Analysis of Schnee's placement of Mini Jinx: Presented her in the beginning during a long shot to make viewers familiar with her so she could be used in more shots later on without confusion. This shot was also facing a window, reinforcing the idea that Schnee would be covering lots of topics (the outside world has a lot to view from a window and in general) but at that moment, the video was only beginning and no topics had been explained yet, so viewers were shown Jinx inside a building. Mini Jinx is shown on a rock, a much larger shot of a bay, city buildings, and a dock behind her. This lead into Schnee's point that business in a story is detrimental, so everything must be balanced. The scene with the plush is an example of business being overwhelming, as there are too many details in the scenery for viewers to focus on a part in the whole. Jinx is found among stuffed animals with similar builds but different patterns and colors. This supported the point that remembering ten different scenes is as troublesome as recalling all the specific toys on that shelf. However, it's easy on the mind to recall generalities that link them together, such as "there were unicorns and wolves," in a similar way as drawing links between certain scenes. Here's my favorite: Baby Jinx has been stuffed between boxes of cereal, but the focus is obviously on the overwhelming number of brands and types of cereal. Buying cereal is supporting one brand or another, and a lot of customers will care where their money is going. The points Schnee makes are decision-making based on morality and technology; a buyer has to weigh the same things in their mind. Is it worth it to buy this cereal even if I don't like the parent company's tactics? Is one choice more advanced, tastier, or better presented than the others? These are both questions that consumers ask themselves and each other in the same way Arcane's characters make their decisions (albeit on different scales hahah). Jinxer in the turkey! The two rows of items displayed are fish sticks and packaged turkeys. Two very distinct products with different appeals and audiences. This shot coincides with Schnee's reference to 'identity' within Arcane. Regardless of moral or technological factors, there's a clear divide between fish sticks and turkey, meaning they have entirely different identities and marketability. Plush Jinx is wearing a crown: it's the same size and has the same function of a 'normal' crown, just like the story of Arcane as a whole. However, the gems on it represent the arcs, in that they are different colors/storylines and still fulfill their spots on the crown properly and without distraction. Ring Pops! Jinx on a horse! Lots of items in the background! That's a lot in a short scene! You could almost say that it's 500% as much as any of the other shots in the video. Pull-ups carry a "weight" without leakage (ideally). Arcane maintains the weights of emotion, technology, family, etc. without any of them falling through. Pull-Ups also represent these ideas because they are a technology, they are employed by families for their kids, and they are products subject to the same scrutiny as mentioned earlier with cereal brands. Elmo pinatas: they have two functions! Provide happiness through a recognizable character and to be demolished as a party favor. The first makes people care about the product, therefore making them willing to buy it. The second is practical and displays the product's identity. Each of the leis is colorful and distinct, providing--as Schnee wrote--"more pathways to identity." Schnee explains the Tidy Cat shot, evidencing that these irl scenes were filmed with intent. The harvest wreaths are call-backs to Thanksgiving with directly displaying that. It doesn't have to because it is a recognizable facet of a tale woven into our culture. Bleach is used when blots or stains appear on clothing, and the user wants them gone. It shows us where those stains are and other ones we may have been missing, similar to Schnee's argument about how questions are generated in Arcane. Baby Jinx is on a train to remind viewers of the infinite nature of a train line--always moving, always utilized--to draw a parallel to Arcane's seemingly endless depth and natural formation of speculation. Person twirking got Jinx questioning everything. 'Nuff said. Schnee explains Baby J overlooking the skyline. What better way to show how a world is built than to show an onlooker's perspective of a city from the shore? Jinx watches the buildings drift farther away as Schnee talks about world-building. Birthdays! Arcane's, this channel's, and this entire fanbase! Getting a shot of the Statue of Liberty is smart because it was the ultimate birthday present to the U.S. and is a constant reminder of our country's age. The long, fluid scene of the boat ride allows viewers to focus on what is changing: Schnee's voice and story. Jinx is next to Lady Liberty plushies to remind us how marketing works in conjunction with Schnee's explanation of how he's going to employ his channel going forward--and shows how his content will be unique and personal! Jinx walking down a city block functions the same as the long shot of the boat, but with comedic flair due to it being sped up. Baby Jinx is getting some pizza to wind down after a long modeling shoot. Schnee, you prompted me to write an essay on your video essay! 😂 Thank you for all your hard work, passion, brain cells, and shared experiences the past year! Keep doing what you enjoy and take care!
@@schnee1 Don't worry, your work didn't go unnoticed! There was very clearly a thought process behind those shots, which was what got me thinking in the first place!
But for real, great job on the video. really put in the work. i love all your videos(not lotr, im just too scared of smeagol lmao). been there since the first analysis vids and im just glad someone shows me truly all the little details and meaningful purposes behind the story i already love so much. I thank you for the content, I hope you will keep going with this, it really makes my day.
It's funny but also true because it is possible to be a genius in one aspect of your life and a dumbass in a different one. For instance, he's obviously insanely tech savvy and forward thinking, however he's also a dumbass when it comes to understanding history and consequences of his actions, conflicts, etc. Obviously he gets better at it (it's kind of an important part of his arc).
@@someoneelse5005 but that's just a theory, it isn't like we can seen this genius/idiot duality being played out in real life on a global stage right now or anything hahaha
I love how after one year we can still spot so many stuff and analyze so many things. Hell, I even found some stuff on the Enemy music video that I never saw a year earlier. You can clearly feel the passion put into the show those 6 years clearly was worth it.
Oh? Is it that the intro plays "Everyone wants to be my enemy" during Ekko's part of the main introduction theme, and he's been living and feeling like no one else is willing to help the underground :)
@Cr33pTheCr33p3r Not that, but that is also very interesting. What I saw that blew my mind and never seen before is a super small moment that I don't think too many people has mentioned. Replay the scene in the music video qhere the firelight goes out of Powder's mouth, then slow it down and watch the transition. At precisely 1:02, slow it down to see 0.25 speed.
This is why I am not in a rush to get the next season. I can keep analyzing and enjoying season one over and over because of the depth and wan that same depth as the show goes on.
@@crimsoneclipse0618 There's many moments like this. Or sometimes Powder has Jinx's shadow. I recommend watching the whole thing at 0.5 speed, doesn't sound that bad and it's slow enough to notice some interesting details.
A thing that i noticed about arcane’s dialogue is that… there isn’t really much of it? Like when you look at other stories out there it all feels longer just because the conversations are longer, characters in arcane don’t really talk to each other continuously for more than 2/3 minutes. And i think this adds onto the whole hermeticism of arcane. They never tell they just simply show the most basic building blocks of the story and they layer so many of those that you don’t NEED a long 20 minute showdown with just jinx and Caitlyn or just jinx and her voices to understand how she feels about her, how threatened from Caitlyn jinx feels. Heck the music in arcane doesn’t tell you how to feel, it’s just serenading how the situation feels like
I think the most dialogue we got was at the tea party, and even there there was plenty of breaks and pauses to build up pur expectations from the environment alone
Yes! The fact that so much was said without being said was one of the first things I noticed!! They didn't need to tell you that the Undercity had poorer quality of life, they just showed the enforcers wearing gas masks when no one else was! I do wonder how the writers and animators decided to introduce certain details tho. Did they look at a scene and say "what else can we add to help the story later" or did they look at a detail and say "how can we introduce this and when should we show it"??? I'm rewatching the show currently, and I'm noticing how much of Caitlyn's backstory is told, like, without her? The name Kiraman is said within the first 20 minutes of episode one. When she's introduced as an enforcer, the ceremonial role throws doubt on the legitimacy of her skills. Then the other enforcers tease her with her status. Then, several episodes later, we see the training scene with Grayson and Cait says "Did my parents pay you to let me win?" but by then we've already heard this concept of her role being bought like 5 times! Before she said anything about it! Makes me wonder which scenes were written specifically to introduce that concept vs which scenes were written for other purposes and had that added to it
101 on visual storytelling is to always show first and only tell when necessary. Every creator from top-to-bottom had creative input to maximize this basic, powerful concept.
Yeah i noticed too that the dialogue was much shorter than im used to. I like long dialogue with plenty of emotion, wisecracks, smooth talk, great voices, but once i got used to arcane's style i began to enjoy it too
Regarding the Microlevels you mention, I think I have an idea how they achieved it. It's because almost every part of Arcane and the people who worked on it contributed to the story. It wasn't just the directors and the writers who made the story, the animators told a story the writers didn't even think of, the musicians whk helped with the score and soundtrack were also given free reign to add to the story, and the voice actors too got a chance to add their own perspective and nuances to their characters. It's a collaborative storytelling on another level, every part of the production are given a chance to add to the story, which gives it so much more depth than a story made with 1 person's vision.
I think this is interesting but Hailee (who voiced Vi. Crazy right??? had no idea it was her) said in an interview that they really didnt understand what was going on in the show when they voiced it. They were just reading off the script, but she said it became more clear once the actualy show was released and they realized what the strange terms their character said actually meant. So i dont think they got a chance to put in their creative output other than their acting
@@thewiskeredcat9157 Not sure about Hailee since I haven't seen much Arcane interviews with her, but the other voice actors like JB who voiced Vander, Mia who voiced Powded, and especially Jason Spisak who voiced Silco have said a lot about their character's perspectivr and nuance.
Yes, I've heard that they let the Fortiche animation team add things as they've drawn scenes and characters. Some of these stuff weren't meant to be in the story but they kept these little additions and they became a part of the story and fan theories.
The best decision Riot every made for Arcane was hiring phenomenally talented people from top to bottom, all or most of whom have a deep love of League of Legends and a long history of working on the expanded universe, then telling them, "Do you." Do them they did, and it is a work of art.
these videos have literally subconsciously fed my capabilities as both a writer and a storyteller, analytical and fictional. i've also always loved writing, loved stories, but i never truly understood the theory behind it. i don't do well with formulas, but little things that add so much depth to a world that i can incorporate help me so much. these videos help me so much. thanks schnee, and thanks arcane :)
Dude same. I've always been wanting to write a story of my own, but I don't know how. And I'm the type who learn by experiencing instead of learning theory, so I read a lot of novels At first the novels I read were okay, not the best, but not bad either which is exactly what I want. But after watching his videos, I began to notice small details I've never noticed before, and before long I was like "did I seriously read this shit?!" Lol. That's the positive, the negative effect is that it's hard for me to just enjoy a novel without trying to find their flaws 😔
@@batu5180 UGH SAME! I'm especially picky with characters! It's a little irritating, because the majority of novels I've read (and shows/movies) after I watched Arcane and schnee's videos have just seemed... ok at best I kinda wish I could go back to blindly enjoying novels when they're just ok, but then again this knowledge would help me make my own novels to the best of my ability (ideally with the help of others' insight too). On a related note, I'll see a ton of people with a popular book like "omg this is SO GOOD!" and when I read it I'm just like "wtf guys did I read the same book or" (I blame it on you booktok-though I'm happy people are at least taking the time to read in this day and age)
@@roguishwretches yep. I especially liked reading webnovel, and many times I never trusted their ranking lists since most of the time the top ranking is just meh. I read the second coming of gluttony and man the majority of the comments are just "when is he going to be strong?" "The mc is a cuck" "why is he going back and forth being a decent guy and a jerk?" "Yeah, surely that's the best you can do". Like c'mon people, it's a story of a good kid going down a bad road and throwing anything he had aside in the process, what do you think going thru that kind of person's head when he tried to change back? Of course insecurity, anxiety, and skewed common sense will be there. Not to mention he has an addiction, so withdrawal is inevitable, and if you know anything about changing to be a better person, then you'll know it's not a smooth sailing process, one wrong step and you back to square one, that's why those people needs any help they can get and strong will. It's a story about change and I think the author did a good job at delivering it
As Ron Weasley once said, “one person can’t feel all that, they’d explode.” Seriously though the fact that they managed to fit alllll this into 9 episodes blows my mind beyond anything I ever imagined.
I feel like Arcane really really really capitalized on it’s medium. They embrace the animated show so well and allow it to to tell large chunks of story without a single word of dialogue needed.
Im hoping (maybe naively) that Arcane will be the new ceiling that animation will strive towards in terms of it's narrative, much in the way Into the spiderverse became the new ceiling for animation. (Arcane is also insanely beautiful, so it kinda expands the ceiling both ways but I digress) Right now, unfortunately, I cannot think of a single animated show that does as much as Arcane - honestly, I can't think of as show that is even close to how good Arcane is. Here's to hoping that more shows will strive towards this level.
100% agree- I think though that a clear distinction has to be made between what artists are already striving towards, and what production companies will feasibly pay for. Arcane raised the bar drastically because as part of its own IP, Riot was clearly invested in making it as good as it could possibly be, which is what allowed the animators and writers to push it so far. I think it will lead to more high-end animated projects in the future, but not because the artists will be pushing themselves to match Arcane, but because producers will see "oh, animation can be high-end and successful!" and maybe follow suit.
It's a different kind of depth and the animation isn't nearly on the same level, but I'd recommend Attack on Titan. It's depth is revealed as you watch through the seasons and realize things in earlier seasons had more than one meaning, plus the evolution of the story itself. Would highly recommend. (But watch it subbed, the voice acting and sound design is way better in the original Japanese...)
If you want something as emotional as Arcane that talks about mental illness and trauma check out Bojack Horseman. Unfortunately animation isn’t half as pretty and season 1 is basically the weakest (it starts of as just another adult comedy) but it gets better the longer you watch it
You know what? It makes me slightly anxious about second season. First one have god tier level of writing, exceptionally rare thing. Will they be able to catch this lightning in a bottle once again?
