject with Viktor, he has a moment with his mother where he shares his doubts. During the council meeting with Vi, Mel talks about peace and Jayce isn't enthusiast about the idea. He builds his hammer when war seems inevitable and he's even ready to trigger it when he launches the attach on the shimmer factory with Vi. Killing the kid and experiencing first hand what war means is ultimately what makes him realize Mel was right.
Mel shows him the way because she has more experience in politics but Jayce always follows that path after he experiences something himself.
They are a power couple which one doesn't see often.
this is a problem with alot of the fandom taking their relationship as manipulation, sure she has more leverage than him sometimes but it's completely up to both of them
I haven't seen anyone mention this, but I love how the show didn't shy away from showing Vi eating in episode 5. They didn't make it dainty or cute, but let her be sloppy, which I don't believe I've ever seen portrayed in a woman definitely refreshing.
Fck, that shit looked delicious af lol
Yeah she made that look good ngl. Kinda wanna try it now 👀
Avatar does that as well, with the girl Zuko dates in Ba Sing Se. Didn't try to discredit your point just wanted to add to that
That scene was great, vi altogether is just amazing
I’ve only really seen it in children’s movies where obviously they don’t know manners or something and in pirates of the Caribbean the black pearl where that one girl who I forget the name of is like “I don’t have any nobles watching” and digs in
one thing I loved about Arcane (which I didn't really notice I loved until watching this video) was how Vi and Caitlyn had what could have been a very stereotypical "oh they're gay but it's ok because one is feminine and the other is masculine" type relationship, one commonly used to "justify" homosexual relationships by making them compulsively heterosexual. obviously, irl, there are many gay relationships where one is more feminine/masculine than the other and that doesn't diminish them, but media tends to take that as "ok here's how we can involve gay characters without rlly making them gay". yet, like with everything else, Arcane handles Vi and Caitlyn's relationship PERFECTLY, by not doing some cliche thing where Caitlyn is very submissive to Vi or where Vi has to save her or even where Caitlyn has to be Vi's moral compass. Instead, they neutralize by showing how Jace is very submissive in his own heterosexual relationship and they focus on character first by making the whole relationship not "she's basically a guy and she's a girly girl" but "no she's tough and has more traditionally masculine traits because she grew up in the Undercity and most ppl there became tough and she's more pristine and has more traditionally feminine traits bc she grew up in PIltover" and even THEN their characters have so much more to them than just that.
It portrays wlw relationship dynamics even better than a lot of "iconic lesbian" films that plays on tropes or romanticizes themselves too much. Honestly Vi and Cait's relationship is the only on screen lesbian relationship I've seen that resembles my own.
also there are these moments of strengths in Caitlyn when she shoots sevika for instance, and these moments of softness in Vi like when she shows her good heart or when they're in cait's room and Vi remembers when she used to play with powder, it's like the rule of neutralization he talks about, both of them have all these traits on a spectrum that manifest according to their character, not according to a stereotype, and you know very well how those traits came to be so it feels natural and organic, its never played as something they dont have and need the other to fill in, arcane is just so good. Still hate caitlyn in the game tho, i dread playing adc because she exists and that leads to me dying a lot xD
LOVE the way Arcane writes women. There’s so many different types of women and they’re all represented in really interesting ways. Way to go, Arcane!
The funniest part about the “archer woman” trope is that a war bow requires a huge amount of body strength to be used
Lol not to mention skill and practice it take in order to hit moving targets from a distance
I've always thought this was ironic too. Be kind of funny if somebody acknowledged this trope by having the archer girl use a crossbow instead.
@@leyrua Crossbows aren't that easy to load too. Especially the bigger ones.
@@kormaclodgin5121 I'm imagining one of the ones that had a crank you could turn to pull back the string.
Personally, I think the archer woman trope is less a trope and more a device to negate the obvious (and suspension of disbelief breaking) muscle mass discrepancy in combat, allowing women to realistically take part in an action adventure setting in the same way a rapier or a gun might.
It isn't because they need to be "protected", it's because they need a weapon based in dexterity rather than strength. And there are lots of bow designs that mitigate the heavy pull requirement, not just crossbows.
As a woman I was honestly astounded with the fact that I loved EVERY SINGLE female character in this show. Every single one. That NEVER happens. It's so frustrating seeing women constantly fall under these tropes you spoke about so succinctly. The fact is, you can't take any of these women from the show without ruining it. They are all integral to the plot and I love that so much. The variety of women as well was fantastic. The only thing that did make me hesitate was Mel's story. I love the whole "really smart woman using her brains and beauty to manipulate the hell out of people" but that almost always ends with the woman falling in love with a dude and then getting stupid. I'm concerned that could happen here. But so far she hasn't fallen into that trap. Hopefully it stays that way. Also, even though Cait got a shower scene, the way it was depicted was tasteful and didn't give off creepy vibes. All in all, I am so pleased with this show and I really hope other writers take note. This is how you do it, people!
Nah Mel isn’t falling into that. Funnily enough the one getting stupid is Jayce
I agree, I roll my eyes at the "strong female" character every now and then because most of them are done wrong haha.
I honestly think it shows that emotions aren't weakness. People do make stupid decisions for people they care about; but that doesn't mean all logic from that character is gone. For Mel, she only sees Jayce as a tool, until Jayce becomes open with Mel about Viktor's sickness. He vents to her and she listens. I also feel their relationship strays away from the empowering women by using men trope because of this. Mel knows that peace is important to Jayce, and therefore uses her power to dictate that in the voting scene. For example, Mel allowing the use of hextech could be seen as a dumb decision, since it ends up leading into war, but at the same time she knows that it means a lot to Jayce, and simply wants to support him. Jayce and Mel through vulnerability end up becoming equals instead of one using the other. I'm really interested in how the situation will turn on Mel and Jayce once Jinx's rocket explodes. Will Mel go back to war despite Jayce's wishes? Will Jayce keep arguing for peace until Zaun does something unspeakable that needs retaliation? How will their relationship grow or perish under the political pressure and their own moral compasses? Mel obviously hates war and death as seen from her flashbacks, but will she follow in her mothers footsteps and decide to stop playing politics? I'm desperately excited for season 2. I wholeheartedly agree with you that the writing in this show is a prime example of what to do for characters.
also i loved that there was no other female girlboss competition
yeah the shower scene felt like a "character taking a shower", not a "*female* character taking a shower"
This show was something precious to me because it showed my father, a traditionalist, a world where the sexuality of a character was apart of their life not the whole focus, that in many other stories comes across as preachy. We could talk about the complexity of the plot and the goregous animation. This wouldn’t had been possible if he felt ostracized by the story. It’s a great example of the world we’d all like to live in together. Accepting. Complex. Triumphant.
