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I personally don't have a problem with Jinx getting a redemption arc. I thought that was interesting character development. The only problem was it wasn't............developed. At least not properly. The show needed more time for that character arc to cook properly.
I am not the typical audience for a show like Arcane, so when S1 first appeared, it flew right by me. But people kept saying, "That show is so much better than its source." So I said, "ok, I will give it the three-episode test. Damn, did they see me coming? What followed was a show that showed how to lead by character, the importance of stakes, story economy, and how to use specific techniques to get across a vast amount of information. I even raved about it to friends, something I don't usually do. I didn't get to S2 immediately, but voices were saying, "Oh wow!" After watching, I just kept saying, "It will end up making sense; they are building to something." I am glad you made this; I was beginning to feel like I was the only one.
Same story with me. Have no connection to LoL as a whole, but after watching a number of video essays on Arcane I decided to finally give it a try. And I was completely blown away by how good it is. I really really rarely watch anything mass media produced, but Arcane was an exception, like a reachable oasis in tge middle of a dense desert. Had hopes for S2, even throughout arc 2, believed they'd explain everything and it all will make sense in the end. But...well, I have never felt as unamused and waiting for it all to end as I felt upon watching finale Truly what could've been
I thought the whole story was written before the start of S1! But it feels like the writers got intimidated by the awesomeness of S1 and stepped into every writing trap for S2. They tried to make it look very artistic with all those music scenes, but forgot the basic principles of writing. A great scene like Viktor running along the port is completely unimaginable in S2.
It works because S1 has a fantastic ending. Sure it can feel like a cliffhanger but if it's seen as an ending it feels like the natural conclusion of the whole story.
Season 2 of Arcane is honestly exactly what I'd expect from a show based on league of legends before watching season 1, but the last thing I'd expect season 2 of Arcane to be
The thing that bothers me the most is that in between episode or sometimes scenes, we are never let to understand how much time has passed, like the scene of the gassing of Zaun i thought there might have been hours or a couple of days at most, the break between Cait and Vi and then Cait with Maddie were those weeks or months, Season 1 had one time jump and then the rest happened in 2 or three days at most from there to the end of season 2 might have been 3 month to 1 year or even more, which feels confusing like being trap in a washing machine of time.
Oh definitely it really seemed like a huge jump during Vi's depression fight sequence. Woulda been nice to actually witness that drawn out in detail. It's almost like nearly all critical information was reduced to music videos
I remember being so surprised that the team that worked on this was responsible for making music videos, because in season 1 they were only dotted in here and there, but with season 2 it’s impossible not to know because they’re so much more pervasive
I remember in episode 3 when Vi sends the rest of the goon squad away, shield guy is limping. And I was like wait nothings even happened why is he hurt, nothing hit him. It wasn't till Efap I realized, oh, something did, in the fucking music video. Oh god, those were actually meant to convey story beats happening.
i thought i was the only one who felt like that about the new season. it is especially obvious in the finale, i was almost expecting a skin announcement at the end.
Same. Arcane unexpectedly get the Star Wars spin offf show treatment. I remember Schnee making a whole video on how Show Jinx was only superficially a manic pixie nightmare girl.... that really aged well.
LoL Players: “Jinx is fun, but she does feel like a bit of a dull take on the insane, nuts, modern harley quinn archetype. I’m so glad Arcane created more of a character for such an icon of this game.” Writers of season 2: “ye but, isn’t she so quirky… and kinda cool… and should have a kid. She’s not the bad guy right?” 😐
what i'm saying lol, i love both versions of jinx, league's is just a fun rambunctious girl letting the canon loose everywhere she goes, she's suppose to be fun so i don't mind the similarities between her and harley quinn. arcane's jinx is suppose to be a deeper exploration of that kind of psyche, one that came from actual circumstances / choices jinx herself and others around her made. sure she still has her fun quirks but using that entirely to cover up her grey morality and it's unfolding is such an assassination to her character. clearly the writers were trying to have the best of both worlds but their execution just does a disservice to both and what makes them individually unique
Dude She was consistently irredeemable until she met Isha. She was isolated by a terrible man for years, enjoyed killing people and said she had no problem orphaning kids right before she adopts one. Her being a “good” big sister figure made no sense.
Disappointments like S2 Arcane make me appreciate Vince Gilligan even more, who managed to keep Breaking Bad and Better call Saul coherent over several seasons.
It's worth noting Gilligan had more seasons to work with. Imagine telling Walter White's story in two-three seasons. Or Saul's story in the same timeframe. That's kinda what happened to these characters in Arcane. Seaons worth of character development shoved into one and you get the mess that was this season
@@chrishaven1489 Wich is, from what I know, the creators own fault. Instead of sticking with the, let me call it "piltover saga", they wanted to tell "new stories" and wrap it up. The equivalent of that would be Gilligan getting bored with Breaking Bad after one season in order to start working on Better call Saul.
Remember how grounded Season 1 was? How it felt like an actual world where people lived their different lives? That it was fucking possible to understand everything that was happening without getting a stroke?
The first season felt believable and even the magic had its own rules to make it feel more like a science, but then the second season crammed in the Black Rose and Time Travel and all this other stuff way too early.
@@gimmeyourrights8292 Ah right the First season with teleportation and a serum with 20 different variants that you have to guess which one thier using depending on if they hulk out or not. also somehow the entirety of season 1 ep4-9 happened in a week if all of that is believable to you and season 2 somehow isn't... Maybe you got significantly stupider in the time of Season 2
@@nathanielchatley9061Thats a fantastic strategy that has always worked the one you have there. "The piece of shit that i like is equal to the good shit everyone likes". Because trying to drag down a piece of media to the low level that something else has reached is a fantastic way of organizing a defense for that something, and not at all a tacit recognition of how weak your position is. Dude, make yourself a favour. If you are to insult someone, try to do it without proyecting. When you are insulting a proyection of yourself, you are not insulting who you think you are insulting. Its funny for the rest of us, yes, but also cringe. Ok? Ok.
@nathanielchatley9061 There was a way they made that grounded, Hextech was a science that had mathematic instructions in order to make it work, Shimmer was basically Magic steroids. The magic in the first season was a steampunk version of things that already exist, it was low fantasy levels of worldbuilding that easily guide people into the world. Stuff like time travel and multiverses are high concept elements of sci-fi and fantasy, that can lose a lot of people if they aren't executed well, there's a huge difference between steroids that turn you into the hulk and entire timelines where everything that happened in your life happened in reverse.
I like the idea of calling it "roombuilding" now. That's what worldbuilding has been reduced to. Writers praised for building a single functional chair while the rest of the house is on fire. But oh how pretty the chair looks, right? Whatever.
It's crazy how Piltovers top law enforcement became: Girl who's been doing the job a year, lesbian girlfriend ex-con, some drunk vet, a ginger recruit she wants to bang, silent fish. What's that? setting up the 20 champions from Piltover? Glasc is a chembaron? Nah we killed all of those. Viktor creates Blitzcrank? Sorry he became time travelling Moses, also that wasn't Ryze :(
This show DESPERATELY needed a third season. The saddest thing about S2 is you can clearly see glimpses of the amazing stories they wanted to tell. Could've actually been one of " the greats" of TV
Agreed. Though I’m not certain about the notion that the writers of Season 2 were actually committed to telling a great story, which unfortunately was hampered by other obstacles in the production process. I honestly have a more cynical opinion on how Season 2 was written.
Not glimpses in my opinion. All the storylines were, conceptually, pretty much exactly the ones that needed to be for a memorable sequel. But it was so absurdly rushed it doesn't even feel that way in the end.
They could have cut the entire Black Rose story line, all but 2 minutes of episode 7, the entire "anomaly" subplot, 90% of the commune, and Jinx' little muppet. Then they could have used that time to focus on Caithlynn's rule of Piltover, Vi's descent into depression, and maybe the conquest of Zaun. Oh, and maybe don't have a technologically advanced and organised Piltover be subjugated by sword wielding idiots with bows, only to have said idiots be beaten by the disorganised and badly armed Zaunites. Only to have that redone by the BS robots from Victor. Seriously, 90% of that battle could have been prevented if Jayce spoke to Victor instead of shooting him in the chest. A converstaion future Victor would no doubt have preferred.
@@AndresMagnone I wouldn't have minded Act 2 being an entire Season on its own. The ending of Episode 6 would have worked pretty damn well as a Season cliffhanger.
"You can't replace a steak with garlic powder." YES. FUCKING. THANK. YOU. I HATED all the annoying ass music video scenes. I deadass got so fed up with them I just started skipping whenever music w lyrics came on. And it sucks because I did end up liking a few of the songs from this season, but the sheer over saturation of MV scenes made it unbearable to watch after a while. Like, oh boy the fifth music video in the last fifteen minutes? You shouldn't have! The first season had annoying music and MV scenes too, but they used them much more sparingly and knew when to turn it off. In this season , it's like a child got a hold of the aux cord and started blasting randomly at the most inappropriate moments.
I think someone in EFAP brought this up: the MVs in the first season are mostly during the climaxes of the story, so it's not replacing storytelling, it enhances.
Funny thing is, the music videos aren't the problem. They were the bandaid solution to patch up the show's rushing storytelling. Which sucks. The music and the writing in the first season were symbiotic, they enhanced each other. But in this season, the music had to do most of the heavy lifting because the writing didn't have the time to build up those emotionally impactful moments as much as they should have. So the creators had to cheat and use music and stylized animation to do it. The show really, really, needed more room for the writing to breathe. It really needed to be a three season story, not two
Like, remeber when not ever episode needed to have a music video? Remember when said music videos where mean to _highlight_ the story and not serve as a shortcut for it?? I miss that...
Season 1 writers wanted to build a world and have each of these characters affect it and each other so that everything kept building to a head. Season 2 writers wanted to smash action figures together.
Arcane season one just had so many quotes that unintentionally apply to season 2. "In the pursuit of great, we failed to do good." "What could have been" "Oh the misery" "When people look up to you, you don't get to be selfish" "Betrayal, that pain that feels like it’ll eat you from the inside out, can either break you or forge you into something greater.” “I recognize that any worthwhile venture involves risk.” "Sometimes death is a mercy." Season 2 is a writers wet dream ... But only his. It is a selfish butchering of a risky show, muted and simplified, a betrayal of the original, only to try and prove that your work is greater than the old. Being canceled would have been a mercy. At least then we would ask "what can arcane become" instead of what could have been.
Season 2 was terribly rushed. I feel like they just wanted to move on to other League of Legends characters as soon as possible, so they decided to squeeze all these massive character arcs into a few minutes worth of storytelling and abruptly end Arcane. Awesome video as usual, your analyses always tell more than the original media you're analysing
So annoying how "Arcane had to end" so what they can just move on to new stuff? Like ummmm no thank you finish the Piltover/Zaun story properly please then maybe we can look at different stuff
@@HeckDescender2184 could be similar to what happened with D&D from game of thrones where the arcane staff got an offer from a big company or something and just decided to rush the last bit they have left so they could move on to the next project asap
@@orrissonpereira1070 I really, really, hope you're wrong. Unfortunately, we're struck with the very real possibility that the first season of Arcane might've been just lightning in a bottle, an isolated incident, and that possibility disappoints me immensely
It's a very bad sign that, even during the hype of first watch and optimism, you detect things are off. "Oh that seemed weird well it's okay lets keep going". I tried to barrel on but once it got to Act 3 I just...didn't care. I couldn't tell what the fuck any of the character motivations were or why they're doing what they're doing, let alone what the fuck was up with Viktor and suddenly being the final boss. God, I had to grieve this season.
You should be paying more attention then because the show, having so little time to tell the story only gave you the important information. You didn't pick it up and you are now complaining. Too bad.
@@Itisoverthere-rw No, no, no, no. We picked up on the information. The information's not the problem. The problem is how that information was delivered. If the story details and the information were all that mattered, then if the creators gave you nothing but music montages for the whole season, you'd be fine with it because all the "important information" would still be there.
@chrishaven1489 I wasn't even talking about the montages but since you mentioned them, sorry but they are part of the story. If you needed an entire arc of Vi and the squad beating the chem barons to accept the event that happened so you don't miss it that's your issue. A show isn't bad because you failed to see the information it gave you and because you don't like the means of delivery.