I have faith in them. They're taking their time on it, no one is rushing them, they set up a lot of plot points, they've clearly got ideas and ways forward to act on, they seem to really care. They've got every chance to make it great.
@@nepntzerZer I totally root for their success and really hope my fears are unfounded. That showrunners do have ten year plan for the future and knew exactly what to do once it was greenlighted for second season. But we should consider the fact that first season took over six years to produce, and new one coming much sooner. Less time to build the structure and even less time to polish bolts and knots. If previously mentioned plan does not exist and they inventing stuff on a go, result may fall short of our expectations.
You’re prolly not gonna see this, but tysm for that little advice at the end. I’m sixteen and finished writing the book I’ve been working on since I was 13. I’ve been so stuck about how to get word out about it because I KNOW, I’m sixteen, my little book isn’t much. But writing is my hyperfixation and has been all my life. Nowadays, it seems impossible to promote a book unless you already have a big platform. Getting people to buy a book and read it seems impossible. I’ve had a few TikTok ideas but have been hesitant to post. Thanks for giving me the courage to do so. Blessings 💖
This is exactly what I loved about Arcane. It was knife-like in it's storytelling, nothing extra in the plot or dialogue, but rich in detail, a true masterclass in show, don't tell.
I think the great thing about Arcane is that every single moment, action, dialogue, progresses the arc of at least two characters. Not a single thing is done in isolation. Even the most distant characters indirectly impact each other in some way and that really makes the world feel alive. Everything matters.
I'm not a writer, but i absolutely love your analysis, you have a great, unique and very thorough view on the world, I honestly learned a crap ton out of these arcane videos about life
I enjoyed your editing before but after finding out you did it all on PHONE I am now disturbed, in pain, and in awe. Kinda like watching a failed rocket launch: marvelling at and lamenting sheer human ability.
There's a technique I call "webbiness" of character relationships (not sure if it was used in Arcane or not, but the final version of the show is what a product of the technique could look like), where if you write character names on a whiteboard/paper and start drawing the various relationship lines interconnecting them, you'll end up with a giant tangled web, which is pretty similar to the overlap you were referring to! From my writing education it's a very advanced story construction technique, where one of the really tough parts is balancing a huge cast with enough differentiation between character personalities/arcs. The way I remember some stories being constructed from this method starting with character relationships is that writers will start with say 1 relationship, but each character, as an in-story world person, would have a life outside the focal relationship/interaction of the story. One of my professors called this technique "remembering that very few people live in a vacuum/complete isolation." The resulting technique is if a creator keeps in mind the relationships that each character has in their life, even if you just make 1 additional relationship per character (e.g. a parent, a sibling, a friend, a teacher), the amount of characters that may be added/mentioned in the story can grow exponentially. Then, developing each character's relationships gives an avenue into showing different dimensions of the same character's personality, at the same time building complexity with themes attached to each different relationship. Given the amount of relationships will increase exponentially with each character added to the cast, the attached messages/themes/interactions can also increase exponentially with enough variation (where the parallels and foils for arcs/characters/themes come into play). One key pitfall I think I see most often is getting the cast just the right size (not too large with irrelevant characters/characters of lost storytelling potential, and not too small that some parallels/foils of some messages/themes go unexplored), with an important note that the right-sized cast depends on the themes the creator wants to explore. The second difficult part of this technique is keeping each character unique enough for easy differentiation by the audience in a large cast. Expanding a cast of characters exponentially through each character's relationship can get out of hand really fast, meaning it's generally better to have no unnecessary characters (k!ll!n your darlings rearing its ugly head here lol). Interconnecting characters so you try to get a self-contained web (where almost all characters in the web have relationships with each other) is the best way to keep your cast from getting too large- e.g. exploring the characters you already have and add complexity from within, instead of making a new character/relationship for every new facet of a theme. TL;DR The "webbiness"/layering of character relationships in Arcane worked so well by balancing the sizeable cast (each character w/a unique personality/standing/traits & unique relationships w/other character) with the fairly decent number/length of episodes they had to explore said relationships/interactions/themes. This was a very long and convoluted take and I'm not sure I explained it very well lol so additional discussion is very welcome ^^
Your message on the end got to me As someone who still don't know what to do with life aside from actually trying to make and post stuff I like and make it's very touching and encouraging that even if I have limited materials I can still make do with it and create stuff others might like I'll be coming back to this video time by time I'm cursed to not be able to watch arcane but your videos about the series got me to fell in love with it Thank you for making such wonderful videos !!!
@@schnee1 As someone at the end of one career I find myself now with the time to work on creative projects. Being very literally minded with all the natural creativity of a stone but an absolute shit ton of respect for creative people of all stripes, it is an opportunity to not just find an outlet but literally grow a creative outlet from nothing. I look to intelligent and thoughtful analysis videos like your entire Arcane series to try to find the good habits and techniques before I have the chance to develop the bad ones.
The inspiration part actually got me inspired. Especially the part where you said your first videos were all edited on your phone, it really gave me a new perspective.
@@schnee1 can I ask what programs/apps you used to create the videos on your phone? Talking in depth about the shows/movies I’ve watched is something I’ve always wanted to do I just never know how to start
Your videos changed my life. I’m an aspiring writer and Iv been stuck for years. I felt like the story that I’m writing and building feels just meh, even if I grind it to a finish, it will still fundamentally be a bad story. But after I watched your analysis, I know what to work on and how to work on them. Writing a novel is different to screen writing but still, it helps so much with characterization, pacing and story structure. Also, equipment really doesn’t matter. You just need paper and pen.
Missed your arcane focused vids, man. Haven't finished the vid yet but I just wanted to say to keep up the good work. You're the channel that made me love arcane more than I already did. I really came to appreciate the smaller details because of your great work
I second you on this. And on of top of all that, through Shnee's video's I learned a deeper understanding of, and love for, all the media I consume. Whether it is a netflix series, a game, comic, play, video assay, what ever.
I loved the fact that we could see the Jinx doll in the most random places ever😂 amazing video again, u can think about so much more than I can, and when u bring those things up, I am like "oh yeah thats true" you are just outsmarting all of us😌😀
Foils and parallels. It is clever and emerges from the need for game balance in the original video game. Each foil is a full character, BUT most are an existing character in the lore which makes it a soduku puzzle.
There’s even a little bit of name symbolism when it comes to Zaun v Piltover characters. You have names like Jayce, Mel, Caitlyn, all common and almost dignified in some way, reflecting the values of topside. Then you have Mylo, Claggor, Vander, Powder/Jinx, Sevika, Silco, Vi, Ekko, all names that are very uncommon and almost feel tough or “unnatural” in a way. It reflects not only Zauns values but what Topside views Zaun as, a tough, strange, unnatural world. Not to mention how in the undercity everyone is so drastically different from each other, unlike piltover where everyone feels somewhat similar in manner and style There are a odd ones out though, Viktor, Vi and Heimerdinger. First off, Viktor, while being a common name, isn’t spelled in a very common way. It’s so close to being like everyone else but there’s something so slightly off about it that makes it different, just Like Viktor himself. Theres something small about him different from everyone around him no matter what, which could be his disability or where he’s from. Vi is interesting cause her nickname fits with Zaun, but her real name doesn’t. Violet isn’t a name you would really find in Zaun, which presumably is why everyone calls her Vi, but in her inevitable arc she will become more like ‘violet,’ a character more based around Piltover yet still keeping Zaun a small part of her. Heimerdinger is strange because he doesn’t really fit in either category. His name doesn’t fit into the established and wealthy Piltover, but it certainly has no place in the slums of Zaun. When you think about it, this reflects his character very well. Heimerdinger doesn’t quite fit in as a politician, we see him listening to music, lost in oblivion while everyone else is making business deals. He never actually does much in terms of being a scientist, politician, hell even mentor. What he does is minuscule and usually ignored, leaving him outcasted. It’s the same when he’s sent to Zaun. It’s a world he doesn’t know or understand, he doesn’t belong there since he’s so used to the prestigious life he used to have. His name reflects all that and how he doesn’t really fit anywhere in this conflict. Jinx is a different version of this, in a way that she is always a zaunite, but the moment she buries her weakness she changes from such a weak character, or substance like Powder, and turns into a force, a Jinx. This all could jsut be me really hyperanalyzing but I think it’s a fun little detail that comes into world building and characters.
I nor should anyone really blame you. Arcane has hit me in a way that no other media has ever done in a long time especially during a time when pop culture media felt like it was simply deteriorating for the sake of formula. This show relit hope in me for the spirituality of entertainment. I’m glad there’s someone like you out there expressing that. Here’s to more over analyzing the f out of this show!
having just recently rewatched arcane on a 6 hour flight, i am again awestruck by how much they put into the show and how much you, schnee, have been able to see and expose to us. i am looking forward to the day where we will see your own stories published!
The trick of how they put so much in the show us that each character is closely impacted by other characters actions and how all of them revolve around the advancements of hextech as time progresses keeping the story grounded around each character. Also each episode is dedicated to each character and each episode still takes time to point to other characters to let us know they haven't been forgotten and let's us know how and why they are vital to the story. They all feel genuine and natural as characters.
holy shit you worked hard on this , the parallel scenes you showed must have taken forever, thank you so much for another amazing analysis video , we love you schnee ❤and cheers to yours and arcanes 1 year🎉happy progress day everyone 🎊
the things you said at the end of the video... dude i know the struggle. I'm 26 years old now and my dream was to become a writer since i was in middle school. I have written many short stories and half-finished novels and at some point in college i gave up. I don't know why but it felt like a dream that will never come true and that thought led me to depression. I tried twelwe different things after i stopped telling people that my goal was to beacome an author. I worked in so many different jobs tried to find something that excited me but couldnt find anything. Then one day im sitting at home my left foot was broken due to a scooter accident i was depressed lonely and unemployed... A friend called telling me about Arcane is out( I have played League since season 5) I said okay come over we'll watch it together. A couple of friends gathered at my house and started watching... And the inspiration this show has given me... I can never thank enough to the creators cuz this show made so many changes in my life. This show didn't actually i did those changes but thanks to this show. After i watched it i said i want to write something this good i want people to feel like how i feel right now after they finish reading/watching what i wrote. So i decided to become a scriptwriter. Changed my dream into our time. Started taking classes on udemy and then actually got into college again ( dropped out my last one i was studying American Literature) to study Television. Now im writing again after a loooooooong break. Still have high hopes. I feel scared btw cuz im not getting any younger and i feel the pressure but i push through. So i hope all of us dreamers out there we can all achive our dream and make them turn into reality that we call our lives. Love your videos btw!
Something you noticed correctly in the mirco is that the writers clearly also were animators. When they write an scene, they make sure there are things told by the animations without words. And pictures tell more then world. No naration of the zaunites killing on the bridge: There were no words. This provides an level of efficiency many movies lack were the writing comes first, and the rest has to fit in.
Dude, I love the full cup thing you said at the beginning. You can succeed with having only one part be great and others be good or okay, but if there's anything bad it can ruin the whole thing. "It only takes a little bit of shit to ruin a perfectly good bowl of ice cream." The part where you describe how the show uses overlapping to connect everything is blowing my mind right now. Thank you for the part where you said "Geniuses with genius problems and idiots with idiot problems" and showed the same clip of Jayce for both. (13:51) The inspirational messages at the latter part of the video really hit home for me. It is such good advice, and I am really happy that you've had this success through just pushing to do something and finding your way as you go. I have the same phone as you btw, so I have no excuse for not making content anymore, whatever that might be. You're doing great work
schnee, my goodness, I can’t express how much your videos inspire me. I’ve thought about literally keeping a notebook or google doc and taking notes, that’s how much I learn from you. making my own story has just been a dream, a pair of docs I add to every now and then, but you make me really want to try and make that world and its characters a reality. countless people probably feel the same way, all of us with stories we want to tell, so on behalf of everyone who’s ever felt inspired by your videos, I sincerely thank you.
When watching Arcane, I had a funny feeling a lot of stuff was flying past my head. The story felt soooo much deeper than I thought, very thankful for your channel! Keep up the videos, can’t wait for s2. Also that mini jinx is adorable :)
YES. I felt exactly the same way. But when I would catch a glimpse of something deep in my first viewing, I was mind blown and knew that the subtleties that passed too quickly were much bigger than I could process in that moment.
I once heard a talented writer explaining the movie Batman Begins. He pointed out "they took the two themes of motivation and order. Selfish motivation vs altruistic motivation, and juxtaposed it on a grid with use of Order vs use of Fear. This grid creates 4 naturally self written characters, and those 4 self written characters will write a story conflict about themselves. All the writer had to do was label them. Altruistic Fear- Batman, Altruistic Order- Gordon, Selfish Fear- Scarecrow, Selfish Order- Raz." I feel that Arcane has done the same thing, just with a MUCH larger grid.