If it continues on the trajectory it currently is, Arcane is going to end up being one of those generation/era defining pieces of media. I have yet to find where it fails to hold up to even micro-fine scrutiny from a writing perspective.
_This_ is the representation and empowerment we want to see.
I know Marcus is a throw away character for the most part but my favorite line of his is how when asked about Greyson he simply describes her as “A good woman.” It surprised me when I heard it because I’ve heard “he’s a good man” a million times in film. I had honestly never heard it the other way and was surprised by how refreshing something so small could feel.
SAME! Greyson is such a great character and she's dead for 90% of the story. The comment is not an empty respect the dead moment, its true. Greyson has made a serious impact on those around her. And the subtle implication that the corrupt guard (cant remember his name) is her widow and their daughter is the one Silco uses to manipulate him is intense when you notice it.
The whole series is such a great example of the phrase we use in photography. Everything in the shot must have a purpose. And everything, in this series has just that. If it gets screen time it's because it should. Hell, we need more!
Exactly, the only time I would’ve ever heard “she’s a good woman” anywhere else would’ve been in a perverted way. Which I don’t doubt anime has done several times because of the incel mindset that’s practically embedded in it, it’s rare to find an anime that has this same level of REAL equality.
Edit: or housewife and motherly way, that too
One of the things I adore about Kate is that she can't do parkour. And it makes sense because while she actually does seem plenty strong enough for it, she has never had a reason to practice those skills before. It's that under city vs over city culture piece. She's intimidated by the heights, doesn't have the dexterity or skills to do what Vi does BUT then she tries it anyway!!! And it continues to be sloppy and painful to watch, but she gets there in the end!. And we know it's a skill cuz when Vi gets hurt, she literally does not have the strength and presence of mind to gauge her mannovers accurately.
Another thing I love is getting hurt has consequences in this world. Every fight wears Vi down, injuries kept Echo from getting home and they don't magically disappear overnight! And characters constantly push too hard! The women were allows to get hurt and have it physically effect them. No magic healing without consequences, no hard sidelining a character when she got hurt. They were treated as people first and that was so cool!!!!!
Finally, as a only child in a single father household, I can't say how refreshing it was for the dad's to NOT shy away from their daughters! They didn't say "I can't rase this child because of gender!" They were willing and able to step into a parental role, they nurtured and protected their children, and if they were worried about their child, they asked for help. They did it in a way that was true to them! And just seeing those parent relationships were wonderful!!!!
I actually hate when certain (jrpg as I prime example) stories Ignore the existence of healing magic/powers, is just sloppy and lazy. Of course, in Arcane their still don't have ample access to that.
But most forget, that word where supernatural healing exist, there would also be supernatural harming.
Cait is willing to put in the effort necessary to do what's right! Not because someone told her to or because she has something to win or lose, but because is the right thing to do.
Its Cait from Caitlyn, and Ekko but yea!
@@indulgencerofindulgence5970 i love that arcane doesnt shy away from supernatural healing, but doesnt use it every time either. there are two instances (that i can think of) where supernatural healing was used, with vi after sevika stabbed her and with jinx after the bombing. both of them got gravely injured and magically healed, but their healing also had consequences with giving trauma flashbacks and affecting their mental states. But arcane also doesnt use it everytime, other injuries like ekkos ankle and vi's scraped knuckles are tended to with traditional healing methods or whatever the characters could access. the use of magical healing is shown to only be used when desperation and absolutely necessity calls for it, not whenever its convienient for the plot or characters.
I felt that largely the show was so good because it focused on personality and what was going on inside. You FELT the characters. You FELT jinx's psychosis. The fight scenes weren't just cool fight scenes. They all had a purpose or feeling. Part of the regular masculine woman trope is they don't focus on that because it's wEaK but in this show they did, and it made every character real. All of them felt real because they focused inward, not just on the outside action.
I really like Silco and Jinx' relationship.
There are several important aspects: Father - daugther; Boss - scientist/assassin; Trauma survivers - betrayal and rebellion.
So Silco "adopts" her after she received a lot of trauma due to killing her loved ones, confirming her fears and than being rejected, even punched by the one pillar in her life that has always been there: VI, who tried to shield her from the bad parts of life - Bridge after rebellion, freeing Vander. So now she has to entirely depend on Silco and is immediately isolated. He sees the utility she poses and encourages her research - for his job (everyone fears her) but also tries to shield her (Hexgate, Progress day), which encourages her to do anything she wants.
She doesn't think about the consequences of her actions and becomes more erratic, tortured by her past she deteriorates. Now Silco sees that he's losing reputation within undercity, piltover is after him and he has to get Zaun to be able to fight back. So he tries to "fix" her by doing what he thought fixed him. For him the betrayal is a trauma but it made him "harder", manipulative, intimidating, cunning (evil smart) and made him overcome his weaknesses. But this wouldn't help Jinx, her trauma is from accidently hurting everyone because of good intentions and throwing away that trauma and embracing a hard-boiled side isn't viable. She has been trying to repress her trauma for a long time and this won't help.
In the end he tells her that she's "perfect", which would normally be reassuring but in this case only reinforced her bad tendencies. If she doesn't confront the consequences of her actions and only tells herself that she's right she will never be able to find peace with herself.
Arcane's portrayal of women felt like a breath of fresh air to me, the women felt like people. Thank you for making this video!
people not stereotypes or the hushed murmurs and such of "we can't say this or we have to acept women are this type of toxic and pretend its okay" hollywood bs
Most women don't behave like in Arcane, it's fiction. In fact, the majority women in general are very docile and frail. Sure, women that behave like Vi exist, but they are nowhere near that level. Real life women who try to act like Vi come across as flaunty and/or tryhard.
@@thevigilant6884 hmm yes this is indeed fiction but it would be nice not to hear a woman scream I'm a sexist for smiling and not looking her way as if she's entitled to my attention
@@jackhhun2698 Whatever issue you have with women has nothing to do with my comment.