@@Itisoverthere-rw But I didn't miss it. I got it. I understood the events. I told you, it's not about the information, it's about the way it's delivered. If that's enough for you, then you'd be perfectly fine if the creators gave you a string of music videos to explain the story and nothing else. And you'd still call it good. Would you have a problem with that? Or are you gonna die on that hill and tell me that you would absolutely love to watch Arcane in the form of a music video marathon?
@@Itisoverthere-rwYou are a pretty angry guy it seems. Pathetic all your attempts at simping for the awful season. No arguments or attemp of arguments. It seems almost impossible that someone saw s1, that had proper storytelling, and is so blinded that is unable to see the difference, trying to accuse anyone with brain cells of being dumb because the storytelling this season was more of a dump of info instead of a story proper. At this point you have to ask if they saw s1 to be this obtuse with the main complain with s2.
The funny thing is I rewatched season 1 like 7 times, but once I finished season 2 I never picked it back up again. Season 1 was considered great because of the writing, thats why Silco, a character with no ties to the game, was and is considered one of the shows best characters. The moment i watched the season 2 episode where jinx was talking to the audience, breaking the fourth wall, I knew shit hit the fan.
Did you notice she wasn't talking to the audience, but instead the now dead Silco, but the audience benefited from witnessing it as if she were actually breaking the fourth wall? I think people are being a bit reactive and not really paying attention enough to see this show isn't being lazy, even in season 2. A lot of the points being made in this video didn't completely land solid for me. Sometimes a second season, especially when 3 years after the first, isn't going to hit some people as well as the first, because it's going to be something different, because the story and characters have progressed, and they don't want to keep giving us more of something too much the same as we got before. I do think it could have benefited from another episode or 2, to more tidily tell the story, but what they did to compensate for this was still good enough. I didn't need to watch a whole episode of Vi pummeling opponents in a boxing ring and getting drunk out of her mind for weeks. I've been rewatching season 2 and enjoying it. It's true Jinx is guilty of terrible things and hasn't really fully redeemed herself. That said, by the end of season 2, she's on her way to becoming actually a good person. Too late? For some. Who decides who gets a second chance?
She didn't break the fourth wall. She was trying to talk to Silco. I have plenty of issues with this season, but thinking Jinx is talking to the audience is a comprehension problem
@@BattleAngelFan99 "Sometimes a second season, especially when 3 years after the first, isn't going to hit some people as well as the first, because it's going to be something different, because the story and characters have progressed, and they don't want to keep giving us more of something too much the same as we got before" ......None of this makes sense. It's been 3 years, so of course the story's not gonna hit hard? That's not how story's work. The story's gonna be different? Well.....sure. But it has to build on top of the character writing that came before it. This season didn't do that. It demolished a lot of the established character writing from the first season. The characters didn't progress, they were forced into certain plot points irrespective of whether it made sense for their characters or not. "I didn't need to watch a whole episode of Vi pummeling opponents in a boxing ring and getting drunk out of her mind for weeks" I needed to watch that. That's a significant shift in Vi's life. I've never seen that before. Even in prison, Vi had something to fight for. She lost all of that after the first act, I kinda needed to see what Vi's life looked like now. When we saw Jinx after the timeskip in the first season, the show dedicated almost half an episode showing us what Jinx's daily life looked like, her relationship with Silco and Sevika and her place in Silcos operation before progressing her arc forward. We got none of that with Vi. A small snippet of Vi at her lowest, then off to her buddy adventure with Jinx like none of it happened. That's not character progression. That's an exposition scene with the same narrative impact as reading it on Vi's wikipage.
@@chrishaven1489 Yeah i know she was talking to Silco at the beginning of ep2, but didnt that narration feel a bit like a wink-wink to the audience for you? Also when she grabs the camera in that beetle fight when she is talking to Isha didnt that also make you feel like she was kindof breaking the fourth wall?
@@chrishaven1489 Could be I've had enough time wasted on dark times forced on me in my life that I don't need to experience it in fiction to know and understand it. Just a perspective thing I guess. I thought they did a good job of summing up what had become of Vi without wasting time on something that basically was a waste of time for her character.
I never knew how toxic a fan base could be until after s2, there's probably gonna be some people thinking you're a terrible person for not liking people getting gassed with rock music blasting over it. Stay strong!
I was tricked just like how I was tricked into thinking star wars the force awakens was good. This season needed 3 seasons to flush this out and it's obvious that they. Needed more time
@@bass-dc9175 What they needed was to cram so many outside players in just one season, the Black Rose or any of the Mel being a mage stuff had no place being in the show.
Yeah, I felt like I was going insane when I saw all the great feedback for s2. I guess that maybe most tv shows are generally bad nowadays, and that if people see any symbolism or philosophical messages, they automatically think it's deep, brilliant writing? S2 does have those things, but the delivery is still sloppy. It feels like every writer had their own ideas, and they tried to make everyone happy by including bits of all of them instead of really committing to one. @@wolfbane7497
I’ve never been as hopeful or excited for any season of any show before release as I was for season 2 of Arcane. I thought since the same people were making it as the first season that there was no way they could screw it up. I won’t be making that mistake again.
Yeah I spent 3 years checking for updates, reading fanfiction and even regretfully watched the leaks, I was really expecting to see all of that pay off.
I used to think that season 2 just needed more episodes or time to explore its themes. But since I learned that the writers room only retained two of the season 1 writers, I no longer believe that. Season 2 has been written with a complete lack of understanding of why the characters and themes were written the way they were in season 1, which has led to a huge disconnect in season 2. Once you get to act 2, so much of the build up of season 1 is discarded that you could watch it without any prior knowledge and fill in the blanks yourself. (Which is honestly what the writers expect you to do for a lot of the set up in season 2 as well.) Season 1 told a beautiful, intimate story about family, relationships and the effects of class struggle. Season 2 told a story which included time travel and alternate dimensions that ended with everyone ignoring their differences to fight Ultron ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@NicheXCC Briefly looking at the writing credits, it seems that there are a few writers that don't either don't return for S2 or are credited in fewer episodes. Ash Branon & Conor Sheehy are credited as writers for all episodes in S1 but none in S2. Amanda Overton is credited for all episodes in S1 but only 3 in S2, those being Ep01, Ep07, Ep08. Edit: I should mention that S2 (from what I can tell) doesn't have "new" writers. So it is technically correct to say that S2 has the same writers as S1, it just doesn't have all of them. Edit 2: If Interstellar is correct then what I said in the first Edit isn't.
@NicheXCC Below is a list of the writers for both seasons, excluding showrunners Christian Linke and Alex Yee from Riot. Season 1: Ash Brannon, Conor Sheehy, David Dunne, Ben St.John, Mollie St.John, Amanda Overton, Nicholas Luddington Season 2: Amanda Overton, Nicholas Luddington, Giovanna Sarquis, Graham McNeill, Henry Jones, Kristina Felske Source: IMDB Arcane Series Writing Credits These names appear in the shows opening title under Written By and Story By in season 1, and Written By in season 2.
i really despise negative feedback when it isn’t warranted. i’m afraid this negative feedback is warranted. i’m not going to say season 2 was a dumpster fire yet because i need to rewatch it incase im missing something, but i can say i was left feeling very confused and unsatisfied. i think your feedback is pretty accurate in explaining why myself and many others felt this way…
The main reason in the downgrade in quality imo is the villain, Silco was a cool well written character and in a sea of "relatable villains" he was a breath of fresh air, we can actually sympathise with his cause, the woman king on the other hand wants...power? Ugh
No, I'd say the downgrade had more to do with shoving two seaons worth of story into a single season, and rushing a lot of character arcs because of it. Fixing Ambessa's motivations wouldn't have fixed the other issues plaguing this season
Not really viktor is the real let down ambessa doesn't just want power she wants to protect her family that was set up in season 1 also on macro level she believes magic is cowardly and that real warriors like her should rule so she sees hextech as a way make magic a weapon for everyone and strip mages of their advantage. When she was the villain it was good when the plot became about viktors cringe ultron mcu shit i checked out
@@moe5020 ....Eeeeeh. Personally, I thought Ambessa was super-interesting when she was a background threat, trying to push Piltover into making more hextech weapons. And I thought her desire to protect her family also made her interesting. But then they turned her into another power-hungry mcu villain that turns out she's actually willing to sacrifice her son to achieve her goals. That was such a downgrade from her nuanced motivations. I actually don't have a massive problem with Viktor being a robot overlord, largely because that's kinda the way he's supposed to end up, BUT, it needed more time for him to naturally progress into his "final form". That transformation was rushed af. AND Viktor should've also been a background threat as well. World ending threats don't always have to be forefront threats. If the big, bad villain of the first season was a Zaunite, it would've made all the sense in the world if the big, bad guy of the following season(s) was a Piltovan. The Piltovan equivalent of Silco, someone who hated Zaun just as much as Silco hated Piltover. But instead, a lot of Piltover's crappy actions were relegated to the Noxians doing most of the bad stuff. That was such a stupid departure of this show's themes and conflicts. The creators really wanted to expand this world at the cost of neglecting the current part of the world the story is supposed to be focusing on. Idiots.
I actually thought they should never have done a season two. Season one is a beautiful tragedy between the sisters. It’s accomplished by making jinx unredeemable. So a season 2 continuation, especially one like this, could never work
Arcane accomplished Game of Thrones going from the first 4 seasons straight to season 8. It's a nose dive in quality I have never seen before, and Arcane will probably always be remembered for it!
The best parts of the season were in music video montages, Caitlyn attending her mother's funeral, the Zaunite gang war, Caitlyn slipping into police brutality, and Vi's descent would've been amazing if they were properly explored instead of cramming all of these factions where there was no room for them.
It was the very first thing I considered when finishing S1. "This is surprisingly good. I hope the success of season 1 doesn't cause Riot to lose sight of what is was trying to achieve (deeper exploration of leagues lore) in favor of what it usually does (milk every penny out of anything people gravitate towards)." I guess the writing was on the wall since the beginning. As someone who up to recently played a lot of league, its was quite evident that season one was just lightning in a bottle. It caught even riot by surprise. Season 1 had some in-game stuff post-launch, while season 2 was being hyped months in advance. With events and flashy skin lines. The fact that they even started re-writing the lore of champions in league to fit more in line with arcane (the opposite of what arcane was supposed to do) were already the first warning signs that this show would soon morph from labor of love to - to nobodies surprise - a product.
It was so easy to see how so many of those 'yeah, it's not borderline perfect as S1, but it's still pretty great' opinions would turn into 'it was a disappointment' after a few months. The die hard fanboys with blinds on would heap praise on anything, but this was a dud. I was like 'this is a 6.5 at best' once I initially finished it, now I'd rate it a 5.
More true words couldn't be spoken, during the Season finale I found myself occasionally having «Next slide please» occuring in my mind upon gazing at the battle 💀💀
It's shocking to see a season of television so intensely disinterested in telling their story. The most important or interesting events play off screen. "A punchline without a setup" is the perfect description.
I did not expect Season 2 to be as bad as it was, as anyone was, but here we are. We truly do live in the worst timeline (as friggin milked as that saying is at this point). What could've been indeed.
Vi's downward spiral made me just roll my eyes. They really went with the cliched "getting punched just to feel anything" bs. And Caitlyn's suicide skwad to capture Jinx was hilarious. Who the heck were most of those people? Some furry, a child soldier, a hobo that Vi went on a bender once? Did she pick the first people she saw? And that kid that cured Jinx's shizofrenia by landing on her head? Already forgot her name, cause she wasn't even a character, more a plot device. Could've been a puppy.
fun fact, no one actually ever says that character's name in the show. It's in the subtitles during a scene where the dialogue is muted because (you guessed it) non-diegetic music is playing, and in the credits for the episodes she's in. That's it.
Breaking Bad and Better call Saul are famous for essentially not having a soundtrack (exceptions are there but the point stands) scenes are given emotional weight because of the writing, the performances and everything in between. Arcane S2 is the opposite... it believes it can create the same weight by simply slapping a song over a first draft of a scene and call it a day... doesn't work apparently
Those shows don’t have the typical “soundtrack”. But they’re filled to the brim with compilation. But they work because Vince clearly shows how much time passes and how the characters experience them. They also capture more mondain things like a days meth cooking or Saul tidying up his new lawyer firm. They never rush over insane plot lines like Walter and Jesse expending their territory, working for Gus or going into hiding with a 2 minute long music video.
