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my favorite part of arcane is when ekko goes to the alternate universe and is happy, as it is a commentary on what the average league player's life would look like if they had never downloaded league of legends.
Honestly VI is crazier because she was left in the dust and went back to live her life in a city that was getting violently oppressed by her ex for months and she still forgave her anyway. Which ties into the themes of the show as love is selfish and blinding but still 😩
my favorite quote that describes arcane is from a youtube comment i saw once and it stuck with me about how to describe how visually unbelievable arcane looks : "24 wallpapers a second"
Ironically, it feels crazy to say rushed, considering how long it took for us to get this. I feel like they had to simply make ‘crazily’ some compromises here.
@@fateslays9379Oh I’d definitely have to agree there. it seems like all they would’ve needed was one more episode in about the middle of the series to help spread it out, instead of trying to make just about one arc per episode.
Mayuri pretty much said this when he killed szylapporo in bleach. He said, and I'm parraphrasing, "A scientist seeks to get as close to perfection without every obtaining it. Once you obtain it, there is nothing left."
I think the biggest shift is that S1 was character driven, while S2 was plot driven. It changes a lot about not only the pacing but the whole FEEL to a lot of the scenes.
Disagree with a minor point, it looks like they wanted to set up a bunch of interesting places so once they were done with setting up zaun/piltover, they just moved onto other plotlines instead of resolving the drama there
yep. they didnt have s2 planned out when they wrote s1, because they didnt know if there would be an s2. they had to write a fulfilling arc and conclusion for every character, and that's far too ambitious to perfectly execute in a single 6 hour season.
@@sorenkair holy shit you couldn't be more wrong. The story of both seasons was written at the same time - this has been said multiple times by the creators and people who work around in Riot. My boi, you should fact check yourself before stating your theories as facts
@@Sonicmaster54 I think the issue is they cut out a lot of content so it didn't feel satisfying. Jinx Ekko and Sevika definitely had a bunch of cut scenes. I will give them credit for showing the other councilors resenting Sevika. Wouldn't be surprised if she has to fight off assassination attempts in the future.(Maybe by a certain Steel Shadow)
I feel like it's mostly because league already has an inasne amount of lore and even though it has been changed over the years quite a few times, arcane really does a good job of refining it
12:17, If anything, this series and Spiderverse are hammering in the idea in the public zeitgeist the potential of animation as an art form to tell meaningful stories even despite whatever imperfection they specifically may have as individual works of art.
I couldn’t agree more. I put these two creations together as being the zeitgeist magnum-opus of what modern animation can achieve. Bridging 2-D and 3-D together in perfect ‘chaotic’ harmony.
the animation was so good that i couldn't even focus on the story i was just blown away by what my eyes were feeling. only days later thought to myself "huh, well the narrative didn't really make sense"
That lazy mind space shit is the brain cancer of s2. Season 1 finale was 4 characters at the table - 1 died. Jayce could make Viktor a cup of tea and tell him Viktor sent him from the future.
I think the biggest issue is a lot of what was written was actually cut. Like there was ment to be more of Jinx and Echo's talk which got axed. Even the final episode was chopped from 80-90 minutes to 50
One of the producer said the opposite toh, in a comment on reddit about the choices made with fortiche and not them just giving the script and saying “fortiche do this”. He said they never cut a 90 minutes episode
I really love that, even though most people are still pretty soft on the show because it looks and sounds jaw-droppingly stellar, the general sentiment is that it was unfortunately not as good as the first season. It shows the collective has actual good taste where writing is concerned, instead of just mindlessly shilling. If other Riot projects can achieve the levels of writing of the first season again, while continuing to let Fortiche cook, we are in for greatness.
@@atelheit I've seen plenty of people insisting that s2 is perfect, but on the whole yeah. I've been pleasantly surprised about being able to discuss the season's shortcomings without people taking it personally
@ i mean, season 2 wasnt bad by any means. It’s not as good as season 1. If season 2 is really bad as some people say then idk what a middle ground good show is
My consistent criticism of season 2 is: It needed just three more episodes. Not at the end, but spread out in between to fill the holes. What we got is ridiculously good and everything did get resolved in a sense, it just needed some extra room to set up and really drive all its points home. Even with the flaws, it's still better than any other show that comes to mind right now.
i'll just list a few shows that come to mind are better: - breaking bad - the Expanse - Rome granted, it's only three, but I only thought about this for 2 minutes. I'm sure there are more out there. what exactly got resolved? Space Jesus for some reason deciding that he has to convert everything into brainless automatons because it prevents suffering, only to then decide "actually, i dont want that anymore" last second? Vander/Warwick NOT reuniting with Vi/Jinx because neither does the treatment fail and he becomes fully Warwick, nor does he go back to Vander, but instead becomes brainless automaton no. 256? Mel just suddenly becoming some sort of mage out of nowhere? Silco's death NEVER being talked about? Isha commiting harakiri for no reason?
@@thomasmann4536 Hmm... A lot of the things you listed "for no reason" actually had the reasons explained: "Space Jesus", i.e. Viktor changed his mind because of his older self. How Vander ended up is more Singed's doing than Victor's and Singed got exactly what he wanted out of it. Mel always had those powers, even if she wasn't aware of them. That's the whole reason for the Ambessa/Black Rose subplot. Silco's death was mentioned at the very beginning as the reason for turmoil in Zaun, then there's the flashback and then Jinx "talks to him" Isha did that to stop Warwick from tearing everyone apart. Granted, a lot of these go by so fast it's easy to miss unless you're zeroed in on what's happening.
@@stryfer1989 My friend, you didn't actually list any story relevant reasons, plus you misunderstood one thing: Silco's death, or rather who murdered him is never discussed by the characters. Sevika never asks any questions. Vi and Cait know the truth and never tell anyone even when it could have given them an advantage, FOR EXAMPLE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST JINX AND SEVIKA. Viktor was all about helping people and healing and then he gets slammed by Jayce, pumped up with Warwick blood and suddenly he's all about removing individuality. There is not nearly enough setup or character development to facilitate that. Mel was never even aware of her powers, and for 90% of her plot she is being tossed around, then while in the prison she suddenly realizes SOMETHING (that we dont even know) and gains some insane powers, and breaks out of the prison. No setup, no development, nothing. And it has zero connection to the scene where the black rose woman tries to kill Ambessa. In that scene we learn literally nothing of importance, as ultimately the black rose has no plot relevance. Vi turning into an enforcer I dont have a problem with. But Vi suddenly being cool with all of Zaun getting gassed is a fundamental betrayal of her character. Yes, it is possible that she was somehow convinced by Caitlyn, but that conversation should NOT have happened off-screen. Unfortunately, the writers found it more important to give us a pointless drawn out fight sceen and cool "avenger style" shots of a bunch of nobodies than to make characters arcs make sense.
@@thomasmann4536 And you just said there's not enough development multiple times and listed things that shouldn't have happened off-screen, which was exactly my point about it needing more episodes. The only reason I'm not listing detailed reasons that are mostly inferred from what was shown is because it would be an entire essay.
Hi, animator here. It seems like the one big problem that we all can agree on is that we wish we had more. And honestly THAT is a big statement. We wanted MORE Arcane to really flesh out the entire story. No other issues, we wanted more. THAT speaks volumes.
Definitely, so many shows that screw up their pacing also mess up other parts of the narrative. But arcane sticks the landing! I just wish I had been given some more time to look at the scenery
I beg to differ. There's plenty of other issues. some would have been solved by taking things more slowly, some wouldn't. For example, I'm gonna venture a guess and say nobody asked to see the rhoided rat get like 20 minutes of screentime only to then be dispatched and that whole plotline have zero consequences on anyone. You could cut this character out of season 2 and NOTHING would change. That is a motherfucking waste of time, and honestly baffling that they chose to put that in instead of giving us better character development for Vi. Just goes to show that they valued brainless spectacle over actual story content. Also, Jinx just somehow deciding not to be crazy or traumatized, I just find insulting. Yes, the animation is great. Some of the scenes look great. But sadly most of this is undercut by the less than mediocre writing when you just turn on the brain while watching.
Actually from animation of that quality not really, it's $14,000 for each 40 minute episode, where as into the spider verse cost $22,500,000 for each40 minutes, so while it is a big budget in the scheme of animation this quality it's really really cheap in comparison
60 of the 250 was spent on marketing and promoting season 1 alone, so essentially we got an animated masterpiece for 190 across two full seasons. Compared to other high budget animations I don't think its that massive at all. For context the lion king budget was around $200m for a 2h movie
How much did Beastars cost? That was the only other 3D show to make me think 'damn this was an option?' - also Stampede to a lesser extent. Facial expressions and little things in Arcane were S tier
The studio can keep saying it was always gonna only be 2 seasons, but it definitely felt like it was originally supposed to be 3 seasons. With how much money they spent on the show, Netlfix probably told them they had to wrap it up in 2 seasons, which is why the pacing was all over the place and felt rushed. S1 was better, but it was still a great show regardless.
It’s more likely that Riot’s own executives only greenlighted 2 seasons (for the P&Z storyline) from the beginning and they’re in no position to negotiate.
"About halfway through you get this nagging feeling in the back of your brain that goes: Uh there sure is a lot of shit happening right now, surely you're gonna be able to resolve it all, right?" "... The series just suddenly goes: Actually we're gonna do something else now" "When a conflict has been the main focus point of your serie so far, if you suddenly decide to switch over to something different you better have time to address everything that happened so far before doing the new thing" "It felt like they were being yanked from one emotional development to the next one" and "... Nothing ever felt out of character, but the journey to get there felt so abrupt..." and IT DOES go for every character in this season These quotes from your video sums up my opinion entirely, THIS SEASON SHOULD'VE BEEN TWO DIFFERENT ONES!! ALMOST everything that happens do make sense (let's ignore Heimerdingher's death or Warwick conveniently being the only "evolved being" alive just to kill jinx, to name two examples) but it doesn't have the time to be shown the right way. Season two was A BEAUTIFUL STORY THAT WAS TOLD NOT THE BEST WAY. It still is a great story, what happens to the characters and what they do is coherent with themselves, but man it should've been told a different way. Namely, with more time...
One thing I would say though is that I think jinx was one of the only characters they did right in this show. I full understood why and what she did. I loved her throughout both seasons
Arcane season 2 was still great, but I feel that cutting out the Black Rose would have helped with more time to focus on Viktor and Ambessa and explore them more before the finale.
The Black Rose segment is very useful towards setting up the spinoff shows. Not just for Noxus either, it gave a lot of subtle material for the verse in general. Though for the sake of s2 specifically, yeah it may not have been the most beneficial. But not for more Viktor and Ambessa exploration, I don't know why anybody needs more from either of them when they were some of the most complete characters of the show.
How else were they going to make Mel into an epic champion? Please be excited for the new League character! The show? Story? Who cares about any of that! Riot has skins to sell!!
Even the prettiest of animations is still trash when given bad scripts. Arcane’s writing should be the bar for writing shows where characters are characterized quickly and believably and the plot moves in a way thats 100% believable
I think he nailed it when he mentioned "gravity." Great moments are great, but not so much when you don't have time to comprehend them or see the repercussions in full. That was the big problem with S2
Yeah honestly they barely even seem to care that Vander is alive. Just sort of happens and then they stroll around with him. They don't seem actually concerned for him or talk with him properly in a heartfelt scene like "I just...I don't know how much of this is getting through but...if you're in there, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry" Like nothing at all
"You need to get me pregnant Jayce" - Viktor While I liked season 2 and the memes have been phenomenal, the ending left me wanting. "There is beauty in imperfections" is a great line until you remember that Viktor's disease was caused by piltover pushing their smog and waste into Zaun. The original conflict After a year of oppression the Zaunnites just show up to help piltover without any conversation? Then are given a single seat on the council where they are out numbered 5 to 1? KkKiramin weaponizing poisonous gas to facilitate a vigilante strike into a rebel country. They pushed that gas into regular streets, they caused terror.