The other reply seems to be missing but in response to their comment, women are people too with personalities that vary as much as men. Just because assertive personalities don't fit how you think women should act, doesn't make those women "try-hards". You thinking most women are docile just tells me you don't know many women on a personal level.
And yes, I'm sure women scream at you for "not looking their way", that's definitely a common complaint women have. Definitely not the copious amount of unsolicited attention. Every single women I know definitely screams and throws a fit when strangers don't look and smile at them. Think about how you sound.
My comment was about how it was nice to see women portrayed in such a varied, human, way. Please take whatever this is elsewhere, saying that women are people shouldn't be a controversial statement that strikes up discourse and sexism in the replies.
@@emn2375 You seem to be projecting. I'm merely talking about the Amber Herds out there those who happily push false accusations for their entitlement. and the vast amount of basic wahmen stereotypes. If it helps I am also a woman but I took this male name for people to A) Take me seriously B) this situation right Here
The ability to "show don't tell" is perfect.
Take Captain Marvel for instance:
Were constantly told she's "smart and funny and strong" and how she needs to "control her emotions" but we don't see ANY of that.
Arcane shows all of it by the tiniest things like small expressions that show more than any narration could.
Also, I think Jinx used her tiny attractive "little girl" traits as a manipulation. When Silco was mad at her for killing enforcers, when he was mad at her for allowing the shipment to be destroyed, and when Kaitlyn had a gun on her....she disarmed them by turning on the "I'm just a cute innocent little girl" to take them off guard. It was brilliant.
"I'm a helpless little girl.... and I set the building on fire" perfectly encapsulates why Jinx's writing and character are so good
God, the Captain Marvel movie has been stuck in my craw ever since it came out as one of the most frustrating attempts at creating a strong female character I have ever seen.
I love how arcane just writes good female characters by just writing compelling arcs and plots. So many people have written hour long video essays on how complicated Jinx, Vi, and Caitlin are. Their relationships and actions form the narrative heart and backbone of the plot yet "being a woman" is never a character trait or the first thing that comes to mind when describing their personality or actions. I absolutely love it.
Jinx definitely did. I wouldn’t say that jinx is a 9 year old in a 16 year old body, she is still just as smart and mature kind of. She portrays traits of both and may at times feel like a child or still show childlike behavior because of her trauma, but she still portrays a scary unpredictable Psychotic villain in a way that you don’t want to kill her because of her “innocence” and I think she acknowledges this idea towards the end of arcane and throughout the story.
@@griphn1460 you're hurt by the villain, but you hurt the one you loved. Both are the same, but oh so different.
I've got similar issues- obviously not anywhere close to the degree that Powder/Jinx has but still pretty intense at times, but my point is- for anyone else that likes to lurk through replies, the person I'm responding to is very much pointing out a huge trait of Powder that happens very often in the real world, and that's cool :)
@@softhebig♥️ I’m really sorry that you have those problems and that they can be intense. I just wanna say that no matter how intense those “issues” can be everyone wether they think it or not is capable of overcoming that. You just have to believe it. Sorry for the cheesy ness I just wanted to let you know that. =)
"what character should we build around this boob" im ded 💀
I’m writing an essay for my University Portfolio titled ‘How Netflix’s ‘Arcane’ succeeds in writing strong female characters: An analysis on how to write women.’ This has been absolutely brilliant in highlighting writing tropes and really deep-diving into the female character’s of Arcane. All your analysis videos in general have been an inspiration but this one in particular has been so helpful, can’t wait to see what you do for Season 2!
Good luck with that, that sounds really interesting!!
One loved is that arcane had a black female character, who was in a position of power, but wasn’t viewed by others as a try hard,bossy, or “angry”. And we got to see her relationship with her mother, a rather complicated one(with a few toxic traits), a type of relationship that many females have with their mother(especially with mother-daughter relationships of black and brown women). While watching her scenes I could really relate with them.
Also she was allowed to be feminine and desirable. You don’t see that a lot for black women in media and i’m living for it
Why does this matter if humans are equal?
@@Heatwave9000 What are you even asking me exactly? Why should black women be shown as being multifaceted? I love seeing that because humans ARE equal. Which means they should be shown in the light that every other woman is shown
Isn't it nice when the race of characters isn't what is most important about them?
@@DeathBecomesH3r I wasn't asking you. Mind your own business.
It's so rare to see written women as human beings who have thoughts and personalities of their own
because it rarely happens irl either
if you know you know💊
@@wtfdtreats 😐
Feminism caused this
That's deep
This, right here. People first. People, period.
it’s so satisfying for someone to not only write relatable women but also for you to put it into words exactly what’s happening . Being able to understand exactly what I want to see in characters is going to help me write characters the way they deserve to be written.
Arcane does such an incredible job of portraying authentic, genuine, unique expressions of femininity, and in so many ways. It's been a while since I've seen a show where the women really stood out as women to me, not because of things they did, but just because of who they are. My mind always goes back to that moment where Vi comes back to the Undercity for the first time, and as she sighs, her eyelids flutter ever so slightly, and her face softens. That's not something she does for anyone. It's a moment nobody sees. But something about the way she relaxes and allows her emotions to overcome her, even if she has to do it in secret, is just so perfect in a moment devoted solely to her. And it's the way it's framed, too. I think that something great about it is that we see the "female gaze" being used in so many key moments like this. It resonates in a way that's so beautiful to me, and so rare.
Also, while I'm here... the way you handled this topic was amazing. It's so refreshing to see a male creator put so much thought, research, and genuine, open-minded willingness to learn into a video like this! Your take on it as a writer is fantastic (I audibly gasped when you mentioned Jinx's tattoos - they're Vi's flare?!), but I can tell that you also worked really hard to explore this through a female lens, even if it might not be familiar to you. 10/10
As a straight white male, Vi was my favorite and most relatable character - regardless of gender and sexual orientation, she was also the biggest sibling in a group of 4 kids. Having grown in the same position - the oldest of 4 - I could feel this part of her character was so well written and represented that I sympathised with her every step of the way. I hope modern Hollywood takes note and realise that we could connect with characters on a deeper level regardless of their gender or sexuality.
This right here ^^
@@sokol5805 bro what
@@cleancaramel Can't you read?.
