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It's amazing how popular this terrible show was. It's almost like it was actually good or something.

Im happy someone else noticed Fire Nation Cait

They had so many moments that were supposed to be "happening at the same time". The problem becomes a lack of meaningful set up that causes individual scenes to fall and feel hollow because they are only set up never meaningful characterizations

most characters that dont have a payoff are never to much in focus. you dont understand trauma enough to understand how characters act. the story only feels rushed because there is so many factions that clash at once. in other media they would usually fall one at a time. so its just u being used to things you already watched obsessing over writing rules that dont have to be true.

12:33 “there’s nothing to say! YOU BLEW IT!” This sums up how I feel about arcane so well

I kinda disagree with the homophobia and underrepresentation of LGBTQ+ relationships in media, especially in vi and cait prison scene, as a matter of fact I disagree with the need of representation of underrepresented qualities in popular media in general. I think saying that these need more representation feels self-serving and hollow to the parties that want representation, I think representation should NOT matter at all. Representation is like a genre, it doesn't really matter what the genre is, it's appreciation should rely on the quality of the story. Humans are humans, and as long as the story of whatever is being represented has heart, truth, integrity, and deep universal empathy in portraying the main characters, then I'll connect with that story no matter if the characters being represented are the polar opposite of me. What's funny is that when a media tried to represent me, I absolutely did not connect with that piece of media as it piggy backed on the idea of representation so much it feared to paint any negative light upon it. Not showing a balanced view of a character is dehumanizing, and that's why I dislike the idea of need of representation. Just make a good story, even if I dislike or like whatever is being presented, I will still connect with it if it focuses on it's substance rather than representations.

14:50 a lot of season 2 was left up to assumption unfortunately. I just imagined that Scar and Sevika filled him in on everything since they were present at the meeting Jayce held in the council room in episode 8. I’d like to believe that at some point Ekko might’ve possibly brought Jinx back to the Firelights base where he was able to reconnect with them seeing as though they all pulled up to the war together…but I guess we’ll never know 😅

Thank you for your analysis, I really hope it gains more traction in views. More people need to be this critical

season 2 episode 7 was actually disgusting. they have ekko lie about who he is, pretending to be her boyfriend, violate multiple boundaries, while taking advantage of powder's body without her consent, all whike a randomly introduced french nation sings about how she is his enemy , so he'll deceptively love and leave her. i'm glad that you were able to enjoy it as the (onlyy) writer who wrote it intended, but it's disgusting and a further disservice to the actual writing TEAM and ekko's character from season 1. i hope that you retroactively notice this.

It’s crazy to me that non league players think we know who these people are

THANK YOU so much for talking about how gross it is that not only did the show give up on discussing classism and systemic oppression but it deliberately tried to cowardly reframe everything bad happening in the show as the fault of hextech or the fault of both sides going too far or whatever bullshit, absolutely despicable shit. Also loved your discussion regarding Mel's character in season 1 vs her butchering in season 2

I don't agree with all your criticisms but I feel this video is pretty fair overall, just wanted to say that cause it seems this video may not have been received all too well

queer this queer that.. the world would be a better place without obsessing over labels.

If it didn't happen in the show and it cannot be reasonably infered based on how the characters and the world works. It didn't happen. No matter how many times the writers "reveal" that information in interviews. Also to the whole Vic and Jay gay thing. Nobody cares that Vi and Cait are gay. The reason being because it was well written in season 1. Season 2's Vic and Jay's relationship comes out of nowhere and makes neither sense story or character vise. it is fan fiction of their own show. Lastly I've read quite a few interviews with the writers, producers and voice actors and I wouldn't entirely fault just money. It seems that the writers truly gave no fs about their world or story.

Also funny that everybody misses the fact that the scene with Vander, Silko and the mother basically tells you that either Silko forgot that Vi and Powder are the kids that he promised to protect or that he didn't care and wanted them dead anyways. He was fully prepared to kill Powder.

Whenever someone says: "You are nitpicking." They are telling you that you are correct but they don't want to hear about it cause they don't care.

