Great video dude - completely agree that bringing in Ambessa really screwed things up. Incredibly cool villain with the POTENTIAL to match Silco but only in a different setting, not in the piltover/zaun one. I honestly wouldn't be completely surprised if the writers didn't want her introduced, but were pushed into it behind the scenes in order to establish noxus enough that people would recognise the next show as being "from arcane"
I liked Ambessa.....but as a background threat. Not in the forefront. I enjoyed her politicking and prodding Piltover to make more hextech weapons. But just as the big, bad guy of the first season was a Zaunite, it made all the sense in the world to me to have the big, bad guy of the second season be a Piltovan. A Piltovan equivalent to Silco, someone who hates Zaun as much as Silco hated Piltover. But we didn't get that for some reason
Honestly what I think would have been better is that the second season having Cait be the villain. That way Zaun and Piltover are the focus and by the end, they’re both left battered and weakened, in which then Ambessa comes in with Viktor building as the final threat as the thing that helps them rebuild and unite as “threats from beyond our borders”, one being a Matriarch desperate to prevent her clan from being assassinated, the other being a mage with a growing god complex, leaving both nations in a position to rely on one another and build eachother up.
Ambessa was a great villain to watch, but the problem is she doesn't fit with Arcane's actual story which was infamously dropped to make way for Ultron Viktor. To make things worse, she was only in Season 1 to show Mel's attachment to Piltover and Jayce and not much else, so the writers of Season 2 wanted to make you think she was set up to be a major antagonist from the beginning.
Agree with this. They set season one up as a class struggle with incredibly interesting characters. Season two had so many character assassinations and contrivances, random characters that make no sense. Personally I find Isha to be a non character that only serves as a plot device. When she died I felt nothing. The writers were telling me I should care, but did no work to make me care.
This is so true. I'm genuinely surprised by the number of clichés and plot conveniences season 2 managed to pull, and people just keep on ignoring it just because of how good season 1 was. If it were any other show that did this i highly doubt it would've made such an impact.
@@Zeyga I tried rewatching, thinking my analysis might be off. It’s strange when everyone loves a show for different reasons, but you’re left alone with an entirely different opinion. It drove me crazy. Thankfully, analytical videos are popping up now. Jinx was such a relatable character for me, but it's like her mental illness just regressed overtime, thanks to that non character Isha. She could’ve been an incredible compelling antagonist, especially compared to whatever they did with Viktor. They act like Viktor is some unique villain, but world-level threats and the desire to eradicate suffering aren’t exactly groundbreaking. Honestly, I don’t think those who loved the show for what it was could ever be satisfied with how it ended.
I think if they focused on bringing Zaun and Piltover together for season2, then went into ambessa and Noxus and how they had to beat her in a season3, a lot of the plot points would have hit harder.
Seems more to be an issue of this being a video game adaptation. It already had lore and storylines associated. The creators leaned heavily into the game fans in order to fill certain gaps of story. A lot of the examples I’ve seen people give of character assassinations are actually that. As like I said these characters had lore before the show and were always going to do the things they did. Ambessa and noxus were there because they ARE in the background and are actively working in the world of arcane/LoL. It’s a very interwoven universe. Much of what arcane fans were shocked by were foreshadowed in season 1 and were expected by the LoL fans. Honesty reminds me of the issues Tokyo Ghoul had. At a certain point it over relied on the original fanbase who read the source material. Forgetting that there were anime only viewers who had no idea what was going on.
@@vikkidonnthis is phenomenally put. As someone who watched season 1 +15 times, watched countless analysis videos, and heavily dove into the League lore from Arcane’s release till the release of season 2; there wasn’t a single moment in season 2 that confused me or felt like it came outta left field.
Like the problem with Piltover and Zaun coming together or having a war to settle things is; the Region still currently (in-game lore wise) has stories revolving around the division between the two twin cities. So anything that does bring them together *must* be momentary, or else they would be starting off their new canon universe with an inconsistency that would have to be retconned/written around later. It would be very hard to write around such a plot hole that most fans (assuming Arcane was written as most wanted) saw as the payoff of the first series. Like imagine if they did bring Piltover and Zaun together (which imo wouldn’t even make sense because systemic oppression *NEVER* ends in one generation but I digress) and in after couple spin off series in different regions we come back to the twin cities and see that all the progress made in Arcane (again assuming it was written as most people suggest) was erased, and basically was pointless… people would have an even bigger problem.
@@ExclusiveExcellence yeah it’s honestly been fascinating to see the nonsense honestly. People have been hurling personal attacks based on the show while arguing the game fans about lore and storylines. People that hate jinx calling jinx fans unhinged because she’s a “terrorist”…. While defending actual war crimes committed by Caitlyn and Ambessa….. it’s strange as hell to be honest. Someone went on a 4 paragraph rant because I said despite audience perception Jinx was seen as a hero to Zaunites which is why they followed her and Ekko into battle. Yeah very very fascinating
thank God. I thought i was the only one. Like, i was super hyped for season 2 because it was marketed as a civil war between Piltover and Zaun, and when i watched the third episode, i was at the edge of my seat by Jinx vs Vi's fight at the sound of "To Ashes And Blood", and when the episode ended with Caitlyn becoming commander, i thought to myself "there's no turning back now, it's war". My expectations were still high when Act 2 came out, we saw Warwick and Jinx becoming the symbol of resistence. I loved episode 7 and Ekko experiencing how things could have been. The problem began at episode 8, when Jayce easily convinced everyone of Piltover and Zaun that there was going to be an attack by the noxians and the herald of the arcane, using as evidence a destroyed robot at the counsoul room. Like, what? And the final episode is a battle between the Enforcers and Noxus at Piltover. Like, i came here to see the civil war between Piltover and Zaun, but what we got was a final battle used to end a story arc that no one was interested. And it was so rushed. Like, in the final episode i was completely lost. I had no idea why the noxians were invading Piltover in the first place.
I think Zaun infighting and refusing to unite until it was too late killed the momentum. Not to mention, Ambessa/Caitlyn would have either wiped Zaun out or imprisoned them, leaving no one left to stand together.
I admit that the second season is VERY inconsistent & that’s one of my biggest gripe with shows with only 2 seasons; Sometimes they would wrap up storylines as much as they can & have very little time with certain characters & plot points. Regardless, I still enjoy Arcane & it is still one of my favorite shows of all time.
@@aniessaysyeah but as someone who know all the lore i can accept your critisism but just stay tuned for next show bc of how many characters original game it dosent feel right to say in one playse too long and while i kinda agree with your critisism there is much more and even better even then s1 of arcane
@@savosavic1222 As someone who also knows the lore, if they treat their next batch of characters the same way they treated the characters in Arcane s2, it's not gonna matter very much.
love this. really agree with your points. I liked season 2 a lot but the shift from a grounded narrative to a universe ending threat was extremely jarring
Agreed. It’s a shame because we can see so clearly this show had all the dominos lined up perfectly for an incredible showcase, only for the final cascade to be ruined by a couple of pieces being knocked over prematurely. Disappointed with the failings, but it’s still a truly brilliant piece of art.
I think you nailed it with the idea that Silco felt 'connected' to the core conflicts of the story. Thing is, the writers were 'surprised' by the popularity of Silco, and didn't seem to understand what about him resonated with so many viewers in the first place. I fear he might have been something of a happy accident in s1, since the writers were unable to recreate the same effect with any villains in s2. Caitlyn could have filled those shoes, but the show never lets her go full tilt villain. Treating her jagged edges with kid gloves instead, maybe for the ship, or fan-service? I don't know. I love Ambessa, but she would have been a stronger villain for a spin-off. Viktor has tons of potential as a villain, but his s2 arc is sooo rushed. I was confused half the time about why he was doing what he was doing or how his motivations were changing or why? It is all under cooked.
But Caitlyn, unlike Silco, still had a good heart. After episode 3, we see her in the commander arc briefly before essentially admitting she's in over her head. She didn't seek power, it was a convenient set-up towards her goal.
@@WickedHumor Well, "good heart" is pretty subjective. But my point is that if they had let Caitlyn make more villainous choices and confront difficult consequences for it, she would be a more compelling character. The skirting around the darker parts of the character holds back how much impact her story (and eventual redemption) could have had. It ended being rushed and weightless. They probably sanded her challenging edges off to appease fans (like yourself) that can only handle cuddly comfort characters that have a "good heart".
@@TheDreamingDays I mean, even in her commander arc, she stood up to Ambessa's Noxian aggression, calling out the violence and showing her regret over starting in the first place(mentioning she didn't think it would take so long). She started down the path during her emotional turmoil and grief. It only makes sense that once she has time to look at what she's done, she starts to second guess. And yeah, she could have got even darker, but they didn't have time to flesh that story out I think. She still committed war crimes, was willing to kill innocents, and allows martial law to be instituted. I'm not sure how much darker you would have wanted her to be, short of torturing and killing Zaunites for fun. Silco might have loved Jinx, but he was willing to kill, maim, and destroy lives just to maintain power. Any Zaunite not in favor of his particular solution or that got in the way was either eliminated or enslaved.