@@sokol5805 mental illness has nothing to do with the comment, and it’s never been rationalized in Arcane
@@sokol5805 oh, you’re one of those, ew
The fact that they made the most badass fight scenes in the entire show (and in any show, personally) be between two badass women, and not get too hung up on their gender, is really telling in how well they handled their female characters. It blows my mind that this show isn't being talked about more...
it's because league of legends sucks ass but the show was actually really good but because the game sucks, a lot of people are hesitant to watch the show
@@arcticspetsnaz3094 that show is talked about enough and it was so good and so popular they said they immediately announced season 2
It is hyped quite a freaking lot, except it wasn't actually advertised that much. Anyway, it spread around quite much and so far around people liking animation considered as masterpiece must have to watch. What else we need here?
@@antonzhdanov9653 not sure what you are on about...It doesn't get talked about in casual settings as much as it deserves, in my experience/opinion. I've never heard anyone IRL mention it, I rarely see it talked about on social media outside of places that are dedicated to it or similar topics. Receiving awards and praise in the animation world doesn't make it "hyped" in the context that I was referring to. What else we need? You already said it...more advertising. But feel free to keep arguing for no reason.
I swear, if I have to watch another fight between two women being sexualized I'm gonna lose my shit. It was so satisfying to see two female characters have a heavy fight scene
my favourite thing about the characters in arcane is that they're not emotionless. A lot of 'strong' female characters have no emotion and always acts tough, whilst Vi who is arguably the toughest girl on the show, she isn't just one emotion. She gets upset and happy, it's so refreshing to see a character who is extremely powerful and cool not be a stone wall. She is also just a very caring person and she has great motives and reasons as to why she acts the way she does. Arcane writes their characters so well.
I absolutely LOVE that Arcane doesn't just objectify women. Very little takes me out of the immersion of a show like an overly sexualized character (Poison Ivy, looking at you). THIS is how you write women, and THIS is an amazing video.
Just as men are different from each other, so are women. Arcane went through various nuances of femininity and masculinity with both men and women, and that's how they got this astonishing result. By the way, I loved that sexuality isn't a thing there. Caitlyn's mother wasn't surprised to see a girl in her room, and Jinx talked about Caitlyn being Vi's girlfriend as if it was no big deal. Some LGBT characters don't have a personality at all, so it's nice to see a show that didn't put LGBT people just to claim it representative.
yes for the love of god yes in Hollywood they just turn men into women they give them every toxic male stereotypical behavior and call it empowering or get a lesbo stereotype and call it empowering. Its all the same mary sue bs and its gross and very sexist misandrist and plain unappealing to most women and especially men who are like "Hey I know that ashole how he get tits?" subconsciously but get em drunk I bet you'd hear it
Exactly! There is a trope similar to 'defined by gender' in LGBTQIA+ characters in modern times: the 'defined by sexuality' or 'defined by not being cis' (sorry I suck at naming things). A lot of times LGBTQIA+ characters exist to check off the box, but in Arcane it is super different. It is not the real focus of the character-- the real purpose of the character to be trans or gay or whatever, it is just something they happen to be. Like schnee said, they thought character first and not trait first. Many writers seem to go "okay we will create a gay character" rather than "what if this existing character happened to be gay?"
The way Caitlyn's mom and Jinx are shown to be indifferent proves this. It is not a big deal.
I think that is what a lot of us (LGBTQIA+ people) want in representation. We do not need a character going around announcing they're trans or pansexual or even ace-- we just want a good character who HAPPENS to be nonbinary or something.
@@mxngos7493 YES! Just like real people!
I freaking love Arcane and every single frame of it. It's incredible and I hope next season will be just as good. I thought things were going too slow at first, but by the third episode, I could only beg for more. The women were well written, the men too. But I gotta say I love watching the conflicts around the lack of equality. It represents the real world so well. Seeing our beloved characters fight for a better life gives us a feeling I can't describe.
i love so much this characters, lgb+ or not. Most commons show today are like "oh yeah, and don't forget to add the lg+ /black character on the side to make it modern" kind of like. Like when they put one of them, you better know that they've done it, because if u don't, they're gonna tell you that he's not like you. you don't need to be found of lgb+ ideology/feminism but just have to love good screenwriting to love this characters.
Yeah, she was only surprised to see A GIRL in her daughters room
Arcane in it's main roles have:
-strong women
-gay characters
-a cripple
-dark skinned characters
If nobody new any better it could be assumed that it's just another "Netflix adaptation" trope. Arcane should be presented in a lessons on how to write actual diverse, likable characters.
*disabled person
Grzegorz Sz
Gay characters ??
@@luciferien5604 Yeah, Vi and Caitlyn are clearly a lesbian/sáfica couple.
@@Mztthdw Ouffff I was afraid I thought you were talking about Vicktor and Jace !
On the other hand Vi and Caitlyn are not in couple in the season 1 of Arcane so there is not yet a gay couple for the moment
And Vi and Caitlyn proves very well to be pansexual or bisexual and not necessarily and only lesbians.
@@luciferien5604 They may not be an official couple but it's pretty obvious that they are more than friends so I don't think it's wrong to go ahead and declare them as a couple.
I know they don't have to be lesbians, that's why I also put "sáfica" which is an umbrella term used to refer to women who are attracted to other women.
I adore your style of video and speaking. I often find that video essays have a tendency to slowly meander about but you speak in such a concise not-*too*-fast way.
Agreed! It’s so easy to follow and understand what he’s saying
It's the agency bit that you talked about that gets me- it's such an important thing when it comes to writing female characters- and characters in general. I have read far too many books with 'strong female characters' who end up meeting all of the blocks and issues you mentioned.
I am so happy that Mel is _allowed_ to show her sexuality. Not only is she the one that initiates with Jayce, it is immensly clear that she is the only one who _can_ initiate. I always got the deep seated feeling that if Jayce had initiated, she would have rejected him, just on principal. Hell, we kind of see that in the "don't loose your Nuts" scene. She makes advances and Jayce makes a small move to initiate - and she puts a very firm, but not unkind stop to it. Not an "I don't want you" but "I'm not doing this _right now_ "
And what is even more refreshening: _Mel doesn't get punished for having Sex_ . So often female Characters are directly or inderictly punished by the story after having sex, _especially_ if they enjoyed or initiated said it. The most aggregious is of course horror or slasher movies where it is usually the virtious virgin that is last girl standing, while everyone who has even thought about sex for an instance gets killed, but it happens in other media too. But Mel is allowed her sexual agency, which she does indeed use to at least push Jayce into certain directions. I hesitate to say manipulate, because this implies that her goal was something that benefited her while harming him and I never get that feeling. She does want an outcome that benefits her, but not really at the cost of someone elses happiness or success.