Reminds me of Nolan's Square. Though, Nolan only uses 4 parallels for 4 characters... Context: Director Christopher Nolan said that to make a complex and deep story, you need to have a theme or question, and 2 different answers for the same question. Like, "how to win a race" You have the Hare (Fast, Unsteady) Bird (Fast, Steady) Turtle (Slow, Steady) Sloth (Slow, Unsteady) Then, you make sure to fit into the story the interactions between the 4 characters, having conflicts over what sets them appart, to finally by the end, declare who is the "correct" answer by making the "correct" character win. So wou make the Hare louse about, the Sloth give up because he was left behind, the Bird lose his way cause he lost the racing truck on his hurry, and the Turtle wins! Bonus points: One of the two parallels is more important than the others, and that is to be STEADY, regardless of your speed, so Nolan would recommend to have the final faceoff between the Turtle and the Sloth, were both have taken the lead from the lost Bird and the sleeping Hare, but the Sloth gives up because he feela he coyld never win once the Hare or the Bird returns to the race, thus making the Turtle win showing the importance to being Steady! Nolan believes that 2 parallels, for 4 characters are the ideal (and minimum) amount of answer nuance to a question, any more and it possibly starts messing with your answer, since by throqing such a wide net, some viewers might agree more with one of the side characters than the main character!!! That's where Nolan's structure is different from Aracane's. Arcane doesn't give a bunch of oddballs and then says "remember all these conflict points? Yeah, only this one is the correct answer" and leaves it at that, instead it leaves no answer, it keeps the question a question, therefore "Slco did nothiing wrong" takes start to appear :)
I absolutely love your videos, and I have re-watched a number of them! After watching Arcane I knew that I loved it, I knew that it was well written, and I knew that it was deep, etc. However, I didn't know/ I couldn't explain why. Your videos gave me the "why" and helped me to understand the "why". Watching you analyze pretty much every scene, every character, the themes and all of the symbolism (and much more), has taught me how to better analyze stories on my own, and for that I thank you.
That was a fun vid. As an artist/designer, a lot of this comes down to being good designers/illustrators. You want to put in ambient story telling (this is the microlevel) Each frame is also a composition with optimised elements and relationships (you'll think of the frame angle, then what are in the fore, mid, and background) you'll think of the contrast points, and the big, medium, and small. This is what you do as a designer. You optimise the relationships and the elements simultaneously. Great artisists and illustrators learn this. The big concept you are missing here is the idea of HARMONIES and CONTRASTS. Which is to say "repeated elements" with different rhythms (slight orientation changes) are harmonies, and contrasts are the polarisations. So if you have a fighter, you have a passifist, and that is a contrast. But if you have three fighters that are the same that is a harmony, but then when you change something (a novelty) it turns it into a rhythm. Its tough stuff to wrap your head around, but you are glimpsing the brilliance of designers and illustrators here. It isn't only in arcane, it is in masterworks of fine art. And this is what artists learn from, they aren't just learning design at a rudimentary level, they learn it to the level they can create masterstudies. YOU are starting to do a masterstudy, and you are just starting to grasp how RAVENOUSLY complex it is to do, but the "design" of this isn't as complex as you are making it. Design is a skill, and thusly it is organic in how it expresses itself, and when you have 5 or so genius designers, they can speak in design language, shape language, theme design etc, and bounce off each other like a super brain. This isn't ONE story, its FIVE or more, worked into each other, and they made room via the design, by realising that you have to optimise things into harmonic rhythms and contrasts, and then they realise that all the stories have a certain punch and remove anything that dulls the punch. Its a series of short stories, bound into one MAIN or dominant story arc. This is using the rule of thirds. Vi and Jinx are 3x story weighted to represent that it is the dominant story line, this is so that all the other stories are ambient or "radial" A radial composition is basically when you have all the other stories POINT towards or mirror the same as the FOCAL point. Liiiiike... Once you have the dominant theme, you then set up secondary and tertiary themes to support it, and like a big canvas, you can then put story telling in each one fractally because you spend time on each one, and voilla. Basically, arcane is the most effort put into a story ever. A collaboration done by super five brain designers, that unlocked a potential for story telling we've not really seen before. I'm pretty sure its like a groundbreaking design for stories everywhere. And as a writer I'm floored by it haha, and also as a designer/illustrator, I can see what is happening clear enough. It requires exceptional strength to concieve of it all at once though, and the artists don't look at it all at once. Its like some super computer perfect story haha. BUT it has limitations, but who cares when its a masterpiece. And its a masterpiece in a popular medium of tv series. I love arcane, its the best. In fact, its too good haha. But this is related to a question richard schmid asked in Alla Prima "how is it that peoples minds are capable of imagining such things and then to paint them". My answer to his question is that writing, painting, designing, all are like LEVERS. Once you learn to use the lever, the result is more interesting and varied than you initially intended, and once you see the result it becomes a feedback loop. To be an artist means to leverage amazing things into more amazing things, and that is what arcane does. Then you gel it all together with masterful art direction (the fortiche style) and voila. You have bound your limits, and set up a container to hold all the modules and submodules with an optimal coherence. ... How to explain this... To CONTAIN COHERENCE, you need to create ART DIRECTION. Which is deciding upon the TOOL you are using to describe a certain range of emotion. Arcane doesn't use infinite range. It uses FAMILY and AMBITION as the ranges for emotion. The ART STYLE is set up in a way that it can be soft and affectionate like family, and so it can be hard and edgy like ambitious types. This sets up the emotional range by the art style, and this limits the stylistic range. When you have art direction for the range of emotion, you then decide art direction for the format. The format is like the kind of modules you are using to construct the story. You could use high contrast and have unique tetris blocks fitting into each other, and this has a chaotic rhythm to it, or you can use overlap where you change one novel element at a time to create what is called a unified rhythm. Unified rhythms tend to work well in radial compositions, with circular structures. So once you have this compositional range set up for your character arcs, you understand that you don't want to have a can of snakes, you want to have instead variations on the same themes, this then helps reinforce what is being seen. Then you set up the art direction of each local story. What are the "frames" you are using, and how are they creating the sequence, what are the beat frames, what are the flow/action/description frames, what are the dialogue frames, then you select cam angles with your 3d modeller, and concieve of how you might paint the frame, by bringing in references. And a REFERENCE LIBRARY is also art direction. You realise that some ways to frame shots are like the last supper, and other master paintings you have seen, and with those localised answers for how to set up the composition, you then "plugin" the story telling elements that your team has concepted. And they had tons of concept art and ideas to pull from as riot has employed umpteen thousand artists to do concepts for them. Looking through all the concept art, they then had to draw all of that into a library of references that would suit the story. Once you have emotional range, framing styles, and references, you can get a good feel of what is there. Then you optimise it, and start to sculpt with these levers until a nice little harmony of rhythms appears, then you are like "aha, lets highlight x part of each arc, and try to have this mirror that" and then it starts to gel between the parallels. BUUUUUUUUUUUT this isn't the last of it. Another thing is what illustrators are good at, I call it interpretive resistance. When you look at something you are familiar with you will glance at it and say "thats a cup. done" then look away. But if you erase a few lines, the mind has to be "wait, is that a cup, or is it a ..." once you break up the interpretation, you are signalling to the audience to not finish the thought. This is how you make pieces of art have "flow" through different elements and create relationships. So all the artists and designers need to do is to break the closure of the object you are percieving (subvert the trope, have multiple moving elements in a scene, and cast the shading of a scene a certain way) and boom you get this flow. Like I said, design is a HUGE skill that artists are REALLY good at. And as a writer and designer, I have learned SOOOOOOOOOO much from learning art its crazy. Trust me, learn to paint, or learn to draw, and get high level master coaching, it will start to make sense. Because words are a form of ink/paint/art And you can also paint with them. And ultimately this is the end point of my thesis Arcane isn't a plot structure Its a fine art painting LOTR is one author doing a tetris composition, optimising things by making them icons. ARCANE is several DESIGNERS doing a radial composition, optimising things by the rule of thirds.
Honestly, a lot of your analysis’ stuff has helped me with writing. From this video alone I’ve learned a lot about overlap and how to add more depth to story. Although it made my brain hurt at first, it was really helpful. So, thank you!
Omg it’s been a year since arcane?! Really love your videos! They give me so much insights and so much directions as a writing and animation student, tysm!❤
I have to admit that Arcane is a show that never feels like it does too much. The people behind it clearly put a lot of love, patience, and more into this and it still proves to be incredible and engaging no matter how many times someone watches it. The stories are connected, the characters feel incredibly human, and it just feels very real. Truly a masterpiece in today's world.
I love your content and i'm always looking forward to it! Thanks to you, it's way clearer why Arcane is such a great story. Especially your Video about "How ARCANE Writes Women" is absolutley hooking! Keep it up, you're doing such a great enjoyable work!
I feel like a good way to describe Arcane is a smoothie. Strawberries would fill up the cup more by itself, but when blended with everything else, there is room for more
This is already such a detailed video with the ideas you’re discussing, but the editing really blew me away. The way you interweave the scenes and parallels - and combined with the chaotic cuteness that is Lil Jinx - is a feast for the eyes. You’re my favourite writing channel and it’s great to see how far you’ve come.
Like you, I was lost for a few years. After my sophomore year in college, I dropped out because I cracked under the pressure that was put on me. Parents wanted to get a "good degree" (think lawyer, doctor, etc.) and make a lot of money. I wanted to get a degree in writing because I enjoy it, but I didn't have much support from them and was told I wouldn't make it. So I dropped out and spent years working in the beauty industry and helping out with my younger brothers, who were kids when I was a sophomore in college. Once they graduated from high school, I was in my late 20s and decided to go back to school. Only this time, I decided to go through with getting a writing degree. Now, I'm almost there and will be graduating next year. It's been a slow crawl, but I'm proud of myself for not giving up and not giving into the pressure that my parents have put on me. When I told them I was going back for writing, they weren't exactly thrilled and even now, I'm pretty sure they think I'm making a mistake. But I told them it's MY decision and MY life. Your videos have helped me with my writing, and I appreciate the hard work you put into them. I'm writing a story right now and your videos have inspired me to put more depth into my characters and story. Before I felt like everything was a little flat, but after watching your videos, I'm hoping I've done a better job in writing them. Keep up the good work! :)
Your ending message is honestly something that I found really comforting, I wanna be a storyboard artist and I’ve started taking it more seriously and posting here and there, but I always worry about the future. Honestly, this channel has been a delight to see grow this past year, and I’m glad you started it. No matter where I end up, maybe just committing to something is how you commit to yourself and your own growth 💕 We’ll see where I go!
I wanted to leave a serious comment but 13:51 had me cackling. Amazing video as always schnee, you articulated what we were all thinking in the most eloquent of ways
I'm late to the Arcane party, but I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for being the reason I finally took the plunge and watched all of Arcane in a single day, I got SOO lost in the story and complexities within it because I want to be able to watch those 10+ hours of content you made discussing the show and its writing/etc. You wrap it all up so beautifully into terms I understand and can appreciate, and I love that about your work! Thank you for doing what you do!
when he was saying "...both young scientists, but one is from piltover and one is from zaun." I was like: "thats intersectionality...OMG" that is soooo cool all the characters stand at intersections between the different dimensions they exist in the society. In arcane that is class, origin, education, occupation. and more In our world that is gender, race, age, class, origin, and more. soooooo real
Schnee you are quite literally one of my biggest inspirations and i am incredibly grateful that you started this channel, and even more grateful that you're enjoying this journey. My story is in a lot of ways similar to what you were talking about at the end of the video, and every time a new thing i want to do pops up, i will always try to do it, even though it may not fit what i think should be "my story". Stay amazing, man
In keeping with the cup metaphor one of the best parts of Arcane is not just efficiency, but also RESTRAINT and how it balances everything so well. It's like a mixed punch with the perfect balance of flavors. Most shows have a main plot and a few (or often way too many) sideplots and one of the plots always feels more weak, less interesting or pointless than the others and the story looses momentum whenever it switches focus. What is so unique about Arcane is that it manages to keep you invested in all of the plots equally and never neglects or draws out some plots at the expense of others, partially because each subplot ends up impacting everything else, to the extent where its hard to pin down what the 'main' plot even is. Is is Vi vs Jinx? Vander & Silco? Piltover vs Zaun? Arguments can be made for all of them. You never feel like any of the plotlines go nowhere or waste your time because they all end up impacting something down the line. The writing manages to avoid getting either too detailed or too simplistic. While there is a whole world outside of Piltover and Zaun it chooses to allude to it rather than veering off course into irrelevant microdetails that won't effect the story. It gives you what you need in just enough detail, but none of the extra weight (best seen in Mel's backstory and how it conveys the necessary ideas without dumping any unnecessary lore). It also avoids common pacing pitfalls like long stretches of dry exposition or lore by saving explanations for critical details and explaining a LOT of it quickly and efficiently through background details, visuals or character interactation. It fills the space that would otherwise be occupied by these things with what makes any story work in the first place - sincere emotions and character development.
Parallel and overlap are techniques that I've been working on recently without even noticing, Arcane might have been a big factor in this, but for me it all changed when I heard the quote "history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes" and combined it with "every story has already been told". When these two concepts combined in my head, my brain exploded... what if I just tell ONE story? what if I tell it again with another character? what if I tell it again in another setting? what if I tell it with another economical system? what if I tell it with gods and magic? But... BUT it's never about the "what if", soon I learned that the "what if" becomes disrespectful to the characters, they have their story and you, as an almighty god change everything just because you're curious of a different ending doesn't make justice to a story (unless the story is exactly about that concept). Changes are about how diverse people is and how different forces shape societies and relationships... not about how cooler would have been if my superhero was a villain or how would it look if my gangster held a magic wand instead of a gun. Changes matter on a deep story.
Take a shot every time Schnee repeates a word or phrase lol. But anyway, though, this is a brilliant analysis, though. Arcane is something that just keeps on getting better and better and more rich the more you think about it. I find it almost miraculous that a show this great exists, and that this was only the first season alone. I truly cannot express my utter excitement for Season 2, and your analysis of it, Schnee! And Happy Birthday to Arcane and your channel! (And P.S. thank you for your advice near the end, I'm in a rut myself and I hope to take what you said to heart!)
