To be fair, at the time, Jinx was much more for League than that. She was thé character comming just After Vi, the first female character with an other body type than 'typical perfect hourglass model' and was more often describe as "Genderbend Joker" than "Harlequeen". Second character with a song, first with a full fleshed videoclip dedicated to her, and first to alter the LoL website in a true metanarrative way (pink painting all over and comments on all characters). She was a crossplateform project from the start.
@@Diamanrouge yeah she's the opposite of Harley she is manipulated not manipulating Silco=male harleyqueen(-Quinn?) Jinx=female Joker Silco+Jinx=joker+ Harley Quinn just reverse (Harley in complete and *OBVIOUS* (joker is being manipulated but it looks like Harley is under him) control and joker just being manipulated)
@@CrackedPropane ehhi picked that up in a few bullshit theories and summaries, knew about 3 hours after writing this comment that it was bullshit but didn't bother going back here
I find it really interesting of how Arcane uses these mixed emotions, understandings, and 4d characters. When I saw Silco hug Powder, I saw it as empathy, that he was upset with how the world has treated them and wants revenge for both him and Powder. While my friend, she saw it the other way, that Silco was just using Powder to turn her into a “monster”/Jinx. I find this very peculiar to see, you don’t really get these different perspectives/arcs in quite a few shows.
Silco is one of the best antagonist ever written. Exactly because of what you wrote. He was scumbag, but he had quite noble goal and cared about Powder. And in the end had great bittersweet conclusion to his character. We need more characters like him.
It's funny how people saw different perspectives in that scene. I was conflicted because I saw both and I ended up wondering: "Does Silco take Powder in because he sees himself in her or because he's trying to manipulate her? Maybe both? Who knows?" And until the very end I kept wondering if he truly cared about her or he was manipulating her. Either way I was not expecting to find his death so heart-wrenching. That's when you know you have a well-written villain. Or I would rather call him anti-villain because he does terrible things but he has redeeming qualities (he cares about his daughter and he wants the independence of Zaun).
@@rjofusetsudzin8011 another thing to note is that, no matter what opinion you hold on silco, his death is always in some way upsetting. Why? Because we feel upset for Powder/Jinx in this moment. You see Silco as an actual caring father figure? It hurts to see Jinx lose someone who accepts her. You don't like Silco as a whole and see him as manipulative? You still feel for Jinx because she is enduring more trauma and even if it was manipulation, SHE still cared about him
@@shayhuntz6139 Indeed it was hearbreaking that she killed him and did not really want to harm him. Seriously Arcane is probably only story when main bad guy became emotional heart of the whole plotline.
I definitely saw that scene as sinister, Silco taking advantage of Powder's vulnerability to brainwash her, raise her as his own so he could use her. I didn't get his real love for her until later on. Just the idea of her being alone and vulnerable with nowhere else to go, and falling into the arms of the first man she sees... that's chilling to me
Can we talk about the Viktor diffusing Chomper grenade scene while Jayce and Viktor are talking about war? That was so symbolic and foreshadowing and aligns with the central theme I think most people missed other than Viktor and Jinx are both engineering geniuses
That and he could have ended that discussion of hextech weaponry temporarily right there. Dumb observation there but the hesitation shows some lapse in trust maybe?? Idk picked up small bits from then but when i look too much into it i think im dumb
Yes, that was a GREAT scene. What Mel and Jayce are saying _sounds_ reasonable, but then you realize actually, they’re panicking about the “enemy” having weapons. Only Viktor is actually staying calm in the face of an actual weapon from the under city - and then disabling it and saying, “there is _always_ a choice.” 🤌🏼👏🏼 If the overall themes of Arcane are about like the unpredictable chaos of life and the world, and the effect our choices have within that, that scene was so perfect.
@@saraholivares4747 I agree completely, Viktor is like the undercity guy too inferior to stand up between the two councilors. He was placed in the middle for a reason. Once Mel left, Viktor was able to talk to Jayce as a friend.
Yep, very good scene thematically. Jinx builds weapons and not much else. Victor never builds weapons and dismantles hers. Zaun/Jinx want war. Piltover/Jayce/Victor want peace.
@@MALICEM12 That but also Zaun has BEEN at war with Piltover . Meanwhile while Piltover has "peace" through the exploitation of Zaun. It's a facade of peace through subjugation not actual peace. Ultimately, Zaun mines and innovates everything useful to Piltover that isn't Hextech. So it's not about what either side WANTS. It's about facing the situation they're IN.