Yes! I completely agree with this. I always had my own agency to initiate relationships with other people and sometimes I was shut down because it wasn’t the norm for women to be so forward. It was stupid. Women shouldn’t be punished for wanting to have sex. It’s such a normal thing, and that’s why it was so cool to see a character like Mel.
In fairness, she does manipulate him. And the show does criticise her for this through subtext and metacomentary, at least from my viewing angle. She's shown to feel guilt for using her charisma that should have been used for good for self gain, and we can see that she lumps sleeping with Jayce in that category. She loved him, but she used him for far too long to where she (and I personally as well) felt she crossed the line into manipulating him. Sex was almost used as a reward for agreeing with her. While she enjoyed it, it's clear she wanted him to see her as a prize, because that meant she could set the rules of the game.
@@bye1551 when it comes to Mel and Jayce’s relationship I consider 2 scenes as the most important:
1)the lap pillow scene, until that point Mel had initiated every physical contact between them, always with a sexual subtext, but this time Jayce has a sudden heart-to-heart and it catches her off guard, I think it’s that moment where she truly starts to love him(everything before being a mix of interest, sexual attraction and social manipulation), his sincerity forces her to open herself too
2)the “slapping away the chalice” scene, her mother manipulated Jayce through his inexperience in politics and flustered him with her sex appeal, encouraging him to be reckless, JUST LIKE MEL DID, she sees how her tactics look like from the outside and it deeply disgusted her we don’t really see her manipulate Jayce after that
@@victormagoco9752 exactly, thank you for explaining my point much better than I could. She does manipulate him, and then feels remorse for it. Just because she corrects her actions doesn't make those actions disappear (which is what a lot of Mel stans like to do)
TL;DR thank you for being smarter than me XD
I really do hate when storytellers use the story to punish behavior, let alone stuff that isn't even wrong. You can see a lot of the writers bias in what they write. Arcane showed me that the writers if they have any such issues are able to keep them to themselves.
The moment I knew Arcane got it right was when Marcus was paying respects to Grayson's grave. I almost NEVER get to see a male character look up to a woman. Literally the only other example I know is Steven Universe where Steven looks up to the Crystal Gems.
@Tom Ford what? Bc he’s one of the antogonists of the story?
@Tom Ford lol. No he's good. They make him antagonist but with dimensions. The only reason he became antagonist is he don't want to left his daughter. You can see when he's young he despise "bad people", then he got a daugther it changes his perspective of becoming a police.
metal gear solid
I think it was more showing that Marcus can feel guilt and shame for his corruption and deep inside wish he had the morality and virtues of Grayson. Marcus also might have felt that he's tarnished Grayson's legacy.
I don't think Arcane included that scene just to show that Marcus respected Grayson.
@@flyatnight-1812 He's a really good representation of going to far into the deep end. Deeply regrets his mistakes, wants to change, has tried fixing some of his mistakes, but ultimately couldn't fix all his mistakes because he fears what would happen if he did.
Really good choice to show him never being able to redeem himself too.
"what sort of person shall we craft around this boob" is now my favourite line
I think one of the reasons arcane has such good written women is because of the diversity. Every single girl in this show is different. Backstories, appearance, personality, likes, dislikes, habits. They all are basically their own person. It’s as if they weren’t even written.
Also Mel has so much depth ya know? She has an arc, she learns to remember mercy. Most women in this role pretty much end up like her embessa. They are treated as scary and heartless in the story, and I think this plays into the fear of women being in power. Women in power aren't hard workers who you should respect, they are scary, and must be heartless. But they gave Mel a heart.
Also I kind of have what you might call a hot take when it comes to the strong girl archetype, I think people are mad because it's a woman who is strong and they think it's all about feminism and therefore and has no depth, when in reality I think there are just as many men characters like that. It doesn't mean they're good characters, but it's not bad cos its a woman, its just bad, but that's nit a feminism problem, thats a trope problem. So yeah.
Agree with both your points. Too many attempts to depict women in power head straight to that extreme for some reason. I think probably because they're too eager to get away from the weak/meek stereotype. With Mel they found a truly impressive balance over the course of the arc.
And yeah, I think even broader than the action girl archetype, there just way too many poorly male and female characters. But since we fixate on how women are written, we tend to ignore all the simplistic, one dimensional, stereotyped, unnuanced men who fail in the same ways.
agree with u, with vi, I've heard people say that she is strong just because she's like a tool for the feminism movement, but she is strong cos her story has made her like she is. An I think that's what happens to all of us. we are something not because of what is between our legs, but for the actions we have taken in our life that had lead us to what we are today.
it's like with jinx, she is all childish not because she needs to be this child stereotype woman, but because throughout her life she has gotten a lot of traumas that had left her stuck to that childish personality.
and this happens with all of us. we are what we've been through, and that's not preconceived with our sex. but it is decided by us and the stuff that went through us.
I also like how they didn't treat Mel like an infallible hero for realising mercy. She's criticsed and called out for how heartless she was (though I'd like her to be held to more accountability on screen and not just through subtext and metacomentary) and she's supposed to learn and grow. But it also doesn't treat her as weak and foolish for choosing mercy, she's criticised, and her mother brings up some good points, even if I disagree with them personally. But the audience is left to decide: Is she evil for straying from mercy? Or is she weak and foolish for ever having chosen in at all?
@@schnee1 dude u got a very based take on the topic.
Ngl, when i was first introduced to mel in her throne i was pretty terrified of her. Then she show kindness masked with "necessity" and delivered with her tough persona. It made me crush on her a bit ngl
"Get hurt" is SO important, I've thought a lot about why Rey and Captain Marvel just didn't appeal despite being me, as a woman, being really excited to have strong female protagonists.
They never seem to actually get injured. Some of that is action design that doesn't sell the impacts of fight, but it also comes across as hand-wavy "oh they're just too strong to get hurt" without actually convincing the audience of that.