You're the one who made me rewatch Arcane a fourth time, just so I could see all these incredible story telling things I got from your videos... So thank you for making that content, and helping me understand this show, and why I feel what I feel when I'm watching it. Happy anniversary!
I think another thing that Arcane does is it very rarely explicitly or even impllicitly answers any of the questions it leaves its viewers with. It says so much about its different themes while rarely answering if this is right or wrong. There is no ultimately right answer, there are no black and white rights and wrongs, there is only a spectrum of agreeability that stares you back in the face and asks if you're sure. For example, (not a great example; a two-minute example), in the first act a lot of us dislike or maybe even hate Silco, but when he dies in act 3 there's no sense of victory to it because it's not a happy moment for anyone in the room. So what does this say about Silco? Was he a personification of tirany? And that's why he died- to make an example about how tirany and an iron-fist is not good. But then why do we feel sad when he dies? Was this really a theme of his character at all, then? Was it even a purpose to his character? When the audience feels disgruntled and grief in this scene, they ask themselves- was Silco a good father? Was he a bad father? Was he just making sacrifices in the only way he knew how? Was he truly evil? Didn't he kill a lot of people? Didn't he use shimmer to harness the underground, to threaten Piltover's security? Didn't he put Jinx before anyone? Didn't he come to respect Vander? Didn't he respect Vander before, but for different reasons? *In all of this, Arcane answers none of these questions.* It just shows you time keeps moving. It doesn't ask you to be happy or sad with Silco's death. It just shows you this happens because of the decisions he makes and he doesn't make, and doesn't tell you which ones were right and which ones were wrong, or if there even is a 'right and wrong' to his decisions. I fkn love this show
holy im early but wanna say ive found your channel to be among the most interesting + honest/thought out of commentaters and it was your series on Arcane exactly that convinced me to eventually watch and fall in love with the show. Being autistic, for me its hard to get into new material of any kind/break away from comfort watches in search of new ones so it was a slow process of "okay lets just see what Shnee has to say about immortal characters" = finding it soo interesting id find myself talking about it with ppl irl, then click another about women in arcane, finding that one even more impressive, i eventually gave in and watched the entire show as well as referring back to vids of yours that introduced me to it to make some of the same connections + my own!!, and now I am so desperate for season 2, and have a hard time picking a favorite everything because of all the qualities you brought to my attention, ik they're not specific to Arcane but it really opened up my ability to analyze things for myself after not really grasping the practice until diagnoses and meds so I think I just want to say thank you for bringing me back into the TV and movie world with this kind of depth, and being so thoughtful about it too, its rare to find bc soo many commentators I feel dont do much to acknowledge their own limits or biases, so absolute breath of fresh air and great analyses thank you schnee 💛
I’m just starting out writing, writing a comic, and I’ve been using your videos as reference. The more I learn about arcane, the more the sheer talent makes my head spin. I cannot imagine handling that much of a story as well as they did. So thank you, for making it easy to analyze and giving me confidence to write.
That last part is SO true, thank you for mentioning it. I was lost for such a long time, didn't know which direction I wanted to go, and just picking something and taking some small action (which then led to bigger action) opened up a whole new set of possibilities I hadn't even considered before. If I hadn't kept trying different things, and if I hadn't stuck with the one thing that resonated with me for several years, then I wouldn't have found the path I'm on now which is everything I never knew I wanted. Just a few hours of work here and there over the course of a couple years adds up. Putting yourself out there and trying new things will pay off eventually one way or another. Thanks for doing what you do!
"The compositional elements of the (story) are the same as ours, there are simply more of them tightly packed. The (story) is for lack of a better word... perfect." Really looking forward to the next year of videos and monthly meetups. Thanks for your amazing dedication schnee!!
Loved all the scenes with lil amigurumi Jinx at the supermarket awww every single one of them made me laugh I don't know why and it's so freakin cute btw loved the video too lol, it was incredible, very interesting and helpful 👌
One of them is super gay and the other is SUUUUUUUPEEEERR GAAAAAYYYY actually loled at that :D Don't have much to say to the video other than... what you said really makes sense. From the cup analogy to all the many many many parallels to the different thematic layers every scene and character has to the tiniest of details that don't take up narrative space at all like the fashion or the ash tray. Thank you!
Found this as year later (ironic) and it has helped me soo much in my writing, this video alone. Your in depth character analysis (along with many other creators' perspectives) have helped myself, a very new writer, develop individual characters. This video has helped me begin figure out how to go about tying everything together, or at least shown me with all the complicated designing I have done that I NEED to tie everything to something majorly overarching. Thanks :) Love you videos.
Just finished the series for first time yesterday. Watched a couple of your videos on it enjoying the content. Personally I was blown away by the depth of the story and characters. I did not expect to be blown this much by a series based on a game and I dont mean that negative towards games as I love them but it was totally unexpected for me, thought it would be a more simple story, and way less depth and psychological realism to characters.
Damn I've watched the first season about 6 times already and I KNEW the writing was amazing, but this made me realize it's actually genius. The writing is like a machine the way all the cogs overlap and fit perfectly
After rewatching the show, I came to the conclusion that Powder and Violet aren't really sisters- Powder is adopted! -'Powder' is a nickname, not a real name. -Powder feels sorry for the death of Vi's parents. -Powder literally says they're not sisters. -Powder/Jinx always feels that her sisterhood with Vi is conditional. This explains so much, especially why Jinx is so psychologically fragile- she lost her own parents at a much earlier age.
@@Me-yq1fl sharing blue hair isn't a significant enough detail, unfortunately. (Edit: it's hard to tell what color the mother's hair is, as the entire bridge scene is tinted red- I chose to take your word for it.) The name 'Powder' is a reference to her hobby of making smoke grenades. It was clearly given to her by her peers after getting to know her, rather than her parents.
I have only come across a few works that got an emotional response out of me on the first viewing, but Arcane is the first to have such a strong emotional pull long after the fact. Be it sound bytes or even soundless clips, I get hit with so many emotions all over again any time I watch Arcane-related content. I think it is as you said: They layered Arcane so well that any scene connects to any other scene, any character connects to any other character, any theme to any other theme, so just seeing any part of the show, hearing any line, brings up several other memories of the show, which brings up many more memories of the show, until a single meme can hit you like a bus. I am blown away by how good this show is, but I will be in sheer disbelief if season 2 delivers this level of depth and quality. There just aren't enough minds in the world to fully unpack every question this show offers, let alone every answer.
I think a big thing that adds to the "Efficiency" of filling the cup and the micro level stories. It's the WAY the company went about making it. Every single interview I've seen from them is about how they didn't feel the need to conform to an industry standard/followed their own flow. They went about alot of their plans like it was a big music video, like everything else they'd already done for Riot. They had a violinist on board to properly mesh the music with the scenes. They spent time with the musical artists and their plans to flesh out the most effective use OF that music. It works so well because to them every single moment, animation, sound Mattered. They had a department go back through and hand animated every frame of 2d effects instead of making a filter in the 3d systems for it to "look" 2d I'm just hopeful they can maintain this level of care and dedication instead of being pressured into producing more faster for the money grab
This is brilliant imo! Honestly, I think no one is looking for "original" stories so much as "the same thing.... but different!" which we see a lot in media. Snyder's "Save the Cat!" book on screenplays talks about this. Audiences want all those things you talk about- developed characters, diverse characters, rich worlds, developed plots and themes, etc. To your cup theory, it's like Arcane asked itself why keep it just one cup? These cups aren't different. They're the same cup and the same content (as you illustrated in the overlapping scenes/themes/dynamics). That's how you can do so much. Arcane tells that same story but different. It's amazing bc you'd think telling the same story but different would be easy, but it's really not. It's super impressive how everything is interwoven the way it is. Really clever too how you point out the characters dealing with such similar themes. "Write what you know" is a familiar piece of advice for writers which at first can feel constricting because the world is way too diverse to just stick to your own experiences, right? But it goes beyond looking at yourself as a whole and telling just that story else we'd only be writing autobiographies. If you're really familiar with the concept of loneliness, then run with that but do it in different ways. Putting a character as a whole in categories is smart for this too. Character A is "young", "a scientist", "and rich" versus how Character B may be all those things except for one and then see how that one difference changes their dynamic and perception of the theme. In a way, it's a scientific approach. You formulate a hypothesis and then test it. You have a control, which is your baseline, and then you change one element so you can see how that single element changes with the same test. Then your data and be analyzed and something profound can come from it. So with your theory, writing for media can work very similarly. And then we can get more from less. Instead of tackling a huge world, we have two groups who are similar but different. Exploring that makes the world feel bigger even if a lot of the topics are repeated. Repeated topics can get trite, but Arcane saves this by taking the same thing and doing it a little different. this keeps it from being boring and keeps their statements profound. We're not beating any dead horses even distilled the basic essence of their themes is the same. What I love about your channel especially is your profound perspectives and ideas and how it centers around a show that really does deserve the hype and attention. Pointing this stuff out is how other storytellers learn what real quality looks like. It's not just about quantity in Arcane which is how it feels. Like how do they do that much so well??? Because it's the quality. It's repeated. But it's treated as it's own cup each time. And it is. Same stuff. Just a little different. I hope Arcane teaches media a valuable lesson here about "same but different". People sit on opposite sides of the fence about remakes and spin-offs and sequels and "what if we made Teen Wolf that old movie into its own TV show" and the likes of same but different except it's really not (i.e. either not even remotely the same or hardly any difference). Networks in general tackle too much. I think creating a solid foundation is important and then branch off from there. If you've got a really developed world and a highly developed cast of characters, then why change it all? But also... you DO need to change something else things get droll. Tell stories, the same stories, in different ways. That's what makes the formula become fresh and authentic. Else "the same but different" can risk becoming both uninteresting and coming off as a cheap money-grab. For your question, I'm actually not sure what's being asked but it sounds like you're asking about the minutia of all these broad strokes which imo seems what you've been doing. One of my fave videos on your channel focuses on how Arcane writes women. Essays work the way you've said in your video like you deff could zero in on a lot and write about details, a very niche thesis. Not just "Vi and Jinx" but zero in on one scene or a moment or a theme or even an idea that's part of the theme. But how does Arcane accomplish such complexity in that depth? Imo? "Movie magic" is a big part of that. That's the human part. Arcane apparently has a great team of creators who work well together. Apparently they listen and care and "click" and they can work as a unit really efficiently. Arcane as a project works imo like any big project works- it has good leadership. The heads knew how to convey their ideas down the chain and what we see is the result. Im sure other people have other opinions and maybe this wasn't really answering your question at all? But maybe it gave some insight >.< Anyway, I love your work a lot! Your channel was part of my inspiration of my senior research project :)) This is really long so im not sure you'll read it or not but I love your content- your writing and the way your narration and visuals align so well
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Analysis of Schnee's placement of Mini Jinx:
Presented her in the beginning during a long shot to make viewers familiar with her so she could be used in more shots later on without confusion. This shot was also facing a window, reinforcing the idea that Schnee would be covering lots of topics (the outside world has a lot to view from a window and in general) but at that moment, the video was only beginning and no topics had been explained yet, so viewers were shown Jinx inside a building.
Mini Jinx is shown on a rock, a much larger shot of a bay, city buildings, and a dock behind her. This lead into Schnee's point that business in a story is detrimental, so everything must be balanced. The scene with the plush is an example of business being overwhelming, as there are too many details in the scenery for viewers to focus on a part in the whole.
Jinx is found among stuffed animals with similar builds but different patterns and colors. This supported the point that remembering ten different scenes is as troublesome as recalling all the specific toys on that shelf. However, it's easy on the mind to recall generalities that link them together, such as "there were unicorns and wolves," in a similar way as drawing links between certain scenes.
Here's my favorite: Baby Jinx has been stuffed between boxes of cereal, but the focus is obviously on the overwhelming number of brands and types of cereal. Buying cereal is supporting one brand or another, and a lot of customers will care where their money is going. The points Schnee makes are decision-making based on morality and technology; a buyer has to weigh the same things in their mind. Is it worth it to buy this cereal even if I don't like the parent company's tactics? Is one choice more advanced, tastier, or better presented than the others? These are both questions that consumers ask themselves and each other in the same way Arcane's characters make their decisions (albeit on different scales hahah).
Jinxer in the turkey! The two rows of items displayed are fish sticks and packaged turkeys. Two very distinct products with different appeals and audiences. This shot coincides with Schnee's reference to 'identity' within Arcane. Regardless of moral or technological factors, there's a clear divide between fish sticks and turkey, meaning they have entirely different identities and marketability.
Plush Jinx is wearing a crown: it's the same size and has the same function of a 'normal' crown, just like the story of Arcane as a whole. However, the gems on it represent the arcs, in that they are different colors/storylines and still fulfill their spots on the crown properly and without distraction.
Ring Pops! Jinx on a horse! Lots of items in the background! That's a lot in a short scene! You could almost say that it's 500% as much as any of the other shots in the video.
Pull-ups carry a "weight" without leakage (ideally). Arcane maintains the weights of emotion, technology, family, etc. without any of them falling through. Pull-Ups also represent these ideas because they are a technology, they are employed by families for their kids, and they are products subject to the same scrutiny as mentioned earlier with cereal brands.
Elmo pinatas: they have two functions! Provide happiness through a recognizable character and to be demolished as a party favor. The first makes people care about the product, therefore making them willing to buy it. The second is practical and displays the product's identity.
Each of the leis is colorful and distinct, providing--as Schnee wrote--"more pathways to identity."
