วีดีโอ

season 2 was so far from a masterpiece that it insults the artists and voice actors that worked so hard on their craft. the season is just so badly written and directed. they should have kept the writers for season 1 instead of throwing it all away just for an easy cash grab from people who will buy it anyway and then try to live in denial about the quality, rather than recognize the trash they put out this time.

looking forward to other easter eggs, my fav from this was the embedded sword 🔥🔥

biggest Lin Lie fan ik give eggy a trophy

This has one of the most condescending video titles I've ever seen on TH-cam. Did not watch.

Your defense of S2 Viktor mostly consists of misinterpretation and throwing dirt on who he was in S1. I have a problem with that. 16:50 I'm sorry, did you say he didn't change at all? Back In s1 he was a scientist and kind soul, who ended up having to choose between protecting the world from forces beyond his comprehension and saving his own life. In s2 he's a messiah, then a supervillain who essentially wants to kill everyone. 17:00 his disability doesn't prevent him from being an altruistic scientist. In fact that's exactly who he was in the entireity of S1. 17:42 You already established he had very little time left. He's trying to save his own life. Why did you say "instead of allowing his body to heal over a long period of time, he frantically carves runes"? 18:15 even if he faced malice and discrimination, I'm not buying that he internalized it to a point where he holds some kind of grudge against society. That isn't the defining trait of Viktor. You talk about it lay the groundwork for what he bacame in s2 act 3, but you're ignoring who he was in s1. First of all, there are no instances of Viktor experiencing social hardship because of his disability in the show. There is dialogue in s1e2 which hints at that happening in the past, and that's it. It didn't stop Viktor from being someone who works tirelessly to help others. He helped Jayce when everyone else cast him away. He is responsible for the advances of Hextech. He even gave up on trying to save his own life once he realized the error of his ways. Summing up Viktor as someone who "endured malice and discrimination because of his disability, therefore wants to rid the world of individualism so they don't happen again" sounds really wrong. 18:50 Again, he did what he did becuse he was dying. What do you mean by "He can make that choice for himself, but not for others?" You make it sound like humanity is dying along with Viktor and Viktor is trying to save them. That is not the case. 19:08 You just repeated what the show is trying to say, but didn't talk about what it means. It means everyone except Viktor dies. Nobody in the show even addresses this. How did we get to a point where Viktor wants to do this, but can't realize what the result would be? 19:40 Arcane Jayce needs to shut the fuck up. And people need to stop parading this scene as some kind of hard hitting emotional conclusion. This is Jayce saying "You were never broken, there's beauty in imperfections" to a guy whose "imperfection" was that he was crippled and dying. This is insulting.

"Arcane" is rated at 8.1 out of 10. Advantages of the project: 1. This is one of the most beautiful animations. (In the second season, I think this is too much even.) 2. The setting of scenes and directing decisions in each episode was cool. This makes the image look great. 3. Top-level facial animation = great acting. 4. There is a good pace in the series, and therefore you want to watch further what will happen. 5. Interesting topics and philosophical reflections. In the second season, there wasn't enough of that. Neutral (pros and cons of the project): 1. Characters: there are both well-developed and generally normal ones (there are also average ones, of course). I thought it would be a plus, but (after the first season) there were still questions about these characters. 2. The plot in the first season was super, but in the second... there are some oddities. snatches here and there, and scenes are changed several times. Some questions were not answered. Especially with art-house elements and some quick twists to the end...debatable to me. Especially when I predicted a lot before the release of season 2. 3. Emotions... tested it... few! Yes, this is strange to me! How to describe it: rather, these are things that you understand yourself, but as if they do not fully reveal in the series itself. Although I was worried about the three characters, it was like you were cheated on in the end... Therefore, if they continue to develop the franchise, I'm afraid that the second season finale may be devalued.🤨 Disadvantages of the project: 1. Music and music videos ... sorry, but I didn't like 65% of them. Even opening. And the clips (especially in the second season) became less relevant (with the exception of two of them; the rest could be cut out, since the context of what is happening is clear). 2. There are some very strange messages in season 2 that don't seem to be fully realized. And as if the original ideas of season 2 were rewritten in a hurry. Rather, a note from myself: The series after the second season really feels like an experiment. For the first time, I can't somehow recommend who needs this project, because the series turned out to be both interesting and at the same time ... throws you into a sea of questions about plot twists and flaws in the story (and yes revising the series to "understand the details", but that only gets worse from the impression ... I guess I have to be a philosopher to think things out for the authors)😂. That is why the project should show us in season 2 not "Art for Art's sake", but the story that was so competently pre-written at the beginning of the entire plot, interweaving important visual pictures to understand and complement everything. So out of respect for the writers who made a great season 1, I raised the rating a bit (well, so I won't call it a masterpiece in any way, Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, Avatar the last airbender and etc. is still cooler😁). It also feels as if this series is a bridge between projects (almost), and not an independent story ... this is strange.🤔

I watched season 1 back in 2021, and enjoyed it, but it was nowhere near my favourite show. After watching s2 after my friend begged me too, i became addicted. Top 3 shows all time.