@@WickedHumor ...you sound like you're talking to someone else because half of what you say isn't relevant to anything I said in the first place. If you're a Caitlyn fan with an axe to grind I don't really care about that... Yes Caitlyn gets a villain turn, but the show rushes through it, and doesn't treat any of her darker actions with the seriousness it needs. Her time as a villain doesn't have a lot of substance. She doesn't face any impactful consequences, the other characters barely react to her descent, and her redemption just kinda happens for the convenience of the plot moving forward. I have no clue why you are listing Silco's crimes to me. I said he was well-written, not an angel, lol.
@@TheDreamingDays They should have spent more time on several arcs, but had to condense for time. I really wish they hadn't and share your frustration with that. But Caitlyn didn't avoid consequences. She loses people close to her, loses her self-respect(which is a big deal given her character), is responsible for the Grey and Ambessa's rise to power(and thus hundreds, maybe thousands of Piltovan deaths). She gave up her seat of power, was maimed, suffered betrayals and betrayed others, and hates herself for what she did. Just because she doesn't face concrete, objective punishments on screen doesn't mean she didn't pay for it. I guess they could have thrown her in jail and stripped her of her holdings, but what happened is a better reflection of a real life situation: People in power rarely receive commensurate punishments.
Season two didn't have to be turned into a spectacle, an as lovely as the visuals were, there has to be more to the story than the amazing visuals. As a long time league player, I always knew that Vander would come back as Warwick, and I anticipated it, but whatthey did to Viktor is criminal. They sacrificed a Nikola Tesla-like character, a brilliant man with morally grey ideas, a man who decided to rebuild himself with his human knowledge and human made technology, and turned him into a Jesus figure, who wields magic instead of science. They called those things ''machines'' but they look like they're made of porcelain instead of metal. All this to say, that for me, Arcane's flaws are mostly visible in how they treated Viktor's character, and how sidelined Jinx and Vi's story became in favor of pretty space visuals.
I disagree strongly, Viktor is easily one of the best parts in s2 imo. Viktor never had morally grey or ideas that detrimental to people. Viktor has always worked to stop strife and oppression. He helps make hextech because he sees all the suffering it can alleviate, but his own suffering with his illness threatens to cuts his time short and he dedicates himself to the pursuit of perfection, which gets Skye killed finishing his s1 arc when he realizes the cost of progress and is prepared to die. In s2 his death is immediately stopped as Jayce goes against his wishes and fuses him with the hex core and begins building weapons with hextech. So he leaves piltover to go continue helping people who need helping the most and his ambition begins to grow again, coming to a head when he talks to singed and then gets attacked by Jayce. He concludes that suffering is a fundamental part of humanity and in his ambition and drive to end human suffering realizes the cause of the greatest good is also the fuel of the greatest evil. He willingly lets “Skye” die as he prepares for the final evolution. In his intention to accomplish his own greatest good, he commits his greatest evil. The people he evolves become porcelain statues of perfection, but they have no face to feel with. His arc gets reversed so exceptionally and so true to his character in season 2. And change, the pursuit of progress, and trying to stop change are the core themes present in every faucet of season 2 that viktor embodies perfectly
I wrote my thoughts a million times but I’ll try to get them across here as fast as possible 1. Mel’s story was useless 2. Characters made decision but didn’t have any development towards making those decisions. 3. Characters sometimes make illogical decisions e.g. Caitlyn and Vi in jail cell and vi thinking jinx is going to go be evil again. Another one is Jayce shooting Viktor when future Viktor told Jayce he’s the only one who can change his mind. 4. Lack of character development and closure. We didn’t see anything of Isha after her death and she shoulda been developed more. Same with Vander pretty much.
I think one thing that may be hard to accept because season 1 was so good, is that the villain of season 2 doesn't need to fill Silco's shoes, because jinx already did (that is why when Vi is trying to get Jinx to fight again in the prison scene of episode 8, she says "If you come, help, use all that explosive potential of yours for good, maybe we could rewrite your story, LIKE YOU DID WITH ZAUN."). If you see in the montage of episode 4, the entirety of Zaun is looking up to Jinx, because of what happened in episode 3 (removed most of The Grey from Zaun and put it into Piltover). That is why the first time we see sunlight in Zaun is at Vander's statue in episode 4 , during Sevika's rally. Also, because of the finale in season 1, all of the bad things that happened get pinned on Jinx, and we see this in season 2, episodes 2, 3, and 4 (mainly the intro to 2). So instead of using Piltover and Zaun as characters like in season one, the writers use Jinx as a view of Zaun, and Caitlyn as a view of Piltover (Jinx and Caitlyn are opposites and parallels of each other, just like Piltover and Zaun). The only problem with this tactic in writing, is that some people want more of the Piltover-Zaun drama, (which I agree with), but that isn't the focus of season 2. The way season 2 was written is with the first and second episodes of acts 1 and 2 are about Jinx, and Vi respectively, and then in the final episode for all 3 acts are them fighting with or against each other (Episode 7 of both seasons is about Ekko, and episode 8 of both seasons is about Mel). I hope this comment helps make the fast pace of season 2 make a bit more sense, as I do think it is better than season 1. season 1 is a 10/10 for me, and season 2 is a 10/10.1 for me.
Agreed. The conflict is still Piltover vs Zaun, but its not as direct. It follows a more convoluted, messy progression, like a real life rebellion would. Unlike season 1, the scale of the story is much bigger. They could have written it differently, but their real issue was their limited run-time restraints.
I agree with the main point of this essay but disagree with some of the analysis. I think a lot of what was done this season could have been done well but the ideas were ultimately failed by the writers. Ambessa was actually set up as a great villain but the writers failed her. She was someone interested in Piltover not because of any personal attachment to the city but because of the technology it offered. While her transition to Zaun at the end of S2 makes physical sense, it does not make thematic sense. Before, she seemed a character that thrived off of the class conflict, showing the external interests that just won't let the oppression end. Furthermore, I think Vander being Warwick could have worked. Those into League lore already suspected that he was Warwick, but the way he was used in this season was just as a means to get Vi and Jinx back together. If Warwick was more developed, it would have been great (thematically) to see Piltover ignoring the threat of Warwick rampaging the undercity. We could have even kept the arc where Singed seeks to exploit Warwick, disregarding the individuality of the person inside. Finally, episode 7 could have also worked. Ekko and Heimerdinger's side of the story shows an optimistic view of Zaun and Piltover, which can give them hope of a better world. Meanwhile, Jayce sees a ruined Piltover presumably from Viktor (but as a viewer I didn't think episode 7 gave conclusive evidence that it was Viktor's fault). I would have loved to see a version of Arcane where Jayce's anxiety around the vision ended up leading to a terrible decision for the undercity while the lessons Ekko learns allow him to expand his part of the undercity (maybe by taking in refugees or something) offering hope for a better future. And the funny thing is these changes would have been more in line with League's previous lore.
Ambessa’s conclusion was weird. She ended up acquiring the technology to fight against Black Rose, using Hexgod Viktor and Warwick. So why didn’t she just pack up and leave Piltover & Zaun? She finished her objective, so the Noxus invasion was meaningless.
They really needed a 4th act, the fact they didnt flesh out more, made it feel to me that covid and business decisions forced a disconnected story to be released. Personally Id like to see more normal warwick running the streets hunting criminals with an intro scene to Vander being dragged from the wreckage of s1. Caitlyn needed a scene of being forced to see Grayson's memorial and reconciling her behavior with Graysons moral teaching Blisters and Bedrock could have been teased in season 1 when Vander and Silco speak or when Silco pours his drink out. The fact it didnt, felt like many ideas were introduced without s1 in mind
What an excellent analysis dude. Personally & think a surprise 10th hour long finale would have allowed all of the pacing problems i had with character development to be resolved. Instead the whole black rose thing, as intriguing as it was seemed like nothing but a set up for what comes next & took up so much time that would have been better spent on other story threads. And i will not be convinced, no matter how insistent christian linke & alex yee are that all these plot lines were intended to be crammed into 9 episodes as it was. They & the other writers & creators demonstrated how meticulously well thought out every aspect of the story was intended to be explored in season 1. So to expect us to believe it was always their intention to have for example caitlyn flip flop from a compassionate peacemaker, to ruthless dictator & back again with so little exposition is nuts. I totally agree with you, arcane was on the cusp of being for me the greatest piece of media i had ever seen. And don’t get me wrong, i still loved the heck out of season 2. But as the finale ended i found myself with the words that brought the curtain down on season one running through my head.....what could have been! Thanks for a great vid dude.
For real, I feel like they forgot Piltover and Zaun was supposed to be the main conflict of season 2 but they put in so many plot lines and they just rushed everything and they just made decisions that were just constantly hurting the show. It's like they didn't even want to do season 2 or put any effort to it. I was really confident in their work with act one but after act three watchiny just made me realize that the show was just off the wheels and I can't forgive the decisions they made and I really can't look the show the same way after season 2.
I totally agree that this show needed a third season in order to reach it's full potential, it would've been so amazing if they expanded upon episodes 1-6 and made that their own season where they had time to properly develop the new secondary characters (looking at you Maddie, Seb, and Lorus), maybe make Ambessa the BBEG of S2 while introducing Viktor's ultimate downfall, and then save all multiverse, zombie army, existentialism for S3 or, better yet, we maintain the class warfare story started in S1. It feels like a betryal to the dream of Zaun that Sevika was added to the Piltover council when Zaun should've had their own recognized council.