The reason that the AU timeline was different was not because of Powder not getting the hextec crystals or Vi dying, it was because Caitlyn also died in the same explosion Vi did, and since his best friend and daughter of one of Piltover's most important families died, Jayce never continued his hextec research, and hextec was thus never invented. The "Viktor did a total 180" argument is just plain stupid too, cause that's the entire point of his lore, and these are just 2 instances of what you said being wrong, I haved many more At least get your facts straight when shit-talking a series which was meant to be consumed alongisde other media and lore. Arcane was always "a love letter to League of Legends players", as stated by Riot themselves, so maaaaaaybe Arcane-onlys should stop complaining when you don't even do the work to go after the complementary lore. Just as an example, there were three mini-games in League's client which filled in some "holes" in the series, and even deepened Jinx's relationship to Sevika, but you assume everything has to be hand-fed to you. You love saying things were "left open" and "unifinished" and YES THATS THE POINT it's not one self-contained story and it was always intented to be like this, to continue being told in the game events, stories, etc, directed at us players and lore enthusiasts, not those who only watched the show and called it a day. Deal with it :T

I do like the Javik soulmate thing, it makes sense and it's rarely shown in a non romantic way. Not that I give a damn if they were gay but I like soulmates better.

19:56 nope, me too. But people call you a weirdo for pointing it out.

I enjoyed it. Still a fun 8/10 show, only disappointing because the first season was a masterpiece of writing and character work. That intro made you sound absolutely insufferable. Why is every video essay film TH-camr such an elitist prick.

I think youre too focused on outside matters about the sex scene and are forgetting a lot of in-show problems it has. Like, Vi was just told by Jinx thats shes gonna off herself, she was literally screaming for her to stop, and just by Caitlyn showing up she just forgot about it/didnt care anymore? Not to mention that throughout the whole season Caitlyn wanted Jinx imprisoned/killed, she did literally everything in her power to achieve that, and now that it's finally done she just lets her free?? What the actual fuck happened in that scene

Imagine the following: Jewish guy fought against the germans and killed lots of civillians. He was an asshole and was undeserving of redemption because he is too extreme. Also, there's this guy named Adolf, hes some little naughty things against some jews but I mean, EVERYONE deserves a second chance do they not?

Loris, Maddie, and Steb (the Enforcers) aren’t actually League characters, same with Isha. They’re OCs

I love you

i think you’re being so generous with your thoughts on that caitvi reunion scene. like that felt so unserious especially considering the circumstances of their breakup (and caitlyn fully hitting her omg)

an epic downgrade? lmao...

Great take! I wouldn't blame it on the writers though. They could've either committed career suicide by breaking their contract, or followed orders. Orders included 1. The shortening, 2. Giving screen time to certain characters, 3. Aligning certain storylines with LoL, 4. Tying it up (but leaving certain threads open), 5. Putting up a front towards the media and the fans, regardless of their personal opinions...

I kinda resent the spotlight that Noxus got, the black rose and all that mjst be cool and all for the league players, but it took so much away from the piltover and zaun conflict

I wished the writing team was as dedicated as the other artists :/ but anyways....

HOLY SMOKES? i came here from you AMAZING arcane critique videos, the only ones i 100% agree with, just to find an animatic with one of my favorite songs with one of my favorite characters. ur so cool

i hope you feel vindicated from all these comments, you were exactly right. i knew from act 1 they were building on shaky foundation, it just got worse from there

One element of the Ep3 fight that confused me was how Caitlyn beat Sevika. Her rifle is glitching out and she somehow 'transfers' it to Sevika? How? Sevika's arm isn't using any hextech and she was only briefly exposed to the energy when it blew her arm off and scarred her face. If that was enough to affect her, why didn't it do so when the glitching started? A great alternative would be to have Caitlyn use a knife. It would make sense as Sevika already nearly killed her in close quarters so she'd need something to give her an edge. And more importantly a knife is what Silco used to kill Vander. It'd be some subtle visual storytelling to inform us that Caitlyn is changing for the worse