I'm still confused why Caitlin is so adamant about innocents not getting caught in the crossfire, but then gassed the under city in her persuit of Jinx.

I would like to thank whoever you are because you made a beautiful video which already from the title makes it clear how much better it is than all the other Arcane videos. Why? Well, it seemed to me that season 2 has really divided fans into 2 categories: those who are defending her fiercely by saying that she is beautiful and those who are saying that she is absolute shit and people often end up arguing because of this , so seeing a video that talks about it so sweetly and exposes his ideas while also understanding those of others was very nice, also because this is reflected in the comments where I saw people discussing it in a calm manner, seeing both people who liked it and people who didn't like talking about it as they should talking about a TV series and not taking offense as I have seen done in various posts on Reddit or comments and videos on TH-cam. Having said that, I didn't like season 2. Without dwelling on all the logical errors, plot holes and everything else that I often didn't even notice without them pointing it out to me, I really detached myself sentimentally from the series. In the first season I was very interested in every single character and every single story, I was always curious, excited to see a new episode, I felt "love" or "hate" for the various characters (for example I hated Jinx for the entire first season). While the second season really made me completely detach from the series. They almost completely stopped talking and delving into the characters, their logic, their evolution and the relationships between them to move forward a plot that was becoming more and more full of useless and ugly things, totally losing sight of things like the war between Piltover and the underground that seemed destined to explode in the first season. This long plot full of useless details simply leads to a lack of interest and a flattening of emotions. To return to the previous example, Jinx stops being Jinx. They don't make her act bad anymore, just a couple of fights, but nothing major and we totally stop talking about her on a psychological and emotional level. Furthermore, she gets closer to Vi with the excuse of Vender without however ever giving a clear glimpse of a rapprochement between them since we went from the 2 of them fighting and Vi claiming that Powder is dead and now there is only Jinx to the death of Jinx with Vi's sadness without having spoken correctly about their relationship. So as a viewer, when I see Jinx's sacrifice I have no reaction. If in the first season I hated her and wanted to see her die, this season no, I simply lost interest, I don't hate her, I don't love her, I don't feel any particular relationship with Vi, with Isha, everything seems pulled away. This is just one example, but for me it applies to so many things and choices that made me completely detach from the series. In short, a season that could potentially have been a 10/10, I feel like I shouldn't even give it a 6 because of how it disappointed me.

I agree! While I don't consider Arcane perfect, I still consider it a masterpiece. ^_^

Who cares what they think. I Was drawn to the screen... I couldnt look away. My eyes were open but my soul was watching... Every emonion they wanted us to feel i did... And man fuck i wish i never watched this show.. Not until they had spin offs with these characters out. This show made me so sad and lost. And i was a happy dude before all of this.... This show soul raped me...

i think it's a bad sign that the show made me feel nothing. not even disappointment somehow. just glitzy visuals to entertain my autism while i comnected to nothing and rooted for viktor for the sake of artificially manufacturing some enjoyment for myself.