Fantastic essay! 😊 This pretty much sums up my disappointments with season 2. The Piltover/Zaun conflict was crucial to season 1 and it's unsatisfactory to see it swept aside. Of course, it's a difficult conflict to resolve, especially with how dire the situation was, but I feel like there was a more nuanced way to do it other than 'let's team up to stop the 3rd impact'. 😅 How do we right the wrongs of a systemically unequal society? There's still plenty to be explored on that note.
I disagree that Ambessa and Viktor are generic villains. Yes, Ambessa is hungry for power and willing to do anything to get it, but she does this because she wanted to protect her family from the Black Rose, and she genuinely cares for her Mel. Viktor wants to toke over everybody’s mind, but that’s because he thinks that’s the only way for the world to be perfect, is if there was no conflict or emotion. He has good intentions but his plan to get there is flawed. Both characters are complex and therefore have nuance. I agree that Silco is a much better villain, but it’s not like Ambessa and Viktor are bad to be bad.
I feel that the need for a behind the scenes documentary for this season would answer so many questions about why the writers made the decisions they did. As of now, most of season 2 just seems nonsensical from a writing standpoint, and exemplary from a "marketing for the game" standpoint
I agree with mostly everything you said. Despite my absolute love for the show, season 2 is objectively worse than season 1, but a lot of online discourse I've seen around season 2 and especially for the people who did not like it is WAY to harsh. As someone who was in some ways disappointed with this season, I cannot tell how appreciated it is to see someone critiquing season 2 in a respectful, clam, and well-thought-out manner. Their are way too many videos calling season 2 'complete garbage' and then nitpicking every little thing they think is wrong with the show. I like how you focus on the themes and setting built in season 1 and how it all ties into season 2 and the overall narrative. I also like how you acknowledged everything that season 2 did well. This video is such a breath of fresh air with season 2 critique.
I do agree with all of your points. And I do think every issue in season 2 could had been resolved with more time. But imo Arcane is still the greatest show I've watched and I look forward to whatever the writers bring us next.
I think the biggest flaw of this show is, it is essentially a show that has the primary goal to promote a video game with so much complex lore and world building. I imagine it can be a bit overwhelming for writers and producers to keep that in mind, and still commit to giving integrity to the grounded and down to earth story telling they did in S1. I think it can be possible to work around that, but with factors like budget, keeping up with the game fans and advertising the game's franchise, I'm not surprised this would happen. It's still impressive how it still turned out to be an incredible show to watch, though.
Sending Jayce to the future and putting Mel in a box was a mistake. Jayce already had the resolve to do the right thing, he just lacked the wisdom to know what it was. Ekko spent a whole episode in some Wattpad Fix Fic. Powder saved the Zaunites while Vi was in a pit. Vi and Powder's arc was resolved by random werewolf plot device. Surely there had to be better solutions to these problems that didn't need to be created.
To be honest, i had mixed feelings about season two as well, after my first watch. And while it's can't be the premise of any show, it got so much better on my second watch. I prefer season two over season one now. I honestly think that quite a few people just didn't get what they expected with season two and that's where the struggle to like it stems from. Not to say that it hasn't any flaws (or at least subjective faults and misses), but i don't feel like it completely forgets to tell any one story to its end. Yes, they might have needed a bit more time for certain things to stick the landing, but i don't feel like they forgot something.
I think Arcane season 2 would've benefitted with 12 episodes, whether it be 4 episodes per act or 4 acts. These three extra episodes could theoretically help with filling in events that weren't shown to us or are needed to be shown, such as the events in between the first two acts (Paint the town blue montage is barely enough and Caitlyn suddenly got pushed aside after getting so much focus in act 1), Mel and whatever she has (Her final scenes in act 3 with the other characters left so many questions, with her final talk with both Jayce and Ambessa confuses me a lot), and more focus with Vi (Vi is in need of whatever Mel's arc is with being controlled by others and taking control once again, and her being stuck in the past needs to be shown more beforehand since she does seem open to move on and forgive and forget both Jinx and Caitlyn until the moment she just breaks after seeing vander die for the third time, and her agency being taken away by Jinx twice in the final act is tragic yet not satisfying, she got thrown to prison to be forcefully with Caitlyn and then got saved by a sacrifice from Jinx to force her to be free from the past)
I love Ambessa as a character too much to say I'd want her less involved in the plot lol, but i agree that I wish she eother remained more as a secondary antagonist or if she found a way to be more personally involved in the conflict between the two cities.
Tbh I think the problem with Viktor as a villain is that he never feels like a Villain I think the main problem comes from his story in the game; where it's clear to me that the writers back then couldn't decide if they wanted to make him a sympathetic character or a cartoony villain and it jumped between the two like a metronome Then when arcane started, they went the sympathetic character route but forgot to give him a good reason to become a villain Then season 2 arrived and they used Jayce to push Viktor's story forward Why did he used the Hexcore to alter his body after he decided to destroy it in season 1? He didn’t, it was Jayce. Why did he decided to create the commune? Because it was his and Jayce's dream. Why did he decided to become the herald? Because of what Jayce did to him in the commune. And at the end, it was Jayce the one to stop him and forgive him. And it never feels like Viktor doesn't deserve forgiveness because again, he's too much of a sympathetic character to hate him (and on the contrary, a character like Silco was very easy to hate) and a lot of the things he did were like a reaction to something Jayce so it doesn't feel right to blame him for it 100% And I think in the end this decision the writers took reflects on Jayce's character in that he is a very well written character in season 2; almost like a reflection of Singed where everything he does, he does it for love. But Viktor; he just doesn't make sense if you separate his character arc from Jayce's
Great video! Unlike a lot of other Season 2 rants/critiques I've watched online yours was articulated so well as to not come off as needlessly bashing the show. Personally, if Season 1 was a 10/10 then Season 2 was a 9/10 and easily ranks as one of my favorite shows of all time. The decision to move away from the Piltover-Zaun conflict in favor of pushing up Ambessa, Viktor, and the Arcane as the central antagonists is definitely a controversial one and a valid complaint. Despite my disapproval of them doing it I'm accepting of it cause I still loved the new themes they displayed after shifting focus. The idea of transhumanism and perfectionism with Viktor throughout Episode 6, 8, and 9 I thought was an ingenious direction for his story. I really enjoyed seeing Viktor, Jayce, and Ekko getting the spotlight in the final act. It all comes down to personal preferences however as some problems that you or others may have don't bother me as much. But I think we should all just be grateful a show like this exists even with it's flaws.
I think arcane s2 writers realized they needed to tell a bigger and grander story than the first season. I thought s1 was amazing due to the story’s focus on the city as a whole. The world building breathed life into the setting, and that’s what made the story work. S2 needed to fit a larger story that needed more context in the same time gram of 9 episodes. I think too many elements went unexplained, like black rose or Ambessa herself, made the story very thin for me. I still loved the S2, especially episode 7, but I think this would’ve been way better if we had another 3ish episodes.
I think the problem lies more with riot and league than with the arcane writers realizing they need to tell a bigger and grander story. As we can see now, they have a whole Noxus season starting in the game and they made Arcane the center of league canon, so it’s not hard to conclude that they meddled in the creation of season 2 to neatly splice the end of the show with the beginning of the game season.
Season one was great but after episode 3 the zaun and piltover storyine takes a huge backseat for the silbling relationship and jayce storyline. In season one we dont even learn in what ways piltover opressee zaun. Vi's character goes from hating piltover to wanting to have sex with caitlyn within less than 20 minute.
I've really struggled fitting Victor into the overall story of a civil war and i have a theory. Victors cult only makes sence in the overall story if piltover and zaun as a poorly executed cult of religious extremism? I don't know though because it really does just seem like he went crazy with magic? 3 more seasons and a foreign power manipulating the situation and terroristic zellots ariseung in the wake of the power vacuum left by Silco? That story would make sense.
His cult is completely disconnected from the Piltover and Zaun conflict. Viktor's goal wasn't to elevate Zaun, it was to transcend humanity. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as this third party was present and increasing in significance on the sidelines, not something out of the blue. What I feel should've happened, is Viktor to enter the conflict like so, completely disconnected from anything. An unexpected variable added to the equation that screws everything over. And that is what happens in the show but they rushed it, and too quickly had both sides forget their strife to team up for a greater threat. I think they should've allowed more time for the conflict to play out to its fullest extent, then when Viktor has grown into a genuine and unavoidable threat, have Piltover literally on their knees pleaing for the aid of the Undercity, being forced by circumstance to accept all sorts of terms and conditions, and to finally sort their dispute via more "civil" means.
I'm sorry but the return of vander was always hinted in season 1. Many fans of league of legends knew that vander is actually Warwick.in all honesty i think they didn't fumbled that much.i still love arcane both season 1 and 2.maybe it's just my taste but the only problem it had was time.i can't see any other problem with it. for me the characters were still enjoyable and the story and emotions was strong.