Schnee explains the Tidy Cat shot, evidencing that these irl scenes were filmed with intent.
The harvest wreaths are call-backs to Thanksgiving with directly displaying that. It doesn't have to because it is a recognizable facet of a tale woven into our culture.
Bleach is used when blots or stains appear on clothing, and the user wants them gone. It shows us where those stains are and other ones we may have been missing, similar to Schnee's argument about how questions are generated in Arcane.
Baby Jinx is on a train to remind viewers of the infinite nature of a train line--always moving, always utilized--to draw a parallel to Arcane's seemingly endless depth and natural formation of speculation.
Person twirking got Jinx questioning everything. 'Nuff said.
Schnee explains Baby J overlooking the skyline.
What better way to show how a world is built than to show an onlooker's perspective of a city from the shore? Jinx watches the buildings drift farther away as Schnee talks about world-building.
Birthdays! Arcane's, this channel's, and this entire fanbase! Getting a shot of the Statue of Liberty is smart because it was the ultimate birthday present to the U.S. and is a constant reminder of our country's age.
The long, fluid scene of the boat ride allows viewers to focus on what is changing: Schnee's voice and story.
Jinx is next to Lady Liberty plushies to remind us how marketing works in conjunction with Schnee's explanation of how he's going to employ his channel going forward--and shows how his content will be unique and personal!
Jinx walking down a city block functions the same as the long shot of the boat, but with comedic flair due to it being sped up.
Baby Jinx is getting some pizza to wind down after a long modeling shoot.
Schnee, you prompted me to write an essay on your video essay! 😂 Thank you for all your hard work, passion, brain cells, and shared experiences the past year! Keep doing what you enjoy and take care!
This was hilarious, well done lol. I know it's tongue and cheek, but... I def put an unnecessarily large amount of thought into ordering those clips 😂
@@schnee1 Don't worry, your work didn't go unnoticed! There was very clearly a thought process behind those shots, which was what got me thinking in the first place!
This made me cackle so much, I LOVE IT
@@liyaqua Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! It was lots of fun to analyze Schnee's video and write about this!
@@schnee1 Is this other schnee actually you or a scammer?
The double take on Jayce at 13:51 was perfect
ikr i actually laughed out loud
"Geniuses with genius problems...Idiots with idiot problems." I busted out laughing at this as well.
I'm still laughig at that one hahahahahahaha
Smart himbos are certainly rare 🤣
I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Thank you for timestamping it!
soo apparently i mislabeled a bunch of stuff in the parallels... OH WELL have fun finding them 😅
Singed does look kinda young though.
ekko isnt really a scientist, he is more of an engineer. vi again is a scientist atleast in protecting family.
yes, characters argue about violence. i know its crazy how they can argue about it.
yeah so many scenes at the bridge
But for real, great job on the video. really put in the work. i love all your videos(not lotr, im just too scared of smeagol lmao). been there since the first analysis vids and im just glad someone shows me truly all the little details and meaningful purposes behind the story i already love so much. I thank you for the content, I hope you will keep going with this, it really makes my day.
The lil Jinx plush appearing randomly throughout this video is pure gold
and that random person twerking
SO CUTE
fr
13:51 can i just say that i love how you showed Jayce as an example for both the genius and the idiot.
69 likes. Nice.
It's funny but also true because it is possible to be a genius in one aspect of your life and a dumbass in a different one. For instance, he's obviously insanely tech savvy and forward thinking, however he's also a dumbass when it comes to understanding history and consequences of his actions, conflicts, etc. Obviously he gets better at it (it's kind of an important part of his arc).
@@someoneelse5005 but that's just a theory, it isn't like we can seen this genius/idiot duality being played out in real life on a global stage right now or anything hahaha
I love jayce because he's not built for politics. He's a rather pure hearted person, doesn't quite have the nastiness for politics.
@@j.f.fisher5318 elon musk?
Schnee really is Arcane's strongest soldier
I love how after one year we can still spot so many stuff and analyze so many things. Hell, I even found some stuff on the Enemy music video that I never saw a year earlier. You can clearly feel the passion put into the show those 6 years clearly was worth it.
We will talk 12 years about season 1 as if it was a new season every year :P, same with season 2 hopefully
Oh? Is it that the intro plays "Everyone wants to be my enemy" during Ekko's part of the main introduction theme, and he's been living and feeling like no one else is willing to help the underground :)
@Cr33pTheCr33p3r Not that, but that is also very interesting. What I saw that blew my mind and never seen before is a super small moment that I don't think too many people has mentioned. Replay the scene in the music video qhere the firelight goes out of Powder's mouth, then slow it down and watch the transition. At precisely 1:02, slow it down to see 0.25 speed.
This is why I am not in a rush to get the next season. I can keep analyzing and enjoying season one over and over because of the depth and wan that same depth as the show goes on.
@@crimsoneclipse0618 There's many moments like this. Or sometimes Powder has Jinx's shadow. I recommend watching the whole thing at 0.5 speed, doesn't sound that bad and it's slow enough to notice some interesting details.
A thing that i noticed about arcane’s dialogue is that… there isn’t really much of it? Like when you look at other stories out there it all feels longer just because the conversations are longer, characters in arcane don’t really talk to each other continuously for more than 2/3 minutes. And i think this adds onto the whole hermeticism of arcane. They never tell they just simply show the most basic building blocks of the story and they layer so many of those that you don’t NEED a long 20 minute showdown with just jinx and Caitlyn or just jinx and her voices to understand how she feels about her, how threatened from Caitlyn jinx feels. Heck the music in arcane doesn’t tell you how to feel, it’s just serenading how the situation feels like
I think the most dialogue we got was at the tea party, and even there there was plenty of breaks and pauses to build up pur expectations from the environment alone
Yes! The fact that so much was said without being said was one of the first things I noticed!! They didn't need to tell you that the Undercity had poorer quality of life, they just showed the enforcers wearing gas masks when no one else was! I do wonder how the writers and animators decided to introduce certain details tho. Did they look at a scene and say "what else can we add to help the story later" or did they look at a detail and say "how can we introduce this and when should we show it"???
I'm rewatching the show currently, and I'm noticing how much of Caitlyn's backstory is told, like, without her? The name Kiraman is said within the first 20 minutes of episode one. When she's introduced as an enforcer, the ceremonial role throws doubt on the legitimacy of her skills. Then the other enforcers tease her with her status. Then, several episodes later, we see the training scene with Grayson and Cait says "Did my parents pay you to let me win?" but by then we've already heard this concept of her role being bought like 5 times! Before she said anything about it! Makes me wonder which scenes were written specifically to introduce that concept vs which scenes were written for other purposes and had that added to it
101 on visual storytelling is to always show first and only tell when necessary. Every creator from top-to-bottom had creative input to maximize this basic, powerful concept.
Yeah i noticed too that the dialogue was much shorter than im used to. I like long dialogue with plenty of emotion, wisecracks, smooth talk, great voices, but once i got used to arcane's style i began to enjoy it too
Regarding the Microlevels you mention, I think I have an idea how they achieved it. It's because almost every part of Arcane and the people who worked on it contributed to the story. It wasn't just the directors and the writers who made the story, the animators told a story the writers didn't even think of, the musicians whk helped with the score and soundtrack were also given free reign to add to the story, and the voice actors too got a chance to add their own perspective and nuances to their characters. It's a collaborative storytelling on another level, every part of the production are given a chance to add to the story, which gives it so much more depth than a story made with 1 person's vision.
I think this is interesting but Hailee (who voiced Vi. Crazy right??? had no idea it was her) said in an interview that they really didnt understand what was going on in the show when they voiced it. They were just reading off the script, but she said it became more clear once the actualy show was released and they realized what the strange terms their character said actually meant. So i dont think they got a chance to put in their creative output other than their acting
@@thewiskeredcat9157 Not sure about Hailee since I haven't seen much Arcane interviews with her, but the other voice actors like JB who voiced Vander, Mia who voiced Powded, and especially Jason Spisak who voiced Silco have said a lot about their character's perspectivr and nuance.
Yes, I've heard that they let the Fortiche animation team add things as they've drawn scenes and characters. Some of these stuff weren't meant to be in the story but they kept these little additions and they became a part of the story and fan theories.
The best decision Riot every made for Arcane was hiring phenomenally talented people from top to bottom, all or most of whom have a deep love of League of Legends and a long history of working on the expanded universe, then telling them, "Do you."
Do them they did, and it is a work of art.
@@peaceandloveusa6656 Yeah, Riot has had a lot pf fuck ups and bs moments, but man when they get it right, they really get it right
these videos have literally subconsciously fed my capabilities as both a writer and a storyteller, analytical and fictional. i've also always loved writing, loved stories, but i never truly understood the theory behind it. i don't do well with formulas, but little things that add so much depth to a world that i can incorporate help me so much. these videos help me so much.
thanks schnee, and thanks arcane :)
Why do you think I personally follow his stuff?
Dude same. I've always been wanting to write a story of my own, but I don't know how. And I'm the type who learn by experiencing instead of learning theory, so I read a lot of novels
At first the novels I read were okay, not the best, but not bad either which is exactly what I want. But after watching his videos, I began to notice small details I've never noticed before, and before long I was like "did I seriously read this shit?!" Lol.
That's the positive, the negative effect is that it's hard for me to just enjoy a novel without trying to find their flaws 😔
@@batu5180 I feel that, I do feel it
@@batu5180 UGH SAME! I'm especially picky with characters! It's a little irritating, because the majority of novels I've read (and shows/movies) after I watched Arcane and schnee's videos have just seemed... ok at best
I kinda wish I could go back to blindly enjoying novels when they're just ok, but then again this knowledge would help me make my own novels to the best of my ability (ideally with the help of others' insight too).
On a related note, I'll see a ton of people with a popular book like "omg this is SO GOOD!" and when I read it I'm just like "wtf guys did I read the same book or" (I blame it on you booktok-though I'm happy people are at least taking the time to read in this day and age)
@@roguishwretches yep. I especially liked reading webnovel, and many times I never trusted their ranking lists since most of the time the top ranking is just meh. I read the second coming of gluttony and man the majority of the comments are just "when is he going to be strong?" "The mc is a cuck" "why is he going back and forth being a decent guy and a jerk?" "Yeah, surely that's the best you can do". Like c'mon people, it's a story of a good kid going down a bad road and throwing anything he had aside in the process, what do you think going thru that kind of person's head when he tried to change back? Of course insecurity, anxiety, and skewed common sense will be there. Not to mention he has an addiction, so withdrawal is inevitable, and if you know anything about changing to be a better person, then you'll know it's not a smooth sailing process, one wrong step and you back to square one, that's why those people needs any help they can get and strong will. It's a story about change and I think the author did a good job at delivering it
As Ron Weasley once said, “one person can’t feel all that, they’d explode.” Seriously though the fact that they managed to fit alllll this into 9 episodes blows my mind beyond anything I ever imagined.
I feel like Arcane really really really capitalized on it’s medium. They embrace the animated show so well and allow it to to tell large chunks of story without a single word of dialogue needed.
Im hoping (maybe naively) that Arcane will be the new ceiling that animation will strive towards in terms of it's narrative, much in the way Into the spiderverse became the new ceiling for animation. (Arcane is also insanely beautiful, so it kinda expands the ceiling both ways but I digress) Right now, unfortunately, I cannot think of a single animated show that does as much as Arcane - honestly, I can't think of as show that is even close to how good Arcane is. Here's to hoping that more shows will strive towards this level.
100% agree- I think though that a clear distinction has to be made between what artists are already striving towards, and what production companies will feasibly pay for. Arcane raised the bar drastically because as part of its own IP, Riot was clearly invested in making it as good as it could possibly be, which is what allowed the animators and writers to push it so far.
I think it will lead to more high-end animated projects in the future, but not because the artists will be pushing themselves to match Arcane, but because producers will see "oh, animation can be high-end and successful!" and maybe follow suit.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a (relatively) new show that has quite a bit of depth to it as well!
It's a different kind of depth and the animation isn't nearly on the same level, but I'd recommend Attack on Titan. It's depth is revealed as you watch through the seasons and realize things in earlier seasons had more than one meaning, plus the evolution of the story itself. Would highly recommend. (But watch it subbed, the voice acting and sound design is way better in the original Japanese...)
If you want something as emotional as Arcane that talks about mental illness and trauma check out Bojack Horseman. Unfortunately animation isn’t half as pretty and season 1 is basically the weakest (it starts of as just another adult comedy) but it gets better the longer you watch it
Better Call Saul also has a lot of depth to it, that show feels like its own new ceiling for storytelling
Looks like jinx is having a blast exploring the world
You know what? It makes me slightly anxious about second season. First one have god tier level of writing, exceptionally rare thing. Will they be able to catch this lightning in a bottle once again?
I have faith in them. They're taking their time on it, no one is rushing them, they set up a lot of plot points, they've clearly got ideas and ways forward to act on, they seem to really care. They've got every chance to make it great.
@@sydneygorelick7484 hope you are right.
Agreed. It is both a great and terrible thing to have your own first act be a tough one to follow.
They had season two in pre production as they where going. I find your lack of faith disturbing.
@@nepntzerZer I totally root for their success and really hope my fears are unfounded. That showrunners do have ten year plan for the future and knew exactly what to do once it was greenlighted for second season. But we should consider the fact that first season took over six years to produce, and new one coming much sooner. Less time to build the structure and even less time to polish bolts and knots. If previously mentioned plan does not exist and they inventing stuff on a go, result may fall short of our expectations.