Ekko arriving with one of the biggest clutch moves in the history of animation is in my top 5 favorite parts of the entire series. The guy may not have had as much screen time but he definitely made up for it in quality.
It's even more funny when you think about that ekko and victor never met before. So when he threw the "time bomb" at him he was like who the fuck is that kid and where did he get that xD
Season 1 was the closest to actual perfection I've seen an animated show get. Season 2 falling just short of THAT because of improper pacing is nothing to be ashamed of.
@@ulizez89It was most-definitely time. Had they had more time, they would've been able to add much more to the writing. It's already been confirmed that loads of content had to be cut because of time constraints. They had a story in mind that they wanted to tell, but they didn't have enough time to tell it. If you want to get from point A to point B within the time you're given, you're gonna have to cut scenes out. That will always affect the quality of the shows' writing.
Season 1 will have been smoother but I preferred season 2 myself. It's easy to see what people are saying with the writing but when I watch a league of legends show I want action and character drama, season 1 had that for sure but it's hard to deny the sheer amount of stuff that got done in season 2. It may not have been perfectly done but that actually fits the hectic pace and uncontrolled drama the show is aiming for. The narrative mirrors the story which is a cool touch (obviously not intentional but it helps you feel slightly as the characters do, frantic and embattled to piece together what's going on). The amount stuff happening and the progress of the story was so much more. I'm surprised considering the time travelling part and Jason in the cave injured felt like they'd have wasted a lot more time than necessary. Still, season 1 was great for pacing but for me the visual flair, the satisfaction of the confrontations, the emotional character moments etc. There was just a lot more of what I wanted from a LoL show in season 2. It wasn't just bumping around some no name gangsters as much as season 1. I'd have been absolutely over the moon if this was a continuous show that would eventually show much more of the LoL cast and story (which would have been ideal for fans obviously) as that gets to the meat of bones of more characters, more story, more interactions. Final note, glad they lost some of the rap by the end as well, I'm not a fan of rap music and it held the first series back a little.
no, it's just simply bad writing, especially when they said they had already been working on another project for a year, you want me to believe they were short on time therefore they divided their work force on another project?
Arcane is one of the last fruits of the streaming war: One of those mega budget series that doesn't make sense financially, but a series for both fans and creators nonetheless
Well, I think Arcane (and its successors) *can* make some financial sense on account of Riot Games being loaded as hell and this being their pathway into breaking LoL out of its hardcore gamer fanbase. Does 250M$ make sense for 18 episodes on Netflix? No. Riot lost money and so did Netflix. Does it make sense when it gets tens of millions of people interested in the League franchise overall? How Riot plays the next steps to this will determine that. Potential avenues could be things like a future theatrical movie, say at 50M$ budget for 2 hours runtime, pre-Arcane that would have giga-bombed but now? The right story with the right characters could make Spider-Verse level money. Or they could leverage the new fans they now have to expand the League gaming universe to other genres which didn't necessarily appeal to the core fanbase they previously had. I'm not going to go through all the potential ways to go about this, but the point is that every dollar they spent on Arcane doesn't need to be recouped by Arcane because it primarily serves to strengthen the IP they own which is the most valuable thing for media companies in the modern age.
@@PhilippeLepaffe What money did Netflix lose lol? Netflix just paid for distribution rights (3 mill per ep iirc) and marketed S2 (they didn't even market S1 because they thought it wouldn't do well). Riot paid for the entire show.
Yeah, the story went all over the place in the second half of the season. I couldn't even figure out WHY we suddenly have a war between the two factions.
Loved season 2, and your joke at 11:00 to 11:27 is hysterical One thing I kept thinking when watching it was a sense of deja vu and I realized it is because a lot of overlap with Infinity War/Endgame - you have Viktor talking about how in all realities Jayce is the only one able to basically talk him down, essentially the 14 mil reality speech - Vi/Jinx having the Hawkeye/Widow moment playing out almost the exact same - time travel to bring something from another timeline to solve the problem with the big bad - even the fight between Cait and Ambessa basically ends when Cait slight of hand cuts off what i've affectionately referred to as the Riven Runes from the arm, just like Ironman taking the Infinity Stones back from Thanos in Endgame I'm sure there is more, but this kept popping into my head
If I remember correctly, the CEO of this animation studio said that if they wanted to make an animated adaptation of a manga they would like to adapt Vagabond. That's wild. 😮
That would be interesting but what would that even look like? Also they shouldn't touch the story elements if they're going to do what they did to season 2 of arcane.
The man was worthless. I was so sure he was going to be important and if I didn't watch the show with a League player I would have been sure Loris was a playable character. He did nothing, said never little and then got fridged for Vi. One of the most disappointing new characters. The fish guy was somehow more worthless and they killed my darling gremlin Smeech far too early...
I think the opposite actually. Loris is a realistic character. He's not some flashy MC self-insert, he's a dude who's there, who leaves for a bit, who comes back. He doesn't come back in some rage or ulterior motive, he just... was off doing his life. They don't mention his name because he's just happy to be there and help. He's like the guy at work who you see top off your supplies every day, and you make small talk with, but you never caught his name. But once his replacement arrives, you're still sad to have lost him. Loris was given an anti-climatic death BECAUSE that's who he was. He died being what people needed, because that's all he ever wanted to try to be. You think in the span of... a handful of months(?), he went from a drunk (and presumably former Enforcer given how quickly they accept him in) to piloting their main form of offense in the attack? No one else probably wanted to be the MAIN target of enemy fire, so he stepped up.
Know how I know Arcane is damn good? My wife thinks LoL is a stupid game. Hates the top down, repetitive nature etc. Know who had popcorn, drinks, and a full on mattress on the floor ready to binge Arcane Season 2 ready? My wife.
@@matkapfaruk6982 To be fair, arcane has almost nothing to do with the actual game. It doesn't even try to adapt any aspect of the game, just loosely the lore of the world and the character names.
*Dabs in french animation* There are a lot of other things to discover here, but Arcane's clearly one of the best thing that came out from the country.
@@ratedr7845 "Japan was in the year 2000 in 1980 and was in the year 2000 in 2020". Arcane, Wakfu etc have just proven something I've been saying for over a decade, pretty much all Anime has fucking terrible writing, there is almost no innovation in the medium and at this point they are just running on rehashing the exact same tropes, plots and characters with a slight twist/remix, which feels like an entire industry running on fumes. People ripped me to shreds back in the early 2010s when I said that Anime studios should work way more with French studios to make something actually well written and unique, and I feel constantly validated every time France just curbstomps every anime in animation, writing and general story with utter ease.
Yes Pomme is 100% french, and can we say Stromae is 50% french (even 60%) so the song is at least 75% french. So it's french by majority. Vive la democracy, vive la France (if the song wouldn't have been good I would have say 100% Belgium... I admit 😂)
I honestly feel the show ended too quickly I would’ve love to see the talk between Ekko and Jinx how he managed to convince her out of suicide and to help them. Still this show was so good, the animation and music really were my favourite parts of the show and I hope that French studio continues to animate because holy moly they are talented
European animation studios became leaders in 2d/3d hybrid animation, Arcane, Blue Eyes Samurai(french and Japanese collaboration) Klaus, also allot of games cut scenes and trailers use this style
Especially the french school of animation. They have the culture of manga since the 80s (the mysterious golden cities, ulysse31 etc...) and have the animation national schools (gobelins, artfx, and the national school of arts). Alongside the financial support of the state and of a couple producers, making french animation films possible. This lead to the country having it s own school (as in style) of animation, with everything from training to post production.
I looooved BES animation and the premise. But then, her motivation underlying her vow wasn't clear. She wants to kill the white devils because they dared give life to Her (her self hatred was that profound) but that wasn't explored. They didn't really do anything to her personally, didn't know she existed. Too many fatal injuries that had zero consequences mid battle. And I can't forgive that falling off the cliff fade to black scene.
The pacing was THE PROBLEM. Up until episode 6 everything was great, then episode 7 released and made many wonder how the hell was every plot point going to conclude with only 2 episodes left. It needed at least 2-3 more episodes. Some characters were irrelevant yet they still somehow got their " glorious moments" even though the audience didn't care about them at all.
Honestly, I feel like Season 2 should've been 2 Seasons. The second season should be focused on the Zaun vs Piltover War and actually fleshing out and explore the dynamics and fallout of the world and conflict. And also have Caitlyn face consequences from her Dictator Arc. Just give more time to flesh out the Zaun and Piltover characters, their relationships, and development. And then Season 3 should've been the Cosmic Machine Herald Viktor Revolution Arc. If they'd have done that, Arcane would've ended on peak.
@@ajiththomas2465 I agree, while they did everything right with the schedule they chose, that choice itself was a mistake. It is a miss how they set up the Zaun v Piltover conflict in s1, only to brush it aside.
@@eskildscott7841 The writing was really good 90 percent of the time too, they also used a lot of visual story telling which I really appreciate. The problems almost entirely fall on plot progression, you can call that writing but that's really schedule restraints. Some writing issues I can think of was Ambessa's end, and her going along with a very questionable jesus wizard is definitely not in her character.
Writing of season 2 aside Arcane truly is a work of art. Whether you enjoyed it or not there’s no denying how stunning the show is. Animators outdid themselves.
Pretty sure arcane glazers are the same idiots who say demon slayer is carried by animation yet go out of thier way to overhype shows with trash stories like arcane
@@kingdoom5022I agree with you but it's subjective, let people enjoy a show. Being negative all the time serves 0 purpose, toxicity is the rule of beast.
@@kingdoom5022Sure paceing is bad in season 2 but it had great moments. Obviously I would rather normal pacing and dont receve ending yet but it was good anyway
Three more episodes probably would have smoothed the landing for what they had, but I really do think it needed a proper third season if they were so hellbent on tackling everything they crammed into the second. I'll never say Season 2 is bad on its own merits, but my god... we could have had something truly legendary if they were given the leeway to explore it all with the same depth and time they did for everything Season 1.
I really liked this season. - Jinx and Vi being siblings - Viktor turning into a metal twink messiah - Isha - that one Sevika vs Smeech fight -Ekko breaking time (and our hearts) - Heimerdinger singing Wonderwall - Isha - like EVERY song in the show And finally: Vi eating her cupcake
Yeah, Vi gassed the people she grew up with and decided to bang her ex after her sister explicitly said she was going to off herself. But the important thing is that the shippers got their moment.
No? It's just not true. The season absolutely sucked in terms of writing and pacing and was a complete let down compared to the first. There's no beauty in imperfections here, this phrase has nothing to do with something simply being subpar in terms of quality
genuinely one of the worst lines in the show. did they completely forget that Viktor was sick bc he grew up under oppression and exploitation?? that's not an imperfection, that's actual violence that's been done to someone
The biggest flaw for me was the plothole they created by showing more about the relationship between Vander, Silco, and Violet's mother. In Season 1, Silco doesn't seem to know anything about Violet or Powder, other than the fact that Vander adopted them. He even orders Decard to murder Violet. But in Season 2 we see Silco sitting there when Violet's mother reveals she is pregnant. He's right there when Vander suggests Violet for her daughter's name. They also make the timeline clear that Vander didn't attack Silco until Violet's parents were killed, meaning Silco was still around and watched Violet and Powder growing up. So how the hell does he not know or care who they are in Season 1? And even worse, why is he trying to kill them? Even if he had a grudge with Vander, he didn't with Violet's parents. And he WOULD know who Violet and Powder are. I also didn't like how they introduced Isha. She can't talk. Why? She's being chased by goons. Why? It's like they set her up as a mere sacrificial lamb to tug on peoples' heartstrings. But as soon as she dies, no one says her name again. Jynx does nothing in remembrance of her. She doesn't even get any PTSD flashbacks about her. And how they treated Heimerdinger was bad too. They made him out to be a doddering bufoon and then kill him off like it meant nothing. He dies because what he was doing was unsafe; the character who cares the most about safety dies because he was doing something reckless and stupid? AND they straight up lie about Silco when Jynx and Saveka are taking a dump on his memory. Jynx says he couldn't administer his eye-medicine stuff without help. But in Season 1, Episode 1 it shows him doing it easily. The only reason he had trouble with it later is because he'd been letting Jynx do it for years.