I thought i was insane because I felt unsatisfied by this season and everyone kept saying it was a masterpiece and so good and bla bla bla. Like girl?? Hello did we watch the same thing?
I swear if it was live action it would not be praised as much. I hope the animators were paid fairly and were not overworked or anything cus damn did they do a lot of the heavy lifting.
@@Itisoverthere-rw well I meant it from the writers' perspective; you get a climax that has been set up and coming from the very beginning and well established characters have to deal with it. + you could say seele got exactly what they wanted so there u go
@michemicalromance It's been about the mental collapse of the characters because its creator was always making it for himself. The remake confirmed it as the clown out his wife in it. Evangelion was always a scam. All the religious symbolism and the world building in the background were empty and there just to trick the audience. It's disappointing that it worked.
No, no, no, no, no. Giving Jinx a redemption arc wasn't the problem. That's actually interesting. The problem was how fast they did it. It needed more time to cook properly. Time is the key problem with this season, there wasn't enough of it, and a result everyone's character arcs were rushed af
I think she was supposed to be liked, but she was not supposed to be seen as a good person or a hero. I wish they had left her as the morally gray (at best) she was in season 1, or made her a full on villain. Hero was not the route to go…
@@waverlyaltis7171 Jinx being a hero isn't the problem. The problem was the journey towards that "heroism". The show needed three seasons to fully explore what a heroic Jinx would look like. The second season should've focused on Caitlyn and Vi hunting Jinx down, with Vi having conflicted loyalties between Caitlyn and jinx. And the longer Jinx evades the enforcers, the more notorious she becomes, and the more she inadvertently inspires the people of Zaun to fight back against the enforcers. And the Jinx vs Vi fight would happen at the end of the season. Then the third season should've focused on Vi and Jinx being forced to work together to find and cure Vander, while Caitlyn's running through her dictator arc and trying to hunt them down. And the plot of trying to cure Vander would run in tandem with Jinx's redmeption arc. Jinx and Vander are both monsters with broken minds in need of healing.
Act 2 alone could have been a season long arc. They've admitted now that they want to explore different locations in a new series so why the rush to end (and in the process ruin) Arcane?!?!
You have spent zero time thinking about this buddy. The story would be fine if they made longer episodes to add the necessary connecting scenes, dialogue and the little additions needed to make it all flow organically. They weren't going to give them that extra time and they had to finish it in one season. That's the result. An extended edition would fix all the issues if they decided to do it but I don't think Riot amd Netflix care about that. This should be a lesson about studio interference and limitations, not the attack on the creatives it has become.
@@HeckDescender2184Being rushed doesn't mean it was ruined buddy. Return of the Jedi is a rushed mess but I don't see people crying that it ruined the trilogy.
I honestly totally forgot about Vi's Shadow the Hedgehog turn in season 2 where she smeared goth makeup on herself because she's so tortured and hurt inside. That a team of writers and animators thought that was so awesome that it had to be put into the show instead of everyone in the room being outright killed by the sheer amount of cringe radiation those scenes give off should tell you everything you need to know about the ability of the writers to tackle mature themes. I'm not sure what reaction they wanted from me but "incredulous belly laugh" probably wasn't it.
S1 spent so much time building up the horror that a war between Pilltover and Zaun would be, and then on the cusp of peace, Jinx blows up the council. How did we not get to see a war between Zaun and Pilltover? I don't understand what they were thinking.
@@mitzee8621 When I point that out people will just tell me the show was never about the conflict between Piltover or Zaun it was about the Arcane or they say there were many plotlines and that conflict was just one of them; like it wasn't something major or that neither of the plot lines affect each other. Just because somethings in the title doesn't mean its the only thing you have to focus on or disregard everything else.
@@gristlyknave831 Anyone who is trying to claim the conflict between Pilltover and Zaun was just one of many plotlines is insane. Literally, every single plotline in S1 revolved around it. It was the central thread that brought all the other stories together.
@@mitzee8621Yeah the show literally started and ended with that conflict. The very first scene is Jinx and Vi discovering their parents had been killed by enforcers during an uprising against Piltover, then getting adopted by the man who led it. The end is Jinx launching a missile at the government of Piltover. Idk how you could possibly make it more obvious what the central conflict is when it's literally at the centre of everything.
One of the worst sins of this season is the lack of accountability. Jinx is a terrorist; Caitlyn becomes a war criminal. And both of them got to go free with... what do you call it? A slap on the wrist!
You gotta have em well placed to say this... Bravo. I once dared point out the flaws in the season myself, and I barely survived to tell the tale. There's a bunch of toxic fanatics of this show, as is the case for most (deservedly) glorified shows.
There’s a really big issue I have with season 2, Silco’s death is just never acknowledged. Like half of season 2 is prevented if Vi or Catylin used their words and told Piltover that Silco is dead and jinx did it. But ontop of that, so many characters don’t react to it AT ALL
Yep I hate in shows or movies when characters don't react to/or/acknowledge huge things that have just happened. It's such poor writing, personally I don't think them not reacting to Silco's death was done on purpose I just think the writers genuinely forgot to have characters react. If they did do it on purpose then send these folks to writer jail ahah
This video has made me start to think a lot about Arcane S2. I still love this show and how it has ended but DAMN how many things I either dismissed or just ignored about it without giving too much thought. I think most of the problematic narrative decisions come from the fact that Riot Games have decided to make Arcane an official canon of Lol universe (even though it's been perfectly existing as a complete separate version of it). That's why characters doesn't feel like themselves anymore since Rioters want them to be recognisable and closer to the source material "just-like-in-that-video-game".
Nutsa was in the EFAPs that reviewed season 2. I have been a watcher of the podcast since 2018 and this is their worst review to date. Don't take what she says at face value. She is in a confirmation bias spiral just like the rest of the EFAP crew. You can tell if you watch any of the highlights from the reviews and listen to the bullshit they complain about. The season has quite the writing issues. It tries to cover too much ground in too little time and they skip scenes, reduce dialogue, lamp shade events etc. However, EFAP will reach the conclusion that it was shit. Their perspective is fucked. As for Riot, making the show canon etc. That's Riot's problem. It has nothing to do with Arcane. If they are retards and they have to shove the popular show in their setting because they don't care about their own canon that's an issue the LoL players have to deal with.
Mostly agree. However I don't think the flaws stem from Riot wanting to make it the "new canon" so to speak, I believe that it has to do more with the runtime and episode count limitations they had, and how they had to cram it all in such a short span of episodes, and how short they were made it all worse...
finally someone talks about the horrible music videos, the music choices are horrible it makes it really hard to rewatch if I have to get through those horrible music videos again
Season 1 felt like it was written by Sophocles Season 2 felt like it was written by the people who watched season 1 through tiktok edits. Characters are stripped off of most of their motives and values. They're dolls and the plot sucks
To me, the characters in S2 are quintessential examples of hollow 2-dimensional characters, but reading reviews and comments made me think I had watched a completely different show. I liked some of the moments in isolation, but I wasn't a fan of Arcane because I like watching tangentially related ~5-minute clips.
Sophocles. Good one. I always sold the show to my friends telling them it was a greek tragedy. S2 was written by three dudes really high brainstorming ideas without caring if it makes sense. A lot of them are cool, but there isn't a system, structures and a lot of time doesn't make sense.
Turns out the writing team was cut down massively from season 1, people think Linke was the master mind but no, seeing him take on everything in s2 shows he didn't have the same chops
The grotesque regress of Jinx is appalling, but the thing that gets me is the acceleration - it's like the writers looked at the character destruction of Galadriel in Rings of Power, 20 years after LOTR, and said "we can beat that, do it in ONE season!" There's another thing about toying with Jinx's psychosis as just another teen Phase which shits me too.
So even if Season 2 was rushed to end the Piltover-Zaun story and so the writers could "move on to new LoL locations" is anyone convinced that Netflix would support a new show? If it were to get the same quality and "care" of Arcane Season 2 would a new show exploring a new place/characters even still have an audience? It is painfully obvious that Season 2 killed a lot of people's goodwill (allthough I see there are people out there praising it - to which I say yunno, uh you do you boo) Basically Netflix is pretty brutal when it comes to cancellations regardless of how popular something is, so depending on reception and backlash could Arcane have a future there going forward?
JUSTICE FOR GOATMAN! He only wanted to science! But I know he's in a better place with Rictus and his boi Smeech. Also RIP to Shield-Man: The Hobo Enforcer, AKA Fake Vander, AKAAKA Vander's Piltover cousin. Out of all of the "Scooby Squad" you were the coolest.
Unfortunately they won't learn their lesson from it, the large majority of the audience loved and praised it, so they're going to keep on cutting corners and writing poorly from now on. I was always convinced that Arcane season 1 was only good because of how long it was in production, they had so much time to improve it and tighten it up, whereas season 2 was rushed out absurdly fast in comparison - so of course it suffered from that. The general audience however only listen to their emotions, and will judge it based on how they felt while watching it, and don't want to listen to any factual issues with it.
It took that long to animate it - it shouldn't take 4-5 years to write a good story for 8-9 episodes. It was rushed and poorly written, but lack of time was not the problem - they chose to rush to the finish and tell a slapdashed story, nobody forced them.
YAY !!! You have uploaded !!! Hope you have had a Merry Christmas and are doing well. I really video essays as you make them with many interesting points that explain in a crisp. For me, I feel like Arcane 2 had the "sauce" to be great, however, it should have just cut down the unnecessary set-up of other storylines that shift focus away from the main plot about the conflicts between Piltover and Zaun. In fact, this lesson should be told to pretty much all the writers in general as they are more focused on making something that can profit later for them in the future than making something good at the present. It is always the post-credits, set-up and next times that annoy me so much !!! What happened to good stories with a main plot that begins and ends in that same story ?!?!?! Even "small" shows are guilty of this like Hazbin Hotel; and services like Netflix (ironically) thrive from this dumb process. That is why episode 7 of Arcane 2 is universally considered the best as it is character-focused on two different perspectives of similar characters (Ekko of Zaun and Jayce of Piltover) looking at their own actions in vastly different results (Ekko in his dream life and Jayce's undesirable consequences) and is directly related to the Piltover-Zaun conflict.
1:19 - Casually referencing the human rights violations in Georgia. 2:25 - And another one. Genuinely hope you're doing okay. 5:50 - Aight, send in task force X.
I forgot I subbed to you so I clicked on this video and then I saw your avatar and I got overjoyed. You make entertaining reviews. I like your animations and editing style. Its a fun and cynical sense of humor
Does anyone know what type of transition she keep using? is it some type of glitch? is it from premiere pro? Cause on Davinci, i dont think we can do that using the existing transitions?
I felt exactly the same after the first high of the premiere and start thinking about what could have been if the show wasn't bottomlined into 2 seasons.