W video

So many people calling arcane s2 a masterpiece is wild to me and while i usually I'm able to see other people's pespectives i literally cannot comprehend how anyone thinks this is good let alone a masterpiece. The pacing: The pacing is bad, period. Stop making excuses for it. This shouldn't have been one season, not even 2 but at least three if this is the conclusion the story was going to arrive to. I want to see Caitlyn's fascist arc, Vi's emo arc, I wanna see Jinx surrendering herself after Isha dies, I wanna see Mel training herself instead of getting the Rey treatment, and those are just a few examples. And no it was not netflix's fault the creators always planned 2 seasons so the writers shouldve known how much story to cover but they decided to rush all this anyways. Hextech: Skarner's backstory being retconned is one thing. I mean god forbid they show that piltovans are the true villains who are willing to exploit everyone and everything for their own gain but whatever we moved on. On top of that they gave us this arcane bullshit that retconned and ruined every robot and hextech related character ever. Like it straight up sucks, noone asked for this. Warwick: Are you kidding me? Like what the actual hell was his final design? When singed said he was gonna remove the last bit of humanity from WW i thought "oh hey that means he will look like a wolf just like in league" but no. We go this shitty humanoid looking version that made him walk up right like that doesnt make him look more human. And then he just dies. The class conflict: The writers of arcane don't understand class struggle period. This also ties in to the pacing problem but its not just that the resolution was rushed but that the writing sucked. Ekko: See the point about hextech. His visual design was 100000% better tho ill give them that. Isha: She was introducted just so that she could be killed off and Jinx can have character development. That is lazy writing for a tragic backstoy imo. This list could go on forever honestly but i think ive made my point.

As someone who loved Season 1 and was dumbfounded by how much of a 180 Season 2's writing was, I have to at least applaud the title of this video. Every other analysis I've seen leans either on one side or the other, but you openly invite *both* sides to watch your video. Well done, really stuck out to me!

I absolutely agree

it’s good bc Sevika hot

This is cope bro 💀

Femboys love this series 😂 yall simp left and right for this trash being dumb must be nice

I’m glad people can still enjoy it, even with the many many flaws. At least I’m not the only one that loves arcane as a whole

THANK YOU!! This is perfectly said. My favourite part of this season was jinx and her arc. It was actually so well done. And that’s why I enjoyed it so much. I loved seeing her progress

I think a lot of the chaos of season 2 can be explained as a result of the corrupting force of the arcane on the world. The arcane is supposed to corrupt and accelerate everything towards chaos, war, and destruction, so all the intimate character focus of season 1 is supposed to be destroyed and replaced with insanity. All the characters are in some sense corrupted, hence why they make such strange decisions seemingly on a whim. This doesn't excuse everything about season 2, but it explains a lot of its chaotic elements. People miss the intimacy of season 1 and its pacing, but season 1 also foreshadowed that the Arcane would "lay waste to civilizations." In terrible times, people aren't allowed to just be themselves. They are forced to react to the circumstance and become something they wouldn't otherwise be. I still think the whole "there is beauty in imperfections" quote is terrible.

I thought all of these points were fine. The biggest problem for me was the Black Rose. For someone who doesn't know the lore, nothing is really explained, like why did the woman say "clever girl" and why did Mel destroy her? I understand needing to create new threads for future locations, but not enough time was spent explaining anything, so it ended up feeling like wasted time that could have gone to Jinx, Vi, Viktor, Jayce, or Ekko and been put to much better use.

For me it felt like they built up so much character and world plot only to have them fizzled out in season 2, I like the plot points of season 2 but it feels like a bullet point version of what it could have been. The writing just feels worse compared to season 1. Don’t get me wrong I had fun but the more I took the story in the more I was left with the thought of “that's it?”. I was hoping to get attached to isha in a way she was her own person but we literally don’t know anything about her and her death was just a "welp that's what thought" rather than feeling like it was an inevitable sad outcome. What made me love season 1 are the complex characters that have done shitty things but they are so much their own person, they have goals, they have reason. I went from hating sevika for betraying Vander to being captivated at the fact that she's doing this for Zaun, she followed Silco cuz she believed he was the closest thing to that. As much I think it's interesting that she became a part of the council, specially since her goals are far from it, I would have loved to see journey to that but we don’t. At best we got "everyone got arrested so she's the only option", the plot felt shoved in rather than the character carved it in herself. Season 2 was fun but the only reason I’d rewatch is for the art and maybe rewatch really fun scenes like ep 7 and Sevika with new arm

I watched season two right after season one, and the comparison to its predecessor was night and day. I searched others' opinions to find the conflict was a lack of quantity versus an inability to recognize quality; neither of these points seemed to fit. I then researched the team behind the show and their interviews with the media, only to learn they produced the second season with half the staff and used a near-polar-opposite creative process. That S2 was made for demand over desire, and that shift in philosophy saw them shrinking their team, and looking to other shows for the gap in inspiration. Nit-pick until the cows come home, when the bottom line is that a shift in the conception and contributors happened at the first word, every justification becomes a compromise. Arcane is made better as a result of season two, but the second season did not make a better Arcane.