@@ma-cg1il I would find it very strange if Silco had such a close relationship with Vander and Violet's mother but somehow avoided being around Violet and Powder.
It's not true, that Jynx never does nothing in remembrance of Isha. The whole fucking war ballon screams of her: the bunny ears and the war painting. And Silco isn't in Vanders later memorys with Vi, Powder and theire parents, alluding their ways started to separte long bevor the total betrayal of Vander. So it doesn't seem as if he ever really got to know Vi and Powder. Yes, he probably knew who they were, but they didn't mean something to him. Maybe their mom did once, but actually he was willing to sacriface her live for his course as well, so why stop with her children?
Crazy how people would defend this level of writing. I could excuse a couple of blunders, sure, but the second season has so many weird plot contrivances, atrocious pacing issues and completely unnecessary characters and twists in just 9 episodes! Why they decided to cram so much into one season while expanding the scope of the story is beyond any sense. That Himerdinger death was not only out of character, but unnecessary and even stupid. Just cut the power, change the plugs, tie the cables with electric tape or something so that they don't disconnect and try again. We never get any explanation or even a hint of why he had to do it like this. I refuse to believe he wouldn't implement some kind of safety shut-off. Also he not only kills himself, but also the host body of the alternate universe Himerdinger. Ouch.
I pretty much agree with everything. Them not having enough episodes to expand on a few things explains all of your points. Though I interpreted the eye-medicine thing as not them shit talking him, but remembering and talking about the Silco from most recently where he did have problems, not the one from before the time skip from years ago. And I interpreted the Heimerdinger thing as character development and him learning that not everything can be safe and that he should come down from his high horse, especially when they're stranded in a parallel dimension/universe/whatever (I did find his death super cheap, SPOILER: though there is a theory that he simply returned to the yordle world since he is a spirits and can't "die" and instead simply returned there)
I think Vi being unable to actually fight or stop Jinx was perfectly believable. People talk a good game, but when push comes to shove humans rarely actually have the resolve to change.
People analyzed their fight and everyone said it really did look like just two sisters fighting. Like they were scrapping but neither of them really wanted to hurt each other, they were both like if it happens it happens, but there was no hate between them they were just going thru the motions
@@PricefieldPunk I mean, during the fight Vi straight up *caught* Jinx when she was falling, that pretty much sells out how much "anger" she actually did have for her. Even if she is/was angry, actions speak louder than words, in the midst of battle she still subconsciously tried to protect her.
@@PricefieldPunkJinx shot her gattling gun and a rocket in Vi's face. I think you can drop the both are not trying to kill each other. VI's could have crushed her a few times, so yes Vi was holding back more
I suppose I'm just weird, because there was never a point where I felt the story was going too fast, or things were out of place to me. Mel's discovery of her birthright as a mage at the hands of the Black Rose made sense, given the clues of how Ambessa was fleeing from someone in Noxus, and Mel's sudden glow and protective ability at the council attack. And no, Zaun and Piltover were not fine to work together in the end. Seveka and most of the Zaunites rejected Jace's appeal for help; it took Jinx to bring them to the fight. And I don't know how anyone could miss the looks of disgust by the rest as Seveka took her place on the council. All of the points are there to be seen. Like some of the best stories, the devil is in the details. And no, I didn't catch them all either, and I'm still finding new ones.
I agree. It is funny seeing people complain "They ignored the Zaum-Poltover conflict, and it is just "solved" in the end" → when as you said, we can clearly see that the rest of the council hates the idea of giving Zaun a sit on the table
I mean...pretty much the same thing happened in WW2, especially when it was over, of course not as rosy but still the essence is the same. I liked the theme of the season, I think life is like that, do things just happen one after the other? Sometimes it's just a hurricane you can't keep up with.
@@E_D___council not liking sevika = conflict being addressed? Lol, and why tf did sevika even get a seat on the council? Apart from us (the Audience) nobody in piltover knows who the fuck she is lmao. What did she do to earn herself a council seat? It makes no sense
I love arcane, it did have some flaws but i remember feeling so happy to live to see such a show and bless my own eyes. I cant do much in life, and i cant study well because i struggle with my ADHD despite all the medication. I lost hope in life and i’m happy to see the world of league slowly unfold. I felt like i had something to live for. So my tears of joy and sorrow in this show was more real than anything i could accept in my own life. I will never forget that experience. Thank you arcane.
You know a show is GOATed when it can have some really fucking depressive/serious shit and then in the next episode find a way to melt my heart from happiness (I'm looking at you Episode 7).
And then depress you again. And then make you happy for a brief moment, before giving the most depressing moment in the whole series leading right into one of the most hopeful.
@@KaNoMikoProductions your rage bait is obvious but I do agree S2 threw out everything setup in S1. S1 was a grounded conflict of classism and family. S2 is Infinity War. They don’t blend well together
I'll never forgive netflix for chopping half of what should be the last episode and leave so many things unsaid. It was still amazing but the thought that we could have seen WAY more is just frustrating
That was Riot Games who paid for the $250 million production. Not Netflix who just paid for the distribution. So the blame is kore on Riot for not wanting to spend the time and effort for a Season 3. Honestly, I feel like Season 2 should've been 2 Seasons. The second season should be focused on the Zaun vs Piltover War and actually fleshing out and explore the dynamics and fallout of the world and conflict. And also have Caitlyn face consequences from her Dictator Arc. Just give more time to flesh out the Zaun and Piltover characters, their relationships, and development. And then Season 3 should've been the Cosmic Machine Herald Viktor Revolution Arc. If they'd have done that, Arcane would've ended on peak.
The showrunners said themselves it wasnt “cut”. They removed mainly action scenes from the initial cut because the animation studio was NOT finishing in time if they had to add another 30 mins of animation
The problem with second season is that it does not have character arcs. It's character segments. Feels like they're checking boxes with each episode, like "now we're here" and "now we're here", without really showing how a certain character goes from point A to B. Reminds me a bit of how Daenerys was treated, in the sense that her going mad was something that could have been credible at some point in the series, but not how they presented it, again because it was too rushed.
However in comparison to Denarys, the choices that the characters make in Arcane still make logical sense, even if the journey to get there isn't as fleshed out as it could be.
9:15 I mean, look, I understand that it can be a bit narratively unfulfilling for "a bigger threat arrives, so everyone cuts the shit for a while", but look at how recent events involving the sibling of a certain plumber, and how near instantly the "left vs right" narrative switch to one of "upper vs lower class."
It was kind of, but the timing was kind of odd, considering Jinx essentially just told Vi she is going off herself. Idk about you but if my sister just told me that I wouldn't be thinking about scissors once I am free to try and help her.
I think what's precious with Arcane is that, given so much investments, and so high expectations, most company would choose to be conservative with their story telling, and way of presentation, while Arcane still insists on being creative and ambitious
You don't know what you're talking about. What was conservative about it exactly? They made a multiverse out of nowhere, an unnecessary multiverse that added nothing to the story that was stablished. What was creative about its storytelling? Season 2 was just horribly written, there's nothing conservative about that
If you want some other french recommandations, go watch "The Summit of the Gods", "Wolfwalkers", "Mutafukaz", "Persepolis", and the animated serie "Le Parfum d'Iraq", which you may struggle to find in english on youtube but is incredibly worth it. There's a long tradition in France of political animation, especially for people from the middle east.
Season 1 was 10/10 Season 2 was 6/10 There was a lot of factors that went into the studio not being able to deliver on the same quality of season 1, but I feel like many people are letting their affection for the first season effect their view of the second.
Season2 is beautiful due to Fortiche but the writing extremely suffered between the seasons. There's so much nonsensical decisions characters take(Isha killing herself and Vander for no reason - instead of leading Jinx away, Ambessa supporting mage cult leader when she hates mages etc etc AGAINST her only family). Plot taking the first place before characters. Show going into multiverse, time travel and marvel-like demigod powercreep, for the sake of being flashy, made it so much worse in comparison to s1. It should've stayed close to Piltover and Zaun tensions and politics, and finish the show with exploration of the characters and not world-ending plots. It cheapened the whole show. Sadly. It could've been so great. The fact they started promising character arcs, but they felt so unifinished.
Piltover vs Zaun not being the focus is one of the main critiques I hear, but I think they did an alright job addressing it. Zaun’s independence was Silco’s ambition, and for the most part it died with him. The chem barons had a whole conversation where the general outcome was they are more interested in taking power in the Undercity than fighting Piltover. Additionally, there was a rally to try and drum up support, but without Jinx, no one was truly inspired to rise up. On top of that, a bunch of the people she showed up to save were killed by Warwick as he entered Stillwater. All this led to a general lack of desire to help topside in the war, but in the end the undercity came to Piltover’s aid, earning them a seat at the table. And that’s really what was needed in the first place. The Undercity now has a voice on the counsel, actual representation. Just like in our world, the counsel tried to slap a bandaid on the problems facing the city with Hextech instead of addressing the root cause of the disease, and now there is a real chance to fix the problems, especially with the only 2 creators of Hextech in Jayce and Viktor seemingly gone forever.
I think people will always have those critiques regardless, specifically because of how much time felt "wasted" on the Piltover vs Zaun conflict in the first season. Like it or hate it, humans want closure in order to feel satisfied. And when you set something up like the Zaun conflict to be so grand that the inciting incidents and climaxes of the first season evolve around said conflict, pivoting away from it to do the more overarching theme of Viktor's perfectionism will feel jarring without time in the oven. People enjoyed seeing the arguably skippable interactions of politics that the first season presented. How the heads of certain factions felt, and what would be the best steps to take. It was a part of the show's heart. Sure you can logically deduce how the outcomes and rationales of season 2's events makes sense in hindsight, but do the viewers feel like they were as much a part of the whole journey as they were in season 1? It's those kinds of extra scenes that really make a story feel complete ad consistent.
@@kayzaac Those feelings are subjective. Some people created their own version of how things should have been unfolded in the show based of their perception. However they shouldn't expect that the story they imagined must be the only story that is possible. The authors job is to make a consistent and logical chain of events, which was done great in Arcane.
@@dertgok9813 Personally I believe a great author's job is to do a bit more than that, and still consider the most likely feelings among the audience. In any case, sure. An author doesn't have to capitulate to people's feelings about how a story should go, but people don't have to act like they enjoy it when they have a common grievance with it. Blade cuts both ways, etc. Up to the author if they want that 10/10 audience rating.
The best way I can phrase my opinions on season 2: It's honestly worse than season 1. But season 1 was one of the best shows ever put on TV, so that's REALLY not saying much. It's like going from a perfect 10 to a 9.6.
No show is perfect. Season 1 was a 9 in my opinion. Season 2 is more like a 7. Still outstanding animation, great music, but the writing isn't as good. The final act was also rushed.
I'm apparently in the minority but I liked season 2 way more than 1. First season I respect and it was good but season 2 I couldn't wait to see what happens next, my experience of watching it was very different and much more positive. Visually as well it somehow looks way better which I didn't think could happen Only thing I can assume here is that I just don't value character drama as much as other people
@@Plo1154 You aren't really, there's a lot of people who liked season 2 as much as season 1. I noticed that those who have problems with second season have short attention span or don't really care about the plot.