This is broadly a Protagonist problem, regardless of gender; they've got Plot Armor so we can't break them too much. But it's so satisfying to watch someone get back up again after being seriously beaten down; they aren't just strong, they're truly determined, and that's what makes us invested in their victory.
Funnily enough marvel dropped the ball the one time they did explore this. Thor, previously basically untouchable, then his world, his brother, and his people die at the hands of Thanos... And what do they do? Throw a trope in, fat depressed gamer guy living in his own filth. Hated that.
@@joshsmith5752 so my main beef with how female "strong" characters are written has always been that their strength is physical backed up by oh well I guess that's also mental. And I think the way the mcu writes male characters is the same thing. I really enjoy a lot of the mcu stories, but being physically able to be strong even with characters like iron man and Dr strange is the point. Not that any of the movies are terribly nuanced but I think it leaves the characters feeling flat. And that more than anything is why I think fat Thor failed to work for many people. It's hard to feel that kind of depression in a character when their only real personality trait is written backwards from physical strength.
Arcane was one of the few tv shows that I think really worked hard not to fall for this in any of its characters. When a character is strong or weak... It is a product of the things that happen to them and it manifest physically.
That's why I think as far as the mcu is concerned, Wanda Maximoff was so much more well received as a character than captain marvel after her show because even though she's stupidly powerful, the core of it all is her hurt and journey of working with her trauma as a _character_, not a woman. She's strong but she's not defined by her physical strength which ends up being more of a double edged sword than anything
Exactly. I think hollywood feels a certain amount of pressure to write strong female characters that they forget that women are human too and have flaws, have emotions, etc. Strong female characters that are "perfect" like Rey, Captain Marvel, etc, are really poor representations of women, because they basically are teaching the audience that growth isn't necessary, and strong women are only women that are perfect. There are ways to write "woman are just as strong and capable as men" that aren't "oh these women are also perfect and never experience any life changing hardships ever and never have to grow as a person because they are a strong woman and if you disagree your sexist." My favorite examples of strong female characters are the women in avatar the last airbender. They are strong and very capable yet they have many flaws, and we see them grow and have arcs, both in their bending and in their personalities.
W lol x
The best part for me is that all the women in the series are good and don't need to remind everyone that they are women every five minutes, so refreshing!
Exactly. I don't know who the quote is from, but I remember someone saying along the lines of "You can be amazing and a woman, but you aren't amazing because you're a woman". So many shows/movies JAM it down the viewers throat with the whole HOLY COW! Look what she just did! How could a GIRL do that?!?!?!?!? Like yea, we get it, someone cool happened, am I suppose to be more impressed because a female character did it? It should just be a character accomplished something and that's what arcane has done. They don't force the viewer to look at the event differently because it's a female or a male character. They are just characters.
I teared up during Vi's part. You explained her so well. thats why she's my fav and comfort character. as a masc woman this is exactly why i love arcane! 💜
Tbh, there is a big difference with Vi showing strength.
It's the fact she LOOKS STRONG, and LOOKS like she can take on someone twice her size.
Compared to "strong woman" in other media, that are as thin as a twig, and could be snapped in two, but somehow bench press people.
Or those female characters that are portrayed with bulk bodies and muscles in their muscles while having the typical "punch first, questions later" attitude that completely downgrades any attempt at character depth. It's not the fact that the character who's playing the role is a woman, it's the fact that the representation of strong women are either downplayed to the dumb, one-dimensional, stale, or overly-masculine character tropes. It's almost like they just casted a man with a wig and gives up on any attempt to improve the writing of said character.
@@ThatChester interestingly enough, in the game (League of Legends) one of Vi's main line is "Punch first, ask question while punching"
@@ThatChester there’s really nothing wrong with a masculine woman though. That’s what makes Vi so good. She’s the masc girl done perfect.
and the fact that she actually trains
@@vismattress5760 Thing is, Vi isn't masculine, Vi is muscular. Media often portrays muscular women with an art-design they'd use for male characters or are more representative of male physiques in real life. For example Luisa in Encanto or even SSJ Kale in DBS. However Vi looks like a woman, a lean woman who works out for size, but undoubtedly a woman.
Vi being Vi *shows her throwing a table* I love this
Love it too
I like how arcane gave us those storng characters that were talked about in this video whom just happened to be woman.
Like their all personality isn't just being a woman/black/lesbian/masculine;
They treat those characters like every other characters without making it a big deal, and accepting it as the norm which is great in my opinion (:
this was an amazing video essay! i love the setup and flow of it, and you hit the nail on plenty of parts of the show!
what’s cool is how usually, in any show or movie that has a lot of women, it focuses on that fact - but arcane doesn’t. it just has the regular balance of women to men that most societies do, and doesn’t make a point that “we included women so we’re cool” or anything. i just love how casual they are about it
No Arcane just tries to fool you into thinking that there is a balance between male and female characters actually there's not because even tho they've built female characters with debt and make them likeable the male characters in that show are lacking comparatively and fall under certain tropes that exist on a lot of mediums. Like think about it the male character with the most depth was probably Silco and that made him the most memorable from any other male lead in this show. It's like the show was written to only have good female leads not male ones
@@panosa7x416 cringe
Also vi and jinx are the MAIN main characters of course they're gonna have more depth than anyone else
@@panosa7x416 not true,, but at least now you understand how women feel...
@@pocketsoup8338 it's supposed to be two stories on different fronts vi and jinx vs viktor and jayce those 2 stories are the main focus of the show but character development is lacking in the male part. Arcane yes is a really good show but it's not perfect not by a long shot
Exactly, I feel that way about all of the diversity in this show
One of the aspects about the "You're HOT, Cupcake!" scene that makes it more than just 'Hot all along' is that for Cait "I'm an outsider too" it's also the first explicit praise and acceptance from the culture she sees as inherently sincere. Obviously this would be an idealised view of Zaun but for our Enforcer it's the perceptions she has that matters. It's not "Oh, I'm actually pretty!?" it's "The people who don't always lie to get what they want say I'm hot!"
I like it! We see all she gets from Piltover is mockery from her coworkers, reprimands from her boss, condescension from her mom. FINALLY someone just sees her for her and says a kind word. Deceptively big moment for the character.
right? and actually i think it fits both interpretations i just saw, im sure it’s a combination, this and the comment of the reminder that she can use it as a strength.