"People only dislike the JayVik ship because of their own homophobia." No?? Just... no. While I don't doubt there are some homophobic fans, that's not the case for all of them. First off, I am bisexual, and I think we need a lot more on screen specifically male gay relationships, as there is a shortage of it compared to women ESPECIALLY in animation. So the reason I don't ship Jayce and Viktor is not because I'm homophobic or don't want to see two dudes kissing (I've been waiting YEARS for Gumball and Marshall Lee to kiss, I was on CLOUD 9 when it finally happened.) I prefer them not as a romantic couple because I think their bond is much stronger than that. They have a deep, brotherly bond that literally transcends space and time. They are soulmates, just not in a romantic or sexual sense. (Personally, I also think Viktor is asexual or aromantic, but that's just me.) Their love for each other is like a familial brotherly one. And I think it's an issue in media today that any male/male friendship is immediately labeled by fans "gay." As if men just can't be friends or care about each other on a deeper level. Also, side note.. Jayce was not thinking of Viktor when he was smashing Mel. Like what?? The parallel between cutting from Jayce & Mel to Viktor was a "life/death/creation" parallel. Jayce and Mel were... well.. smashing, which is the act to create life. And while Viktor was dying, his blood fused with the Hexcore which also gave it a "life" of its own and created magic. It was not to suggest he was thinking of him while with Mel. (Funny enough, there's a scene in NBC's Hannibal where Will Graham and Hannibal are "with" two women and it's obvious they are thinking of each other and not them.) I'm not trying to judge you for shipping them, because at the end of the day, fiction is fiction and people are allowed to have headcannons. I just think calling people who don't ship them homophobic is short-sighted.

One of your critiques is that they opened the show where they left it at the end of season 1? Really?

One thing for sure, if the writers continue this manner of writing from s2 into the next show, the franchise will definitely fall off altogether

Really good video As for couples I agree with you regarding the sex scene between Caitlyn and Vi, I know there are criticisms regarding the timing but I also think that there was never really going to be an "appropriate" or "best" moment. Imo the worst mistake would have been not to do it. As for Mel, Jayce and Victor, I am a big fan of the relationship between Mel and Jayce in romantic terms, while I see Jayce and Victor more as something platonic, it is a very deep friendship relationship and for me everything that happened in the ending was a very self-sacrificing way for Jayce to help his friend and deal with the survival guilt he was having from everything he had to go through with Hexteck. I know that there is a conversation about the sex scene between Mel/Jayce and the parallelism with Victor but it didn't seem to me that it was what you describe in your video but I know that there was an animator of the show as if giving hints about that, which bothers me a lot. Regarding the relationship between Jinx and Ekko, I agree with you 100%, it ends up being the strongest couple of all, at least in my opinion, in the first season it didn't impact me that much but in the second the development was impressive

The problem us that Arcane is the new canon lore of the league of legends world... so while I too wish they focused on the story they could have told with the little time they had... well I guess they just had to showe 4s into 1s cause its canon events that have to happen for the MMO and future shows to make sense or what ever.... God I wish arcane wasnt canon, just an AU as it originaly was planed to be.

I feel like your rant towards the introduction scene with the council misses the point. The whole sequence was to reflect the introduction scene in the start of the show. And how this reflect the cycle of violence.

I literally did not care about Maddie, steb, or loris at all and I actually forgot loris existed for a second. When he died i literally couldn’t have cared less and vi didn’t care that much too lol

Thanks so much for giving a fair review of Arcane! So may people are focusing on the bad which there definitely is, but I found there was just enough good in it to like it. I feel like if it was a three season show and there was more time to focus on the class conflict between Zaun and Piltover in the second season (with Warwick as a subplot) then we could have focused on other things like the cosmic horror plotline between Jayce and Viktor, and Mel and Ambessa's conflict with the Black Rose in a third season. I think it also would have made Jinx's transition into a redeemed character much smoother and more believale. I and many others I'm sure wanted her to be redeemed somehow, but season two Jinx feels more like where a season three Jinx should be in terms of growth. That being said, I also agree that Singed/Dr.Reveck getting his happy ending was a thematically consistent ending for him because it shows a brutal reality: sometimes good things happen to the peple who don't deserve them and life is unfair in tha way and we can't fix it.