After thinking about it for a while, you really do feel the tiny imperfections more in a nearly perfect story. Things just feel a little too breathless and condensed. Five more minutes of carefully placed dialogue or visual communication to smooth over some of the hurried explanations and leftover questions would have elevated so much in a show already hitting ridiculous highs. Ten more and I probably wouldn't have anything to complain about. The montages at the start of each episode were an incredibly efficient way to quickly communicate nine things at once, but the story is going so fast it's begging ten questions and keeps dropping one here and there. Even if the questions WERE answered, they weren't given time for me to absorb and understand them. My leftover questions: -What did kaitlyn find on her mom's computer? Some kind of map of the pipes? -What exactly was Jinx's plan with the pipes, and what did it accomplish? -Why was Jace shown being given a bunch of different runes, when he only experienced getting one? What does that mean? -What the hell is going on with Alt-timeline Viktor? I don't understand how he does anything that he does, or why he seemed to send Jayce on a warpath. To stop present Viktor, sure, but why were there 0 attempts at reason or explanation? -Why did Maddie heel-face turn at the end? I believe she was capable of the switch, but I have no idea why it happened. -Mel sent the cat-drug-painter lady off to do something important, was that ever resolved? -Everything to do with the black rose could've been established and explained a little more clearly. I think they put the information in there, but in like a "rewatch it and go lore hunting" sort of way. -Everything to do with the blue-haired Jinxer's movement also confused me. How deep did that go? What was the point? -Most importantly, why did Zaun come to the table so quickly and easily against Noxus? Did they get concessions at some point and I missed it? I don't think it would've been hard to justify, but justification needed to happen. -What ever happened to the Firelight's tree? -Why was there only one glorious scene with Sevika using her crazy slot-machine fist? It was so damn cool!
Season 1 was clearly written much better, and is probably overall the "better" half of the show. But goddamn, i think i like Season 2 so much more. I recognized all the missteps with the the writing in the moment, but I couldn't deny just how much emotion the show got out of me. The Vander flashback, the dance with Ekko and Powder, the first faceoff between Victor and Jayce. In a year where I've felt like I've just been staring at screens consuming content, Arcane made me sit up in my chair, pause the show out of fear, and shout out in triumph. As a full package it might have been assembled haphazardly, but it feels like more than the sum of its parts. I doubt I'll ever feel as strongly about a piece of media again until Spider-verse 3 comes out.
Definitely agree overall although I will say that i think the core of the problem is more the pacing and trying to fit so much in 1 season than the writing specifically. As Garnt pointed out, the major character beats and plot points still made sense but they didn't leave much time for us to breathe and take all of it in. Given that Fortiche originally planned Arcane to be 3 seasons but Riot and Netflix slashed it to 2 seasons after season 1 had finished, it's understandable that it turned out this way unfortunately. Imagine all the less important story arcs and details they had to cut in order to emphasize the plot developments and moments we did see. Oh well... I still love what we got and am looking forward to the next show they do in this universe but I hope they are given enough seasons appropriate to the scope of the story
Lets be honest - most of the players who complain about the cost wouldnt even buy it if it was a direct sale for 20$. League of Legends was always founded by whales - but only recently Riot started to make whale centric content
Horayy.. now we can uh.. feel shittier about it? Whats the point of that? Pretty sure most people are aware of it, but its good regardless. Amazing event.
@@daktotathecolossus7404 It's so show runners and writers don't ignore the faults too or you end up with the anime industry in japan that shovels so much shit people think frieren is the most amazing thing ever.
I just finished season 2, i don't get the hate. I enjoyed it. some stuff like the black rose I'm still confused about but other than that it was great.
Yeah Arcane did have some wrinkles that an episode or 2 could have fixed but all that did was bring that down to a 9.9, i mean the way we got to the end was rushed but that doesn't mean the ending was horrible in anyway it was peak cinema
I completly agree with the fast pace development for characters, especially Vi is the perfect example where at the beginning of an episode she's like "no way I'll ever be an enforcer" then by the end she is then by the next one she's not, then she breakup recouncil bnreak up again then by the end she's an enforcer again ect ect... It never break her character but it feels like all that development should be done over the course of multiples arcs if not seasons, not in 1 episode. On the other hand it took them 3 years to animated season 2 so I can understand that they have to make action (and story) packed episodes if they don't want to spend 15 years to finish the arcane storyline and expand to other stories. I'm sure if it was less costly in both time and money they would take more time to explore relationships and other stuff even deeper but when it takes a few days opf work to animate 1 sec I guess they need to take shortcuts sometimes. So I get both point.
It had so much going on, probably needed another episode or 2 worth of time to flesh everything out at a minimum It was still fantastic though, like if S1 was nearly complete in its pursuit of perfection S2 was a couple steps behind
Season one was perfection, the greatest thing i watched ever. Before s2 release i already knew it wont be as good as season 1 but apparently some little part of me hoped for it to be really close to it. That led to my dissapointment. S2 was still good but not even close to s1. S1 is just straight up 10/10 and s2 like 8/10. A lot of things in s2 bothered me a lot, for example too fast pace or bad writing in some parts.
Your chart summed up my feelings very well; the story & character arcs are overall fantastic but just squeezed into a smaller space than it needed to be excellent. Great video!
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Your nitpicking reminds me of *The Cosmonaut Variety Hours* 🙂
So it is another yae Sakura ice battlesuit moveset flip... Just like ayaka
Looking forward to your 1.4 stream
Gigguk keep working hard 💪
Gacha garbage :O
my favorite part of arcane is when ekko goes to the alternate universe and is happy, as it is a commentary on what the average league player's life would look like if they had never downloaded league of legends.
underrated comment
As someone who doesn’t play league unfortunately it doesn’t work like that
Jinx’s therapy bill could probably fund an entire Hextech revolution.
Imagine what it would be combined with Vi's. Their family therapy bill would cause another anomaly apocalypse.
Also paying out that life insurance for the trail of dead therapists...
The entire character roster needs a therapy (except from Heimerdinger).
@@theok391 Heimer is the therapist lol
Everyone in show needs a massive amount of therapy, some of them are just better at bottling up a bit more lol.
Vi: cupcakke
Catilynn: So i betrayed everyone
Caitlyn kinda forgot that she cared about Vi until she remembered halfway through the season.
Caitlyn: "guess ill be hitler now"
Caitlyn 2 episodes later: "eh nevermind"
Peak trash
@@bigjen8238peak hate
Honestly VI is crazier because she was left in the dust and went back to live her life in a city that was getting violently oppressed by her ex for months and she still forgave her anyway.
Which ties into the themes of the show as love is selfish and blinding but still 😩
my favorite quote that describes arcane is from a youtube comment i saw once and it stuck with me about how to describe how visually unbelievable arcane looks : "24 wallpapers a second"
tbh that's just a worse way of saying "Every Frame a Painting", which Garnt said and is also the title of one of the old goated youtube channels
@@schoolwork4056wasn’t it “5 Centimeters per Second” more like 5 wallpaper a second or something like that?
''Rushed Mangum Opus'' is the best description ive seen of this show.
Honestly I feel like if the middle act was 1 episode longer it would feel better overall. Especially since Ekko and Jayce had ep 7 for themselves
@@fateslays9379 yes more of episode 7. mmmmmm .I don't mind that. No not at all.
Ironically, it feels crazy to say rushed, considering how long it took for us to get this. I feel like they had to simply make ‘crazily’ some compromises here.
@@fateslays9379Oh I’d definitely have to agree there. it seems like all they would’ve needed was one more episode in about the middle of the series to help spread it out, instead of trying to make just about one arc per episode.
Jayce: There is beauty in imperfections
Viktor: There is no prize in perfection, only an end to pursuit
Ironically, it describes "arcane" both as a show and the magic itself.
Mayuri pretty much said this when he killed szylapporo in bleach. He said, and I'm parraphrasing, "A scientist seeks to get as close to perfection without every obtaining it. Once you obtain it, there is nothing left."
"There is beauty in your crippling handicap and terminal illness"
- Guy built like a quarterback with zero health issues
Yeah, but, Viktor's "imperfections" were killing him. So that message kinda falls flat
I prefer to take Viktor's message to heart, rather than Jayce's
I think the biggest shift is that S1 was character driven, while S2 was plot driven. It changes a lot about not only the pacing but the whole FEEL to a lot of the scenes.
Disagree with a minor point, it looks like they wanted to set up a bunch of interesting places so once they were done with setting up zaun/piltover, they just moved onto other plotlines instead of resolving the drama there
yep. they didnt have s2 planned out when they wrote s1, because they didnt know if there would be an s2. they had to write a fulfilling arc and conclusion for every character, and that's far too ambitious to perfectly execute in a single 6 hour season.
@@sorenkair holy shit you couldn't be more wrong.
The story of both seasons was written at the same time - this has been said multiple times by the creators and people who work around in Riot.
My boi, you should fact check yourself before stating your theories as facts
@@PropheticShadeZ They did resolve the drama of Zaun and Piltover. They teamed up at the end and Sevika got a seat at the council.
@@Sonicmaster54 I think the issue is they cut out a lot of content so it didn't feel satisfying. Jinx Ekko and Sevika definitely had a bunch of cut scenes. I will give them credit for showing the other councilors resenting Sevika. Wouldn't be surprised if she has to fight off assassination attempts in the future.(Maybe by a certain Steel Shadow)
Love that Arcane at its worst is still better than most shows at their best.
yeah i really like it, still think first season was better, think this one had to much shit happen at the same time, but was still good
I feel like it's mostly because league already has an inasne amount of lore and even though it has been changed over the years quite a few times, arcane really does a good job of refining it
@@AnteBoss you miss spelling a 3 letter word explains why you think arcane isnt peak animation
No it's not. S2 was very middle of the road as far as shows go. Great animation though.
I think the writing is still good it’s just so obvious this was 2 seasons of tv crushed into 1 season of television
12:17, If anything, this series and Spiderverse are hammering in the idea in the public zeitgeist the potential of animation as an art form to tell meaningful stories even despite whatever imperfection they specifically may have as individual works of art.
Which feels very inspiring after decades of Disney telling us "animation is just for kids".
I couldn’t agree more. I put these two creations together as being the zeitgeist magnum-opus of what modern animation can achieve. Bridging 2-D and 3-D together in perfect ‘chaotic’ harmony.
the animation was so good that i couldn't even focus on the story i was just blown away by what my eyes were feeling. only days later thought to myself "huh, well the narrative didn't really make sense"
Yeah same here
I mean, pause at almost any point in the show and you'll have a scene so gorgeous it could be your wallpaper screen.
i really think most of it made sense but the pacing didn't help at all
@@pantelismat4352 That's why it didn't make sense.
Especially the time travelling and future Viktor paradox.
The animation at the end with Viktor and Jayce is amazing, every frame straight up looks taken out of a medieval mosaic
We don't speak about viktor, especially the rework
I rewatched that part 4 times in a row, it made me so emotional
@alacritysp I much prefer new Viktor over old copy paste generic ass machine viktor
That lazy mind space shit is the brain cancer of s2. Season 1 finale was 4 characters at the table - 1 died. Jayce could make Viktor a cup of tea and tell him Viktor sent him from the future.
My jaw dropped. I have not had a series, animated or otherwise, have my jaw involuntarily drop in a long long time.
I think the biggest issue is a lot of what was written was actually cut. Like there was ment to be more of Jinx and Echo's talk which got axed. Even the final episode was chopped from 80-90 minutes to 50
It definitely shows. So many plotlines just felt unfinished.
One of the producer said the opposite toh, in a comment on reddit about the choices made with fortiche and not them just giving the script and saying “fortiche do this”. He said they never cut a 90 minutes episode
I really love that, even though most people are still pretty soft on the show because it looks and sounds jaw-droppingly stellar, the general sentiment is that it was unfortunately not as good as the first season. It shows the collective has actual good taste where writing is concerned, instead of just mindlessly shilling. If other Riot projects can achieve the levels of writing of the first season again, while continuing to let Fortiche cook, we are in for greatness.