I find it hilarious how, yes, the season had str9ng shortcomings compared to S1, but it remains as one of the greatest achievements of animation we'll see in probably the current decade. Like, it's like saying it's hot, but not as hot as the sun. The sun is pretty fucking hot, the fact that a comparison can be made is a statement on itself.

Frankly, even though season 2 is flawed, I became way more attached to it than seasson 1, i found arcane way more interesting and menorable after season 2

Too much happened of screen

In French we call this video "Mauvaise foi" and "justification à outrance"

I suspect arcane season 2 is the type of story that rewards you the more you rewatch and analyze it? But victors heel turn and everyone kinda dripping their conflicts to fight him like flew by really fast?

I can barely pay attention because that 3ds eshop theme takes me back in time

I wouldn't say master piece just because some important characters we pushed back or seemed off. However, I enjoyed this season alot! :) I feel like Netflix only giving them a set amount of time and resources on top of cost made it so difficult.

The thing most ppl hate about this season was it not being politically focused on the class war between Piltover and Zaun since Silco and Vander (but particularly Silco) left a mark on viewers. They wanted that legacy to be the backdrop for the characters for more episodes. But what ppl miss is that the land of Piltover/Zaun exist in a world where other powerful nations exists. Where other elements enter and pretty much trample and dwarf the romantiscism of said class war to me is the realistic element of the show which to viewers felt didn’t hold weight. But it was a pragmatic tool to show that the world that Arcane exists in is bigger than the class war between Zaun and Piltover. Why wouldn't Ambessa, a fabled Noxian warlord, hijack the chaos between Zaun and Piltover for her goals? Historically class tribal/civil wars has always been easy opening for a new regime to exploit and tactically usurp to form a new order. Ambessa's aim was the hijack a military weapon that would threaten the Black Rose in Noxus and form her own regime by becoming the America to Noxus's Russia per se in an military arms race. There's no emotional build up for these elements. Just sheer pragmatism given the nature of the character that has a geo political aim. Same with the Black Rose who suddenly infilitrates with their own clandestine goals and learn that Mel is also a "secret weapon" connected to the arcane. It shows that there's a breathing world beyond Piltover/Zaun's story arc. What Season 1 was built up for is the slow cooked romanticization, whereas Season 2 builds new plot lines on top of what was romanticized with the pragmatism of bigger and grander forces that kind of introduce an "alien invasion" considering how powerful Ambessa, The Black Rose, and the HexCore is juxtaposed to the class war that make the class issue seem small but more endearing in value. I think the show did a brilliant job of juggling what a chaotic civil war environment with many characters that have their own agenda would look like, sync into one, would like. That's a tall order for any writer/writers to accomplish. Not to mention the memorble poetic pieces of dialogue I can go on and on about. So I agree with you that this is should be rated as it own masterpiece 10/10 since it achieved something that wasn't just a continuation of Season 1 in structure and design. P.S This even worked into the idea of the theme of the show "Enemy" since each character clashed with other based on ideology, for the good and bad.

Before watching the video, I don't feel like there's anything wrong. The pacing of the first season was the exact same, and equally brilliant.

Having rewatched Season One again before rewatching Season Two, I am now very much in agreement with you. Arcane has always been a character driven story and centered on them and their conflicts. In this case their dualities and how they mirror and conflict with each other. Season Two focused on two key principles/questions, "Can you find the power to forgive and move on?" & “That which inspires us to our greatest good, is also the cause of our greatest evil,” These two things have very big significance after Season One. In Season One the politics of extreme inequality and the conflict therein, while certainly influencing character motivations and serving as an important background for events to play out, the show was never explicitly about this conflict. The inequalities between the cities are a factor in the plot and themes but not the central narrative. The central narrative was about the sisters and their tragic relationship and those of others whose relationships are changed by the changing world of progress. Silco's dreams of an independent Zaun are shown to be built on sand. He died, the revolution died with him. Piltover with Noxian help was able to subdue the undercity with relative ease. I can certainly fault the show for not allowing at least more time to better show this rather than using a quick montage that would certainly go over people's head on first watch. And I would certainly fault them for not doing a better job showing how Sevika and the others went about convincing Zaunites to fight in Piltover against a greater threat to them all. But again this was never the shows focus, especially with time constraints. In regards to the exploration of Vi's subplot, upon rewatch I agree that the show ensured that we did not waste time exploring Vi's descent to the bottom of the bottle and her self-destructive behavior more than it needed to. In regards to Caitlyn and Ambessa (this also applies to Vi and Jinx as well), we see clearly that grief has driven Caitlyn to do terrible things in her efforts to bring Jinx to justice. Things she has come to regret by the end when she breaks from Ambessa. And we see she has the strength to forgive Jinx and let go of her anger. Something that Ambessa cannot do with the Black Rose, it got her son killed and has driven her blindly to her death at the end. And Viktor in his attempt to save humanity from its emotional contradictions, discovers too late in multiple timelines that he only functionally erased humanity entirely and created silence and desolation in his wake. “That which inspires us to our greatest good, is also the cause of our greatest evil,” Silco, Mel, Ambessa, Vi, Jinx, Vander, Heimerdinger, Jayce and Viktor have all done what they did out of love for their cause and those they hold dear. For both good and ill. All in all, I just think slightly longer episodes and maybe one more episodes for Act's II & III would have allowed things to be made more explicitly clearer to viewers. Most astute analysis overall good sir.