Tbf sounds extremely similar. Plus apparently she's originally from Georgia so "Russian accent" being the first association is explainable. Still good thing you pointed it out
I agree with the rushed nature of the season. Caitlin becomes a nothing burger of a character after Episode 5, Vi becomes a glorified supporting character that the story just can’t let go of, and A LOT of the story is skipped over and I hate time jumps something horrific. But I’ve gotta disagree when it comes to the MAJORITY of Jinx’s character arc, her development is all about her becoming completely disconnected from the world around her due to the lack of instruction she now has after killing Silco. While her adoption of Isha is skipped over to a full sister relationship (I fuckin hate time jumps), both Isha as a character and Jinx’s silent role change to a mother/older sister is yet another desperate attempt for the victim of being groomed for a specific role throwing herself into another specific role and miraculously happening upon a healthy replacement. All the ‘hero’ talk was never taken seriously by Jinx herself as that didn’t fit the mental parameters for roles that she could fill. Even the one time she calls herself a hero and lists the “heroic” deeds she’d done for Zaun, it is all for the sake of mocking Vi’s self-righteousness rather than an actually convincing argument. In terms of the ideas that are hinted at leading to this (that her disconnection from the gang wars and direct attacks on Piltover eventually painting her as Zaun’s hero due to the presence of a worse, more direct villain in Piltover and Noxus’ actions) were excellent, but due to the accursed time skip… they are nothing but ideas. When it comes to montage time skips, another terrible decision was skipping over THE MOST IMPORTANT PERIOD OF TIME IN PROVIDING NUANCE TO VI AND JINX’S REBUILT BOND IN EPISODE 6 because imprecise dialogue is only “up to interpretation” when there’s enough material to justify it. I love that Remember Me sequence, but the time jump it forces on the story only serves to cripple Jinx and Vi’s character development as well as completely nullify Caitlin as a character. BUT Isha and Jinx’s dynamic development was actually well developed enough for the nuance of Isha’s death to land. Episode 7 is THE BEST episode of Arcane ever, but episodes 8&9 are probably the show’s weakest episodes as many of the plot threads and character arcs of major characters of the series were essentially neutered in order to do the Jayce+Viktor arc justice (which I’d say they did). I’d say the only characters unaffected by the rushed nature of Season 2 were Jayce, Viktor, Ekko and maybe Vander/Warwick (just because of the fact that his tragedy was already completed well before the finale), but all other characters were either underbaked or turned into hollow caricatures for the sake of reaching the ending as quickly as possible. Jinx’s scenes in episode 8 actually were reasonably well developed, but the jump from episode 8 Jinx to episode 9 Jinx made her into yet another caricature for the sake of spectacle and narrative efficiency. Overall, everything was there but it just needed WAY more time and was crippled time and again by time jumps and therefore skipped time spent with characters and the world. P.S. I didn’t even consciously realise the “World-Room” thing until you said and then I was like “Oh! So that’s what I was feeling in those scenes!”
IDK, man; I immediately found it hard to engage with Jinx's arc when it became obvious they decided to simplify her unique struggles with psychosis and paranoia into depression. It felt like it was in poor taste. Also try and put breaks in your paragraphs after a handful of sentences. It makes it a lot easier to read and digest what you've read.
I don't get anyone who sees Isha as anything more than a character virtually conjured out of thin air specifically as a piece of cheese the writers attempted to wrap around the "Jinx is a hero now" bitter pill they wanted us to swallow. If you didn't clock that Isha was going to die specifically to build up Jinx (ironically confirming her "everyone close to me dies" self pity wallowing) then I don't know what to tell you. All you need to know is that Jinx tells Isha "Wow you made my life better" out of the blue for no reason and the very next scene Isha blows herself up and is never ever mourned, mentioned, or thought about ever again.
@@mitzee8621 They didn't do that though she was genuinely crazy really and even later in the end was still kinda crazy. It really wasn't in poor taste.
@@megamandrn001 It really wasn't a bitter pill and nah Isha is an actual character with depth and personality and a real role she isn't a mere plot device. No she had a reason for saying that as taking care of Isha has really helped her out and has helpe change her as a person, no she is mourned and thought about again as people did clearly grieve her death.
@@Jdudec367 Those people are wrong. She existed just long enough for her to establish Jinx wasn't purely selfish and evil and the second she accomplished that she died, and was never mentioned again in the show. Going "nuh uh" doesn't make writing mistakes disappear. Despite wasting time with the little plot device, Jinx remained at her core selfish and evil, the job of 'redeeming' her unaccomplished
Also while I have issues with Vi this season and you have a valid point about her not havign any real sense of agency. I would argue that what pushed her off the edge wasn't Caitlyn breaking up with her. Rather that its how that now the Caitlyn's gone she has nothing to live for, her sister is gone, her family is gone, her lover is gone. As you said about "Vi connections to family and love ones" all of those people are now no longer in her life and so she has nothing now. Hence why she is at rock bottom.
Rushed, rushed, rushed, and rushed... And the music was so weak, I only liked like 4 or 5 of the like 20? Most of them were bothering me or just truly unnecessary. Two chembarons died in a montage... I just thought they stopped before they were killed... Nope. And Jinx's thing, I agree 50/50. The characters are the ones that forgive her because they place her usefulness and potential over her crimes due to Silco dying. They knew he was the only reason for all of her crimes. It would be difficult for us, the audience, because we aren't in their world nor position. It is a crazy decision for us, but the characters clearly chose. Vi and Cait, yeah, it was both incomplete and rushed. And the portal thing for the development of those characters... Yes. I've seen many analysis that stupidly says everything is wrong, but you truly did an excellent job, you found the problems and smashed them, thanks!
@@DashielG-vn5jiNobody is saying they can do better. People are merely criticising the writers for not doing better, as they have done before in season 1. The whole point of a critique is to point out flaws or problems in something so the creator can learn from their mistakes. Besides, the criticism also helps new writers who want to improve their writing too. If the writers actually listen to the criticism they can actually improve. Just take a look at how a certain man named Scott Cawthon took criticism of one of his games and ended up making one of the most well-known/popular horror game franchises of all time using said criticism. Dismissing criticism like this does nothing to contribute to art. It only creates meaningless arguments or ends fruitful discussions.
@@fringeddragon I can understand nutsa berating Disney star wars they deserve it. But the Arcane series (including season 2) is genuinely an amazing series.
I agree overall with your points (though they're somewhat exaggerated) up until Jinx where i'm honestly not quite what your point is supposed to be. "Jinx is a crazy murderer so she can't be a hero." Which is why she's an anti-hero. Zaun obviously doesn't care that she gunned down some pigs. She's roped into the hero role and part of her story arc is embracing said role. Explain to me what the issue is please. "Write her mental illness off as just another funny quirk." I don't even know where you got that impression. Jinx is far more stable during the events of season 2 as a direct consequence of her embracing the Jinx moniker. Her quirky scenes aren't a display of mental illness. She's clearly been established as a theatrical, quirky character outside of her mental issues. Her actual mental issues are her suicidal tendencies which i believe is portrayed rather seriously. Overall great points, though really just making me depressed and long for what could've been.
Amazing video!!!! It's great to see someone make a short analysis of a show with such precision. This show is a wreck and it's a great video to show someone in order to point out the biggest flaws because for some reason 30 hours of EFAP is "too much".
Someone else finally mentioned how ekko loving jinx makes no sense😭 feels like they were trying so hard to make popular fan ships happen even though it didnt make sense to the story
@@blacktigerpaw1 In her defense, they attacked her. She never went out of the way to hunt and kill them. Ekko's buddies were trying to blow up Silko's business, and kill her. I get why people think she is a terrorist, because she does go out of the way to kill Enforcers and try to kill government officers, but hey, they killed her parents, and they are definitely evil oppressors in the eyes of the undercity people. So for them, yeah, she is a hero.
I agree with so much of this video, i enjoyed watching season 2 mostly for the cool visuals, but its so obvious theres a HUGE downgrade with the writing, what made season one special is that it had both style and substance in almost an equal high amount, while season 2 is all style and barely any substance.
"Arcane is a pretty serious show, and so what's nice about Heimerdinger is that he allows us an opportunity to explore some of the brighter tonality. I think that's really the thing that's always fun to explore with him. He can have _fun_ [sic]. He's just part of the whimsy in our IP, so I think that's really, really cool?"-Christian Linke, the Fool "Heimerdinger is my favourite champion."-Christian Linke, the Churl "Drooling for a squeaky"-Rags, the Best of Boys
You realize without Christian Linke, we wouldn't have an Arcane at all, right? You can criticize all you want but acknowledge that the guy stuck his neck way out to get this project made, including your beloved season 1 (which I also love, don't get me wrong). All I'm saying is give the dude proper credit for working his ass off for making a creative endeavor happen that literally no one else believed in. It's easy to second guess when it's not your reputation and your career at risk
@Cats-TM fair enough, sorry the creative team didn't make the show you wanted them to make. At the end of the day they're the ones putting the time in and they have to make the show and the message they believe in. You can't please everyone and I think that should be OK.
@@gman7497 No. Literally, look at how Christian Linke talks. He has no idea what he is doing. He did basically nothing when it came to season 1 besides making the show exist. There is an interview where the lead writer said, roughly, that all Christian Linke did was basically look at the animation and say it was good (not exactly but it may as well have been. According to her he had NO hand in the writing).
Great Video! I personally loved S1 and liked S2 (based on nostalgia, emotion, love of the story they tell), but the points you bring up are more than valid and definitely got me thinking. I may or may not have had on some nostalgia tinted glasses when watching the show before.
Overall it felt like S2 was more about how do we get the characters from the end of S1 to their league form and not how do we tell a compelling and interwoven story.
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I preferred the original video title: 'In the Pursuit of Great, Arcane Forgot to Do Good.'
@@zachryder3150the original title was "in the pursuit of great arcane season 2 forgot to do good"
This is an effect of social media and a life spent looking at a screen.
@@zachryder3150 💯
I personally don't have a problem with Jinx getting a redemption arc. I thought that was interesting character development. The only problem was it wasn't............developed. At least not properly. The show needed more time for that character arc to cook properly.
I am not the typical audience for a show like Arcane, so when S1 first appeared, it flew right by me. But people kept saying, "That show is so much better than its source." So I said, "ok, I will give it the three-episode test. Damn, did they see me coming? What followed was a show that showed how to lead by character, the importance of stakes, story economy, and how to use specific techniques to get across a vast amount of information. I even raved about it to friends, something I don't usually do.
I didn't get to S2 immediately, but voices were saying, "Oh wow!" After watching, I just kept saying, "It will end up making sense; they are building to something."
I am glad you made this; I was beginning to feel like I was the only one.
Same story with me. Have no connection to LoL as a whole, but after watching a number of video essays on Arcane I decided to finally give it a try. And I was completely blown away by how good it is. I really really rarely watch anything mass media produced, but Arcane was an exception, like a reachable oasis in tge middle of a dense desert.
Had hopes for S2, even throughout arc 2, believed they'd explain everything and it all will make sense in the end. But...well, I have never felt as unamused and waiting for it all to end as I felt upon watching finale
Truly what could've been
I thought the whole story was written before the start of S1! But it feels like the writers got intimidated by the awesomeness of S1 and stepped into every writing trap for S2. They tried to make it look very artistic with all those music scenes, but forgot the basic principles of writing. A great scene like Viktor running along the port is completely unimaginable in S2.
"Cities become rooms, characters become caricatures, events become montages, themes become monologues"
Couldn't have put it better. Really a shame
Honestly I’m becoming more and more inclined to just consider season 1 to have been the canonical ending
Yeah, I agree
I honestly thought it was until I was told there would be a second season
It works because S1 has a fantastic ending. Sure it can feel like a cliffhanger but if it's seen as an ending it feels like the natural conclusion of the whole story.
Or you could embrace reality, accept that S2 exists and that it is crap.
@@TheMightyPikaYeah like Jinx actually becomes realized and she continues the cycle of violence.
Season 2 of Arcane is honestly exactly what I'd expect from a show based on league of legends before watching season 1, but the last thing I'd expect season 2 of Arcane to be
Damn that is a very good point! Based comment!
The thing that bothers me the most is that in between episode or sometimes scenes, we are never let to understand how much time has passed, like the scene of the gassing of Zaun i thought there might have been hours or a couple of days at most, the break between Cait and Vi and then Cait with Maddie were those weeks or months, Season 1 had one time jump and then the rest happened in 2 or three days at most from there to the end of season 2 might have been 3 month to 1 year or even more, which feels confusing like being trap in a washing machine of time.
Oh definitely it really seemed like a huge jump during Vi's depression fight sequence. Woulda been nice to actually witness that drawn out in detail. It's almost like nearly all critical information was reduced to music videos
Yep, felt it all the way
The vast majority of Season 2 felt more like a sequence of glorified League cinematics rather than a substantive continuation of Arcane’s story.
I remember being so surprised that the team that worked on this was responsible for making music videos, because in season 1 they were only dotted in here and there, but with season 2 it’s impossible not to know because they’re so much more pervasive
I remember in episode 3 when Vi sends the rest of the goon squad away, shield guy is limping. And I was like wait nothings even happened why is he hurt, nothing hit him. It wasn't till Efap I realized, oh, something did, in the fucking music video. Oh god, those were actually meant to convey story beats happening.
Even the intro cinemtaic isn't as "punchy" or full of expressive energy as the last one even though they still play "Enemy".
i thought i was the only one who felt like that about the new season. it is especially obvious in the finale, i was almost expecting a skin announcement at the end.
Same.