@@atelheit I've seen plenty of people insisting that s2 is perfect, but on the whole yeah. I've been pleasantly surprised about being able to discuss the season's shortcomings without people taking it personally
@ i mean, season 2 wasnt bad by any means. It’s not as good as season 1. If season 2 is really bad as some people say then idk what a middle ground good show is
Jayce: my best friend turned into magic
Zuko: that's rough buddy
Zuko trying to listen to Jayce but gets too confused 5 words in due to hextech wizardry.
*boyfriend
My consistent criticism of season 2 is: It needed just three more episodes.
Not at the end, but spread out in between to fill the holes. What we got is ridiculously good and everything did get resolved in a sense, it just needed some extra room to set up and really drive all its points home. Even with the flaws, it's still better than any other show that comes to mind right now.
thisssss
i'll just list a few shows that come to mind are better:
- breaking bad
- the Expanse
- Rome
granted, it's only three, but I only thought about this for 2 minutes. I'm sure there are more out there.
what exactly got resolved? Space Jesus for some reason deciding that he has to convert everything into brainless automatons because it prevents suffering, only to then decide "actually, i dont want that anymore" last second? Vander/Warwick NOT reuniting with Vi/Jinx because neither does the treatment fail and he becomes fully Warwick, nor does he go back to Vander, but instead becomes brainless automaton no. 256? Mel just suddenly becoming some sort of mage out of nowhere? Silco's death NEVER being talked about? Isha commiting harakiri for no reason?
@@thomasmann4536 Hmm... A lot of the things you listed "for no reason" actually had the reasons explained:
"Space Jesus", i.e. Viktor changed his mind because of his older self.
How Vander ended up is more Singed's doing than Victor's and Singed got exactly what he wanted out of it.
Mel always had those powers, even if she wasn't aware of them. That's the whole reason for the Ambessa/Black Rose subplot.
Silco's death was mentioned at the very beginning as the reason for turmoil in Zaun, then there's the flashback and then Jinx "talks to him"
Isha did that to stop Warwick from tearing everyone apart.
Granted, a lot of these go by so fast it's easy to miss unless you're zeroed in on what's happening.
@@stryfer1989 My friend, you didn't actually list any story relevant reasons, plus you misunderstood one thing:
Silco's death, or rather who murdered him is never discussed by the characters. Sevika never asks any questions. Vi and Cait know the truth and never tell anyone even when it could have given them an advantage, FOR EXAMPLE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST JINX AND SEVIKA.
Viktor was all about helping people and healing and then he gets slammed by Jayce, pumped up with Warwick blood and suddenly he's all about removing individuality. There is not nearly enough setup or character development to facilitate that.
Mel was never even aware of her powers, and for 90% of her plot she is being tossed around, then while in the prison she suddenly realizes SOMETHING (that we dont even know) and gains some insane powers, and breaks out of the prison. No setup, no development, nothing. And it has zero connection to the scene where the black rose woman tries to kill Ambessa. In that scene we learn literally nothing of importance, as ultimately the black rose has no plot relevance.
Vi turning into an enforcer I dont have a problem with. But Vi suddenly being cool with all of Zaun getting gassed is a fundamental betrayal of her character. Yes, it is possible that she was somehow convinced by Caitlyn, but that conversation should NOT have happened off-screen. Unfortunately, the writers found it more important to give us a pointless drawn out fight sceen and cool "avenger style" shots of a bunch of nobodies than to make characters arcs make sense.
@@thomasmann4536 And you just said there's not enough development multiple times and listed things that shouldn't have happened off-screen, which was exactly my point about it needing more episodes.
The only reason I'm not listing detailed reasons that are mostly inferred from what was shown is because it would be an entire essay.
Hi, animator here. It seems like the one big problem that we all can agree on is that we wish we had more. And honestly THAT is a big statement. We wanted MORE Arcane to really flesh out the entire story. No other issues, we wanted more. THAT speaks volumes.
Definitely, so many shows that screw up their pacing also mess up other parts of the narrative. But arcane sticks the landing! I just wish I had been given some more time to look at the scenery
I beg to differ. There's plenty of other issues. some would have been solved by taking things more slowly, some wouldn't. For example, I'm gonna venture a guess and say nobody asked to see the rhoided rat get like 20 minutes of screentime only to then be dispatched and that whole plotline have zero consequences on anyone. You could cut this character out of season 2 and NOTHING would change. That is a motherfucking waste of time, and honestly baffling that they chose to put that in instead of giving us better character development for Vi. Just goes to show that they valued brainless spectacle over actual story content.
Also, Jinx just somehow deciding not to be crazy or traumatized, I just find insulting.
Yes, the animation is great. Some of the scenes look great. But sadly most of this is undercut by the less than mediocre writing when you just turn on the brain while watching.
@@thomasmann4536 what rat?
@@DajuSar the chembaron that looks like a rat with a trump haircut...
@@DajuSar yeah i dont know, i spent a good while trying to figure that out
Garnt missed the best line in the series. When Viktor told Jayce: "It's not about my cane or your cane Jayce. It was about OURCANE."
Holy shit, You killed me dude! Good one!
💀
You know it's a banger when even Joey's finally watching it
Are you serious? Joey's actually dropped his pretentious contratiwn hipster thing and actually watched Arcane? Are pigs flying? Is the world ending?
G2 gigguk collab?
@@ajiththomas2465 holup we need to win Worlds before that happens
@@G2LoL so 2025 right....right?
@@G2LoL wdym winning worlds? You're not even winning against kc
That's an utterly massive budget but man can you see every single dollar on the screen with every episode of Arcane!
Actually from animation of that quality not really, it's $14,000 for each 40 minute episode, where as into the spider verse cost $22,500,000 for each40 minutes, so while it is a big budget in the scheme of animation this quality it's really really cheap in comparison
@bxbydrxgxn It's still a lot of hard work that went into every frame.
60 of the 250 was spent on marketing and promoting season 1 alone, so essentially we got an animated masterpiece for 190 across two full seasons. Compared to other high budget animations I don't think its that massive at all. For context the lion king budget was around $200m for a 2h movie
Massive huh? You know what else is massive
How much did Beastars cost? That was the only other 3D show to make me think 'damn this was an option?' - also Stampede to a lesser extent. Facial expressions and little things in Arcane were S tier
The studio can keep saying it was always gonna only be 2 seasons, but it definitely felt like it was originally supposed to be 3 seasons. With how much money they spent on the show, Netlfix probably told them they had to wrap it up in 2 seasons, which is why the pacing was all over the place and felt rushed. S1 was better, but it was still a great show regardless.
It’s more likely that Riot’s own executives only greenlighted 2 seasons (for the P&Z storyline) from the beginning and they’re in no position to negotiate.
Season 3 could definitely happen tho story wise but who knows if it will ever get greenlit
"About halfway through you get this nagging feeling in the back of your brain that goes: Uh there sure is a lot of shit happening right now, surely you're gonna be able to resolve it all, right?"
"... The series just suddenly goes: Actually we're gonna do something else now"
"When a conflict has been the main focus point of your serie so far, if you suddenly decide to switch over to something different you better have time to address everything that happened so far before doing the new thing"
"It felt like they were being yanked from one emotional development to the next one" and "... Nothing ever felt out of character, but the journey to get there felt so abrupt..." and IT DOES go for every character in this season
These quotes from your video sums up my opinion entirely, THIS SEASON SHOULD'VE BEEN TWO DIFFERENT ONES!!
ALMOST everything that happens do make sense (let's ignore Heimerdingher's death or Warwick conveniently being the only "evolved being" alive just to kill jinx, to name two examples) but it doesn't have the time to be shown the right way. Season two was A BEAUTIFUL STORY THAT WAS TOLD NOT THE BEST WAY. It still is a great story, what happens to the characters and what they do is coherent with themselves, but man it should've been told a different way. Namely, with more time...
Exactly! There were 3 episodes per act, and 3 acts per season; there should've been 3 seasons for the whole series.
Completely agree with everything. But despite the flaws I still absolutely loved it and was emotionally hooked
One thing I would say though is that I think jinx was one of the only characters they did right in this show. I full understood why and what she did. I loved her throughout both seasons
They play Enemy and the one french song in the radio from time to time. How am I supposed to not think about Arcane every day?
Where is that radio?
Wait the day u hear the line in radio, it will change a lot 🤯
Arcane season 2 was still great, but I feel that cutting out the Black Rose would have helped with more time to focus on Viktor and Ambessa and explore them more before the finale.
It was for the setup for noxus season
The Black Rose segment is very useful towards setting up the spinoff shows. Not just for Noxus either, it gave a lot of subtle material for the verse in general. Though for the sake of s2 specifically, yeah it may not have been the most beneficial. But not for more Viktor and Ambessa exploration, I don't know why anybody needs more from either of them when they were some of the most complete characters of the show.
How else were they going to make Mel into an epic champion? Please be excited for the new League character! The show? Story? Who cares about any of that! Riot has skins to sell!!
@@angrynapolean3820 ?
Mel isn't a character in league. Maybe tft, but she has no skins there. Ambessa was the champion.@@angrynapolean3820
Arcane is a testimonial evidence that what's possible when Talented Animator's are given time , money and all the resource's they need.
Even the prettiest of animations is still trash when given bad scripts. Arcane’s writing should be the bar for writing shows where characters are characterized quickly and believably and the plot moves in a way thats 100% believable
But writers were given a middle finger, seems like
@mutantraze3681 Except it didn't do that because season 2 was all over the place in terms of plot and characterization.
Also that horrible writting ruins anything.
@@mutantraze3681 Hey at least still better then most stuff we got this year
I think he nailed it when he mentioned "gravity." Great moments are great, but not so much when you don't have time to comprehend them or see the repercussions in full. That was the big problem with S2
Yeah honestly they barely even seem to care that Vander is alive. Just sort of happens and then they stroll around with him. They don't seem actually concerned for him or talk with him properly in a heartfelt scene like "I just...I don't know how much of this is getting through but...if you're in there, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry" Like nothing at all
"You need to get me pregnant Jayce" - Viktor
While I liked season 2 and the memes have been phenomenal, the ending left me wanting.
"There is beauty in imperfections" is a great line until you remember that Viktor's disease was caused by piltover pushing their smog and waste into Zaun. The original conflict
After a year of oppression the Zaunnites just show up to help piltover without any conversation? Then are given a single seat on the council where they are out numbered 5 to 1?
KkKiramin weaponizing poisonous gas to facilitate a vigilante strike into a rebel country. They pushed that gas into regular streets, they caused terror.
"Can you feel my Arcane, Viktor?" -Jayce.
Ekko arriving with one of the biggest clutch moves in the history of animation is in my top 5 favorite parts of the entire series.
The guy may not have had as much screen time but he definitely made up for it in quality.
He and jinx best written characters fr fr
EKKO the boy saviour
Bro, you people will scarf down any slop put in front of you.
Bro did not have a context on what's going on lol
It's even more funny when you think about that ekko and victor never met before.
So when he threw the "time bomb" at him he was like who the fuck is that kid and where did he get that xD
Season 1 was the closest to actual perfection I've seen an animated show get. Season 2 falling just short of THAT because of improper pacing is nothing to be ashamed of.
It wasn't just improper pacing, improper writing would be more accurate. But yeah, the rest was on point!
@@ulizez89It was most-definitely time. Had they had more time, they would've been able to add much more to the writing. It's already been confirmed that loads of content had to be cut because of time constraints. They had a story in mind that they wanted to tell, but they didn't have enough time to tell it. If you want to get from point A to point B within the time you're given, you're gonna have to cut scenes out. That will always affect the quality of the shows' writing.
I'd say there is no price to perfection, only an end to pursuit.