"What's Sevika going to say?" Lol. Lmao even.

This review doesn't feel entirely genuine, perhaps you got a lot of back lash from people hurt by your raw but insightful critique of part 1 and are now trying to cater to a wider audience. Did you really like Isha as a character? I just felt everything about her was wrong and out of place. Just one example

I thought the sex scene was soooo out of place … literally could care less about it in that moment , that could have been done many episodes before

Final thoughts, what really got me going about your analysis is a difference in perspective probably. In my pov, Arcane shouldn't be trying to solve world peace or spread some grandiose ideology. Neither the show nor the characters should be a vehicle for any of that, which is why I think so many ppl love it. It's feels real, relatable, and not corporate cliche at all. And maybe it should've tried to reach for the stars like so many other did, but I think the majority of people just want resolution in their own lives, which is what the small character moments did really well to portray: there being light to every tragedy.

Season 2 did nothing to build off of what Season 1 set up. It went from first season(s) of Game of Thrones in season 1 straight to the MCU in season 2, culminating in an 'Age of Ultron' finale. I do agree the kiss between Cait and Vi in episode 3 did not feel romantic or even appropriate but upon multiple viewings of the season, I've come to the conclusion, if there's any way to defend it at all, is that Caitlyn kisses Vi to reassure Vi that she won't change, even though both Caitlyn and the audience knows she's already changed. It's not out of true love or inability to control her impulses any longer. It's Cait manipulating Vi to keep her doubts in check. What really bothered me though is literally less than 5 minutes later they have their breakup moment. The pacing on this show is beyond frustrating.

23:24 ngl, sounds like you a problem haha. Not to completely discredit your views, because they are very true and you are probably on the side of generally great story telling. But if we get and deeper into the original plot, it stops being league of legends and just becomes a generic cyberpunk fantasy that doesn't serve its intended audience.

19:51 honestly, you should expect that no one gets happy endings in arcane, especially without sacrifices. That's what we've been watching over and over since arc 1, literally first 3 episodes. Nothing will resolve the cliche way and that's freaken amazing! This isn't a Disney movie, the world of runeterra is way more ruthless and deep than just a little conflict in Piltover vs Zaun.

9:04 something I complained about at the end of season 1 was that, I don't think the writers were ever going to tie the bow on class conflict if they went the nuclear route with jinx firing a rocket into the council chamber. It was during a time when we were in conflict still in the middle east. And us removing leaders only creates power vacuums which doesn't actually solve that kind of conflict. And so going into swason 2, I knew the story wasn't going to about creation of Zuan or W.e, it was just going to be a character-driven narrative with Themes. I think the criticism here is valid, but it shouldve been evident that class conflict isnt the focus of Arcane, it was just a biproduct of good story telling.

16:22 fair point, but it was comical how they showed us scenes of the 5 of them ganking bot lane. Gotta give them props there

Gotta disagree with your Vi and Caitlyn point, that scene was awkward as fuck. Just poorly timed, weirdly placed, and exploitative as all hell. The genders of the characters involved doesn’t magically make it a good scene. And on top of that, you’re wrong. The one sex scene in media that was absolutely necessary and added everything to the story is the famous sex scene in Berserk in the “Wounds” chapters. That blows this garbage out of the water, and I wish more people would read Berserk to understand what a truly remarkable sex sequence is. That one is as intimate, immaculate, and tear inducing as any such scene can be. Not some awkward prison sex scene to earn rainbow skittles points. Representation and wish fulfillment of specific viewers is 100% meta and does not make a story better or worse. It’s a meta-political element that doesn’t have any bearing on the quality of the writing because it’s 100% based on the sensibilities, opinions, and identity of the individual viewer. True quality in writing transcends such things and is propped up by what it does within the context of the story and not the real world.