Arcane unexpectedly get the Star Wars spin offf show treatment.
I remember Schnee making a whole video on how Show Jinx was only superficially a manic pixie nightmare girl.... that really aged well.
LoL Players: “Jinx is fun, but she does feel like a bit of a dull take on the insane, nuts, modern harley quinn archetype. I’m so glad Arcane created more of a character for such an icon of this game.”
Writers of season 2: “ye but, isn’t she so quirky… and kinda cool… and should have a kid. She’s not the bad guy right?”
😐
what i'm saying lol, i love both versions of jinx, league's is just a fun rambunctious girl letting the canon loose everywhere she goes, she's suppose to be fun so i don't mind the similarities between her and harley quinn. arcane's jinx is suppose to be a deeper exploration of that kind of psyche, one that came from actual circumstances / choices jinx herself and others around her made. sure she still has her fun quirks but using that entirely to cover up her grey morality and it's unfolding is such an assassination to her character.
clearly the writers were trying to have the best of both worlds but their execution just does a disservice to both and what makes them individually unique
Nah she is still a character in season 2 actually
Dude She was consistently irredeemable until she met Isha. She was isolated by a terrible man for years, enjoyed killing people and said she had no problem orphaning kids right before she adopts one. Her being a “good” big sister figure made no sense.
Disappointments like S2 Arcane make me appreciate Vince Gilligan even more, who managed to keep Breaking Bad and Better call Saul coherent over several seasons.
It's worth noting Gilligan had more seasons to work with. Imagine telling Walter White's story in two-three seasons. Or Saul's story in the same timeframe. That's kinda what happened to these characters in Arcane. Seaons worth of character development shoved into one and you get the mess that was this season
@@chrishaven1489 Wich is, from what I know, the creators own fault. Instead of sticking with the, let me call it "piltover saga", they wanted to tell "new stories" and wrap it up.
The equivalent of that would be Gilligan getting bored with Breaking Bad after one season in order to start working on Better call Saul.
Remember how grounded Season 1 was? How it felt like an actual world where people lived their different lives? That it was fucking possible to understand everything that was happening without getting a stroke?
I though i was the only one being confused by all the magical bullshit when everyone else seemed to be praising the second season.
The first season felt believable and even the magic had its own rules to make it feel more like a science, but then the second season crammed in the Black Rose and Time Travel and all this other stuff way too early.
@@gimmeyourrights8292 Ah right the First season with teleportation and a serum with 20 different variants that you have to guess which one thier using depending on if they hulk out or not. also somehow the entirety of season 1 ep4-9 happened in a week if all of that is believable to you and season 2 somehow isn't... Maybe you got significantly stupider in the time of Season 2
@@nathanielchatley9061Thats a fantastic strategy that has always worked the one you have there. "The piece of shit that i like is equal to the good shit everyone likes". Because trying to drag down a piece of media to the low level that something else has reached is a fantastic way of organizing a defense for that something, and not at all a tacit recognition of how weak your position is.
Dude, make yourself a favour. If you are to insult someone, try to do it without proyecting. When you are insulting a proyection of yourself, you are not insulting who you think you are insulting. Its funny for the rest of us, yes, but also cringe. Ok? Ok.
@nathanielchatley9061 There was a way they made that grounded, Hextech was a science that had mathematic instructions in order to make it work, Shimmer was basically Magic steroids. The magic in the first season was a steampunk version of things that already exist, it was low fantasy levels of worldbuilding that easily guide people into the world. Stuff like time travel and multiverses are high concept elements of sci-fi and fantasy, that can lose a lot of people if they aren't executed well, there's a huge difference between steroids that turn you into the hulk and entire timelines where everything that happened in your life happened in reverse.
I like the idea of calling it "roombuilding" now. That's what worldbuilding has been reduced to. Writers praised for building a single functional chair while the rest of the house is on fire. But oh how pretty the chair looks, right?
Whatever.
Why did people even buy into this overwrought melodrama in the first place?
@@thisismyname3928 Because everything else that was coming out was overly ironic, Arcane felt sincere and brutal which is why it caught on.
It's crazy how Piltovers top law enforcement became: Girl who's been doing the job a year, lesbian girlfriend ex-con, some drunk vet, a ginger recruit she wants to bang, silent fish.
What's that? setting up the 20 champions from Piltover? Glasc is a chembaron? Nah we killed all of those. Viktor creates Blitzcrank? Sorry he became time travelling Moses, also that wasn't Ryze :(
They originally intended to have 5 Seasons instead of 2, and it shows...
@@ellugerdelacruz2555 this feels like 5 seasons in 1
This show DESPERATELY needed a third season.
The saddest thing about S2 is you can clearly see glimpses of the amazing stories they wanted to tell. Could've actually been one of " the greats" of TV
Agreed. Though I’m not certain about the notion that the writers of Season 2 were actually committed to telling a great story, which unfortunately was hampered by other obstacles in the production process. I honestly have a more cynical opinion on how Season 2 was written.
Not glimpses in my opinion. All the storylines were, conceptually, pretty much exactly the ones that needed to be for a memorable sequel. But it was so absurdly rushed it doesn't even feel that way in the end.
They could have cut the entire Black Rose story line, all but 2 minutes of episode 7, the entire "anomaly" subplot, 90% of the commune, and Jinx' little muppet. Then they could have used that time to focus on Caithlynn's rule of Piltover, Vi's descent into depression, and maybe the conquest of Zaun.
Oh, and maybe don't have a technologically advanced and organised Piltover be subjugated by sword wielding idiots with bows, only to have said idiots be beaten by the disorganised and badly armed Zaunites. Only to have that redone by the BS robots from Victor.
Seriously, 90% of that battle could have been prevented if Jayce spoke to Victor instead of shooting him in the chest. A converstaion future Victor would no doubt have preferred.
@@AndresMagnone I wouldn't have minded Act 2 being an entire Season on its own. The ending of Episode 6 would have worked pretty damn well as a Season cliffhanger.
@@HeckDescender2184 Agreed.
This is much needed therapy for an entire fanbase, thank you :D
Damn, even MauLer is here
Hey long Man how's it going?
Hello Moolie
💕
You know you done good when Mauler himself comments on your video telling you thanks:)
"You can't replace a steak with garlic powder."
YES. FUCKING. THANK. YOU. I HATED all the annoying ass music video scenes. I deadass got so fed up with them I just started skipping whenever music w lyrics came on. And it sucks because I did end up liking a few of the songs from this season, but the sheer over saturation of MV scenes made it unbearable to watch after a while. Like, oh boy the fifth music video in the last fifteen minutes? You shouldn't have! The first season had annoying music and MV scenes too, but they used them much more sparingly and knew when to turn it off. In this season , it's like a child got a hold of the aux cord and started blasting randomly at the most inappropriate moments.
Looks like Disney is dead now, so EVERYONE has to make musicals to fill the void.
I think someone in EFAP brought this up: the MVs in the first season are mostly during the climaxes of the story, so it's not replacing storytelling, it enhances.
Funny thing is, the music videos aren't the problem. They were the bandaid solution to patch up the show's rushing storytelling. Which sucks. The music and the writing in the first season were symbiotic, they enhanced each other. But in this season, the music had to do most of the heavy lifting because the writing didn't have the time to build up those emotionally impactful moments as much as they should have. So the creators had to cheat and use music and stylized animation to do it. The show really, really, needed more room for the writing to breathe. It really needed to be a three season story, not two
Like, remeber when not ever episode needed to have a music video? Remember when said music videos where mean to _highlight_ the story and not serve as a shortcut for it??
I miss that...
Season 1 writers wanted to build a world and have each of these characters affect it and each other so that everything kept building to a head. Season 2 writers wanted to smash action figures together.
Arcane season one just had so many quotes that unintentionally apply to season 2.
"In the pursuit of great, we failed to do good."
"What could have been"
"Oh the misery"
"When people look up to you, you don't get to be selfish"
"Betrayal, that pain that feels like it’ll eat you from the inside out, can either break you or forge you into something greater.”
“I recognize that any worthwhile venture involves risk.”
"Sometimes death is a mercy."
Season 2 is a writers wet dream ... But only his. It is a selfish butchering of a risky show, muted and simplified, a betrayal of the original, only to try and prove that your work is greater than the old. Being canceled would have been a mercy. At least then we would ask "what can arcane become" instead of what could have been.
Oh god. 😅
Season 2 was terribly rushed. I feel like they just wanted to move on to other League of Legends characters as soon as possible, so they decided to squeeze all these massive character arcs into a few minutes worth of storytelling and abruptly end Arcane.
Awesome video as usual, your analyses always tell more than the original media you're analysing
So annoying how "Arcane had to end" so what they can just move on to new stuff? Like ummmm no thank you finish the Piltover/Zaun story properly please then maybe we can look at different stuff
@@HeckDescender2184 could be similar to what happened with D&D from game of thrones where the arcane staff got an offer from a big company or something and just decided to rush the last bit they have left so they could move on to the next project asap
@@HeckDescender2184 I really, really, really, need those mfers to return to Piltover and Zaun to finish that story off properly, because this ain't it
I hope they keep the same writers for S1. But I have a feeling the next project is gonna be like S2: Very pretentious.
@@orrissonpereira1070 I really, really, hope you're wrong. Unfortunately, we're struck with the very real possibility that the first season of Arcane might've been just lightning in a bottle, an isolated incident, and that possibility disappoints me immensely
It's a very bad sign that, even during the hype of first watch and optimism, you detect things are off. "Oh that seemed weird well it's okay lets keep going". I tried to barrel on but once it got to Act 3 I just...didn't care. I couldn't tell what the fuck any of the character motivations were or why they're doing what they're doing, let alone what the fuck was up with Viktor and suddenly being the final boss. God, I had to grieve this season.
You should be paying more attention then because the show, having so little time to tell the story only gave you the important information. You didn't pick it up and you are now complaining. Too bad.
@@Itisoverthere-rw No, no, no, no. We picked up on the information. The information's not the problem. The problem is how that information was delivered. If the story details and the information were all that mattered, then if the creators gave you nothing but music montages for the whole season, you'd be fine with it because all the "important information" would still be there.
@chrishaven1489 I wasn't even talking about the montages but since you mentioned them, sorry but they are part of the story. If you needed an entire arc of Vi and the squad beating the chem barons to accept the event that happened so you don't miss it that's your issue. A show isn't bad because you failed to see the information it gave you and because you don't like the means of delivery.
@@Itisoverthere-rw But I didn't miss it. I got it. I understood the events. I told you, it's not about the information, it's about the way it's delivered. If that's enough for you, then you'd be perfectly fine if the creators gave you a string of music videos to explain the story and nothing else. And you'd still call it good.
Would you have a problem with that? Or are you gonna die on that hill and tell me that you would absolutely love to watch Arcane in the form of a music video marathon?
@@Itisoverthere-rwYou are a pretty angry guy it seems. Pathetic all your attempts at simping for the awful season. No arguments or attemp of arguments.
It seems almost impossible that someone saw s1, that had proper storytelling, and is so blinded that is unable to see the difference, trying to accuse anyone with brain cells of being dumb because the storytelling this season was more of a dump of info instead of a story proper. At this point you have to ask if they saw s1 to be this obtuse with the main complain with s2.
"Season 2 is like a cat so into chasing its own tail it forgets to feed itself and dies!" 😂😂 thats actually a really good and hilarious analogy!
This analysis was funnier and better than the entirety of season 2, you got a new sub congrats
"It's like delivering a punchline without setting up the joke." This line perfectly describes season 2
And the Rabbi says "No. You have chicken mouth!"
The funny thing is I rewatched season 1 like 7 times, but once I finished season 2 I never picked it back up again. Season 1 was considered great because of the writing, thats why Silco, a character with no ties to the game, was and is considered one of the shows best characters. The moment i watched the season 2 episode where jinx was talking to the audience, breaking the fourth wall, I knew shit hit the fan.