Season 1 will have been smoother but I preferred season 2 myself. It's easy to see what people are saying with the writing but when I watch a league of legends show I want action and character drama, season 1 had that for sure but it's hard to deny the sheer amount of stuff that got done in season 2. It may not have been perfectly done but that actually fits the hectic pace and uncontrolled drama the show is aiming for. The narrative mirrors the story which is a cool touch (obviously not intentional but it helps you feel slightly as the characters do, frantic and embattled to piece together what's going on). The amount stuff happening and the progress of the story was so much more. I'm surprised considering the time travelling part and Jason in the cave injured felt like they'd have wasted a lot more time than necessary.
Still, season 1 was great for pacing but for me the visual flair, the satisfaction of the confrontations, the emotional character moments etc. There was just a lot more of what I wanted from a LoL show in season 2. It wasn't just bumping around some no name gangsters as much as season 1. I'd have been absolutely over the moon if this was a continuous show that would eventually show much more of the LoL cast and story (which would have been ideal for fans obviously) as that gets to the meat of bones of more characters, more story, more interactions. Final note, glad they lost some of the rap by the end as well, I'm not a fan of rap music and it held the first series back a little.
no, it's just simply bad writing, especially when they said they had already been working on another project for a year, you want me to believe they were short on time therefore they divided their work force on another project?
Arcane is one of the last fruits of the streaming war: One of those mega budget series that doesn't make sense financially, but a series for both fans and creators nonetheless
I'd say it is the Red Dead Redemption 2 of all adaptations. A LOT of muneh and work being put into a singular project that achieves universal acclaim
Well, I think Arcane (and its successors) *can* make some financial sense on account of Riot Games being loaded as hell and this being their pathway into breaking LoL out of its hardcore gamer fanbase.
Does 250M$ make sense for 18 episodes on Netflix? No. Riot lost money and so did Netflix. Does it make sense when it gets tens of millions of people interested in the League franchise overall? How Riot plays the next steps to this will determine that.
Potential avenues could be things like a future theatrical movie, say at 50M$ budget for 2 hours runtime, pre-Arcane that would have giga-bombed but now? The right story with the right characters could make Spider-Verse level money. Or they could leverage the new fans they now have to expand the League gaming universe to other genres which didn't necessarily appeal to the core fanbase they previously had.
I'm not going to go through all the potential ways to go about this, but the point is that every dollar they spent on Arcane doesn't need to be recouped by Arcane because it primarily serves to strengthen the IP they own which is the most valuable thing for media companies in the modern age.
@@PhilippeLepaffe What money did Netflix lose lol? Netflix just paid for distribution rights (3 mill per ep iirc) and marketed S2 (they didn't even market S1 because they thought it wouldn't do well). Riot paid for the entire show.
According to Riot's budget, it makes sense. Arcane may have cost a lot, but hmmmm wonder how much they made on those new skins.
it is partially also advertising, which could probably be considered if talking about "financiall sense"
Yeah, the story went all over the place in the second half of the season.
I couldn't even figure out WHY we suddenly have a war between the two factions.
Loved season 2, and your joke at 11:00 to 11:27 is hysterical
One thing I kept thinking when watching it was a sense of deja vu and I realized it is because a lot of overlap with Infinity War/Endgame - you have Viktor talking about how in all realities Jayce is the only one able to basically talk him down, essentially the 14 mil reality speech - Vi/Jinx having the Hawkeye/Widow moment playing out almost the exact same - time travel to bring something from another timeline to solve the problem with the big bad - even the fight between Cait and Ambessa basically ends when Cait slight of hand cuts off what i've affectionately referred to as the Riven Runes from the arm, just like Ironman taking the Infinity Stones back from Thanos in Endgame
I'm sure there is more, but this kept popping into my head
If I remember correctly, the CEO of this animation studio said that if they wanted to make an animated adaptation of a manga they would like to adapt Vagabond. That's wild. 😮
Manifesting this
Say hello to my new Roman Empire.
fair, people have fear of Vagabond getting an adaptation, even if picked by Ufotable or Kyoto.
That would be interesting but what would that even look like? Also they shouldn't touch the story elements if they're going to do what they did to season 2 of arcane.
WTF?! These mfs are crazy. But even if imperfect, I would love to see that one day.
Finally, someone shows their appreciation for Loris. He got more love in this video, than the show
The man was worthless. I was so sure he was going to be important and if I didn't watch the show with a League player I would have been sure Loris was a playable character. He did nothing, said never little and then got fridged for Vi. One of the most disappointing new characters. The fish guy was somehow more worthless and they killed my darling gremlin Smeech far too early...
@@upg5147and the less said about Maddie the better.
@@upg5147 yeah this is textbook fridging. I didn't give a shit about his death because he's a blatant plot device
I do not believe you actually knew his name, and you only got it from watching subtitles.
I think the opposite actually. Loris is a realistic character. He's not some flashy MC self-insert, he's a dude who's there, who leaves for a bit, who comes back. He doesn't come back in some rage or ulterior motive, he just... was off doing his life.
They don't mention his name because he's just happy to be there and help. He's like the guy at work who you see top off your supplies every day, and you make small talk with, but you never caught his name. But once his replacement arrives, you're still sad to have lost him.
Loris was given an anti-climatic death BECAUSE that's who he was. He died being what people needed, because that's all he ever wanted to try to be. You think in the span of... a handful of months(?), he went from a drunk (and presumably former Enforcer given how quickly they accept him in) to piloting their main form of offense in the attack? No one else probably wanted to be the MAIN target of enemy fire, so he stepped up.
Know how I know Arcane is damn good?
My wife thinks LoL is a stupid game. Hates the top down, repetitive nature etc.
Know who had popcorn, drinks, and a full on mattress on the floor ready to binge Arcane Season 2 ready?
My wife.
That doesnt mean LoL is not a stupid game
@@inasinas226 no bu it means that despite LoL being shit, Arcane was so damn good to the point that it captivated people who think LoL is shit
@@matkapfaruk6982 To be fair, arcane has almost nothing to do with the actual game. It doesn't even try to adapt any aspect of the game, just loosely the lore of the world and the character names.
Oh, look at you, having a wife and being happy!
No, I'm not jealous (yes I am)
yep she is right the game is stupid(stupidly addicting)
Sure it was rushed, they crammed everything possible into a short season but it's still a masterpiece to me
Arcane isn't even anime, but we love it here
It's actually a good thing
Yes
*Dabs in french animation*
There are a lot of other things to discover here, but Arcane's clearly one of the best thing that came out from the country.
@@ratedr7845 "Japan was in the year 2000 in 1980 and was in the year 2000 in 2020". Arcane, Wakfu etc have just proven something I've been saying for over a decade, pretty much all Anime has fucking terrible writing, there is almost no innovation in the medium and at this point they are just running on rehashing the exact same tropes, plots and characters with a slight twist/remix, which feels like an entire industry running on fumes.
People ripped me to shreds back in the early 2010s when I said that Anime studios should work way more with French studios to make something actually well written and unique, and I feel constantly validated every time France just curbstomps every anime in animation, writing and general story with utter ease.
@@KironVB anime WAS the new tightness that was innovative, but like you said, it's starting to eat itself
6:25 Don’t worry, that’s because they tricked you by hiring a Belgian singer.
And Fortiche Studio is french, so the whole animation part was made by french.
@altinopop6664 he's talking about the song, not the animation, ffs
only the male singer tho (Stromae), the female singer (Pomme) is French
Yes Pomme is 100% french, and can we say Stromae is 50% french (even 60%) so the song is at least 75% french. So it's french by majority. Vive la democracy, vive la France
(if the song wouldn't have been good I would have say 100% Belgium... I admit 😂)
@@flyghostdimension4621 he's not 60% french though, his parents are Belgian/rwandan lol
Arcane was proof that art still captivates an audience more than product.
art is part of the product dummy
Visually stunning, narratively wretched.
I honestly feel the show ended too quickly I would’ve love to see the talk between Ekko and Jinx how he managed to convince her out of suicide and to help them. Still this show was so good, the animation and music really were my favourite parts of the show and I hope that French studio continues to animate because holy moly they are talented
European animation studios became leaders in 2d/3d hybrid animation, Arcane, Blue Eyes Samurai(french and Japanese collaboration) Klaus, also allot of games cut scenes and trailers use this style
Especially the french school of animation.
They have the culture of manga since the 80s (the mysterious golden cities, ulysse31 etc...) and have the animation national schools (gobelins, artfx, and the national school of arts).
Alongside the financial support of the state and of a couple producers, making french animation films possible.
This lead to the country having it s own school (as in style) of animation, with everything from training to post production.
i had no idea blue eye samurai was french as well, the dialog struck me as very american and i couldn't finish it.
I didn't know Blue Eye Samurai was French.
@@simpson6700
That last part
I'm more of an Arcane guy myself but Blue Eye Samurai's dialogue didn't make it 'unfinishable'.
I looooved BES animation and the premise. But then, her motivation underlying her vow wasn't clear. She wants to kill the white devils because they dared give life to Her (her self hatred was that profound) but that wasn't explored. They didn't really do anything to her personally, didn't know she existed. Too many fatal injuries that had zero consequences mid battle. And I can't forgive that falling off the cliff fade to black scene.
Great review, the pacing is obviously a problem but what they did with the time they had was incredible and on point.
The pacing was THE PROBLEM. Up until episode 6 everything was great, then episode 7 released and made many wonder how the hell was every plot point going to conclude with only 2 episodes left. It needed at least 2-3 more episodes. Some characters were irrelevant yet they still somehow got their " glorious moments" even though the audience didn't care about them at all.
Honestly, I feel like Season 2 should've been 2 Seasons. The second season should be focused on the Zaun vs Piltover War and actually fleshing out and explore the dynamics and fallout of the world and conflict. And also have Caitlyn face consequences from her Dictator Arc. Just give more time to flesh out the Zaun and Piltover characters, their relationships, and development.
And then Season 3 should've been the Cosmic Machine Herald Viktor Revolution Arc. If they'd have done that, Arcane would've ended on peak.
@@ajiththomas2465 I agree, while they did everything right with the schedule they chose, that choice itself was a mistake. It is a miss how they set up the Zaun v Piltover conflict in s1, only to brush it aside.
not just the pacing, the writing was also lacking a bit compared to the first season
@@eskildscott7841 The writing was really good 90 percent of the time too, they also used a lot of visual story telling which I really appreciate. The problems almost entirely fall on plot progression, you can call that writing but that's really schedule restraints. Some writing issues I can think of was Ambessa's end, and her going along with a very questionable jesus wizard is definitely not in her character.
Writing of season 2 aside Arcane truly is a work of art. Whether you enjoyed it or not there’s no denying how stunning the show is. Animators outdid themselves.
No S2 was absolute garbage story wise carried by animation
Pretty sure arcane glazers are the same idiots who say demon slayer is carried by animation yet go out of thier way to overhype shows with trash stories like arcane
@@kingdoom5022I agree with you but it's subjective, let people enjoy a show. Being negative all the time serves 0 purpose, toxicity is the rule of beast.
@@kingdoom5022Sure paceing is bad in season 2 but it had great moments. Obviously I would rather normal pacing and dont receve ending yet but it was good anyway
Saying something is shit is not toxic@@koyaux
I had to give a thumbs up for the ADC solo top lanner reference That was nice! Well done!
Three more episodes probably would have smoothed the landing for what they had, but I really do think it needed a proper third season if they were so hellbent on tackling everything they crammed into the second. I'll never say Season 2 is bad on its own merits, but my god... we could have had something truly legendary if they were given the leeway to explore it all with the same depth and time they did for everything Season 1.
It's not really 250 mil. 80 mil was spent on S1 and 100 mil was on S2.
Where did the other 70 mil go?
@@nyuu444 Marketing and other expenses that aren't directly related to production.
I wonder how much the budget was allocated for the music alone.
@@jcm2606 probably refurbishing executive office and Christmas bonuses to all the board members
@@nyuu444 you know....this one time i will allow it....they did allow greatness to happen after all.
I really liked this season.