It is very true that his return was hinted at (even as a non league player) and I don't hate the idea of brining him back. To me, after his return, he felt like a tool to force character growth more so than his own tragic character
The problem with Vander's story was that he was introduced in the exact same scene as it was revealed that he was Vander, which makes just as much sense as introducing Darth Vader and revealing he's Luke's father in the exact scene. There's two movies worth of beats between those instances and that's exactly what Vander's story was missing. He needed a season's worth of being Warwick the beast, killing enforcers and people indiscriminately, being brutally violent, before eventually revealing his connection to the sisters. Then a hypothetical third season would focus on Vi and Jinx being forced to work together to find and cure Vander
Unfortunately, Arcane is League of Legends… Arcane is clearly a part of a bigger picture or whatever cinematic universe they’re trying to do. It affected season 2.
I only watched 3 episodes for now, but I lost interest for the show already. To me it's just a mess of pretty pictures and random ideas, underbuit connections and fights with random characters to show designs? I guess
I understood this the moment I've saw the first episode and the mourning of Cassandra Kiramann is just a song with a shitty animation background. The introduction of new characters like Steb and others is extremely forced and that flags them out, to anyone who has a little bit of culture, as "fodder characters" Furthermore, the extensive usage of tragedy makes the constructed drama dull and predictable. When I saw the "Jesus Viktor" I immediately knew "He's going to end up dying in a cross" and he in fact did it, except it wasn't a cross but his levitating machine thing. And he then comes back as a God. So predictable. Arcane seems to be faltered as series. It seems there was different people pulling the story elsewhere during writing, so the losing side had to compromise. This is most obvious on the character deaths. Viktor and Jayce are pulled out of existence, but the people connected to the chaos storm are not. Heimerdinger has the same fate, he is just written off.(and in his particular case it is implied that he knew Ekko would be in that timeline at some point, and he was the one who finished building the same device he forgot to plug the power in?). And Ambessa has the most ridiculous ending ever, she just perishes out of nowhere. Go back and look at Vander, Benzo or Sky's deaths in Season 1. And how meaningful they were to the plot. Season 2 was the classical "We were not prepared to this kind of success" and instead of showing valor, they've dropped the ball
Hot take - for all the show's faults in its writing, Arcane manages to make the prettiest anime of the current era look like bull excrement. I'm sorry, but the anime aesthetic is overrated. You need very specific motifs and little details stacked on top of each other to make an anime artstyle look good. Otherwise, anime comes across as bland and sterile to me.
I agree that Vander should've stayed dead and not turned into a beast, although the flashbacks we got from Vander are too good to pass up, especially considering the letter to silco and the alternate timeline. On another note, I do think isha's sacrifice was important symbolically (as much as it broke me) as a parallel to when powder tried to save her family in s1.a1. Those moments that you may feel are unnecessary connected the story back to the theme of family and connection. A 9/10 show, still my favourite of all time and a 10/10 video :)
I feel like another silco or cait vs jinx would've defeated the most attractive thing in this show... The fact it writes people not characters. Ambessa didn't overshadow mel, she gave her dimention beyond the femme fatale politics lady. Arcane was, yes, greatly a class centred commentary but not fully. it shows how our greatest passions blind us (viktor, achieving perfection specifically through the arcane, silco, zaun, jayce, generally searching for something while trying his best to be useful, vi, people she considers home, etc) it show us that life is complex, focusing only on the classism factor like maybe the hunger games and others did would've made it a bit boring, not all issues are completely solved that quickly. Noxus and ambessa showed how some nations pray on the weak in times of dire conflict (Ahem, america AHEM) while also giving us an amazing mother daughter dynamic. Vander's initial return was honestly one of the few if not the only way to give the sisters a chance to rekindle, giving them a common goal returning him. Isha's death pushes jinx to care about more than just herself and her infinitely small circle as well as shows us us how war doesn't discriminate Vander's second return felt like pushing it with the very same plot device but it also lines up perfectly with many things, vander a pacifist now used as a weapon by 2 different people for 2 very different goals fully out of his own control after having largely controlled the narrative of his own story at least in comparison to other characters. Viktor was a bit much? but his connection to the professor and signed individually and their similar yet different goals kinda wrapped it up nicely. Jinx' sacrifice was the final piece of her character development, letting go of her past fully and utterly while showing this alturism isha taught her The inconsistency with character development is also so very human Vi specifically, she's basically a time capsule thurst into a new world where my girl knows NOTHING so ofcourse she's gonna circle back and forth, try to isolate, then circle again Sevika's entrance is puahed aside because it's no solution, it's the beginning of one, no one accepts her, she's still an outsider, a diversity hire if you will, the conflict is far from over and waiting till it's done to end the show would've made it lose the show don't tell value. The diversity of the plot shows the complexity of real life, it just needed more time because it was honestly so rushed and atp WHAT IS THE BLACK ROSE
My disappointments with season 2 reminded me of an important fact to consider: Arcane is a glorified League of Legends advertisement. The primary goal wasn't telling a great story, it was being cool enough to draw people towards the game. And that's a damn shame.
Arcane definitely doesn’t have the best TV show plot of all time, but you are talking out your ass if you think any show can beat its visuals. literally name one because I would love to go watch it😂
@@Keish340 my comment isn’t disagreeing with anything in the video. I don’t know why y’all are assuming it is. I’m just commenting my opinion on arcane since that’s what this video is about.
I don't think it's fair to be very harsh on arcane s2 for not covering the plitover vs zuan since it will most likely going to be cover in ekko spin-off show it would be like critique avengers 1 for not concluding the infinite war saga but my only issue is that it's way to short and beacuse of that plot line that wete concluded lacked the depth they could of had like Victor's arc or vi arc and her relationship with jinx and Caitlin needs more time
It's not really a case of it they will cover Piltover/Zaun in a spinoff but that this show built its character and drama though that setting then abandoned it
They didn’t forget about Piltover and Zaun. If you were under the impression that the series called ARCANE was a booth class struggles, you were fooling yourself. Also, the show begins with faceless stormtrooper soldiers committing an act of violence on a population, and ends with faceless robotic soldiers committing an act of violence on a population.
I feel like you kinda proved the point that Arcane's ending missed yourself. The story starts with faceless oppression but then spends so much time unmasking the people of Piltover/Zaun only to revert back to meaningless soldiers. Just think about the major difference in emotional impact from the end of season one verses season two
@@jimlight5137 if its called Arcane it should have focused more on the Arcane. Do you know what the Arcane is and what it does? Can you properly explain how it works?
@ I love the use of “if” in that sentence, because there’s no “if” about it… the show IS called Arcane. The Arcane is ancient deep magic that runs through everything like the Force. Gemstones act as power sources and runes act as conduits for the magic to flow through. The reason Hextech is so unique is because it doesn’t require knowledge of magic to use, and the ability to swap out specific runes makes it so that devices can have multiple functions. But the Arcane is also corruption. It seeps into the world through cracks here and there, and it’s likely the cause of the toxic plants deep in the fissures that Singe uses to make Shimmer out of. The Arcane directly influence the cities of Piltover and Zaun through these cracks. It helps create shimmer which in turn helps create the corrupted hexcore which in turn helps to create Viktor’s robot body which in turn leads to near destruction of everything. You could say that the reason most of the characters do what they do is because of the subtle influences of the arcane exploiting weaknesses and ambitions.
Why is it that every critical review of Arcane oversimplifies the plot to make false points? Instead of going in detail on the elements the story was missing and reaching a conclusion as to its problems (and there are quite a few in this season) we see some smug essayist shadow boxing a strawman of it. No in depth analysis, no focus, objectively wrong conclusions and parroting of vague points that are going around since November with barely any thought behind them. You said nothing of value buddy.
Goodness. Every critical view differs because they are the opinions of the individual critic who can frame it as they choose. You sound like the Thought Police. Smug? Look in the mirror.
@jamakaya1332 Opinion ends when you say factually wrong shit buddy. You got triggered over my criticism of a bad youtube video. You should check on yourself first.
@@Keish340 What a vague and dishonest question. Do you want me to list everything so you can reject it by default? It's easier to point out the one problem of the season. It was too short for its plot. It needed more time to flesh things out and let the story and the character development flow smoothly. They didn't have the time and this caused a "narrative whiplash" to many viewers. Especially in the last 2 episodes. Every criticism is the result of this. Everything else was on the level of season 1 and the technical aspect of the show was even better.
Great video dude - completely agree that bringing in Ambessa really screwed things up. Incredibly cool villain with the POTENTIAL to match Silco but only in a different setting, not in the piltover/zaun one.
I honestly wouldn't be completely surprised if the writers didn't want her introduced, but were pushed into it behind the scenes in order to establish noxus enough that people would recognise the next show as being "from arcane"
Thank you my goat!! Totally agree with the reason she was included. Wished they kept her as a cool but very much side character
I liked Ambessa.....but as a background threat. Not in the forefront. I enjoyed her politicking and prodding Piltover to make more hextech weapons. But just as the big, bad guy of the first season was a Zaunite, it made all the sense in the world to me to have the big, bad guy of the second season be a Piltovan. A Piltovan equivalent to Silco, someone who hates Zaun as much as Silco hated Piltover. But we didn't get that for some reason
Honestly what I think would have been better is that the second season having Cait be the villain. That way Zaun and Piltover are the focus and by the end, they’re both left battered and weakened, in which then Ambessa comes in with Viktor building as the final threat as the thing that helps them rebuild and unite as “threats from beyond our borders”, one being a Matriarch desperate to prevent her clan from being assassinated, the other being a mage with a growing god complex, leaving both nations in a position to rely on one another and build eachother up.