@@schnee1 Exactly. I should add, it's obviously not just the "They think I'm hot" aspect but it's the first explicit sign of acceptance she sees. It's the door being opened.
i would actually argue it isn't "hot all along", because vi says the "your hot cupcake" line to caitlyn to make her uncomfortable and it works, caytlin gets uncomfortable and i think thats not because caitlyn doesn't know shes beautiful, but more this sexualisation and aggressive flirting is something she is not used to.
i think this interpretation is interesting and want to add that i like how they contrasted cait’s reaction to this complement vs her later reaction to vi complementing her shooting, correcting her by saying she’s not an alright shot, she’s an excellent shot. it highlights what cait values and takes pride of in herself. so instead of it being this “hot all along” thing it’s more like bc she was raised with wealthy parents and a position of privilege and doesn’t like the aspect of being handed things bc of her parents, she takes a lot of pride in the things she herself has trained and worked for instead of things she was born having (like beauty). not to say you can’t take pride in your beauty, but it makes sense that cait wouldn’t based on her desire to be respected through what she does, not who she is or looks like. so vi telling her she’s hot not only serves as a glimpse of acceptance, it shows her that instead of fighting against the things she was born with, they can actually be used in a way she hadn’t thought of (and thus also shows why they’re a good match for each other as they both have things to teach one another)
Extremely well thought out and well written video essay that gave me a new appreciation for the show. Great work man :)
The way they dealt with jinx's and Silco's relationship was just really well done.
24:25 actually, imo, caitlyn's shower scene is pretty cool for many reasons. her body is definitely not sexualised at all, the point is clearly not just showing cait's body. we can notice it from the shot of the wound on her leg, and then the focus is on her facial expression, as we can see her trying to reflect and figure out what to do despite all the stress she is being put through. it’s actually a beautiful scene that shows us caitlyn' mental strength
I just absolutely adore how Jinx wears a very sexual outfit but isn't sexualized by the camera/men/the show ☺️☺️❤️❤️ that type of stuff is so rare. She gets to just exist in the clothes she wants and how she looks doesn't become her personality
Yeah, she looks like she's just wearing clothes she likes, not pandering to the camera, yknow? I think it's breath of fresh air :)
genuine question, how is the outfit "very sexual"? its just a crop top and some pants.
@@enbyfrogz6766 the entire side of her tits are out. like if you've seen a jinx cosplayer, they often they have to alter her top or tape the hell out of their boobs to keep them from falling out.
@@enbyfrogz6766 fr
@@enbyfrogz6766 I definitely think her clothes are sexual, not "very sexual" but I'll take a crack at what I think she means.
Jinx is wearing a crop top that shows a lot of back, stomach, and some side boobs, plus no indication of a bra, her girls are allowed to be free. her pants are quite low-rise, the lip of her pants are below the "panty level" with crisscrossing belts that highlight her lower areas and hips. then there's the fact that EVERYTHING is skin tight which leaves all little to the imagination, you can pretty much see and imagine her whole figure without really trying.
Where I would differ though, is that I think she accentuates the sexual aspect, she makes her clothes FEEL more sexual with the way she behaves. swooping hips when she walks or stands, curved relaxed spine, and unflinching demeanour when she sits on her father figure's lap (legs spread too I might add). This I think makes her clothes feel more sexual than they are, as someone with less feminine qualities would probably make those clothes feel more masculine (IMO).
As a man, the idea of making this video to say "I loved how these women taught me about great characters" is amazing. Part of why I hesitate to write female characters is because I don't understand them as well and don’t want to make a big mistake. Arcane changed the game and you have made points that even I missed about great character work. Keep this series up!!
the most important part of writing people is to write them as individuals. I don’t tend to think about the genders of my characters when I’m initially writing them, because a large portion of my characters aren’t particularly affected by their genders (this is somewhat related to the settings I’ve written). I’ve had a lot of times where I’ve designed a character and have a lot of their story down, but haven’t even decided their gender/name yet.
when I start writing a character and their gender pops out to me as something that’s important to their story, the character ends up more gendered. maybe the level of gender each individual character ends up with is based on which point I give them a gender.
something I try to avoid falling into is the cultural norm of masculine = neutral and neutral = masculine. it’s unfortunately common, neutral words like “buddy” or “kid” are made implicitly masculine while masculine words like “man” or “guys” become implicitly neutral. a child is assumed to be a boy, people usually specifically say girl when talking about children who are girls. you can’t avoid it entirely, unless you wanna create a whole new language, but it’s good to be aware of it while writing.
the most annoying thing about it is that it’s a very old norm. actor is neutral and masculine (probably because only men were actors before), while actress is explicitly feminine (oh geez there’s girl actors now, what do we call them? they can’t just be normal actors). there’s god and goddess, a bunch of them. there’s also the interesting case of seamster and seamstress. sometimes I think I should use the explicitly feminine words as a celebration of femininity, sometimes I think I should use the neutral/masculine words to avoid treating femininity and womanhood as foreign/alien, or as something added onto the “neutral” person. there’s some interesting video essays on femininity as performance, and that’s a topic that could be explored in a story, but I’m not sure that’s really my story to tell.
oh! something fascinating I’ve seen with the de-gendering of words vs gendering of words. words that become feminine or turn neutral from feminine are usually insults, less so for the masculine side.
for example: the words for dogs used for breeding, stud and b!tch. when made words for humans, they were initially gendered, stud being a man who gets with lots of women (positive), b!tch being a woman who gets with lots of men (negative). these words have changed since then, becoming more neutral (stud has retained more of a gendered connotation though). b!tch is less of a gendered insult nowadays, but remains an insult.
it sucks, how you talk influences how you think, so what do you do when there are harmful thought processes built into your language?
jesus christ, this got long, guess I had a lot of thoughts.
That fact that you think this way, knowing that understanding and respecting how characters work is essential for every character makes me so happy, I can’t wait to see what you’ll make. That’s a lot more effort than most 😂
@@justanotheranimationchanne5725 This is so much stuff that is so true, and you don't really realise it until you sit down and just think about this stuff. Bruh, after reading your paragraph I am having a Jaden Smith existential moment, I swear.