- Jinx and Vi being siblings
- Viktor turning into a metal twink messiah
- Isha
- that one Sevika vs Smeech fight
-Ekko breaking time (and our hearts)
- Heimerdinger singing
Wonderwall
- Isha
- like EVERY song in the show
And finally: Vi eating her cupcake
Also: Singed was the secret MVP (or rather anti-MVP?) of the entire show. Bro did sidequest while still achieving his main goal.
We could have smeech + jinx season. All 9 episodes. Would be great
Uhh. Let’s kill isha again
In minecraft
Isha
"Vi eating her cupcake" being on here is so real. After everything she's been through, she deserves a little treat.
Yeah, Vi gassed the people she grew up with and decided to bang her ex after her sister explicitly said she was going to off herself. But the important thing is that the shippers got their moment.
11:59 "There is beauty in imperfections". That one is so perfect! You need an award for using that quote so perfectly!
No? It's just not true. The season absolutely sucked in terms of writing and pacing and was a complete let down compared to the first. There's no beauty in imperfections here, this phrase has nothing to do with something simply being subpar in terms of quality
@@TitovIgorBro yapyap
@@TitovIgorBro bro is the type of person to not drink water from an almost filled glass
genuinely one of the worst lines in the show. did they completely forget that Viktor was sick bc he grew up under oppression and exploitation?? that's not an imperfection, that's actual violence that's been done to someone
The biggest flaw for me was the plothole they created by showing more about the relationship between Vander, Silco, and Violet's mother. In Season 1, Silco doesn't seem to know anything about Violet or Powder, other than the fact that Vander adopted them. He even orders Decard to murder Violet. But in Season 2 we see Silco sitting there when Violet's mother reveals she is pregnant. He's right there when Vander suggests Violet for her daughter's name. They also make the timeline clear that Vander didn't attack Silco until Violet's parents were killed, meaning Silco was still around and watched Violet and Powder growing up. So how the hell does he not know or care who they are in Season 1? And even worse, why is he trying to kill them? Even if he had a grudge with Vander, he didn't with Violet's parents. And he WOULD know who Violet and Powder are. I also didn't like how they introduced Isha. She can't talk. Why? She's being chased by goons. Why? It's like they set her up as a mere sacrificial lamb to tug on peoples' heartstrings. But as soon as she dies, no one says her name again. Jynx does nothing in remembrance of her. She doesn't even get any PTSD flashbacks about her. And how they treated Heimerdinger was bad too. They made him out to be a doddering bufoon and then kill him off like it meant nothing. He dies because what he was doing was unsafe; the character who cares the most about safety dies because he was doing something reckless and stupid? AND they straight up lie about Silco when Jynx and Saveka are taking a dump on his memory. Jynx says he couldn't administer his eye-medicine stuff without help. But in Season 1, Episode 1 it shows him doing it easily. The only reason he had trouble with it later is because he'd been letting Jynx do it for years.
How would he know VI is short for Violet? Besides, just because he knew their mother doesn't mean he watched them grow up
@@ma-cg1il I would find it very strange if Silco had such a close relationship with Vander and Violet's mother but somehow avoided being around Violet and Powder.
It's not true, that Jynx never does nothing in remembrance of Isha. The whole fucking war ballon screams of her: the bunny ears and the war painting. And Silco isn't in Vanders later memorys with Vi, Powder and theire parents, alluding their ways started to separte long bevor the total betrayal of Vander. So it doesn't seem as if he ever really got to know Vi and Powder. Yes, he probably knew who they were, but they didn't mean something to him. Maybe their mom did once, but actually he was willing to sacriface her live for his course as well, so why stop with her children?
Crazy how people would defend this level of writing.
I could excuse a couple of blunders, sure, but the second season has so many weird plot contrivances, atrocious pacing issues and completely unnecessary characters and twists in just 9 episodes! Why they decided to cram so much into one season while expanding the scope of the story is beyond any sense.
That Himerdinger death was not only out of character, but unnecessary and even stupid. Just cut the power, change the plugs, tie the cables with electric tape or something so that they don't disconnect and try again. We never get any explanation or even a hint of why he had to do it like this. I refuse to believe he wouldn't implement some kind of safety shut-off.
Also he not only kills himself, but also the host body of the alternate universe Himerdinger. Ouch.
I pretty much agree with everything. Them not having enough episodes to expand on a few things explains all of your points.
Though I interpreted the eye-medicine thing as not them shit talking him, but remembering and talking about the Silco from most recently where he did have problems, not the one from before the time skip from years ago.
And I interpreted the Heimerdinger thing as character development and him learning that not everything can be safe and that he should come down from his high horse, especially when they're stranded in a parallel dimension/universe/whatever (I did find his death super cheap, SPOILER: though there is a theory that he simply returned to the yordle world since he is a spirits and can't "die" and instead simply returned there)
I just have to say that viktor wanted to do a cheap version of infinite tsukuyomi and no one can change my mind.
It really puts things into perspective that they basically made 6 movies of 2h each. It's an insane achievement, despite any flaws along the way.
I think Vi being unable to actually fight or stop Jinx was perfectly believable. People talk a good game, but when push comes to shove humans rarely actually have the resolve to change.
"She´s still your blood!"
"Then why are you the one acting like her?"
Still IMO the best moment in S2
People analyzed their fight and everyone said it really did look like just two sisters fighting. Like they were scrapping but neither of them really wanted to hurt each other, they were both like if it happens it happens, but there was no hate between them they were just going thru the motions
@@PricefieldPunk I mean, during the fight Vi straight up *caught* Jinx when she was falling, that pretty much sells out how much "anger" she actually did have for her. Even if she is/was angry, actions speak louder than words, in the midst of battle she still subconsciously tried to protect her.
@@PricefieldPunkJinx shot her gattling gun and a rocket in Vi's face. I think you can drop the both are not trying to kill each other. VI's could have crushed her a few times, so yes Vi was holding back more
I suppose I'm just weird, because there was never a point where I felt the story was going too fast, or things were out of place to me. Mel's discovery of her birthright as a mage at the hands of the Black Rose made sense, given the clues of how Ambessa was fleeing from someone in Noxus, and Mel's sudden glow and protective ability at the council attack. And no, Zaun and Piltover were not fine to work together in the end. Seveka and most of the Zaunites rejected Jace's appeal for help; it took Jinx to bring them to the fight. And I don't know how anyone could miss the looks of disgust by the rest as Seveka took her place on the council.
All of the points are there to be seen. Like some of the best stories, the devil is in the details. And no, I didn't catch them all either, and I'm still finding new ones.
I agree.
It is funny seeing people complain "They ignored the Zaum-Poltover conflict, and it is just "solved" in the end" → when as you said, we can clearly see that the rest of the council hates the idea of giving Zaun a sit on the table
I mean...pretty much the same thing happened in WW2, especially when it was over, of course not as rosy but still the essence is the same.
I liked the theme of the season, I think life is like that, do things just happen one after the other? Sometimes it's just a hurricane you can't keep up with.
yeah im in the same boat
@@E_D___council not liking sevika = conflict being addressed? Lol, and why tf did sevika even get a seat on the council? Apart from us (the Audience) nobody in piltover knows who the fuck she is lmao. What did she do to earn herself a council seat? It makes no sense
I agree too.
I love arcane, it did have some flaws but i remember feeling so happy to live to see such a show and bless my own eyes. I cant do much in life, and i cant study well because i struggle with my ADHD despite all the medication. I lost hope in life and i’m happy to see the world of league slowly unfold. I felt like i had something to live for. So my tears of joy and sorrow in this show was more real than anything i could accept in my own life. I will never forget that experience. Thank you arcane.
Despite everything, I still can't call Arcane anything BUT a masterpiece.
You know a show is GOATed when it can have some really fucking depressive/serious shit and then in the next episode find a way to melt my heart from happiness (I'm looking at you Episode 7).
And then depress you again. And then make you happy for a brief moment, before giving the most depressing moment in the whole series leading right into one of the most hopeful.
I feel like we didn't watch the same show.
Arcane S2 shat on everything that made S1 great. Every episode was a disaster.
@@KaNoMikoProductions That's a weird way to say it improved characters and improved what was already established on S1... But whatever.
@@KaNoMikoProductions Dude, the only thing it did "wrong" is going too fast, stop trying to rage-bait.
@@KaNoMikoProductions your rage bait is obvious but I do agree S2 threw out everything setup in S1. S1 was a grounded conflict of classism and family. S2 is Infinity War. They don’t blend well together
Haven't seen this channel in a while, good to be back :D
Ah yes the gigguk arcane glazing better keep parading it so joey watches it in 3 years
i still cant imagine they made such a fire show for fucking league
10:59 that's a low blow 😔
Vi: cupcakke
Catilynn: And there goes my character arc
I'll never forgive netflix for chopping half of what should be the last episode and leave so many things unsaid. It was still amazing but the thought that we could have seen WAY more is just frustrating
There was going to be more?
There was going to be more?
@@Zephyr314 Yes, about 30 minutes were cut from the last episode. I don't know if the other episodes were cut too or not.
That was Riot Games who paid for the $250 million production. Not Netflix who just paid for the distribution. So the blame is kore on Riot for not wanting to spend the time and effort for a Season 3.
Honestly, I feel like Season 2 should've been 2 Seasons. The second season should be focused on the Zaun vs Piltover War and actually fleshing out and explore the dynamics and fallout of the world and conflict. And also have Caitlyn face consequences from her Dictator Arc. Just give more time to flesh out the Zaun and Piltover characters, their relationships, and development.
And then Season 3 should've been the Cosmic Machine Herald Viktor Revolution Arc. If they'd have done that, Arcane would've ended on peak.
The showrunners said themselves it wasnt “cut”. They removed mainly action scenes from the initial cut because the animation studio was NOT finishing in time if they had to add another 30 mins of animation
I have nothing but love for Arcane.
The problem with second season is that it does not have character arcs. It's character segments. Feels like they're checking boxes with each episode, like "now we're here" and "now we're here", without really showing how a certain character goes from point A to B.
Reminds me a bit of how Daenerys was treated, in the sense that her going mad was something that could have been credible at some point in the series, but not how they presented it, again because it was too rushed.
Vi went from "I want to help Caitlyn" to "I allow the gassing of Zaunites" real quick.
However in comparison to Denarys, the choices that the characters make in Arcane still make logical sense, even if the journey to get there isn't as fleshed out as it could be.
9:15 I mean, look, I understand that it can be a bit narratively unfulfilling for "a bigger threat arrives, so everyone cuts the shit for a while", but look at how recent events involving the sibling of a certain plumber, and how near instantly the "left vs right" narrative switch to one of "upper vs lower class."
Your modesty in success is what I admire most. Keep it up!
11:02 This top laner can barely breathe now after choking on my drink from laughter.
This is so fucking accurate lolol. Even the question pings when the ADC dies.
sexbian lex scene is incredibly important to the plot
Fax
nice bait
It was kind of, but the timing was kind of odd, considering Jinx essentially just told Vi she is going off herself. Idk about you but if my sister just told me that I wouldn't be thinking about scissors once I am free to try and help her.
it unironically is incredibly important for Vi and Caitlyns character arcs.
@@vilxxblack2472Vi literally tell Jinx that she should't come back in s2e9... So only we know that Jinx is suicida but not Vi.
I think what's precious with Arcane is that, given so much investments, and so high expectations, most company would choose to be conservative with their story telling, and way of presentation, while Arcane still insists on being creative and ambitious
You don't know what you're talking about. What was conservative about it exactly? They made a multiverse out of nowhere, an unnecessary multiverse that added nothing to the story that was stablished. What was creative about its storytelling?
Season 2 was just horribly written, there's nothing conservative about that
14:03 - already over ? Longest and fastest year of my life.
Puss in Boots : The Last Wish
Spiderverse
Arcane
these 3 are perfection.