Ambessa was a great villain to watch, but the problem is she doesn't fit with Arcane's actual story which was infamously dropped to make way for Ultron Viktor. To make things worse, she was only in Season 1 to show Mel's attachment to Piltover and Jayce and not much else, so the writers of Season 2 wanted to make you think she was set up to be a major antagonist from the beginning.
Agree with this. They set season one up as a class struggle with incredibly interesting characters. Season two had so many character assassinations and contrivances, random characters that make no sense. Personally I find Isha to be a non character that only serves as a plot device. When she died I felt nothing. The writers were telling me I should care, but did no work to make me care.
Characters as a plot device is a good way to put it
This is so true. I'm genuinely surprised by the number of clichés and plot conveniences season 2 managed to pull, and people just keep on ignoring it just because of how good season 1 was. If it were any other show that did this i highly doubt it would've made such an impact.
@ after the first act of season 2 I was trying SO hard to give the benefit of the doubt, I trusted the writers. How misguided I was.
@@Zeyga I tried rewatching, thinking my analysis might be off. It’s strange when everyone loves a show for different reasons, but you’re left alone with an entirely different opinion. It drove me crazy. Thankfully, analytical videos are popping up now. Jinx was such a relatable character for me, but it's like her mental illness just regressed overtime, thanks to that non character Isha. She could’ve been an incredible compelling antagonist, especially compared to whatever they did with Viktor. They act like Viktor is some unique villain, but world-level threats and the desire to eradicate suffering aren’t exactly groundbreaking. Honestly, I don’t think those who loved the show for what it was could ever be satisfied with how it ended.
@@Zeyga you just a dumb idiot who lacks media literacy nothing new
I think if they focused on bringing Zaun and Piltover together for season2, then went into ambessa and Noxus and how they had to beat her in a season3, a lot of the plot points would have hit harder.
Seems more to be an issue of this being a video game adaptation. It already had lore and storylines associated. The creators leaned heavily into the game fans in order to fill certain gaps of story. A lot of the examples I’ve seen people give of character assassinations are actually that. As like I said these characters had lore before the show and were always going to do the things they did.
Ambessa and noxus were there because they ARE in the background and are actively working in the world of arcane/LoL. It’s a very interwoven universe. Much of what arcane fans were shocked by were foreshadowed in season 1 and were expected by the LoL fans.
Honesty reminds me of the issues Tokyo Ghoul had. At a certain point it over relied on the original fanbase who read the source material. Forgetting that there were anime only viewers who had no idea what was going on.
@@vikkidonnthis is phenomenally put. As someone who watched season 1 +15 times, watched countless analysis videos, and heavily dove into the League lore from Arcane’s release till the release of season 2; there wasn’t a single moment in season 2 that confused me or felt like it came outta left field.
Like the problem with Piltover and Zaun coming together or having a war to settle things is; the Region still currently (in-game lore wise) has stories revolving around the division between the two twin cities. So anything that does bring them together *must* be momentary, or else they would be starting off their new canon universe with an inconsistency that would have to be retconned/written around later. It would be very hard to write around such a plot hole that most fans (assuming Arcane was written as most wanted) saw as the payoff of the first series. Like imagine if they did bring Piltover and Zaun together (which imo wouldn’t even make sense because systemic oppression *NEVER* ends in one generation but I digress) and in after couple spin off series in different regions we come back to the twin cities and see that all the progress made in Arcane (again assuming it was written as most people suggest) was erased, and basically was pointless… people would have an even bigger problem.
@@ExclusiveExcellence yeah it’s honestly been fascinating to see the nonsense honestly. People have been hurling personal attacks based on the show while arguing the game fans about lore and storylines.
People that hate jinx calling jinx fans unhinged because she’s a “terrorist”…. While defending actual war crimes committed by Caitlyn and Ambessa….. it’s strange as hell to be honest. Someone went on a 4 paragraph rant because I said despite audience perception Jinx was seen as a hero to Zaunites which is why they followed her and Ekko into battle.
Yeah very very fascinating
thank God. I thought i was the only one. Like, i was super hyped for season 2 because it was marketed as a civil war between Piltover and Zaun, and when i watched the third episode, i was at the edge of my seat by Jinx vs Vi's fight at the sound of "To Ashes And Blood", and when the episode ended with Caitlyn becoming commander, i thought to myself "there's no turning back now, it's war". My expectations were still high when Act 2 came out, we saw Warwick and Jinx becoming the symbol of resistence. I loved episode 7 and Ekko experiencing how things could have been. The problem began at episode 8, when Jayce easily convinced everyone of Piltover and Zaun that there was going to be an attack by the noxians and the herald of the arcane, using as evidence a destroyed robot at the counsoul room. Like, what? And the final episode is a battle between the Enforcers and Noxus at Piltover. Like, i came here to see the civil war between Piltover and Zaun, but what we got was a final battle used to end a story arc that no one was interested. And it was so rushed. Like, in the final episode i was completely lost. I had no idea why the noxians were invading Piltover in the first place.
I think Zaun infighting and refusing to unite until it was too late killed the momentum. Not to mention, Ambessa/Caitlyn would have either wiped Zaun out or imprisoned them, leaving no one left to stand together.
I admit that the second season is VERY inconsistent & that’s one of my biggest gripe with shows with only 2 seasons; Sometimes they would wrap up storylines as much as they can & have very little time with certain characters & plot points. Regardless, I still enjoy Arcane & it is still one of my favorite shows of all time.
Yeah and extra season would have been the easiest solution
@@aniessaysyeah but as someone who know all the lore i can accept your critisism but just stay tuned for next show bc of how many characters original game it dosent feel right to say in one playse too long and while i kinda agree with your critisism there is much more and even better even then s1 of arcane
@@savosavic1222 I am for sure still super excited for what is to come!
@@savosavic1222 As someone who also knows the lore, if they treat their next batch of characters the same way they treated the characters in Arcane s2, it's not gonna matter very much.
love this. really agree with your points. I liked season 2 a lot but the shift from a grounded narrative to a universe ending threat was extremely jarring
Crazy how even at its worst, Arcane is still a top tier show
Agreed. It’s a shame because we can see so clearly this show had all the dominos lined up perfectly for an incredible showcase, only for the final cascade to be ruined by a couple of pieces being knocked over prematurely.
Disappointed with the failings, but it’s still a truly brilliant piece of art.
I think you nailed it with the idea that Silco felt 'connected' to the core conflicts of the story. Thing is, the writers were 'surprised' by the popularity of Silco, and didn't seem to understand what about him resonated with so many viewers in the first place. I fear he might have been something of a happy accident in s1, since the writers were unable to recreate the same effect with any villains in s2. Caitlyn could have filled those shoes, but the show never lets her go full tilt villain. Treating her jagged edges with kid gloves instead, maybe for the ship, or fan-service? I don't know. I love Ambessa, but she would have been a stronger villain for a spin-off. Viktor has tons of potential as a villain, but his s2 arc is sooo rushed. I was confused half the time about why he was doing what he was doing or how his motivations were changing or why? It is all under cooked.
But Caitlyn, unlike Silco, still had a good heart. After episode 3, we see her in the commander arc briefly before essentially admitting she's in over her head. She didn't seek power, it was a convenient set-up towards her goal.
@@WickedHumor Well, "good heart" is pretty subjective. But my point is that if they had let Caitlyn make more villainous choices and confront difficult consequences for it, she would be a more compelling character. The skirting around the darker parts of the character holds back how much impact her story (and eventual redemption) could have had. It ended being rushed and weightless. They probably sanded her challenging edges off to appease fans (like yourself) that can only handle cuddly comfort characters that have a "good heart".
@@TheDreamingDays I mean, even in her commander arc, she stood up to Ambessa's Noxian aggression, calling out the violence and showing her regret over starting in the first place(mentioning she didn't think it would take so long). She started down the path during her emotional turmoil and grief. It only makes sense that once she has time to look at what she's done, she starts to second guess.
And yeah, she could have got even darker, but they didn't have time to flesh that story out I think. She still committed war crimes, was willing to kill innocents, and allows martial law to be instituted. I'm not sure how much darker you would have wanted her to be, short of torturing and killing Zaunites for fun.
Silco might have loved Jinx, but he was willing to kill, maim, and destroy lives just to maintain power. Any Zaunite not in favor of his particular solution or that got in the way was either eliminated or enslaved.
@@WickedHumor ...you sound like you're talking to someone else because half of what you say isn't relevant to anything I said in the first place. If you're a Caitlyn fan with an axe to grind I don't really care about that...
Yes Caitlyn gets a villain turn, but the show rushes through it, and doesn't treat any of her darker actions with the seriousness it needs. Her time as a villain doesn't have a lot of substance. She doesn't face any impactful consequences, the other characters barely react to her descent, and her redemption just kinda happens for the convenience of the plot moving forward.
I have no clue why you are listing Silco's crimes to me. I said he was well-written, not an angel, lol.
@@TheDreamingDays They should have spent more time on several arcs, but had to condense for time. I really wish they hadn't and share your frustration with that.