Season 1 is masterpiece season 2 na way far from masterpiece.

Some of the story lines dont make any sense at all an felt forced just to continue to plot. There was for example no reason for singed to go to the vander statue where he got captured and eventually joined ambessa and causing Vander very conviniently meeting jinx and vi afterwards, but this was completely out of character for singed. Usually people come to him, but he has never shown any interest for anything outside of his experiments, you cant even say he was just curious to meet jinx. He also coudnt anticipate that he needed Ambessa to recapture Vander , because Vander was completely under his controll before he went there. He didnt know victor was "enlightened" at that point and he could have easily walked there by himself. He was just there out of nowhere when he would have to him more important things to do.

I don’t think that Arcane S2 deserves all of the hate. Yeah it’s definitely flawed and needed more, but it’s still an extremely good show. And after seeing all of the hate towards the writers, I don’t think it’s warranted. That hate should be directed towards Netflix. Why? Because from what I’ve been hearing, bigwigs at Netflix told the creators to shorten the episodes. Like WTF Netflix. The creators wanted to do more, but Netflix just said Nah, it’s too long. Even with its most successful show, Netflix manages to screw it up as per. Like come on !!!!😡😡😡

Honestly, I’ve been seeing a lot of hate criticizing the writing, but I don’t think it’s the writing’s fault. It’s Netflix’s fault. Now before I say anything else, this is just SPECULATION FROM RUMOURS. I’ve been hearing online that Arcane basically told the shorten episodes because they were “too long”. I love Arcane S2, but do feel like it needed more. So hearing this boils my blood. So maybe let’s not hate on Arcane, but the guys at Netflix for cutting down footage.

season 1 will age like wine, season 2 like milk

S1 gave us a politial conflict, S2 resolved it with zombie robots. GLORIOUS EVOLUTION.

I believe the term "masterpiece" is being overused by fans. It's supposed to be reserved for works of the highest quality. While Arcane's animation and soundtrack are on that level, the writing in Season 2 is not. It's good but not quite on that level. The writers needed to delve into (A) Caitlyn's time as a dictator, (B) Vi's time as a pit-fighter, and (C) What happened between Jinx and Ekko after Ekko saved her. If these developments were properly addressed, S2 would be much closer to being a masterpiece.

You literally explained why it is not a masterpiece, calling Arcane Season 2 a masterpiece is a huge stretch.While the animation and visuals remain top-notch, the season faltered in pacing and narrative execution. It was rushed, leading to underdeveloped storylines and reducing characters to mere plot devices. Complex additions like time travel and the Black Rose muddled the plot, stripping it of the coherence and focus that defined Season 1. The shift toward spectacle came at the expense of emotional depth and character-driven storytelling. Beyond its style, the season simply lacked the substance to live up to its predecessor. The Black Rose and the time travel were interesting concepts executed pretty poorly especially the first one.The season is aesthatically great but bad in its execution because the bad far outweighs the good when you compare to Season 1 and focus beyond aesthetics. Most characters in season 2 were not even characters, just plot devices with a body and some voice lines...if they even have voices.. Literally no consequences to Vi and Caitlyn's risk because Mel provided sudden literal plot armor to the latter and the former's character was assassinated just to prioritize a ship. There was also no logic to the Jinx chase strategy nor to the Kiraman hit squad only consisting of 5 people smh. It's very convenient how the antagonist suddenly becomes Ambessa Medarda whom just gets off'd thanks to Mel's deus ex machina magic without an actual explanation regarding how she passed. How the hell does Ambessa dying to the Wolf complete her character arc when it just results in losing her daughter and her life at her hands, essentially burning bridges with their noxian ties too ? Very convenient that Noxus now becomes the main villain when the responsible of the massacre of season 1's finale is literally a zaunite among the supposed good guys and protected for some reason. There's also no logical reason as to why the enforcers in act 3 don't recognize Jinx despite the fact she has her face plastered everywhere for instance.The fact there's missing episodes is no excuse to what was released, why add so many plotlines when you can't even handle it properly ? For instance Ekko and Vi are supposed to be close yet they don't interact at all nor even adress each other, you just have to believe it because it's explicitly stated lol What the heck was the Loris character's point ? Looking like Vander and just being theres while Vi gets drunk over a girl she barely knows without even seeking a supposed close friend for support ? (That's only a few of the issues there is with the characters, the plot and its execution)