If you want some other french recommandations, go watch "The Summit of the Gods", "Wolfwalkers", "Mutafukaz", "Persepolis", and the animated serie "Le Parfum d'Iraq", which you may struggle to find in english on youtube but is incredibly worth it.
There's a long tradition in France of political animation, especially for people from the middle east.
The last wish is extremely overrated
People PLEASE watch The Last Wish and The Wild Robot.
@@eow4317 how come?
Only S1 for Arcane. S2 is just the shippers' wet dream
Season 1 was 10/10
Season 2 was 6/10
There was a lot of factors that went into the studio not being able to deliver on the same quality of season 1, but I feel like many people are letting their affection for the first season effect their view of the second.
thought I'd give season 2 a 7, I agree. Needed that third season BAD
Finally someone, i thought i was criticizing it too much cuz ppl love it. Turns out they are just glazers. S2 makes the overall show a 7/10
you're so right. so many people seem to have their rose tinted glasses on way too tight
The fact it is the same studio that made the Stupid Rabbit animation 😭
Yeah, it's the Rabbids.
Damn, their portfolio is stacked
Wait really?
I paused this video within few minutes, watched the series and came back. I absolutely enjoyed it but agree with your points on s2. Silco was perfect
Season2 is beautiful due to Fortiche but the writing extremely suffered between the seasons. There's so much nonsensical decisions characters take(Isha killing herself and Vander for no reason - instead of leading Jinx away, Ambessa supporting mage cult leader when she hates mages etc etc AGAINST her only family). Plot taking the first place before characters. Show going into multiverse, time travel and marvel-like demigod powercreep, for the sake of being flashy, made it so much worse in comparison to s1. It should've stayed close to Piltover and Zaun tensions and politics, and finish the show with exploration of the characters and not world-ending plots. It cheapened the whole show. Sadly. It could've been so great.
The fact they started promising character arcs, but they felt so unifinished.
Piltover vs Zaun not being the focus is one of the main critiques I hear, but I think they did an alright job addressing it. Zaun’s independence was Silco’s ambition, and for the most part it died with him. The chem barons had a whole conversation where the general outcome was they are more interested in taking power in the Undercity than fighting Piltover. Additionally, there was a rally to try and drum up support, but without Jinx, no one was truly inspired to rise up. On top of that, a bunch of the people she showed up to save were killed by Warwick as he entered Stillwater. All this led to a general lack of desire to help topside in the war, but in the end the undercity came to Piltover’s aid, earning them a seat at the table. And that’s really what was needed in the first place. The Undercity now has a voice on the counsel, actual representation. Just like in our world, the counsel tried to slap a bandaid on the problems facing the city with Hextech instead of addressing the root cause of the disease, and now there is a real chance to fix the problems, especially with the only 2 creators of Hextech in Jayce and Viktor seemingly gone forever.
Gigguk was just lazy to make a proper analysis. Sometimes it seems that his chat writes the script for the video.
I think people will always have those critiques regardless, specifically because of how much time felt "wasted" on the Piltover vs Zaun conflict in the first season. Like it or hate it, humans want closure in order to feel satisfied. And when you set something up like the Zaun conflict to be so grand that the inciting incidents and climaxes of the first season evolve around said conflict, pivoting away from it to do the more overarching theme of Viktor's perfectionism will feel jarring without time in the oven.
People enjoyed seeing the arguably skippable interactions of politics that the first season presented. How the heads of certain factions felt, and what would be the best steps to take. It was a part of the show's heart. Sure you can logically deduce how the outcomes and rationales of season 2's events makes sense in hindsight, but do the viewers feel like they were as much a part of the whole journey as they were in season 1? It's those kinds of extra scenes that really make a story feel complete ad consistent.
@@kayzaac Those feelings are subjective. Some people created their own version of how things should have been unfolded in the show based of their perception. However they shouldn't expect that the story they imagined must be the only story that is possible. The authors job is to make a consistent and logical chain of events, which was done great in Arcane.
@@dertgok9813 Personally I believe a great author's job is to do a bit more than that, and still consider the most likely feelings among the audience.
In any case, sure. An author doesn't have to capitulate to people's feelings about how a story should go, but people don't have to act like they enjoy it when they have a common grievance with it.
Blade cuts both ways, etc. Up to the author if they want that 10/10 audience rating.
@@kayzaac Well, some people felt the story was rushed, others didn't. In the end, authors made the right choice to prioritize the story structure.
They should pay more to offer us therapy after the show
Then don't watch .your lie in April
Madoka magica
Angel beats
@@wandering.prince.prajwal I watched them except madoka 😭
@@Farah56 berserk , promised neverland, clannad, akame ga kill
The best way I can phrase my opinions on season 2:
It's honestly worse than season 1. But season 1 was one of the best shows ever put on TV, so that's REALLY not saying much. It's like going from a perfect 10 to a 9.6.
imo its much worse than 1, but a lot of shows are outright bad, and s2 arcane definitely isnt bad.
9.6 is too much, I'd give it an 8.5 because the story brings it down way too much
No show is perfect. Season 1 was a 9 in my opinion. Season 2 is more like a 7. Still outstanding animation, great music, but the writing isn't as good. The final act was also rushed.
I'm apparently in the minority but I liked season 2 way more than 1. First season I respect and it was good but season 2 I couldn't wait to see what happens next, my experience of watching it was very different and much more positive. Visually as well it somehow looks way better which I didn't think could happen
Only thing I can assume here is that I just don't value character drama as much as other people
@@Plo1154 You aren't really, there's a lot of people who liked season 2 as much as season 1. I noticed that those who have problems with second season have short attention span or don't really care about the plot.
After thinking about it for a while, you really do feel the tiny imperfections more in a nearly perfect story. Things just feel a little too breathless and condensed. Five more minutes of carefully placed dialogue or visual communication to smooth over some of the hurried explanations and leftover questions would have elevated so much in a show already hitting ridiculous highs. Ten more and I probably wouldn't have anything to complain about. The montages at the start of each episode were an incredibly efficient way to quickly communicate nine things at once, but the story is going so fast it's begging ten questions and keeps dropping one here and there. Even if the questions WERE answered, they weren't given time for me to absorb and understand them.
My leftover questions:
-What did kaitlyn find on her mom's computer? Some kind of map of the pipes?
-What exactly was Jinx's plan with the pipes, and what did it accomplish?
-Why was Jace shown being given a bunch of different runes, when he only experienced getting one? What does that mean?
-What the hell is going on with Alt-timeline Viktor? I don't understand how he does anything that he does, or why he seemed to send Jayce on a warpath. To stop present Viktor, sure, but why were there 0 attempts at reason or explanation?
-Why did Maddie heel-face turn at the end? I believe she was capable of the switch, but I have no idea why it happened.
-Mel sent the cat-drug-painter lady off to do something important, was that ever resolved?
-Everything to do with the black rose could've been established and explained a little more clearly. I think they put the information in there, but in like a "rewatch it and go lore hunting" sort of way.
-Everything to do with the blue-haired Jinxer's movement also confused me. How deep did that go? What was the point?
-Most importantly, why did Zaun come to the table so quickly and easily against Noxus? Did they get concessions at some point and I missed it? I don't think it would've been hard to justify, but justification needed to happen.
-What ever happened to the Firelight's tree?
-Why was there only one glorious scene with Sevika using her crazy slot-machine fist? It was so damn cool!
While still being amazed by it i wasn’t blindsided by Arcane i knew it would be awesome
I like the arcane I think Viktor deserves more arms
Loved hearing counter attack-mankind at 1:10 brought back memories
Yeahh. Can't believe it's been more than a year since AOT ended.
Sum up perfectly everything i want to say about the show. Ty Gigguk, very nice !
8:44,l'm low-key vibing with to this song,the guy's energy makes it 2× better
after watching this i one HUNDRED percent agree
Season 1 was clearly written much better, and is probably overall the "better" half of the show.
But goddamn, i think i like Season 2 so much more. I recognized all the missteps with the the writing in the moment, but I couldn't deny just how much emotion the show got out of me. The Vander flashback, the dance with Ekko and Powder, the first faceoff between Victor and Jayce. In a year where I've felt like I've just been staring at screens consuming content, Arcane made me sit up in my chair, pause the show out of fear, and shout out in triumph.
As a full package it might have been assembled haphazardly, but it feels like more than the sum of its parts. I doubt I'll ever feel as strongly about a piece of media again until Spider-verse 3 comes out.
Definitely agree overall although I will say that i think the core of the problem is more the pacing and trying to fit so much in 1 season than the writing specifically. As Garnt pointed out, the major character beats and plot points still made sense but they didn't leave much time for us to breathe and take all of it in. Given that Fortiche originally planned Arcane to be 3 seasons but Riot and Netflix slashed it to 2 seasons after season 1 had finished, it's understandable that it turned out this way unfortunately. Imagine all the less important story arcs and details they had to cut in order to emphasize the plot developments and moments we did see.
Oh well... I still love what we got and am looking forward to the next show they do in this universe but I hope they are given enough seasons appropriate to the scope of the story
250$ is a number no league player likes RN
Lets be honest - most of the players who complain about the cost wouldnt even buy it if it was a direct sale for 20$.
League of Legends was always founded by whales - but only recently Riot started to make whale centric content
Finally, someone who doesn’t ignore the faults and just focus on the things done right
Fr like ofc glaze arcane but the faults shouldnt be ignored
Horayy.. now we can uh.. feel shittier about it? Whats the point of that? Pretty sure most people are aware of it, but its good regardless. Amazing event.
@@daktotathecolossus7404 It's so show runners and writers don't ignore the faults too or you end up with the anime industry in japan that shovels so much shit people think frieren is the most amazing thing ever.
I just finished season 2, i don't get the hate. I enjoyed it. some stuff like the black rose I'm still confused about but other than that it was great.
Almost every frame is wallpaper worthy 👌
I was expecting the League client pop of sound when finding a game at the end as a garnt joke
08:31 Tha part had the same vibes as "While you were getting laid, I was studying the sword"
Yeah Arcane did have some wrinkles that an episode or 2 could have fixed but all that did was bring that down to a 9.9, i mean the way we got to the end was rushed but that doesn't mean the ending was horrible in anyway it was peak cinema
I completly agree with the fast pace development for characters, especially Vi is the perfect example where at the beginning of an episode she's like "no way I'll ever be an enforcer" then by the end she is then by the next one she's not, then she breakup recouncil bnreak up again then by the end she's an enforcer again ect ect... It never break her character but it feels like all that development should be done over the course of multiples arcs if not seasons, not in 1 episode.
On the other hand it took them 3 years to animated season 2 so I can understand that they have to make action (and story) packed episodes if they don't want to spend 15 years to finish the arcane storyline and expand to other stories. I'm sure if it was less costly in both time and money they would take more time to explore relationships and other stuff even deeper but when it takes a few days opf work to animate 1 sec I guess they need to take shortcuts sometimes.
So I get both point.
It had so much going on, probably needed another episode or 2 worth of time to flesh everything out at a minimum
It was still fantastic though, like if S1 was nearly complete in its pursuit of perfection S2 was a couple steps behind
Arcane is in the HOF of shows, period.
Arcane does one thing amazingly well, and that is "show, don't tell."
That's only s1
s2 was "dont show and dont tell"
Or "don't show or tell anything" lmao
absolute cinema
GLORIOUS cinema
Glorious Kino (rest in piece godly jawline)
Season one was perfection, the greatest thing i watched ever. Before s2 release i already knew it wont be as good as season 1 but apparently some little part of me hoped for it to be really close to it. That led to my dissapointment. S2 was still good but not even close to s1. S1 is just straight up 10/10 and s2 like 8/10. A lot of things in s2 bothered me a lot, for example too fast pace or bad writing in some parts.
Your chart summed up my feelings very well; the story & character arcs are overall fantastic but just squeezed into a smaller space than it needed to be excellent. Great video!