But Caitlyn didn't avoid consequences. She loses people close to her, loses her self-respect(which is a big deal given her character), is responsible for the Grey and Ambessa's rise to power(and thus hundreds, maybe thousands of Piltovan deaths). She gave up her seat of power, was maimed, suffered betrayals and betrayed others, and hates herself for what she did. Just because she doesn't face concrete, objective punishments on screen doesn't mean she didn't pay for it.
I guess they could have thrown her in jail and stripped her of her holdings, but what happened is a better reflection of a real life situation: People in power rarely receive commensurate punishments.
Season two didn't have to be turned into a spectacle, an as lovely as the visuals were, there has to be more to the story than the amazing visuals.
As a long time league player, I always knew that Vander would come back as Warwick, and I anticipated it, but whatthey did to Viktor is criminal.
They sacrificed a Nikola Tesla-like character, a brilliant man with morally grey ideas, a man who decided to rebuild himself with his human knowledge and human made technology, and turned him into a Jesus figure, who wields magic instead of science. They called those things ''machines'' but they look like they're made of porcelain instead of metal.
All this to say, that for me, Arcane's flaws are mostly visible in how they treated Viktor's character, and how sidelined Jinx and Vi's story became in favor of pretty space visuals.
I disagree strongly, Viktor is easily one of the best parts in s2 imo. Viktor never had morally grey or ideas that detrimental to people. Viktor has always worked to stop strife and oppression. He helps make hextech because he sees all the suffering it can alleviate, but his own suffering with his illness threatens to cuts his time short and he dedicates himself to the pursuit of perfection, which gets Skye killed finishing his s1 arc when he realizes the cost of progress and is prepared to die. In s2 his death is immediately stopped as Jayce goes against his wishes and fuses him with the hex core and begins building weapons with hextech. So he leaves piltover to go continue helping people who need helping the most and his ambition begins to grow again, coming to a head when he talks to singed and then gets attacked by Jayce. He concludes that suffering is a fundamental part of humanity and in his ambition and drive to end human suffering realizes the cause of the greatest good is also the fuel of the greatest evil. He willingly lets “Skye” die as he prepares for the final evolution. In his intention to accomplish his own greatest good, he commits his greatest evil. The people he evolves become porcelain statues of perfection, but they have no face to feel with. His arc gets reversed so exceptionally and so true to his character in season 2. And change, the pursuit of progress, and trying to stop change are the core themes present in every faucet of season 2 that viktor embodies perfectly
@Anticssc that's a lotta words. Too bad I'm not reading 'em
@@DiabolicalJinx writing an essay and refusing to read another is peak youtube shitposting
@@woomynation aren't I a silly goose 😝
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I wrote my thoughts a million times but I’ll try to get them across here as fast as possible
1. Mel’s story was useless
2. Characters made decision but didn’t have any development towards making those decisions.
3. Characters sometimes make illogical decisions e.g. Caitlyn and Vi in jail cell and vi thinking jinx is going to go be evil again. Another one is Jayce shooting Viktor when future Viktor told Jayce he’s the only one who can change his mind.
4. Lack of character development and closure. We didn’t see anything of Isha after her death and she shoulda been developed more. Same with Vander pretty much.
I think one thing that may be hard to accept because season 1 was so good, is that the villain of season 2 doesn't need to fill Silco's shoes, because jinx already did (that is why when Vi is trying to get Jinx to fight again in the prison scene of episode 8, she says "If you come, help, use all that explosive potential of yours for good, maybe we could rewrite your story, LIKE YOU DID WITH ZAUN."). If you see in the montage of episode 4, the entirety of Zaun is looking up to Jinx, because of what happened in episode 3 (removed most of The Grey from Zaun and put it into Piltover). That is why the first time we see sunlight in Zaun is at Vander's statue in episode 4 , during Sevika's rally.
Also, because of the finale in season 1, all of the bad things that happened get pinned on Jinx, and we see this in season 2, episodes 2, 3, and 4 (mainly the intro to 2). So instead of using Piltover and Zaun as characters like in season one, the writers use Jinx as a view of Zaun, and Caitlyn as a view of Piltover (Jinx and Caitlyn are opposites and parallels of each other, just like Piltover and Zaun). The only problem with this tactic in writing, is that some people want more of the Piltover-Zaun drama, (which I agree with), but that isn't the focus of season 2. The way season 2 was written is with the first and second episodes of acts 1 and 2 are about Jinx, and Vi respectively, and then in the final episode for all 3 acts are them fighting with or against each other (Episode 7 of both seasons is about Ekko, and episode 8 of both seasons is about Mel).
I hope this comment helps make the fast pace of season 2 make a bit more sense, as I do think it is better than season 1. season 1 is a 10/10 for me, and season 2 is a 10/10.1 for me.
Agreed. The conflict is still Piltover vs Zaun, but its not as direct. It follows a more convoluted, messy progression, like a real life rebellion would. Unlike season 1, the scale of the story is much bigger.
They could have written it differently, but their real issue was their limited run-time restraints.
@@WickedHumor Couldn't have explained it better. Thank you
I agree with the main point of this essay but disagree with some of the analysis. I think a lot of what was done this season could have been done well but the ideas were ultimately failed by the writers. Ambessa was actually set up as a great villain but the writers failed her. She was someone interested in Piltover not because of any personal attachment to the city but because of the technology it offered. While her transition to Zaun at the end of S2 makes physical sense, it does not make thematic sense. Before, she seemed a character that thrived off of the class conflict, showing the external interests that just won't let the oppression end.
Furthermore, I think Vander being Warwick could have worked. Those into League lore already suspected that he was Warwick, but the way he was used in this season was just as a means to get Vi and Jinx back together. If Warwick was more developed, it would have been great (thematically) to see Piltover ignoring the threat of Warwick rampaging the undercity. We could have even kept the arc where Singed seeks to exploit Warwick, disregarding the individuality of the person inside.
Finally, episode 7 could have also worked. Ekko and Heimerdinger's side of the story shows an optimistic view of Zaun and Piltover, which can give them hope of a better world. Meanwhile, Jayce sees a ruined Piltover presumably from Viktor (but as a viewer I didn't think episode 7 gave conclusive evidence that it was Viktor's fault). I would have loved to see a version of Arcane where Jayce's anxiety around the vision ended up leading to a terrible decision for the undercity while the lessons Ekko learns allow him to expand his part of the undercity (maybe by taking in refugees or something) offering hope for a better future.
And the funny thing is these changes would have been more in line with League's previous lore.
Ambessa’s conclusion was weird. She ended up acquiring the technology to fight against Black Rose, using Hexgod Viktor and Warwick. So why didn’t she just pack up and leave Piltover & Zaun? She finished her objective, so the Noxus invasion was meaningless.
They really needed a 4th act, the fact they didnt flesh out more, made it feel to me that covid and business decisions forced a disconnected story to be released.
Personally Id like to see more normal warwick running the streets hunting criminals with an intro scene to Vander being dragged from the wreckage of s1.
Caitlyn needed a scene of being forced to see Grayson's memorial and reconciling her behavior with Graysons moral teaching
Blisters and Bedrock could have been teased in season 1 when Vander and Silco speak or when Silco pours his drink out. The fact it didnt, felt like many ideas were introduced without s1 in mind
What an excellent analysis dude. Personally & think a surprise 10th hour long finale would have allowed all of the pacing problems i had with character development to be resolved. Instead the whole black rose thing, as intriguing as it was seemed like nothing but a set up for what comes next & took up so much time that would have been better spent on other story threads. And i will not be convinced, no matter how insistent christian linke & alex yee are that all these plot lines were intended to be crammed into 9 episodes as it was. They & the other writers & creators demonstrated how meticulously well thought out every aspect of the story was intended to be explored in season 1. So to expect us to believe it was always their intention to have for example caitlyn flip flop from a compassionate peacemaker, to ruthless dictator & back again with so little exposition is nuts. I totally agree with you, arcane was on the cusp of being for me the greatest piece of media i had ever seen. And don’t get me wrong, i still loved the heck out of season 2. But as the finale ended i found myself with the words that brought the curtain down on season one running through my head.....what could have been! Thanks for a great vid dude.
The way i’ve interpreted arcane is a story that depicts the price to ambition.
in the pursuit of greatness, we failed to do good.
For real, I feel like they forgot Piltover and Zaun was supposed to be the main conflict of season 2 but they put in so many plot lines and they just rushed everything and they just made decisions that were just constantly hurting the show. It's like they didn't even want to do season 2 or put any effort to it. I was really confident in their work with act one but after act three watchiny just made me realize that the show was just off the wheels and I can't forgive the decisions they made and I really can't look the show the same way after season 2.
I totally agree that this show needed a third season in order to reach it's full potential, it would've been so amazing if they expanded upon episodes 1-6 and made that their own season where they had time to properly develop the new secondary characters (looking at you Maddie, Seb, and Lorus), maybe make Ambessa the BBEG of S2 while introducing Viktor's ultimate downfall, and then save all multiverse, zombie army, existentialism for S3 or, better yet, we maintain the class warfare story started in S1. It feels like a betryal to the dream of Zaun that Sevika was added to the Piltover council when Zaun should've had their own recognized council.