Did you notice she wasn't talking to the audience, but instead the now dead Silco, but the audience benefited from witnessing it as if she were actually breaking the fourth wall? I think people are being a bit reactive and not really paying attention enough to see this show isn't being lazy, even in season 2. A lot of the points being made in this video didn't completely land solid for me. Sometimes a second season, especially when 3 years after the first, isn't going to hit some people as well as the first, because it's going to be something different, because the story and characters have progressed, and they don't want to keep giving us more of something too much the same as we got before. I do think it could have benefited from another episode or 2, to more tidily tell the story, but what they did to compensate for this was still good enough. I didn't need to watch a whole episode of Vi pummeling opponents in a boxing ring and getting drunk out of her mind for weeks. I've been rewatching season 2 and enjoying it. It's true Jinx is guilty of terrible things and hasn't really fully redeemed herself. That said, by the end of season 2, she's on her way to becoming actually a good person. Too late? For some. Who decides who gets a second chance?
She didn't break the fourth wall. She was trying to talk to Silco. I have plenty of issues with this season, but thinking Jinx is talking to the audience is a comprehension problem
@@BattleAngelFan99 "Sometimes a second season, especially when 3 years after the first, isn't going to hit some people as well as the first, because it's going to be something different, because the story and characters have progressed, and they don't want to keep giving us more of something too much the same as we got before"
......None of this makes sense. It's been 3 years, so of course the story's not gonna hit hard? That's not how story's work. The story's gonna be different? Well.....sure. But it has to build on top of the character writing that came before it. This season didn't do that. It demolished a lot of the established character writing from the first season. The characters didn't progress, they were forced into certain plot points irrespective of whether it made sense for their characters or not.
"I didn't need to watch a whole episode of Vi pummeling opponents in a boxing ring and getting drunk out of her mind for weeks"
I needed to watch that. That's a significant shift in Vi's life. I've never seen that before. Even in prison, Vi had something to fight for. She lost all of that after the first act, I kinda needed to see what Vi's life looked like now. When we saw Jinx after the timeskip in the first season, the show dedicated almost half an episode showing us what Jinx's daily life looked like, her relationship with Silco and Sevika and her place in Silcos operation before progressing her arc forward. We got none of that with Vi. A small snippet of Vi at her lowest, then off to her buddy adventure with Jinx like none of it happened. That's not character progression. That's an exposition scene with the same narrative impact as reading it on Vi's wikipage.
@@chrishaven1489 Yeah i know she was talking to Silco at the beginning of ep2, but didnt that narration feel a bit like a wink-wink to the audience for you? Also when she grabs the camera in that beetle fight when she is talking to Isha didnt that also make you feel like she was kindof breaking the fourth wall?
@@chrishaven1489 Could be I've had enough time wasted on dark times forced on me in my life that I don't need to experience it in fiction to know and understand it. Just a perspective thing I guess. I thought they did a good job of summing up what had become of Vi without wasting time on something that basically was a waste of time for her character.
I never knew how toxic a fan base could be until after s2, there's probably gonna be some people thinking you're a terrible person for not liking people getting gassed with rock music blasting over it. Stay strong!
I was tricked just like how I was tricked into thinking star wars the force awakens was good. This season needed 3 seasons to flush this out and it's obvious that they.
Needed more time
@@wolfbane7497 upvoted for "to flush this out"
They did not need more time.
They needed the original writers.
@@bass-dc9175 What they needed was to cram so many outside players in just one season, the Black Rose or any of the Mel being a mage stuff had no place being in the show.
Yeah, I felt like I was going insane when I saw all the great feedback for s2. I guess that maybe most tv shows are generally bad nowadays, and that if people see any symbolism or philosophical messages, they automatically think it's deep, brilliant writing? S2 does have those things, but the delivery is still sloppy. It feels like every writer had their own ideas, and they tried to make everyone happy by including bits of all of them instead of really committing to one. @@wolfbane7497
Can't believe we got Rick-Rolled not once but TWICE in this video
I’ve never been as hopeful or excited for any season of any show before release as I was for season 2 of Arcane. I thought since the same people were making it as the first season that there was no way they could screw it up. I won’t be making that mistake again.
It is horrifically ironic that S1 ends with the line from that song, "What could have been".
For what I know all the writers from season one didn’t work on season two except for two writers
Yeah I spent 3 years checking for updates, reading fanfiction and even regretfully watched the leaks, I was really expecting to see all of that pay off.
So, never watch anything ever again because it will never reach your standards.
@@Itisoverthere-rw no, I just won’t get that optimistic about a season of a show until it’s all out.
I used to think that season 2 just needed more episodes or time to explore its themes. But since I learned that the writers room only retained two of the season 1 writers, I no longer believe that.
Season 2 has been written with a complete lack of understanding of why the characters and themes were written the way they were in season 1, which has led to a huge disconnect in season 2. Once you get to act 2, so much of the build up of season 1 is discarded that you could watch it without any prior knowledge and fill in the blanks yourself. (Which is honestly what the writers expect you to do for a lot of the set up in season 2 as well.)
Season 1 told a beautiful, intimate story about family, relationships and the effects of class struggle. Season 2 told a story which included time travel and alternate dimensions that ended with everyone ignoring their differences to fight Ultron ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
With the way people praise season 2, I honestly wonder if they even watched S1 at all.
@@mitzee8621 it’s just difficult to accept that we have been so close to perfection, and then failed. It’s not even that bad, it’s just mediocre.
I heard people say that that's not true. S2 had the same writers as S1, but I cant confirm nor deny.
@@NicheXCC Briefly looking at the writing credits, it seems that there are a few writers that don't either don't return for S2 or are credited in fewer episodes. Ash Branon & Conor Sheehy are credited as writers for all episodes in S1 but none in S2. Amanda Overton is credited for all episodes in S1 but only 3 in S2, those being Ep01, Ep07, Ep08.
Edit: I should mention that S2 (from what I can tell) doesn't have "new" writers. So it is technically correct to say that S2 has the same writers as S1, it just doesn't have all of them.
Edit 2: If Interstellar is correct then what I said in the first Edit isn't.
@NicheXCC Below is a list of the writers for both seasons, excluding showrunners Christian Linke and Alex Yee from Riot.
Season 1: Ash Brannon, Conor Sheehy, David Dunne, Ben St.John, Mollie St.John, Amanda Overton, Nicholas Luddington
Season 2: Amanda Overton, Nicholas Luddington, Giovanna Sarquis, Graham McNeill, Henry Jones, Kristina Felske
Source: IMDB Arcane Series Writing Credits
These names appear in the shows opening title under Written By and Story By in season 1, and Written By in season 2.
i really despise negative feedback when it isn’t warranted. i’m afraid this negative feedback is warranted. i’m not going to say season 2 was a dumpster fire yet because i need to rewatch it incase im missing something, but i can say i was left feeling very confused and unsatisfied. i think your feedback is pretty accurate in explaining why myself and many others felt this way…
“Why do you want to adopt a child?”
Jinx: (Don’t say revenge don’t say revenge) Revenge
The main reason in the downgrade in quality imo is the villain, Silco was a cool well written character and in a sea of "relatable villains" he was a breath of fresh air, we can actually sympathise with his cause, the woman king on the other hand wants...power? Ugh
No, I'd say the downgrade had more to do with shoving two seaons worth of story into a single season, and rushing a lot of character arcs because of it. Fixing Ambessa's motivations wouldn't have fixed the other issues plaguing this season
Not really viktor is the real let down ambessa doesn't just want power she wants to protect her family that was set up in season 1 also on macro level she believes magic is cowardly and that real warriors like her should rule so she sees hextech as a way make magic a weapon for everyone and strip mages of their advantage. When she was the villain it was good when the plot became about viktors cringe ultron mcu shit i checked out
@@moe5020 ....Eeeeeh. Personally, I thought Ambessa was super-interesting when she was a background threat, trying to push Piltover into making more hextech weapons. And I thought her desire to protect her family also made her interesting. But then they turned her into another power-hungry mcu villain that turns out she's actually willing to sacrifice her son to achieve her goals. That was such a downgrade from her nuanced motivations.
I actually don't have a massive problem with Viktor being a robot overlord, largely because that's kinda the way he's supposed to end up, BUT, it needed more time for him to naturally progress into his "final form". That transformation was rushed af. AND Viktor should've also been a background threat as well. World ending threats don't always have to be forefront threats.
If the big, bad villain of the first season was a Zaunite, it would've made all the sense in the world if the big, bad guy of the following season(s) was a Piltovan. The Piltovan equivalent of Silco, someone who hated Zaun just as much as Silco hated Piltover. But instead, a lot of Piltover's crappy actions were relegated to the Noxians doing most of the bad stuff. That was such a stupid departure of this show's themes and conflicts. The creators really wanted to expand this world at the cost of neglecting the current part of the world the story is supposed to be focusing on. Idiots.
I actually thought they should never have done a season two. Season one is a beautiful tragedy between the sisters. It’s accomplished by making jinx unredeemable. So a season 2 continuation, especially one like this, could never work
Arcane accomplished Game of Thrones going from the first 4 seasons straight to season 8. It's a nose dive in quality I have never seen before, and Arcane will probably always be remembered for it!
The best parts of the season were in music video montages, Caitlyn attending her mother's funeral, the Zaunite gang war, Caitlyn slipping into police brutality, and Vi's descent would've been amazing if they were properly explored instead of cramming all of these factions where there was no room for them.
It was the very first thing I considered when finishing S1. "This is surprisingly good. I hope the success of season 1 doesn't cause Riot to lose sight of what is was trying to achieve (deeper exploration of leagues lore) in favor of what it usually does (milk every penny out of anything people gravitate towards)."
I guess the writing was on the wall since the beginning. As someone who up to recently played a lot of league, its was quite evident that season one was just lightning in a bottle. It caught even riot by surprise. Season 1 had some in-game stuff post-launch, while season 2 was being hyped months in advance. With events and flashy skin lines. The fact that they even started re-writing the lore of champions in league to fit more in line with arcane (the opposite of what arcane was supposed to do) were already the first warning signs that this show would soon morph from labor of love to - to nobodies surprise - a product.
It was so easy to see how so many of those 'yeah, it's not borderline perfect as S1, but it's still pretty great' opinions would turn into 'it was a disappointment' after a few months. The die hard fanboys with blinds on would heap praise on anything, but this was a dud.
I was like 'this is a 6.5 at best' once I initially finished it, now I'd rate it a 5.
Some still hold on to that "it's rushed but it's still perfect" cope.
Nah many would still call it great really. This wasn't a dud.
Getting lost and completely disconnected with the amazing characters was one of my biggest beefs. I just didn't care by the end.
If a show/movie doesn't care about their characters then why should we?
More true words couldn't be spoken, during the Season finale I found myself occasionally having «Next slide please» occuring in my mind upon gazing at the battle 💀💀
Perception of art. This isn't art, this is a product. :)
Not liking it doesn't make it not art. If thats true then the only things that qualify as "real art" are those hidious modern art tampon paintings
It's shocking to see a season of television so intensely disinterested in telling their story. The most important or interesting events play off screen. "A punchline without a setup" is the perfect description.
I did not expect Season 2 to be as bad as it was, as anyone was, but here we are. We truly do live in the worst timeline (as friggin milked as that saying is at this point). What could've been indeed.
All I'm saying is Harambe really was important, everything went wrong after him :(
Vi's downward spiral made me just roll my eyes. They really went with the cliched "getting punched just to feel anything" bs.
And Caitlyn's suicide skwad to capture Jinx was hilarious. Who the heck were most of those people?
Some furry, a child soldier, a hobo that Vi went on a bender once? Did she pick the first people she saw?
And that kid that cured Jinx's shizofrenia by landing on her head? Already forgot her name, cause she wasn't even a character, more a plot device. Could've been a puppy.
fun fact, no one actually ever says that character's name in the show. It's in the subtitles during a scene where the dialogue is muted because (you guessed it) non-diegetic music is playing, and in the credits for the episodes she's in. That's it.
@@chrisadams1438 Are you talking about Isha? If so you are just deaf.
@Krakowitchu yawn
Breaking Bad and Better call Saul are famous for essentially not having a soundtrack (exceptions are there but the point stands) scenes are given emotional weight because of the writing, the performances and everything in between.
Arcane S2 is the opposite... it believes it can create the same weight by simply slapping a song over a first draft of a scene and call it a day... doesn't work apparently
Those shows don’t have the typical “soundtrack”. But they’re filled to the brim with compilation. But they work because Vince clearly shows how much time passes and how the characters experience them. They also capture more mondain things like a days meth cooking or Saul tidying up his new lawyer firm. They never rush over insane plot lines like Walter and Jesse expending their territory, working for Gus or going into hiding with a 2 minute long music video.