You’re prolly not gonna see this, but tysm for that little advice at the end. I’m sixteen and finished writing the book I’ve been working on since I was 13. I’ve been so stuck about how to get word out about it because I KNOW, I’m sixteen, my little book isn’t much. But writing is my hyperfixation and has been all my life. Nowadays, it seems impossible to promote a book unless you already have a big platform. Getting people to buy a book and read it seems impossible. I’ve had a few TikTok ideas but have been hesitant to post. Thanks for giving me the courage to do so. Blessings 💖
Good luck!
This is exactly what I loved about Arcane. It was knife-like in it's storytelling, nothing extra in the plot or dialogue, but rich in detail, a true masterclass in show, don't tell.
17:17 crochet Jinx is like "wtf..... you seeing what i'm seeing?" I JUST BURST OUT LAUGHING
6:04 THAT WAS SO SMOOTH
I love the fact that one year later Arcane still has more to give us.
I think the great thing about Arcane is that every single moment, action, dialogue, progresses the arc of at least two characters. Not a single thing is done in isolation. Even the most distant characters indirectly impact each other in some way and that really makes the world feel alive. Everything matters.
They definitely considered every consequence to keep the storyline moving
I'm not a writer, but i absolutely love your analysis, you have a great, unique and very thorough view on the world, I honestly learned a crap ton out of these arcane videos about life
I enjoyed your editing before but after finding out you did it all on PHONE I am now disturbed, in pain, and in awe. Kinda like watching a failed rocket launch: marvelling at and lamenting sheer human ability.
To be clear, it was only the first... 51 videos 😅 but yes, a total disaster...
@@schnee1 WHAAAATTTTTT
absolutely crazy, dude's got THAT determination :,)
That little Jinx is having the time of her life it’s so cute 😭
There's a technique I call "webbiness" of character relationships (not sure if it was used in Arcane or not, but the final version of the show is what a product of the technique could look like), where if you write character names on a whiteboard/paper and start drawing the various relationship lines interconnecting them, you'll end up with a giant tangled web, which is pretty similar to the overlap you were referring to! From my writing education it's a very advanced story construction technique, where one of the really tough parts is balancing a huge cast with enough differentiation between character personalities/arcs.
The way I remember some stories being constructed from this method starting with character relationships is that writers will start with say 1 relationship, but each character, as an in-story world person, would have a life outside the focal relationship/interaction of the story. One of my professors called this technique "remembering that very few people live in a vacuum/complete isolation." The resulting technique is if a creator keeps in mind the relationships that each character has in their life, even if you just make 1 additional relationship per character (e.g. a parent, a sibling, a friend, a teacher), the amount of characters that may be added/mentioned in the story can grow exponentially.
Then, developing each character's relationships gives an avenue into showing different dimensions of the same character's personality, at the same time building complexity with themes attached to each different relationship. Given the amount of relationships will increase exponentially with each character added to the cast, the attached messages/themes/interactions can also increase exponentially with enough variation (where the parallels and foils for arcs/characters/themes come into play).
One key pitfall I think I see most often is getting the cast just the right size (not too large with irrelevant characters/characters of lost storytelling potential, and not too small that some parallels/foils of some messages/themes go unexplored), with an important note that the right-sized cast depends on the themes the creator wants to explore.
The second difficult part of this technique is keeping each character unique enough for easy differentiation by the audience in a large cast. Expanding a cast of characters exponentially through each character's relationship can get out of hand really fast, meaning it's generally better to have no unnecessary characters (k!ll!n your darlings rearing its ugly head here lol). Interconnecting characters so you try to get a self-contained web (where almost all characters in the web have relationships with each other) is the best way to keep your cast from getting too large- e.g. exploring the characters you already have and add complexity from within, instead of making a new character/relationship for every new facet of a theme.
TL;DR The "webbiness"/layering of character relationships in Arcane worked so well by balancing the sizeable cast (each character w/a unique personality/standing/traits & unique relationships w/other character) with the fairly decent number/length of episodes they had to explore said relationships/interactions/themes. This was a very long and convoluted take and I'm not sure I explained it very well lol so additional discussion is very welcome ^^
Interesting. Is there any link to an article of this "webbing" you speak of? would like to learn it sometime.
Your message on the end got to me
As someone who still don't know what to do with life aside from actually trying to make and post stuff I like and make it's very touching and encouraging that even if I have limited materials I can still make do with it and create stuff others might like
I'll be coming back to this video time by time
I'm cursed to not be able to watch arcane but your videos about the series got me to fell in love with it
Thank you for making such wonderful videos !!!
DO IT! but wait, you havent watched arcane?? go do that too!
@@schnee1 As someone at the end of one career I find myself now with the time to work on creative projects. Being very literally minded with all the natural creativity of a stone but an absolute shit ton of respect for creative people of all stripes, it is an opportunity to not just find an outlet but literally grow a creative outlet from nothing. I look to intelligent and thoughtful analysis videos like your entire Arcane series to try to find the good habits and techniques before I have the chance to develop the bad ones.
The inspiration part actually got me inspired. Especially the part where you said your first videos were all edited on your phone, it really gave me a new perspective.
@@schnee1 can I ask what programs/apps you used to create the videos on your phone? Talking in depth about the shows/movies I’ve watched is something I’ve always wanted to do I just never know how to start
go to the park, ask a stranger your age if they have a netflix account and would let you visit and watch arcane with them, and see what happens :)
Your videos changed my life. I’m an aspiring writer and Iv been stuck for years. I felt like the story that I’m writing and building feels just meh, even if I grind it to a finish, it will still fundamentally be a bad story. But after I watched your analysis, I know what to work on and how to work on them. Writing a novel is different to screen writing but still, it helps so much with characterization, pacing and story structure.
Also, equipment really doesn’t matter. You just need paper and pen.
If I can write a TV series half as good as Arcane I'll be happy.
Focus on potatoes. They are probably the most important object in the entire universe
If I could write a book 1/4 as good as Arcane I would
I can’t even write a book 1/100th as good as arcane
@@hollyarmentrout6887 It's worth taking a shot at it anyway.
Missed your arcane focused vids, man. Haven't finished the vid yet but I just wanted to say to keep up the good work. You're the channel that made me love arcane more than I already did. I really came to appreciate the smaller details because of your great work
I second you on this. And on of top of all that, through Shnee's video's I learned a deeper understanding of, and love for, all the media I consume. Whether it is a netflix series, a game, comic, play, video assay, what ever.
100% this
I loved the fact that we could see the Jinx doll in the most random places ever😂 amazing video again, u can think about so much more than I can, and when u bring those things up, I am like "oh yeah thats true" you are just outsmarting all of us😌😀
7:30 Vi getting the same clip for how she deals with loneliness, trauma, and time is hilarious but true 💀💀😭
Foils and parallels. It is clever and emerges from the need for game balance in the original video game. Each foil is a full character, BUT most are an existing character in the lore which makes it a soduku puzzle.
4:29 “but one is super gay, and one is SUUUUPER gay-“ got me that time😂
There’s even a little bit of name symbolism when it comes to Zaun v Piltover characters. You have names like Jayce, Mel, Caitlyn, all common and almost dignified in some way, reflecting the values of topside. Then you have Mylo, Claggor, Vander, Powder/Jinx, Sevika, Silco, Vi, Ekko, all names that are very uncommon and almost feel tough or “unnatural” in a way. It reflects not only Zauns values but what Topside views Zaun as, a tough, strange, unnatural world. Not to mention how in the undercity everyone is so drastically different from each other, unlike piltover where everyone feels somewhat similar in manner and style
There are a odd ones out though, Viktor, Vi and Heimerdinger. First off, Viktor, while being a common name, isn’t spelled in a very common way. It’s so close to being like everyone else but there’s something so slightly off about it that makes it different, just Like Viktor himself. Theres something small about him different from everyone around him no matter what, which could be his disability or where he’s from. Vi is interesting cause her nickname fits with Zaun, but her real name doesn’t. Violet isn’t a name you would really find in Zaun, which presumably is why everyone calls her Vi, but in her inevitable arc she will become more like ‘violet,’ a character more based around Piltover yet still keeping Zaun a small part of her.
Heimerdinger is strange because he doesn’t really fit in either category. His name doesn’t fit into the established and wealthy Piltover, but it certainly has no place in the slums of Zaun. When you think about it, this reflects his character very well. Heimerdinger doesn’t quite fit in as a politician, we see him listening to music, lost in oblivion while everyone else is making business deals. He never actually does much in terms of being a scientist, politician, hell even mentor. What he does is minuscule and usually ignored, leaving him outcasted. It’s the same when he’s sent to Zaun. It’s a world he doesn’t know or understand, he doesn’t belong there since he’s so used to the prestigious life he used to have. His name reflects all that and how he doesn’t really fit anywhere in this conflict.
Jinx is a different version of this, in a way that she is always a zaunite, but the moment she buries her weakness she changes from such a weak character, or substance like Powder, and turns into a force, a Jinx.
This all could jsut be me really hyperanalyzing but I think it’s a fun little detail that comes into world building and characters.
I nor should anyone really blame you. Arcane has hit me in a way that no other media has ever done in a long time especially during a time when pop culture media felt like it was simply deteriorating for the sake of formula. This show relit hope in me for the spirituality of entertainment. I’m glad there’s someone like you out there expressing that. Here’s to more over analyzing the f out of this show!
13:52 I CACKLED YOURE SO REAL FOR THIS
having just recently rewatched arcane on a 6 hour flight, i am again awestruck by how much they put into the show and how much you, schnee, have been able to see and expose to us. i am looking forward to the day where we will see your own stories published!
The trick of how they put so much in the show us that each character is closely impacted by other characters actions and how all of them revolve around the advancements of hextech as time progresses keeping the story grounded around each character. Also each episode is dedicated to each character and each episode still takes time to point to other characters to let us know they haven't been forgotten and let's us know how and why they are vital to the story. They all feel genuine and natural as characters.
holy shit you worked hard on this , the parallel scenes you showed must have taken forever, thank you so much for another amazing analysis video , we love you schnee ❤and cheers to yours and arcanes 1 year🎉happy progress day everyone 🎊
the things you said at the end of the video... dude i know the struggle. I'm 26 years old now and my dream was to become a writer since i was in middle school. I have written many short stories and half-finished novels and at some point in college i gave up. I don't know why but it felt like a dream that will never come true and that thought led me to depression. I tried twelwe different things after i stopped telling people that my goal was to beacome an author. I worked in so many different jobs tried to find something that excited me but couldnt find anything. Then one day im sitting at home my left foot was broken due to a scooter accident i was depressed lonely and unemployed... A friend called telling me about Arcane is out( I have played League since season 5) I said okay come over we'll watch it together. A couple of friends gathered at my house and started watching... And the inspiration this show has given me... I can never thank enough to the creators cuz this show made so many changes in my life. This show didn't actually i did those changes but thanks to this show. After i watched it i said i want to write something this good i want people to feel like how i feel right now after they finish reading/watching what i wrote. So i decided to become a scriptwriter. Changed my dream into our time. Started taking classes on udemy and then actually got into college again (
dropped out my last one i was studying American Literature) to study Television. Now im writing again after a loooooooong break. Still have high hopes. I feel scared btw cuz im not getting any younger and i feel the pressure but i push through. So i hope all of us dreamers out there we can all achive our dream and make them turn into reality that we call our lives. Love your videos btw!
Good luck!!
Something you noticed correctly in the mirco is that the writers clearly also were animators. When they write an scene, they make sure there are things told by the animations without words. And pictures tell more then world. No naration of the zaunites killing on the bridge: There were no words. This provides an level of efficiency many movies lack were the writing comes first, and the rest has to fit in.
Dude, I love the full cup thing you said at the beginning. You can succeed with having only one part be great and others be good or okay, but if there's anything bad it can ruin the whole thing. "It only takes a little bit of shit to ruin a perfectly good bowl of ice cream."
The part where you describe how the show uses overlapping to connect everything is blowing my mind right now.
Thank you for the part where you said "Geniuses with genius problems and idiots with idiot problems" and showed the same clip of Jayce for both. (13:51)
The inspirational messages at the latter part of the video really hit home for me. It is such good advice, and I am really happy that you've had this success through just pushing to do something and finding your way as you go. I have the same phone as you btw, so I have no excuse for not making content anymore, whatever that might be. You're doing great work
schnee, my goodness, I can’t express how much your videos inspire me. I’ve thought about literally keeping a notebook or google doc and taking notes, that’s how much I learn from you. making my own story has just been a dream, a pair of docs I add to every now and then, but you make me really want to try and make that world and its characters a reality. countless people probably feel the same way, all of us with stories we want to tell, so on behalf of everyone who’s ever felt inspired by your videos, I sincerely thank you.
When watching Arcane, I had a funny feeling a lot of stuff was flying past my head. The story felt soooo much deeper than I thought, very thankful for your channel! Keep up the videos, can’t wait for s2.
Also that mini jinx is adorable :)
YES. I felt exactly the same way. But when I would catch a glimpse of something deep in my first viewing, I was mind blown and knew that the subtleties that passed too quickly were much bigger than I could process in that moment.
I once heard a talented writer explaining the movie Batman Begins. He pointed out "they took the two themes of motivation and order. Selfish motivation vs altruistic motivation, and juxtaposed it on a grid with use of Order vs use of Fear. This grid creates 4 naturally self written characters, and those 4 self written characters will write a story conflict about themselves. All the writer had to do was label them. Altruistic Fear- Batman, Altruistic Order- Gordon, Selfish Fear- Scarecrow, Selfish Order- Raz."