Fantastic essay! 😊 This pretty much sums up my disappointments with season 2. The Piltover/Zaun conflict was crucial to season 1 and it's unsatisfactory to see it swept aside. Of course, it's a difficult conflict to resolve, especially with how dire the situation was, but I feel like there was a more nuanced way to do it other than 'let's team up to stop the 3rd impact'. 😅
How do we right the wrongs of a systemically unequal society? There's still plenty to be explored on that note.
I disagree that Ambessa and Viktor are generic villains. Yes, Ambessa is hungry for power and willing to do anything to get it, but she does this because she wanted to protect her family from the Black Rose, and she genuinely cares for her Mel. Viktor wants to toke over everybody’s mind, but that’s because he thinks that’s the only way for the world to be perfect, is if there was no conflict or emotion. He has good intentions but his plan to get there is flawed. Both characters are complex and therefore have nuance. I agree that Silco is a much better villain, but it’s not like Ambessa and Viktor are bad to be bad.
Constructive criticism is what prevents great shows/series from becoming slop. Keep it up!
I feel that the need for a behind the scenes documentary for this season would answer so many questions about why the writers made the decisions they did. As of now, most of season 2 just seems nonsensical from a writing standpoint, and exemplary from a "marketing for the game" standpoint
I agree with mostly everything you said. Despite my absolute love for the show, season 2 is objectively worse than season 1, but a lot of online discourse I've seen around season 2 and especially for the people who did not like it is WAY to harsh. As someone who was in some ways disappointed with this season, I cannot tell how appreciated it is to see someone critiquing season 2 in a respectful, clam, and well-thought-out manner. Their are way too many videos calling season 2 'complete garbage' and then nitpicking every little thing they think is wrong with the show. I like how you focus on the themes and setting built in season 1 and how it all ties into season 2 and the overall narrative. I also like how you acknowledged everything that season 2 did well. This video is such a breath of fresh air with season 2 critique.
I do agree with all of your points. And I do think every issue in season 2 could had been resolved with more time. But imo Arcane is still the greatest show I've watched and I look forward to whatever the writers bring us next.
Great video 👏👏👏 I felt the same way.
I think the biggest flaw of this show is, it is essentially a show that has the primary goal to promote a video game with so much complex lore and world building. I imagine it can be a bit overwhelming for writers and producers to keep that in mind, and still commit to giving integrity to the grounded and down to earth story telling they did in S1. I think it can be possible to work around that, but with factors like budget, keeping up with the game fans and advertising the game's franchise, I'm not surprised this would happen. It's still impressive how it still turned out to be an incredible show to watch, though.
Sending Jayce to the future and putting Mel in a box was a mistake. Jayce already had the resolve to do the right thing, he just lacked the wisdom to know what it was. Ekko spent a whole episode in some Wattpad Fix Fic. Powder saved the Zaunites while Vi was in a pit. Vi and Powder's arc was resolved by random werewolf plot device. Surely there had to be better solutions to these problems that didn't need to be created.
To be honest, i had mixed feelings about season two as well, after my first watch. And while it's can't be the premise of any show, it got so much better on my second watch. I prefer season two over season one now. I honestly think that quite a few people just didn't get what they expected with season two and that's where the struggle to like it stems from. Not to say that it hasn't any flaws (or at least subjective faults and misses), but i don't feel like it completely forgets to tell any one story to its end. Yes, they might have needed a bit more time for certain things to stick the landing, but i don't feel like they forgot something.
I think Arcane season 2 would've benefitted with 12 episodes, whether it be 4 episodes per act or 4 acts. These three extra episodes could theoretically help with filling in events that weren't shown to us or are needed to be shown, such as the events in between the first two acts (Paint the town blue montage is barely enough and Caitlyn suddenly got pushed aside after getting so much focus in act 1), Mel and whatever she has (Her final scenes in act 3 with the other characters left so many questions, with her final talk with both Jayce and Ambessa confuses me a lot), and more focus with Vi (Vi is in need of whatever Mel's arc is with being controlled by others and taking control once again, and her being stuck in the past needs to be shown more beforehand since she does seem open to move on and forgive and forget both Jinx and Caitlyn until the moment she just breaks after seeing vander die for the third time, and her agency being taken away by Jinx twice in the final act is tragic yet not satisfying, she got thrown to prison to be forcefully with Caitlyn and then got saved by a sacrifice from Jinx to force her to be free from the past)
I still think it is the greatest show of all time, despite some of season 2’s flaws.
I love Ambessa as a character too much to say I'd want her less involved in the plot lol, but i agree that I wish she eother remained more as a secondary antagonist or if she found a way to be more personally involved in the conflict between the two cities.
Tbh I think the problem with Viktor as a villain is that he never feels like a Villain
I think the main problem comes from his story in the game; where it's clear to me that the writers back then couldn't decide if they wanted to make him a sympathetic character or a cartoony villain and it jumped between the two like a metronome
Then when arcane started, they went the sympathetic character route but forgot to give him a good reason to become a villain
Then season 2 arrived and they used Jayce to push Viktor's story forward
Why did he used the Hexcore to alter his body after he decided to destroy it in season 1? He didn’t, it was Jayce. Why did he decided to create the commune? Because it was his and Jayce's dream. Why did he decided to become the herald? Because of what Jayce did to him in the commune. And at the end, it was Jayce the one to stop him and forgive him. And it never feels like Viktor doesn't deserve forgiveness because again, he's too much of a sympathetic character to hate him (and on the contrary, a character like Silco was very easy to hate) and a lot of the things he did were like a reaction to something Jayce so it doesn't feel right to blame him for it 100%
And I think in the end this decision the writers took reflects on Jayce's character in that he is a very well written character in season 2; almost like a reflection of Singed where everything he does, he does it for love. But Viktor; he just doesn't make sense if you separate his character arc from Jayce's
Great video! Unlike a lot of other Season 2 rants/critiques I've watched online yours was articulated so well as to not come off as needlessly bashing the show. Personally, if Season 1 was a 10/10 then Season 2 was a 9/10 and easily ranks as one of my favorite shows of all time.
The decision to move away from the Piltover-Zaun conflict in favor of pushing up Ambessa, Viktor, and the Arcane as the central antagonists is definitely a controversial one and a valid complaint. Despite my disapproval of them doing it I'm accepting of it cause I still loved the new themes they displayed after shifting focus. The idea of transhumanism and perfectionism with Viktor throughout Episode 6, 8, and 9 I thought was an ingenious direction for his story. I really enjoyed seeing Viktor, Jayce, and Ekko getting the spotlight in the final act.
It all comes down to personal preferences however as some problems that you or others may have don't bother me as much. But I think we should all just be grateful a show like this exists even with it's flaws.
Glad you enjoyed the vid! Totally agree with a lot of what you said above
I think arcane s2 writers realized they needed to tell a bigger and grander story than the first season. I thought s1 was amazing due to the story’s focus on the city as a whole. The world building breathed life into the setting, and that’s what made the story work. S2 needed to fit a larger story that needed more context in the same time gram of 9 episodes. I think too many elements went unexplained, like black rose or Ambessa herself, made the story very thin for me. I still loved the S2, especially episode 7, but I think this would’ve been way better if we had another 3ish episodes.
Episode seven really was amazing and would have been even better if their was another act after it
I think the problem lies more with riot and league than with the arcane writers realizing they need to tell a bigger and grander story. As we can see now, they have a whole Noxus season starting in the game and they made Arcane the center of league canon, so it’s not hard to conclude that they meddled in the creation of season 2 to neatly splice the end of the show with the beginning of the game season.
Season one was great but after episode 3 the zaun and piltover storyine takes a huge backseat for the silbling relationship and jayce storyline. In season one we dont even learn in what ways piltover opressee zaun. Vi's character goes from hating piltover to wanting to have sex with caitlyn within less than 20 minute.
is season 2, act 1 episode 3 a joke to you
I've really struggled fitting Victor into the overall story of a civil war and i have a theory. Victors cult only makes sence in the overall story if piltover and zaun as a poorly executed cult of religious extremism? I don't know though because it really does just seem like he went crazy with magic? 3 more seasons and a foreign power manipulating the situation and terroristic zellots ariseung in the wake of the power vacuum left by Silco? That story would make sense.
His cult is completely disconnected from the Piltover and Zaun conflict. Viktor's goal wasn't to elevate Zaun, it was to transcend humanity. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as this third party was present and increasing in significance on the sidelines, not something out of the blue.
What I feel should've happened, is Viktor to enter the conflict like so, completely disconnected from anything. An unexpected variable added to the equation that screws everything over. And that is what happens in the show but they rushed it, and too quickly had both sides forget their strife to team up for a greater threat.
I think they should've allowed more time for the conflict to play out to its fullest extent, then when Viktor has grown into a genuine and unavoidable threat, have Piltover literally on their knees pleaing for the aid of the Undercity, being forced by circumstance to accept all sorts of terms and conditions, and to finally sort their dispute via more "civil" means.
I'm sorry but the return of vander was always hinted in season 1. Many fans of league of legends knew that vander is actually Warwick.in all honesty i think they didn't fumbled that much.i still love arcane both season 1 and 2.maybe it's just my taste but the only problem it had was time.i can't see any other problem with it. for me the characters were still enjoyable and the story and emotions was strong.