I thought i was insane because I felt unsatisfied by this season and everyone kept saying it was a masterpiece and so good and bla bla bla. Like girl?? Hello did we watch the same thing?
We definitely didn't cause it is a flawed masterpiece 🗿
I swear if it was live action it would not be praised as much. I hope the animators were paid fairly and were not overworked or anything cus damn did they do a lot of the heavy lifting.
@@fringeddragon S1 wouldn't be praised as much if it was live action. That's a moot point.
they wanted the evangelion payoff without having a 90 seconds elevator scene
Evangelion doesn't have a payoff.
@@Itisoverthere-rw well I meant it from the writers' perspective; you get a climax that has been set up and coming from the very beginning and well established characters have to deal with it. + you could say seele got exactly what they wanted so there u go
@CollectorVX We didn't even know what the Impacts were.
@@Itisoverthere-rw evangelion has always been about the characters and their psyche rather than the world they're in
@michemicalromance It's been about the mental collapse of the characters because its creator was always making it for himself. The remake confirmed it as the clown out his wife in it. Evangelion was always a scam. All the religious symbolism and the world building in the background were empty and there just to trick the audience. It's disappointing that it worked.
Holy Nutsa, i though i was pissed at season 2 :D. Wonderful Video
finally someone who sees jinx as what she truly is, I wish more people could see that she is not supposed to be liked
it feels like the writters turned jinx into the version some of fanbase saw her as after season 1 came out
No, no, no, no, no. Giving Jinx a redemption arc wasn't the problem. That's actually interesting. The problem was how fast they did it. It needed more time to cook properly. Time is the key problem with this season, there wasn't enough of it, and a result everyone's character arcs were rushed af
I think she was supposed to be liked, but she was not supposed to be seen as a good person or a hero. I wish they had left her as the morally gray (at best) she was in season 1, or made her a full on villain. Hero was not the route to go…
@@waverlyaltis7171 Jinx being a hero isn't the problem. The problem was the journey towards that "heroism". The show needed three seasons to fully explore what a heroic Jinx would look like.
The second season should've focused on Caitlyn and Vi hunting Jinx down, with Vi having conflicted loyalties between Caitlyn and jinx. And the longer Jinx evades the enforcers, the more notorious she becomes, and the more she inadvertently inspires the people of Zaun to fight back against the enforcers. And the Jinx vs Vi fight would happen at the end of the season.
Then the third season should've focused on Vi and Jinx being forced to work together to find and cure Vander, while Caitlyn's running through her dictator arc and trying to hunt them down. And the plot of trying to cure Vander would run in tandem with Jinx's redmeption arc. Jinx and Vander are both monsters with broken minds in need of healing.
Arcane should have been atleast 5 seasons, the stories in season 2 while good needed more time
Act 2 alone could have been a season long arc. They've admitted now that they want to explore different locations in a new series so why the rush to end (and in the process ruin) Arcane?!?!
You have spent zero time thinking about this buddy. The story would be fine if they made longer episodes to add the necessary connecting scenes, dialogue and the little additions needed to make it all flow organically. They weren't going to give them that extra time and they had to finish it in one season. That's the result. An extended edition would fix all the issues if they decided to do it but I don't think Riot amd Netflix care about that. This should be a lesson about studio interference and limitations, not the attack on the creatives it has become.
@@HeckDescender2184Being rushed doesn't mean it was ruined buddy. Return of the Jedi is a rushed mess but I don't see people crying that it ruined the trilogy.
No, no, no, no. 5 seasons is too much. It only needed 3.
@@Itisoverthere-rw How was return of the jedi rushed?
I honestly totally forgot about Vi's Shadow the Hedgehog turn in season 2 where she smeared goth makeup on herself because she's so tortured and hurt inside. That a team of writers and animators thought that was so awesome that it had to be put into the show instead of everyone in the room being outright killed by the sheer amount of cringe radiation those scenes give off should tell you everything you need to know about the ability of the writers to tackle mature themes. I'm not sure what reaction they wanted from me but "incredulous belly laugh" probably wasn't it.
Ahahah Vi Shadow The Hedgehog that made me laugh hehe
And again another sequence that was "Musical Exposition" instead of a wellthought out exploration of her depression
That doesn't mean anything or was cringe though.
I couldn't have half the enjoyment most people I saw online had. I just felt progressively more disappointed throughout the show.
Oh my Lord the editing, so glad this came out
I was so disappointed. Arcane as a whole would have been better without season 2. Just end on a tragedy instead of this garbage
S1 spent so much time building up the horror that a war between Pilltover and Zaun would be, and then on the cusp of peace, Jinx blows up the council. How did we not get to see a war between Zaun and Pilltover? I don't understand what they were thinking.
@@mitzee8621 When I point that out people will just tell me the show was never about the conflict between Piltover or Zaun it was about the Arcane or they say there were many plotlines and that conflict was just one of them; like it wasn't something major or that neither of the plot lines affect each other. Just because somethings in the title doesn't mean its the only thing you have to focus on or disregard everything else.
@@gristlyknave831 Anyone who is trying to claim the conflict between Pilltover and Zaun was just one of many plotlines is insane. Literally, every single plotline in S1 revolved around it. It was the central thread that brought all the other stories together.
@@mitzee8621Yeah the show literally started and ended with that conflict. The very first scene is Jinx and Vi discovering their parents had been killed by enforcers during an uprising against Piltover, then getting adopted by the man who led it. The end is Jinx launching a missile at the government of Piltover. Idk how you could possibly make it more obvious what the central conflict is when it's literally at the centre of everything.
when the only story you have to tell is told in season 1, this is what happens to season 2
You’re editing is amazing 😂😂
The Vi part healed me. Season 1 Vi I miss you
One of the worst sins of this season is the lack of accountability. Jinx is a terrorist; Caitlyn becomes a war criminal. And both of them got to go free with... what do you call it? A slap on the wrist!
You gotta have em well placed to say this... Bravo. I once dared point out the flaws in the season myself, and I barely survived to tell the tale. There's a bunch of toxic fanatics of this show, as is the case for most (deservedly) glorified shows.
me when I said I didn't care for Isha
There’s a really big issue I have with season 2, Silco’s death is just never acknowledged. Like half of season 2 is prevented if Vi or Catylin used their words and told Piltover that Silco is dead and jinx did it. But ontop of that, so many characters don’t react to it AT ALL
Yep I hate in shows or movies when characters don't react to/or/acknowledge huge things that have just happened. It's such poor writing, personally I don't think them not reacting to Silco's death was done on purpose I just think the writers genuinely forgot to have characters react. If they did do it on purpose then send these folks to writer jail ahah
Whatt would that even really change though?
@ the entire idea of Jinx being the “savior of Zaun” and how Zaun and Piltover react
This video has made me start to think a lot about Arcane S2. I still love this show and how it has ended but DAMN how many things I either dismissed or just ignored about it without giving too much thought. I think most of the problematic narrative decisions come from the fact that Riot Games have decided to make Arcane an official canon of Lol universe (even though it's been perfectly existing as a complete separate version of it). That's why characters doesn't feel like themselves anymore since Rioters want them to be recognisable and closer to the source material "just-like-in-that-video-game".
Nutsa was in the EFAPs that reviewed season 2. I have been a watcher of the podcast since 2018 and this is their worst review to date. Don't take what she says at face value. She is in a confirmation bias spiral just like the rest of the EFAP crew. You can tell if you watch any of the highlights from the reviews and listen to the bullshit they complain about. The season has quite the writing issues. It tries to cover too much ground in too little time and they skip scenes, reduce dialogue, lamp shade events etc. However, EFAP will reach the conclusion that it was shit. Their perspective is fucked. As for Riot, making the show canon etc. That's Riot's problem. It has nothing to do with Arcane. If they are retards and they have to shove the popular show in their setting because they don't care about their own canon that's an issue the LoL players have to deal with.
Mostly agree. However I don't think the flaws stem from Riot wanting to make it the "new canon" so to speak, I believe that it has to do more with the runtime and episode count limitations they had, and how they had to cram it all in such a short span of episodes, and how short they were made it all worse...
finally someone talks about the horrible music videos, the music choices are horrible it makes it really hard to rewatch if I have to get through those horrible music videos again
I was watching The Game Awards as it aired and they had a whole Arcane music performance I was like "Nooooo not more music videos!!" Ahah
Excellent critique, articulate, witty and succinct. Hitting all your targets right in the eye.
Looking forward to more in the new year.
Season 1 felt like it was written by Sophocles
Season 2 felt like it was written by the people who watched season 1 through tiktok edits.
Characters are stripped off of most of their motives and values. They're dolls and the plot sucks
To me, the characters in S2 are quintessential examples of hollow 2-dimensional characters, but reading reviews and comments made me think I had watched a completely different show. I liked some of the moments in isolation, but I wasn't a fan of Arcane because I like watching tangentially related ~5-minute clips.
I genuinely don’t know what viktors goal and motivation was he went through so much change so fast I honestly don’t care anymore
Sophocles. Good one. I always sold the show to my friends telling them it was a greek tragedy.
S2 was written by three dudes really high brainstorming ideas without caring if it makes sense. A lot of them are cool, but there isn't a system, structures and a lot of time doesn't make sense.
Turns out the writing team was cut down massively from season 1, people think Linke was the master mind but no, seeing him take on everything in s2 shows he didn't have the same chops
Nobody writes endings anymore.
The grotesque regress of Jinx is appalling, but the thing that gets me is the acceleration - it's like the writers looked at the character destruction of Galadriel in Rings of Power, 20 years after LOTR, and said "we can beat that, do it in ONE season!"
There's another thing about toying with Jinx's psychosis as just another teen Phase which shits me too.
So even if Season 2 was rushed to end the Piltover-Zaun story and so the writers could "move on to new LoL locations" is anyone convinced that Netflix would support a new show?
If it were to get the same quality and "care" of Arcane Season 2 would a new show exploring a new place/characters even still have an audience? It is painfully obvious that Season 2 killed a lot of people's goodwill (allthough I see there are people out there praising it - to which I say yunno, uh you do you boo)
Basically Netflix is pretty brutal when it comes to cancellations regardless of how popular something is, so depending on reception and backlash could Arcane have a future there going forward?
They got tired of their owm characters, said "ff go next" and rushed to get s2 out so they could move on to Noxus
Season 2 writers be like: Bzzzzzzz speedrunning Arcane story asap bzzzzzzzz whooosh
America isn't sending aid to Zaun because they don't have oil, duh!
JUSTICE FOR GOATMAN! He only wanted to science! But I know he's in a better place with Rictus and his boi Smeech.
Also RIP to Shield-Man: The Hobo Enforcer, AKA Fake Vander, AKAAKA Vander's Piltover cousin. Out of all of the "Scooby Squad" you were the coolest.
Fr
"It's like delivering a punchline *shows caitlyn getting punched* without setting up a joke" absolutely cracked me up BHGDFHJGBD
18:10 i nearly tiered up at this scene, they really killed his girl.
Nutsa is awesome! Thanks for more awesome commentary, dude.
Unfortunately they won't learn their lesson from it, the large majority of the audience loved and praised it, so they're going to keep on cutting corners and writing poorly from now on. I was always convinced that Arcane season 1 was only good because of how long it was in production, they had so much time to improve it and tighten it up, whereas season 2 was rushed out absurdly fast in comparison - so of course it suffered from that. The general audience however only listen to their emotions, and will judge it based on how they felt while watching it, and don't want to listen to any factual issues with it.
It took that long to animate it - it shouldn't take 4-5 years to write a good story for 8-9 episodes. It was rushed and poorly written, but lack of time was not the problem - they chose to rush to the finish and tell a slapdashed story, nobody forced them.
@@Nast33 Lack of time is always the problem.
Your take is excellent, i fully agree with all points. And DAMN your burns are immaculately savage! Well Played!
YAY !!! You have uploaded !!! Hope you have had a Merry Christmas and are doing well. I really video essays as you make them with many interesting points that explain in a crisp.