I feel that Arcane has done the same thing, just with a MUCH larger grid.
This man must've drank thousand cups of coffee, editing mist be hard keeping up with his energy i love it lmao. Great Video
Reminds me of Nolan's Square. Though, Nolan only uses 4 parallels for 4 characters...
Context: Director Christopher Nolan said that to make a complex and deep story, you need to have a theme or question, and 2 different answers for the same question.
Like, "how to win a race"
You have the Hare (Fast, Unsteady)
Bird (Fast, Steady)
Turtle (Slow, Steady)
Sloth (Slow, Unsteady)
Then, you make sure to fit into the story the interactions between the 4 characters, having conflicts over what sets them appart, to finally by the end, declare who is the "correct" answer by making the "correct" character win.
So wou make the Hare louse about, the Sloth give up because he was left behind, the Bird lose his way cause he lost the racing truck on his hurry, and the Turtle wins!
Bonus points: One of the two parallels is more important than the others, and that is to be STEADY, regardless of your speed, so Nolan would recommend to have the final faceoff between the Turtle and the Sloth, were both have taken the lead from the lost Bird and the sleeping Hare, but the Sloth gives up because he feela he coyld never win once the Hare or the Bird returns to the race, thus making the Turtle win showing the importance to being Steady!
Nolan believes that 2 parallels, for 4 characters are the ideal (and minimum) amount of answer nuance to a question, any more and it possibly starts messing with your answer, since by throqing such a wide net, some viewers might agree more with one of the side characters than the main character!!!
That's where Nolan's structure is different from Aracane's. Arcane doesn't give a bunch of oddballs and then says "remember all these conflict points? Yeah, only this one is the correct answer" and leaves it at that, instead it leaves no answer, it keeps the question a question, therefore "Slco did nothiing wrong" takes start to appear :)
I absolutely love your videos, and I have re-watched a number of them! After watching Arcane I knew that I loved it, I knew that it was well written, and I knew that it was deep, etc. However, I didn't know/ I couldn't explain why. Your videos gave me the "why" and helped me to understand the "why". Watching you analyze pretty much every scene, every character, the themes and all of the symbolism (and much more), has taught me how to better analyze stories on my own, and for that I thank you.
That was a fun vid.
As an artist/designer, a lot of this comes down to being good designers/illustrators.
You want to put in ambient story telling (this is the microlevel)
Each frame is also a composition with optimised elements and relationships (you'll think of the frame angle, then what are in the fore, mid, and background) you'll think of the contrast points, and the big, medium, and small.
This is what you do as a designer. You optimise the relationships and the elements simultaneously. Great artisists and illustrators learn this.
The big concept you are missing here is the idea of HARMONIES and CONTRASTS. Which is to say "repeated elements" with different rhythms (slight orientation changes) are harmonies, and contrasts are the polarisations.
So if you have a fighter, you have a passifist, and that is a contrast. But if you have three fighters that are the same that is a harmony, but then when you change something (a novelty) it turns it into a rhythm.
Its tough stuff to wrap your head around, but you are glimpsing the brilliance of designers and illustrators here. It isn't only in arcane, it is in masterworks of fine art. And this is what artists learn from, they aren't just learning design at a rudimentary level, they learn it to the level they can create masterstudies.
YOU are starting to do a masterstudy, and you are just starting to grasp how RAVENOUSLY complex it is to do, but the "design" of this isn't as complex as you are making it. Design is a skill, and thusly it is organic in how it expresses itself, and when you have 5 or so genius designers, they can speak in design language, shape language, theme design etc, and bounce off each other like a super brain.
This isn't ONE story, its FIVE or more, worked into each other, and they made room via the design, by realising that you have to optimise things into harmonic rhythms and contrasts, and then they realise that all the stories have a certain punch and remove anything that dulls the punch.
Its a series of short stories, bound into one MAIN or dominant story arc. This is using the rule of thirds. Vi and Jinx are 3x story weighted to represent that it is the dominant story line, this is so that all the other stories are ambient or "radial"
A radial composition is basically when you have all the other stories POINT towards or mirror the same as the FOCAL point. Liiiiike... Once you have the dominant theme, you then set up secondary and tertiary themes to support it, and like a big canvas, you can then put story telling in each one fractally because you spend time on each one, and voilla.
Basically, arcane is the most effort put into a story ever. A collaboration done by super five brain designers, that unlocked a potential for story telling we've not really seen before. I'm pretty sure its like a groundbreaking design for stories everywhere. And as a writer I'm floored by it haha, and also as a designer/illustrator, I can see what is happening clear enough.
It requires exceptional strength to concieve of it all at once though, and the artists don't look at it all at once. Its like some super computer perfect story haha. BUT it has limitations, but who cares when its a masterpiece. And its a masterpiece in a popular medium of tv series.
I love arcane, its the best. In fact, its too good haha. But this is related to a question richard schmid asked in Alla Prima "how is it that peoples minds are capable of imagining such things and then to paint them".
My answer to his question is that writing, painting, designing, all are like LEVERS.
Once you learn to use the lever, the result is more interesting and varied than you initially intended, and once you see the result it becomes a feedback loop.
To be an artist means to leverage amazing things into more amazing things, and that is what arcane does. Then you gel it all together with masterful art direction (the fortiche style) and voila. You have bound your limits, and set up a container to hold all the modules and submodules with an optimal coherence.
... How to explain this...
To CONTAIN COHERENCE, you need to create ART DIRECTION. Which is deciding upon the TOOL you are using to describe a certain range of emotion. Arcane doesn't use infinite range. It uses FAMILY and AMBITION as the ranges for emotion. The ART STYLE is set up in a way that it can be soft and affectionate like family, and so it can be hard and edgy like ambitious types. This sets up the emotional range by the art style, and this limits the stylistic range.
When you have art direction for the range of emotion, you then decide art direction for the format. The format is like the kind of modules you are using to construct the story. You could use high contrast and have unique tetris blocks fitting into each other, and this has a chaotic rhythm to it, or you can use overlap where you change one novel element at a time to create what is called a unified rhythm. Unified rhythms tend to work well in radial compositions, with circular structures. So once you have this compositional range set up for your character arcs, you understand that you don't want to have a can of snakes, you want to have instead variations on the same themes, this then helps reinforce what is being seen.
Then you set up the art direction of each local story. What are the "frames" you are using, and how are they creating the sequence, what are the beat frames, what are the flow/action/description frames, what are the dialogue frames, then you select cam angles with your 3d modeller, and concieve of how you might paint the frame, by bringing in references. And a REFERENCE LIBRARY is also art direction.
You realise that some ways to frame shots are like the last supper, and other master paintings you have seen, and with those localised answers for how to set up the composition, you then "plugin" the story telling elements that your team has concepted. And they had tons of concept art and ideas to pull from as riot has employed umpteen thousand artists to do concepts for them. Looking through all the concept art, they then had to draw all of that into a library of references that would suit the story.
Once you have emotional range, framing styles, and references, you can get a good feel of what is there. Then you optimise it, and start to sculpt with these levers until a nice little harmony of rhythms appears, then you are like "aha, lets highlight x part of each arc, and try to have this mirror that" and then it starts to gel between the parallels.
BUUUUUUUUUUUT this isn't the last of it.
Another thing is what illustrators are good at, I call it interpretive resistance. When you look at something you are familiar with you will glance at it and say "thats a cup. done" then look away. But if you erase a few lines, the mind has to be "wait, is that a cup, or is it a ..." once you break up the interpretation, you are signalling to the audience to not finish the thought. This is how you make pieces of art have "flow" through different elements and create relationships.
So all the artists and designers need to do is to break the closure of the object you are percieving (subvert the trope, have multiple moving elements in a scene, and cast the shading of a scene a certain way) and boom you get this flow.
Like I said, design is a HUGE skill that artists are REALLY good at.
And as a writer and designer, I have learned SOOOOOOOOOO much from learning art its crazy.
Trust me, learn to paint, or learn to draw, and get high level master coaching, it will start to make sense.
Because words are a form of ink/paint/art
And you can also paint with them.
And ultimately this is the end point of my thesis
Arcane isn't a plot structure
Its a fine art painting
LOTR is one author doing a tetris composition, optimising things by making them icons.
ARCANE is several DESIGNERS doing a radial composition, optimising things by the rule of thirds.
You've been talking about Arcane for quite a while now and you're still finding stuff about it. Arcane truly is the gift that keeps on giving.
Honestly, a lot of your analysis’ stuff has helped me with writing. From this video alone I’ve learned a lot about overlap and how to add more depth to story. Although it made my brain hurt at first, it was really helpful. So, thank you!
I loved how when you listed how each character deals with different themes, you used Vi punching the wall for each one 🤣🤣
Omg it’s been a year since arcane?! Really love your videos! They give me so much insights and so much directions as a writing and animation student, tysm!❤
I have to admit that Arcane is a show that never feels like it does too much. The people behind it clearly put a lot of love, patience, and more into this and it still proves to be incredible and engaging no matter how many times someone watches it. The stories are connected, the characters feel incredibly human, and it just feels very real. Truly a masterpiece in today's world.
I love your content and i'm always looking forward to it! Thanks to you, it's way clearer why Arcane is such a great story. Especially your Video about "How ARCANE Writes Women" is absolutley hooking! Keep it up, you're doing such a great enjoyable work!
I feel like a good way to describe Arcane is a smoothie. Strawberries would fill up the cup more by itself, but when blended with everything else, there is room for more
This is already such a detailed video with the ideas you’re discussing, but the editing really blew me away. The way you interweave the scenes and parallels - and combined with the chaotic cuteness that is Lil Jinx - is a feast for the eyes. You’re my favourite writing channel and it’s great to see how far you’ve come.
Great work this "overlap technique" is really interesting!
Like you, I was lost for a few years. After my sophomore year in college, I dropped out because I cracked under the pressure that was put on me. Parents wanted to get a "good degree" (think lawyer, doctor, etc.) and make a lot of money. I wanted to get a degree in writing because I enjoy it, but I didn't have much support from them and was told I wouldn't make it. So I dropped out and spent years working in the beauty industry and helping out with my younger brothers, who were kids when I was a sophomore in college.
Once they graduated from high school, I was in my late 20s and decided to go back to school. Only this time, I decided to go through with getting a writing degree. Now, I'm almost there and will be graduating next year. It's been a slow crawl, but I'm proud of myself for not giving up and not giving into the pressure that my parents have put on me. When I told them I was going back for writing, they weren't exactly thrilled and even now, I'm pretty sure they think I'm making a mistake. But I told them it's MY decision and MY life.
Your videos have helped me with my writing, and I appreciate the hard work you put into them. I'm writing a story right now and your videos have inspired me to put more depth into my characters and story. Before I felt like everything was a little flat, but after watching your videos, I'm hoping I've done a better job in writing them. Keep up the good work! :)
Your ending message is honestly something that I found really comforting, I wanna be a storyboard artist and I’ve started taking it more seriously and posting here and there, but I always worry about the future. Honestly, this channel has been a delight to see grow this past year, and I’m glad you started it. No matter where I end up, maybe just committing to something is how you commit to yourself and your own growth 💕 We’ll see where I go!
I wanted to leave a serious comment but 13:51 had me cackling. Amazing video as always schnee, you articulated what we were all thinking in the most eloquent of ways
I'm late to the Arcane party, but I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for being the reason I finally took the plunge and watched all of Arcane in a single day, I got SOO lost in the story and complexities within it because I want to be able to watch those 10+ hours of content you made discussing the show and its writing/etc. You wrap it all up so beautifully into terms I understand and can appreciate, and I love that about your work! Thank you for doing what you do!
when he was saying "...both young scientists, but one is from piltover and one is from zaun."
I was like:
"thats intersectionality...OMG"
that is soooo cool
all the characters stand at intersections between the different dimensions they exist in the society.
In arcane that is class, origin, education, occupation. and more
In our world that is gender, race, age, class, origin, and more.
soooooo real
Such a great breakdown and explanation! If Disney and other media entertainment developers were to learn from this, other IP’s would flourish as well.
schnee, yours is the greatest channel in TH-cam! Thanks SO MUCH for doing what you're doing, you've opened up my mind and heart!
I feel the need to mention that every time I watch your videos I write seven pages of character dynamics
Schnee you are quite literally one of my biggest inspirations and i am incredibly grateful that you started this channel, and even more grateful that you're enjoying this journey. My story is in a lot of ways similar to what you were talking about at the end of the video, and every time a new thing i want to do pops up, i will always try to do it, even though it may not fit what i think should be "my story". Stay amazing, man
In keeping with the cup metaphor one of the best parts of Arcane is not just efficiency, but also RESTRAINT and how it balances everything so well. It's like a mixed punch with the perfect balance of flavors. Most shows have a main plot and a few (or often way too many) sideplots and one of the plots always feels more weak, less interesting or pointless than the others and the story looses momentum whenever it switches focus. What is so unique about Arcane is that it manages to keep you invested in all of the plots equally and never neglects or draws out some plots at the expense of others, partially because each subplot ends up impacting everything else, to the extent where its hard to pin down what the 'main' plot even is. Is is Vi vs Jinx? Vander & Silco? Piltover vs Zaun? Arguments can be made for all of them. You never feel like any of the plotlines go nowhere or waste your time because they all end up impacting something down the line.