It is very true that his return was hinted at (even as a non league player) and I don't hate the idea of brining him back. To me, after his return, he felt like a tool to force character growth more so than his own tragic character
The problem with Vander's story was that he was introduced in the exact same scene as it was revealed that he was Vander, which makes just as much sense as introducing Darth Vader and revealing he's Luke's father in the exact scene. There's two movies worth of beats between those instances and that's exactly what Vander's story was missing. He needed a season's worth of being Warwick the beast, killing enforcers and people indiscriminately, being brutally violent, before eventually revealing his connection to the sisters.
Then a hypothetical third season would focus on Vi and Jinx being forced to work together to find and cure Vander
Unfortunately, Arcane is League of Legends… Arcane is clearly a part of a bigger picture or whatever cinematic universe they’re trying to do. It affected season 2.
Thanks For this! Love your content ❤❤❤❤
I think that season 2’s plot points were generally perfect, but that there wasn’t enough time to flesh them all out.
It was good but could have been better
I only watched 3 episodes for now, but I lost interest for the show already. To me it's just a mess of pretty pictures and random ideas, underbuit connections and fights with random characters to show designs? I guess
I understood this the moment I've saw the first episode and the mourning of Cassandra Kiramann is just a song with a shitty animation background.
The introduction of new characters like Steb and others is extremely forced and that flags them out, to anyone who has a little bit of culture, as "fodder characters"
Furthermore, the extensive usage of tragedy makes the constructed drama dull and predictable. When I saw the "Jesus Viktor" I immediately knew "He's going to end up dying in a cross" and he in fact did it, except it wasn't a cross but his levitating machine thing. And he then comes back as a God. So predictable.
Arcane seems to be faltered as series. It seems there was different people pulling the story elsewhere during writing, so the losing side had to compromise. This is most obvious on the character deaths. Viktor and Jayce are pulled out of existence, but the people connected to the chaos storm are not. Heimerdinger has the same fate, he is just written off.(and in his particular case it is implied that he knew Ekko would be in that timeline at some point, and he was the one who finished building the same device he forgot to plug the power in?). And Ambessa has the most ridiculous ending ever, she just perishes out of nowhere.
Go back and look at Vander, Benzo or Sky's deaths in Season 1. And how meaningful they were to the plot.
Season 2 was the classical "We were not prepared to this kind of success" and instead of showing valor, they've dropped the ball
Hot take - for all the show's faults in its writing, Arcane manages to make the prettiest anime of the current era look like bull excrement. I'm sorry, but the anime aesthetic is overrated. You need very specific motifs and little details stacked on top of each other to make an anime artstyle look good. Otherwise, anime comes across as bland and sterile to me.
Although season 2 has some issues and forgets about some stuff from season 1, i still think Arcane is the Greatest show of all time
Same boat as you. Very flawed second season, but even at its worst, it runs laps around most shows out there.
Yep. The parts were there but all together just didnt bring the full potential
God season 2 was written like dogshit
Not the AoT fan saying this with that ending
I agree that Vander should've stayed dead and not turned into a beast, although the flashbacks we got from Vander are too good to pass up, especially considering the letter to silco and the alternate timeline. On another note, I do think isha's sacrifice was important symbolically (as much as it broke me) as a parallel to when powder tried to save her family in s1.a1. Those moments that you may feel are unnecessary connected the story back to the theme of family and connection. A 9/10 show, still my favourite of all time and a 10/10 video :)
I feel like another silco or cait vs jinx would've defeated the most attractive thing in this show... The fact it writes people not characters. Ambessa didn't overshadow mel, she gave her dimention beyond the femme fatale politics lady.
Arcane was, yes, greatly a class centred commentary but not fully. it shows how our greatest passions blind us (viktor, achieving perfection specifically through the arcane, silco, zaun, jayce, generally searching for something while trying his best to be useful, vi, people she considers home, etc)
it show us that life is complex, focusing only on the classism factor like maybe the hunger games and others did would've made it a bit boring, not all issues are completely solved that quickly.
Noxus and ambessa showed how some nations pray on the weak in times of dire conflict (Ahem, america AHEM) while also giving us an amazing mother daughter dynamic.
Vander's initial return was honestly one of the few if not the only way to give the sisters a chance to rekindle, giving them a common goal returning him.
Isha's death pushes jinx to care about more than just herself and her infinitely small circle as well as shows us us how war doesn't discriminate
Vander's second return felt like pushing it with the very same plot device but it also lines up perfectly with many things, vander a pacifist now used as a weapon by 2 different people for 2 very different goals fully out of his own control after having largely controlled the narrative of his own story at least in comparison to other characters.
Viktor was a bit much? but his connection to the professor and signed individually and their similar yet different goals kinda wrapped it up nicely.
Jinx' sacrifice was the final piece of her character development, letting go of her past fully and utterly while showing this alturism isha taught her
The inconsistency with character development is also so very human
Vi specifically, she's basically a time capsule thurst into a new world where my girl knows NOTHING so ofcourse she's gonna circle back and forth, try to isolate, then circle again
Sevika's entrance is puahed aside because it's no solution, it's the beginning of one, no one accepts her, she's still an outsider, a diversity hire if you will, the conflict is far from over and waiting till it's done to end the show would've made it lose the show don't tell value.
The diversity of the plot shows the complexity of real life, it just needed more time because it was honestly so rushed and atp WHAT IS THE BLACK ROSE
More vids on blue box ngl
Planning to reread the manga soon, so more videos after that!
@aniessays i watched anime twice and the manga twice😭
the change isnt inorganic. its just faster than in the real world wich is ok because the core messages still get out there
My disappointments with season 2 reminded me of an important fact to consider: Arcane is a glorified League of Legends advertisement. The primary goal wasn't telling a great story, it was being cool enough to draw people towards the game. And that's a damn shame.
Arcane definitely doesn’t have the best TV show plot of all time, but you are talking out your ass if you think any show can beat its visuals. literally name one because I would love to go watch it😂
He never said that.
Wtf? Since when did he say that any show can beat its visuals? Have u watched the video?
He specifically said the complete opposite
@@Keish340 my comment isn’t disagreeing with anything in the video. I don’t know why y’all are assuming it is. I’m just commenting my opinion on arcane since that’s what this video is about.
I don't think it's fair to be very harsh on arcane s2 for not covering the plitover vs zuan since it will most likely going to be cover in ekko spin-off show it would be like critique avengers 1 for not concluding the infinite war saga but
my only issue is that it's way to short and beacuse of that plot line that wete concluded lacked the depth they could of had like Victor's arc or vi arc and her relationship with jinx and Caitlin needs more time
It's not really a case of it they will cover Piltover/Zaun in a spinoff but that this show built its character and drama though that setting then abandoned it
They didn’t forget about Piltover and Zaun. If you were under the impression that the series called ARCANE was a booth class struggles, you were fooling yourself.
Also, the show begins with faceless stormtrooper soldiers committing an act of violence on a population, and ends with faceless robotic soldiers committing an act of violence on a population.
I feel like you kinda proved the point that Arcane's ending missed yourself. The story starts with faceless oppression but then spends so much time unmasking the people of Piltover/Zaun only to revert back to meaningless soldiers. Just think about the major difference in emotional impact from the end of season one verses season two
@ that is a gross misunderstanding of the themes and plot of the show, but I guess I shouldn’t expect much from you.
@@jimlight5137 if its called Arcane it should have focused more on the Arcane. Do you know what the Arcane is and what it does? Can you properly explain how it works?
@ I love the use of “if” in that sentence, because there’s no “if” about it… the show IS called Arcane.
The Arcane is ancient deep magic that runs through everything like the Force. Gemstones act as power sources and runes act as conduits for the magic to flow through. The reason Hextech is so unique is because it doesn’t require knowledge of magic to use, and the ability to swap out specific runes makes it so that devices can have multiple functions.
But the Arcane is also corruption. It seeps into the world through cracks here and there, and it’s likely the cause of the toxic plants deep in the fissures that Singe uses to make Shimmer out of.
The Arcane directly influence the cities of Piltover and Zaun through these cracks. It helps create shimmer which in turn helps create the corrupted hexcore which in turn helps to create Viktor’s robot body which in turn leads to near destruction of everything.
You could say that the reason most of the characters do what they do is because of the subtle influences of the arcane exploiting weaknesses and ambitions.
Why is it that every critical review of Arcane oversimplifies the plot to make false points? Instead of going in detail on the elements the story was missing and reaching a conclusion as to its problems (and there are quite a few in this season) we see some smug essayist shadow boxing a strawman of it. No in depth analysis, no focus, objectively wrong conclusions and parroting of vague points that are going around since November with barely any thought behind them. You said nothing of value buddy.
Goodness. Every critical view differs because they are the opinions of the individual critic who can frame it as they choose. You sound like the Thought Police. Smug? Look in the mirror.
@jamakaya1332 Opinion ends when you say factually wrong shit buddy. You got triggered over my criticism of a bad youtube video. You should check on yourself first.
Alr then, what makes the second season of Arcane good?
@@Keish340 What a vague and dishonest question. Do you want me to list everything so you can reject it by default? It's easier to point out the one problem of the season. It was too short for its plot. It needed more time to flesh things out and let the story and the character development flow smoothly. They didn't have the time and this caused a "narrative whiplash" to many viewers. Especially in the last 2 episodes. Every criticism is the result of this. Everything else was on the level of season 1 and the technical aspect of the show was even better.