As a woman, write women like you write men. It doesn't really matter. Irl my personality has both typically masculine and feminine traits. I like looking cute with skirts and stuff and being all soft snd polite, but at the same time I have many moments where I sit down to listen to heavy drift phonk and use heavy language while opening up and messing with my laptop
@@spaghetti5914 definitely agree now, having watched Arcane and realizing that it's not that different. There is a measurable difference between men and women characters but there's important similarities too
17:27 IT'S (NOT) ABOUT JINX
IT'S ABOUT POWDER
WE STAY HUNGRY
WE DEVOUR
this video is very thorough, logical, constructive, and objective. I might say it's one of the best videos i've seen deconstructing or analyzing a piece of media with relations to gender. I just want to say that this video is very well-done and very educational in terms of writing characters and representation of women in media.
Also, as someone who watched Arcane once and loved it (I'm planning to watch it again), I thought it was nice that I got to really sympathize with these characters regardless of gender. They took these stereotypes of women in media and instead of letting it become a "typical women" moment, they expanded on the stories and experiences behind them, letting you feel and become immersed in the intensity of their situations. It's not just the women either it also applies to characters like Viktor.
Like you said, these emotional moments or vulnerabilities weren't treated as irrationality or weakness. Instead, it is supported through previous experiences and is treated as something that allows the character to act through agency or something that further builds their character. It shows how their very understandable and well-executed stories influence their thoughts, how these thoughts influence their emotions and state of feeling, and how these emotions influence their actions that have time and time again become turning points or huge events in the story. Like how Powder was constantly being treated like someone incapable of contributing to the family by not fighting when Vi and the other kids were, losing the items they stole, being the youngest, being discouraged by everyone except Vi, and being excluded in the mission to save Vander. I think from what I remember, Jinx wanted to prove to everyone that she could help, and she also wanted to finally help them with a finally successful gadget of hers. So when she screws up and accidentally kills Vander and her friends with that same successful gadget, you can't completely feel angry at her. It isn't treated like a "dumb girl" moment. It's a build up from how these people around her have treated her and a genuine unfortunate series of events. Heck, it even highlights the intense destructive power of the blue ball. You're left with the bitter taste of loss and tragedy. I honestly love everything about that scene in episode 3. While yes, it is a tragedy, I love how you could really feel the weight of it. The artistic interpretation and action of this sense of victory and everything turning out to be ok, followed by the heavy and crushing loss makes it even more painful. In Arcane, this tragedy is the turning point in Jinx and Vi's story. The creation of Jinx and the source of her psychosis that makes her take many impulsive actions which have heavily defined the events of Arcane down to the end of season 1.
I'm sure if I watch the series again, I'll come to recognize details of other scenes/characters that I've missed and appreciate them so much more. Anyway, super long comment lmao. I love this video and Arcane.
really appreciate the "here's this trope executed well" for every single trope you mentioned
Yes, because sometimes it does work and fits, but I often find a lot of that depends on casting. Brienne for instance is mostly Gwendoline being an absolute boss.
@@Ailieorz yes. But also the world around brienne is built in a way that her character functions
Originality isn't nearly as important as execution. A tired trope written exceptionally well is wonderful.
@@shrike6243 this feels so important. it's becoming harder and harder to be truly original--sometimes redoing a classic take on something with fresh nuances is the best way to be original
I'm so glad you talked about Jinx in relation to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope and said you don't see her being portrayed that way. I *still* see a lot of young guys say that Arcane's "unhinged"Jinx is hot and that they want to date her and it creeps me out so much. In my opinion the show really shows her to be still very much a child, to have a stunted Psyche and severe mental illness and even the thought of dating someone like her seems so predatory and wrong. She needs help, not your wiener...
Hey... don't kinkshame
@@russiandoggo4336 Mental illness requires respect and care. Horniness in this context is a huge red flag because of the vulnerability of mental illness.
@@stephenleskowat4482 idk people fetishize crazy ppl all the time
@@russiandoggo4336 even so, that doesn't make fetishization okay in any context.
@@aokoi I say you can fantasize about whatever you want.
Watching this video, I could've cried because you summed up PERFECTLY how this show is so unlike pretty much every other show I've watched. It has the most amazing cast of women characters in a show that is not JUST targeted towards girls to watch, boys can watch it too and think "man, I want to be as badass as Vi one day". THAT is the beauty of Arcane. The characters in this show felt like actual, whole and entirely complete characters with their own complex series of events that shaped them to who they are today instead of just flat portrayals that don't explain the why behind their actions. It's absolutely incredible.
Splendidly done. I am amazed by the high level of character analysis.
One of the main characters, Vi, could've been the stereotypical masculine woman who fights and has explossions of rage and is emotionally inmature. But what what we see is a fighter and a caring, assertive, and mature person cohabiting in the same body. It's just a masterpiece of art.
I am a 50 year old woman who has spent most of my life raging against the fact that I was, am, and always will be seen as a "female" and anything else about me, judged relative to that label. When I saw Arcane for the first time, I almost broke down crying. I knew it was because of the depth and quality of the women's characters but I couldn't put it into words for myself. I think I have been buried for so deeply and thoroughly in a woman's reality that I don't even know what the right way for a woman to be portrayed is anymore. I just knew I hadn't seen it yet. Thank you for putting it into words for me. You hit the nail on the head. I hope the folks who write Arcane will continue to be true to these fabulous women.
I felt the same. I hate how the only thing women seem to be able to do is fall in love with a man.
Arcane did a great job in being diverse and I LOVE the characters. All of them. But especially Vi :D
Why u mad about it?
I felt the same way. Everyone was just... people. Why is such a simple concept so difficult
@@Heatwave9000 they said why. don't be rude about it. they don't have to justify more than what they already said.
50 years on this planet and you haven't learnt to see yourself NOT as a victim until a cartoon? Well, better late then never I guess. But I'm glad you found some type of empowerment from this.
"Write women as people."
vs
"Write your characters as nuanced people, and acknowledge that things like gender, race, class, age, etc. are all going to influence their development and thus them."
you have no idea how much I appreciate this over view of the writing. this is so incredibly articulated and true.
arcane is an incredible series, especially in it’s representation, inclusivity, but most importantly rich, organic character building (specifically for the women)
it’s absolutely revolutionary or rather it’s bringing its base to the standard all shows/stories should have and building up from that instead of a stereotypical or shallow base;
which is something much appreciated in a day of poor writing where it’s very common to see plots that have a foundation of some kind of social box that’s very shallow and artificial that spoils any series as a whole