The writing manages to avoid getting either too detailed or too simplistic. While there is a whole world outside of Piltover and Zaun it chooses to allude to it rather than veering off course into irrelevant microdetails that won't effect the story. It gives you what you need in just enough detail, but none of the extra weight (best seen in Mel's backstory and how it conveys the necessary ideas without dumping any unnecessary lore). It also avoids common pacing pitfalls like long stretches of dry exposition or lore by saving explanations for critical details and explaining a LOT of it quickly and efficiently through background details, visuals or character interactation. It fills the space that would otherwise be occupied by these things with what makes any story work in the first place - sincere emotions and character development.
Parallel and overlap are techniques that I've been working on recently without even noticing, Arcane might have been a big factor in this, but for me it all changed when I heard the quote "history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes" and combined it with "every story has already been told". When these two concepts combined in my head, my brain exploded...
what if I just tell ONE story?
what if I tell it again with another character?
what if I tell it again in another setting?
what if I tell it with another economical system?
what if I tell it with gods and magic?
But... BUT it's never about the "what if", soon I learned that the "what if" becomes disrespectful to the characters, they have their story and you, as an almighty god change everything just because you're curious of a different ending doesn't make justice to a story (unless the story is exactly about that concept). Changes are about how diverse people is and how different forces shape societies and relationships... not about how cooler would have been if my superhero was a villain or how would it look if my gangster held a magic wand instead of a gun. Changes matter on a deep story.
It's crazy how good your breakdown of how crazy good Arcane is!
Hats off to you 👏🏻
Take a shot every time Schnee repeates a word or phrase lol. But anyway, though, this is a brilliant analysis, though. Arcane is something that just keeps on getting better and better and more rich the more you think about it. I find it almost miraculous that a show this great exists, and that this was only the first season alone. I truly cannot express my utter excitement for Season 2, and your analysis of it, Schnee! And Happy Birthday to Arcane and your channel! (And P.S. thank you for your advice near the end, I'm in a rut myself and I hope to take what you said to heart!)
You're the one who made me rewatch Arcane a fourth time, just so I could see all these incredible story telling things I got from your videos... So thank you for making that content, and helping me understand this show, and why I feel what I feel when I'm watching it. Happy anniversary!
I think another thing that Arcane does is it very rarely explicitly or even impllicitly answers any of the questions it leaves its viewers with. It says so much about its different themes while rarely answering if this is right or wrong. There is no ultimately right answer, there are no black and white rights and wrongs, there is only a spectrum of agreeability that stares you back in the face and asks if you're sure.
For example, (not a great example; a two-minute example), in the first act a lot of us dislike or maybe even hate Silco, but when he dies in act 3 there's no sense of victory to it because it's not a happy moment for anyone in the room. So what does this say about Silco? Was he a personification of tirany? And that's why he died- to make an example about how tirany and an iron-fist is not good. But then why do we feel sad when he dies? Was this really a theme of his character at all, then? Was it even a purpose to his character? When the audience feels disgruntled and grief in this scene, they ask themselves- was Silco a good father? Was he a bad father? Was he just making sacrifices in the only way he knew how? Was he truly evil? Didn't he kill a lot of people? Didn't he use shimmer to harness the underground, to threaten Piltover's security? Didn't he put Jinx before anyone? Didn't he come to respect Vander? Didn't he respect Vander before, but for different reasons? *In all of this, Arcane answers none of these questions.* It just shows you time keeps moving. It doesn't ask you to be happy or sad with Silco's death. It just shows you this happens because of the decisions he makes and he doesn't make, and doesn't tell you which ones were right and which ones were wrong, or if there even is a 'right and wrong' to his decisions.
I fkn love this show
Ive just concluded based on all your videos that arcane is the most well written piece of media ever
holy im early but wanna say ive found your channel to be among the most interesting + honest/thought out of commentaters and it was your series on Arcane exactly that convinced me to eventually watch and fall in love with the show. Being autistic, for me its hard to get into new material of any kind/break away from comfort watches in search of new ones so it was a slow process of "okay lets just see what Shnee has to say about immortal characters" = finding it soo interesting id find myself talking about it with ppl irl, then click another about women in arcane, finding that one even more impressive, i eventually gave in and watched the entire show as well as referring back to vids of yours that introduced me to it to make some of the same connections + my own!!, and now I am so desperate for season 2, and have a hard time picking a favorite everything because of all the qualities you brought to my attention, ik they're not specific to Arcane but it really opened up my ability to analyze things for myself after not really grasping the practice until diagnoses and meds so I think I just want to say thank you for bringing me back into the TV and movie world with this kind of depth, and being so thoughtful about it too, its rare to find bc soo many commentators I feel dont do much to acknowledge their own limits or biases, so absolute breath of fresh air and great analyses thank you schnee 💛
I’m just starting out writing, writing a comic, and I’ve been using your videos as reference. The more I learn about arcane, the more the sheer talent makes my head spin. I cannot imagine handling that much of a story as well as they did. So thank you, for making it easy to analyze and giving me confidence to write.
4:06 I just found this funny-
Ah yes singed is younger than jinx
lol yes yes definitely on purpose...
That last part is SO true, thank you for mentioning it. I was lost for such a long time, didn't know which direction I wanted to go, and just picking something and taking some small action (which then led to bigger action) opened up a whole new set of possibilities I hadn't even considered before. If I hadn't kept trying different things, and if I hadn't stuck with the one thing that resonated with me for several years, then I wouldn't have found the path I'm on now which is everything I never knew I wanted. Just a few hours of work here and there over the course of a couple years adds up. Putting yourself out there and trying new things will pay off eventually one way or another.
Thanks for doing what you do!
THE GUY DANCING IN THE SUBWAY LMAOOOO
"The compositional elements of the (story) are the same as ours, there are simply more of them tightly packed. The (story) is for lack of a better word... perfect."
Really looking forward to the next year of videos and monthly meetups. Thanks for your amazing dedication schnee!!
also nice jinx plushie 🤗
Loved all the scenes with lil amigurumi Jinx at the supermarket awww every single one of them made me laugh I don't know why and it's so freakin cute
btw loved the video too lol, it was incredible, very interesting and helpful 👌
One of them is super gay and the other is SUUUUUUUPEEEERR GAAAAAYYYY
actually loled at that :D
Don't have much to say to the video other than... what you said really makes sense. From the cup analogy to all the many many many parallels to the different thematic layers every scene and character has to the tiniest of details that don't take up narrative space at all like the fashion or the ash tray. Thank you!
Found this as year later (ironic) and it has helped me soo much in my writing, this video alone. Your in depth character analysis (along with many other creators' perspectives) have helped myself, a very new writer, develop individual characters. This video has helped me begin figure out how to go about tying everything together, or at least shown me with all the complicated designing I have done that I NEED to tie everything to something majorly overarching. Thanks :) Love you videos.
Hmm why was Vi both a scientist and non-scientist? That must've been an editing mistake no...?
Just finished the series for first time yesterday. Watched a couple of your videos on it enjoying the content. Personally I was blown away by the depth of the story and characters. I did not expect to be blown this much by a series based on a game and I dont mean that negative towards games as I love them but it was totally unexpected for me, thought it would be a more simple story, and way less depth and psychological realism to characters.
Nice Video but at 4:14 you tagged vi as a scientist and Ekko as non scientist
oof that's what i get for rearranging that sequence at 4am... 😅
Arcane is basically a nervous system in the form of a show.
i appreciate the gay jokes
Damn I've watched the first season about 6 times already and I KNEW the writing was amazing, but this made me realize it's actually genius. The writing is like a machine the way all the cogs overlap and fit perfectly
After rewatching the show, I came to the conclusion that Powder and Violet aren't really sisters- Powder is adopted!
-'Powder' is a nickname, not a real name.
-Powder feels sorry for the death of Vi's parents.
-Powder literally says they're not sisters.
-Powder/Jinx always feels that her sisterhood with Vi is conditional.
This explains so much, especially why Jinx is so psychologically fragile- she lost her own parents at a much earlier age.
@@Me-yq1fl sharing blue hair isn't a significant enough detail, unfortunately. (Edit: it's hard to tell what color the mother's hair is, as the entire bridge scene is tinted red- I chose to take your word for it.)
The name 'Powder' is a reference to her hobby of making smoke grenades. It was clearly given to her by her peers after getting to know her, rather than her parents.
I have only come across a few works that got an emotional response out of me on the first viewing, but Arcane is the first to have such a strong emotional pull long after the fact. Be it sound bytes or even soundless clips, I get hit with so many emotions all over again any time I watch Arcane-related content. I think it is as you said: They layered Arcane so well that any scene connects to any other scene, any character connects to any other character, any theme to any other theme, so just seeing any part of the show, hearing any line, brings up several other memories of the show, which brings up many more memories of the show, until a single meme can hit you like a bus. I am blown away by how good this show is, but I will be in sheer disbelief if season 2 delivers this level of depth and quality. There just aren't enough minds in the world to fully unpack every question this show offers, let alone every answer.
"Great overlaping Technique" is genius. I hope it wont be overused and misused in the future.
Thank you for that bit at the end.
I think a big thing that adds to the "Efficiency" of filling the cup and the micro level stories.
It's the WAY the company went about making it.
Every single interview I've seen from them is about how they didn't feel the need to conform to an industry standard/followed their own flow. They went about alot of their plans like it was a big music video, like everything else they'd already done for Riot.
They had a violinist on board to properly mesh the music with the scenes. They spent time with the musical artists and their plans to flesh out the most effective use OF that music.
It works so well because to them every single moment, animation, sound
Mattered.
They had a department go back through and hand animated every frame of 2d effects instead of making a filter in the 3d systems for it to "look" 2d
I'm just hopeful they can maintain this level of care and dedication instead of being pressured into producing more faster for the money grab
Keeping track of only the differences between scenes is basically how DVDs work and compress data so well.
This is brilliant imo! Honestly, I think no one is looking for "original" stories so much as "the same thing.... but different!" which we see a lot in media. Snyder's "Save the Cat!" book on screenplays talks about this. Audiences want all those things you talk about- developed characters, diverse characters, rich worlds, developed plots and themes, etc. To your cup theory, it's like Arcane asked itself why keep it just one cup? These cups aren't different. They're the same cup and the same content (as you illustrated in the overlapping scenes/themes/dynamics). That's how you can do so much. Arcane tells that same story but different. It's amazing bc you'd think telling the same story but different would be easy, but it's really not. It's super impressive how everything is interwoven the way it is.
Really clever too how you point out the characters dealing with such similar themes. "Write what you know" is a familiar piece of advice for writers which at first can feel constricting because the world is way too diverse to just stick to your own experiences, right? But it goes beyond looking at yourself as a whole and telling just that story else we'd only be writing autobiographies. If you're really familiar with the concept of loneliness, then run with that but do it in different ways. Putting a character as a whole in categories is smart for this too. Character A is "young", "a scientist", "and rich" versus how Character B may be all those things except for one and then see how that one difference changes their dynamic and perception of the theme.
In a way, it's a scientific approach. You formulate a hypothesis and then test it. You have a control, which is your baseline, and then you change one element so you can see how that single element changes with the same test. Then your data and be analyzed and something profound can come from it. So with your theory, writing for media can work very similarly.
And then we can get more from less. Instead of tackling a huge world, we have two groups who are similar but different. Exploring that makes the world feel bigger even if a lot of the topics are repeated. Repeated topics can get trite, but Arcane saves this by taking the same thing and doing it a little different. this keeps it from being boring and keeps their statements profound. We're not beating any dead horses even distilled the basic essence of their themes is the same.
What I love about your channel especially is your profound perspectives and ideas and how it centers around a show that really does deserve the hype and attention. Pointing this stuff out is how other storytellers learn what real quality looks like. It's not just about quantity in Arcane which is how it feels. Like how do they do that much so well??? Because it's the quality. It's repeated. But it's treated as it's own cup each time. And it is. Same stuff. Just a little different.
I hope Arcane teaches media a valuable lesson here about "same but different". People sit on opposite sides of the fence about remakes and spin-offs and sequels and "what if we made Teen Wolf that old movie into its own TV show" and the likes of same but different except it's really not (i.e. either not even remotely the same or hardly any difference). Networks in general tackle too much. I think creating a solid foundation is important and then branch off from there. If you've got a really developed world and a highly developed cast of characters, then why change it all? But also... you DO need to change something else things get droll. Tell stories, the same stories, in different ways. That's what makes the formula become fresh and authentic. Else "the same but different" can risk becoming both uninteresting and coming off as a cheap money-grab.
For your question, I'm actually not sure what's being asked but it sounds like you're asking about the minutia of all these broad strokes which imo seems what you've been doing. One of my fave videos on your channel focuses on how Arcane writes women. Essays work the way you've said in your video like you deff could zero in on a lot and write about details, a very niche thesis. Not just "Vi and Jinx" but zero in on one scene or a moment or a theme or even an idea that's part of the theme. But how does Arcane accomplish such complexity in that depth? Imo? "Movie magic" is a big part of that. That's the human part. Arcane apparently has a great team of creators who work well together. Apparently they listen and care and "click" and they can work as a unit really efficiently. Arcane as a project works imo like any big project works- it has good leadership. The heads knew how to convey their ideas down the chain and what we see is the result. Im sure other people have other opinions and maybe this wasn't really answering your question at all? But maybe it gave some insight >.<
Anyway, I love your work a lot! Your channel was part of my inspiration of my senior research project :)) This is really long so im not sure you'll read it or not but I love your content- your writing and the way your narration and visuals align so well
Arcane is so good that when you look back multiple times you still notice new things I love it show much!!
Almost every character can literally be a main character of there own show with how much content we get from each of them.
These analyses make me so happy. I love writing, storytelling, and studying the ‘how’ behind all of it. Thank you for making these!