For me, I feel like Arcane 2 had the "sauce" to be great, however, it should have just cut down the unnecessary set-up of other storylines that shift focus away from the main plot about the conflicts between Piltover and Zaun. In fact, this lesson should be told to pretty much all the writers in general as they are more focused on making something that can profit later for them in the future than making something good at the present. It is always the post-credits, set-up and next times that annoy me so much !!! What happened to good stories with a main plot that begins and ends in that same story ?!?!?! Even "small" shows are guilty of this like Hazbin Hotel; and services like Netflix (ironically) thrive from this dumb process.
That is why episode 7 of Arcane 2 is universally considered the best as it is character-focused on two different perspectives of similar characters (Ekko of Zaun and Jayce of Piltover) looking at their own actions in vastly different results (Ekko in his dream life and Jayce's undesirable consequences) and is directly related to the Piltover-Zaun conflict.
For the amount of work put in the S2 visuals, I also thinks it´s shows so little
1:19 - Casually referencing the human rights violations in Georgia.
2:25 - And another one. Genuinely hope you're doing okay.
5:50 - Aight, send in task force X.
You earned yourself a new subscriber with this one. Great job!
I forgot I subbed to you so I clicked on this video and then I saw your avatar and I got overjoyed. You make entertaining reviews. I like your animations and editing style. Its a fun and cynical sense of humor
Does anyone know what type of transition she keep using? is it some type of glitch? is it from premiere pro? Cause on Davinci, i dont think we can do that using the existing transitions?
That's an amazing clip to start this video.
I felt exactly the same after the first high of the premiere and start thinking about what could have been if the show wasn't bottomlined into 2 seasons.
Love your video!
One note only: Viktor's accent isn't Russian.
Please don't assume every slavic accent is russian.
Tbf sounds extremely similar. Plus apparently she's originally from Georgia so "Russian accent" being the first association is explainable. Still good thing you pointed it out
Hurray Nutsa is back!!! I hope you've been well! 🙏
Great video and great edits! hope you get the number of views this work deserves.
I agree with the rushed nature of the season. Caitlin becomes a nothing burger of a character after Episode 5, Vi becomes a glorified supporting character that the story just can’t let go of, and A LOT of the story is skipped over and I hate time jumps something horrific. But I’ve gotta disagree when it comes to the MAJORITY of Jinx’s character arc, her development is all about her becoming completely disconnected from the world around her due to the lack of instruction she now has after killing Silco. While her adoption of Isha is skipped over to a full sister relationship (I fuckin hate time jumps), both Isha as a character and Jinx’s silent role change to a mother/older sister is yet another desperate attempt for the victim of being groomed for a specific role throwing herself into another specific role and miraculously happening upon a healthy replacement. All the ‘hero’ talk was never taken seriously by Jinx herself as that didn’t fit the mental parameters for roles that she could fill. Even the one time she calls herself a hero and lists the “heroic” deeds she’d done for Zaun, it is all for the sake of mocking Vi’s self-righteousness rather than an actually convincing argument. In terms of the ideas that are hinted at leading to this (that her disconnection from the gang wars and direct attacks on Piltover eventually painting her as Zaun’s hero due to the presence of a worse, more direct villain in Piltover and Noxus’ actions) were excellent, but due to the accursed time skip… they are nothing but ideas. When it comes to montage time skips, another terrible decision was skipping over THE MOST IMPORTANT PERIOD OF TIME IN PROVIDING NUANCE TO VI AND JINX’S REBUILT BOND IN EPISODE 6 because imprecise dialogue is only “up to interpretation” when there’s enough material to justify it. I love that Remember Me sequence, but the time jump it forces on the story only serves to cripple Jinx and Vi’s character development as well as completely nullify Caitlin as a character. BUT Isha and Jinx’s dynamic development was actually well developed enough for the nuance of Isha’s death to land. Episode 7 is THE BEST episode of Arcane ever, but episodes 8&9 are probably the show’s weakest episodes as many of the plot threads and character arcs of major characters of the series were essentially neutered in order to do the Jayce+Viktor arc justice (which I’d say they did). I’d say the only characters unaffected by the rushed nature of Season 2 were Jayce, Viktor, Ekko and maybe Vander/Warwick (just because of the fact that his tragedy was already completed well before the finale), but all other characters were either underbaked or turned into hollow caricatures for the sake of reaching the ending as quickly as possible. Jinx’s scenes in episode 8 actually were reasonably well developed, but the jump from episode 8 Jinx to episode 9 Jinx made her into yet another caricature for the sake of spectacle and narrative efficiency.
Overall, everything was there but it just needed WAY more time and was crippled time and again by time jumps and therefore skipped time spent with characters and the world.
P.S. I didn’t even consciously realise the “World-Room” thing until you said and then I was like “Oh! So that’s what I was feeling in those scenes!”
IDK, man; I immediately found it hard to engage with Jinx's arc when it became obvious they decided to simplify her unique struggles with psychosis and paranoia into depression. It felt like it was in poor taste.
Also try and put breaks in your paragraphs after a handful of sentences. It makes it a lot easier to read and digest what you've read.
I don't get anyone who sees Isha as anything more than a character virtually conjured out of thin air specifically as a piece of cheese the writers attempted to wrap around the "Jinx is a hero now" bitter pill they wanted us to swallow. If you didn't clock that Isha was going to die specifically to build up Jinx (ironically confirming her "everyone close to me dies" self pity wallowing) then I don't know what to tell you. All you need to know is that Jinx tells Isha "Wow you made my life better" out of the blue for no reason and the very next scene Isha blows herself up and is never ever mourned, mentioned, or thought about ever again.
@@mitzee8621 They didn't do that though she was genuinely crazy really and even later in the end was still kinda crazy. It really wasn't in poor taste.
@@megamandrn001 It really wasn't a bitter pill and nah Isha is an actual character with depth and personality and a real role she isn't a mere plot device. No she had a reason for saying that as taking care of Isha has really helped her out and has helpe change her as a person, no she is mourned and thought about again as people did clearly grieve her death.
@@Jdudec367 Those people are wrong. She existed just long enough for her to establish Jinx wasn't purely selfish and evil and the second she accomplished that she died, and was never mentioned again in the show. Going "nuh uh" doesn't make writing mistakes disappear. Despite wasting time with the little plot device, Jinx remained at her core selfish and evil, the job of 'redeeming' her unaccomplished
Also while I have issues with Vi this season and you have a valid point about her not havign any real sense of agency. I would argue that what pushed her off the edge wasn't Caitlyn breaking up with her. Rather that its how that now the Caitlyn's gone she has nothing to live for, her sister is gone, her family is gone, her lover is gone. As you said about "Vi connections to family and love ones" all of those people are now no longer in her life and so she has nothing now. Hence why she is at rock bottom.
Rushed, rushed, rushed, and rushed...
And the music was so weak, I only liked like 4 or 5 of the like 20? Most of them were bothering me or just truly unnecessary.
Two chembarons died in a montage... I just thought they stopped before they were killed... Nope.
And Jinx's thing, I agree 50/50. The characters are the ones that forgive her because they place her usefulness and potential over her crimes due to Silco dying. They knew he was the only reason for all of her crimes. It would be difficult for us, the audience, because we aren't in their world nor position. It is a crazy decision for us, but the characters clearly chose.
Vi and Cait, yeah, it was both incomplete and rushed.
And the portal thing for the development of those characters... Yes.
I've seen many analysis that stupidly says everything is wrong, but you truly did an excellent job, you found the problems and smashed them, thanks!
"Musical exposition"
Make your own arcane series if you can do better...
@@DashielG-vn5ji So the customer cannot complain about service now? This is why Western media has suffered, but people like you consume mindlessly.
@@DashielG-vn5jiNobody is saying they can do better. People are merely criticising the writers for not doing better, as they have done before in season 1. The whole point of a critique is to point out flaws or problems in something so the creator can learn from their mistakes. Besides, the criticism also helps new writers who want to improve their writing too.
If the writers actually listen to the criticism they can actually improve. Just take a look at how a certain man named Scott Cawthon took criticism of one of his games and ended up making one of the most well-known/popular horror game franchises of all time using said criticism.
Dismissing criticism like this does nothing to contribute to art. It only creates meaningless arguments or ends fruitful discussions.
@@fringeddragon I can understand nutsa berating Disney star wars they deserve it. But the Arcane series (including season 2) is genuinely an amazing series.
I agree overall with your points (though they're somewhat exaggerated) up until Jinx where i'm honestly not quite what your point is supposed to be.
"Jinx is a crazy murderer so she can't be a hero." Which is why she's an anti-hero. Zaun obviously doesn't care that she gunned down some pigs. She's roped into the hero role and part of her story arc is embracing said role. Explain to me what the issue is please.
"Write her mental illness off as just another funny quirk." I don't even know where you got that impression. Jinx is far more stable during the events of season 2 as a direct consequence of her embracing the Jinx moniker. Her quirky scenes aren't a display of mental illness. She's clearly been established as a theatrical, quirky character outside of her mental issues. Her actual mental issues are her suicidal tendencies which i believe is portrayed rather seriously.
Overall great points, though really just making me depressed and long for what could've been.
Amazing video!!!! It's great to see someone make a short analysis of a show with such precision. This show is a wreck and it's a great video to show someone in order to point out the biggest flaws because for some reason 30 hours of EFAP is "too much".
Someone else finally mentioned how ekko loving jinx makes no sense😭 feels like they were trying so hard to make popular fan ships happen even though it didnt make sense to the story
They had zero chemistry and Ekko seemingly forgot Jinx killed many of his friends.
@@blacktigerpaw1 In her defense, they attacked her. She never went out of the way to hunt and kill them. Ekko's buddies were trying to blow up Silko's business, and kill her. I get why people think she is a terrorist, because she does go out of the way to kill Enforcers and try to kill government officers, but hey, they killed her parents, and they are definitely evil oppressors in the eyes of the undercity people. So for them, yeah, she is a hero.
Ohh the misery
Turns out the opening titles was a prophecy ahahah
THANK YOU! you nailed it down.
i fell in love with s01, s02 was a huge disappointment for me..
Has to be your best vid so far
I agree with so much of this video, i enjoyed watching season 2 mostly for the cool visuals, but its so obvious theres a HUGE downgrade with the writing, what made season one special is that it had both style and substance in almost an equal high amount, while season 2 is all style and barely any substance.
"Arcane is a pretty serious show, and so what's nice about Heimerdinger is that he allows us an opportunity to explore some of the brighter tonality. I think that's really the thing that's always fun to explore with him. He can have _fun_ [sic]. He's just part of the whimsy in our IP, so I think that's really, really cool?"-Christian Linke, the Fool
"Heimerdinger is my favourite champion."-Christian Linke, the Churl
"Drooling for a squeaky"-Rags, the Best of Boys
You realize without Christian Linke, we wouldn't have an Arcane at all, right?
You can criticize all you want but acknowledge that the guy stuck his neck way out to get this project made, including your beloved season 1 (which I also love, don't get me wrong). All I'm saying is give the dude proper credit for working his ass off for making a creative endeavor happen that literally no one else believed in. It's easy to second guess when it's not your reputation and your career at risk
@@gman7497 I do appriciate that he got the show started. He is still an idiot though.
@Cats-TM fair enough, sorry the creative team didn't make the show you wanted them to make. At the end of the day they're the ones putting the time in and they have to make the show and the message they believe in. You can't please everyone and I think that should be OK.
@@gman7497 No. Literally, look at how Christian Linke talks. He has no idea what he is doing. He did basically nothing when it came to season 1 besides making the show exist. There is an interview where the lead writer said, roughly, that all Christian Linke did was basically look at the animation and say it was good (not exactly but it may as well have been. According to her he had NO hand in the writing).
@@gman7497He created it, and he assassinated it. And he deserves the recognition for both achievements.
Good video! Btw Victor has Czech accent. Support from Ukraine, Georgiabro!
Great Video! I personally loved S1 and liked S2 (based on nostalgia, emotion, love of the story they tell), but the points you bring up are more than valid and definitely got me thinking. I may or may not have had on some nostalgia tinted glasses when watching the show before.
That opening was genius, Nutsa.
Wow, your editing is great.
This season took 3 years to make by the way
Overall it felt like S2 was more about how do we get the characters from the end of S1 to their league form and not how do we tell a compelling and interwoven story.
"Speed run their character development." Perfectly stated.