A lot of misinformation thrown around by people. Since I know my comment will just get nuked if I give any links or drop any names: - No it was never meant to have 5 seasons. - The writer's room imploded after season 1, HENCE season 2 "feels" (is) different. - The messages, the decisions, the execution of season 2 falls onto 3 people only. 1 of them having a meltdown after criticism. I do want to evoke the concept of "Death of the author" in here, since facts might paint a specific objective picture about both pre production, production and results. Yet, people will always see what they want to see, and can easily find ways to spin any work to fit a narrative, a point, a simple thought. That's what art is by the end of the day. But just let me say this, two wrongs won't make a right, and blind love is at the end of the day based on that brittle fact: An illusion. Art has the power to captivate people without even trying, it can resonate with people all the way from the harshest critics to the easiest to please crowds. And from living amongst the different camps that were laid out once Arcane came to be. I know one part managed to win them all. Sources: Reddit, Twitter, TH-cam, Twitch. Again, sorry, but there is evidence out there. Apparently people can't even post it to further discussion. Loves and kisses everyone.

Season 2 outside of visuals and production values is DOGSHIT. And I mean it. I think people are literally gaslighting themselves because they really wanted it to be good. Either that or they were enchanted by visuals and music for all emotional moments. I had none. Not only they assassinated most characters and plotpoints from season 1, they made me not care about new characters either that are plot-moving placeholders, not characters. I stopped caring at episode 3 already, just wanted to see how this ends.

Idk guys, i played a genshin archon story right after finishing arcane season 2 and immediately realized arcane s2 is indeed a great season, all my complaints just gone after witnessing a real messy writing(genshin) 😂

Thank you. I was really surprised after watching it and then seeing the online buzz about it. It felt like people just didn't get the show? Nothing felt "out of character" and "rushed" if you paid attention to exactly what was being said or expressed during the character scenes. I feel like people aren't used to tight-knit story pacing nowadays? What I loved about s2 is that it doesn't waste the viewers time and it says a lot with very little. It's honestly MASTERFULLY told, and it feels weird to see so many people completely miss the point or not get it- and be really confused by it when honestly, it's all right there. The weirdest complaints to me is the misinterpretation of Viktor- even by people who are usually really good at picking up hidden details. Everything about his character in Season 2 feels incredibly grounded and guided by everything shown in season 1. People see his transformation as a "corruption by the arcane" and sacrificing his ideas of evolution with unification and all that, but to me its incredibly evident that Viktor is doing what he does not because he's corrupted by the arcane, but enlightened by it. He's making conscious decisions to do what he does- and while he is influenced by others, he can still be reasoned with and turns to reasoning as often as he can. The only reason he listens to Jayce at the end is because Jayce comes back with his findings and reminds him of the things he's taken for granted. If Viktor was truly "corrupted" and lost his sense of self, I don't think he'd ever bother with listening and responding to reason. But Viktor does all of these things because he thinks he's right and he thinks he's doing what's best. That's honestly what made him such a dangerous and compelling opponent, and what makes him and Ambessa very compelling characters- and honestly, the whole cast incredibly compelling.

You basically explained why it's not a masterpiece but somewhere between 5-7/10

I love this show. Season two had extremely high highs and memorable moments. I just feel like if we get the episode 7 Jayce flashbacks early and then Jayce dies or gets written out when he kills Victor in episode 6, we could have much more time for other characters and plots. And then a much more interesting political fight and last battle between Caitlyn and her faction and Ambessa and her faction. More Ambessa stuff. Maybe a bit more morally grey as well. I really didn’t like the big bad army shows up and then Piltover/Zaun stuff is over.