Okay, can Jinx be a character representation of Zaun? I've been thinking about this for a bit. But it's almost as if Jinx and Zaun have matching arcs. First Zaun is under Vander's control/influence, but after his death it's Silco calling the shots. Vander lets Piltover be in charge of the "younger sister" city, but after Zaun gains distance from her "sister" with the help of Marcus, Zaun becomes a wilder and freer place. Yet as Zaun is relying on Silco for its' wellbeing, Zaun is struggling between the dependence of the crime lord and sister city, not knowing from where to pull its identity. Yet finally, Zaun is able - not to be granted its idependance by an outside force - but actually taking it for itself through violence and embracing its own chaos away from the identity provided by Piltover. Let me know your thoughts.
Ooh I really like this theory! I had a video on Silco's "you're perfect" line about how thematically Jinx is an embodiment of Zaun, but I never considered the arcs matching up. Really cool perspective! Thanks for sharing!
After watching the show again, I’m not sure this is a theory… this is just a fact. Vander gave Zaun/The Sisters what they needed most. For Zaun, it was safety and security from not only the other side (sorry I can’t remember the name), but also from those who exploited each other. It’s why we got Vander sticking up for that one guy in one of the earlier episodes. It’s showing us that he had such a big influence on the safety and security of the place. While I could argue the same for Jinx… I think Vi fits here the best. Vi needed a mentor and/or a father-like figure to promise her safety and show her morals. To get after her when she was beating herself. Vi then would try to pass those teachings down to Powder. Vander’s death was not just the death of a The Sister’s father figure… but was the death of an era for the entirety of Zaun. Vi punching Powder wasn’t just Powder’s death, it was to show that the of Zaun lost a protector and the security they so needed. Vi being taken away despite trying to come back, shows that the trust in one another was gone. Those who could be trusted and had good intentions, took to hiding. Ekko, is the best and obvious example for this one. Who did they turn to after that? Silco and poison. Silco gave Jinx what he could, but it ended up being a poison. Her morals became skewed, her mental state spiraled, her behaviour became more intense and chaotic. She became more and more desperate for Silco’s approval to the point of losing herself and practically everything she cared about. Just like how shimmer poisoned Zaun. People became addicted, desperate to get any drop they could. Zaun became more corrupt, unsafe, and chaotic. It was relying on Silco for anything and everything. Jinx, at that point in the story, that’s when she embodied the people of Zaun. When that rocket fired, it wasn’t just Jinx who fired it. It was the entirety of Zaun firing and showing that they don’t need to be cared for anymore.
Watching your analysis on Arcane with morally ambiguous characters is really helping me when writing my own morally gray characters. So thank you so much
@@temperino I'm working on two at the moment. 1) This one is a sapphic urban fantasy where a werewolf is tasked with killing the head of a mega logging corporation to save her home and people and a vampire who's trying to escape the clutches of her abusive boss while finding the truth of her parents 2) This one is a sci-fi/fantasy story about a group of teens who gets experimented on by the government to further his vision of a better humanity. When they escape,they along with their symbiotic partners need to stop the government and will ask themselves along the way: Whether they want to fix the world or watch it burn all around them?
What amazes me about this show is that the only criticism I've seen from people is that it's hard to follow who's "bad" and "good" and that there aren't any blatantly "good" people. Such a masterpiece
Ikr! I love her and I want her to make the decision and stop suffering in the middle. And I’m proud that she did and respect her decision. It’s almost the right decision because now she will be free. But it’s also just about to kill characters I care about. And I just can’t agree with it
@@Michael-bn1oi There are other exceptions too. While Jayce's actions are very grey and have lead to both good and bad, he is an unambiguously altruistic insanely well intentioned person. Almost all of his actions are in service of helping as many people as possible. Likewise Ekko and Cait as this video mentions are very good people who have been doing good things (although I suppose Cait could be considered morally ambiguous for being an enforcer). I'm not sure if Silco would count as morally ambiguous. He has a tragic incident in Vander's betrayal and his scar, he has an adopted daugther he loves, and he seemed to have good intentions for freeing Zaun. However not only were his means of freeing Zaun arguably unethical, but he did absolutely fuck all to actually go to war or cause any liberation. He just destroyed all unity and comraderie in Zaun while increasing the violent crime rate and getting everyone addicted to drugs. He's complex but I'd argue him and Jinx are evil.
I've heard it said that we do need a lot more morally-ambiguous stories and characters and whatnot, and I've also heard people say they want more characters who are evil and unredeemable. I think Arcane does give us both. Redemption implies that the character changes their ways for the better. We get redemption with Jayce and with Mel in that regard (neither were villains but they had that whole political corruption storyline), but the characters we consider villains like Silco, Sevika, and Singed do not go through that. They have moments that endear them to us but nothing that clearly changes their ways for the better. In any other show, with any other writers, Silco's arc would have either swung to making him abusive towards Jinx or his love for her as her father would have made him a "good guy". It takes a certain amount of skill, I think, to strike that balance they manage to do in Arcane. Most shows refuse to strike that balance. Villains cannot do good things unless it's in service to a redemption, and very rarely is the redemption actually handled well. Maybe that's why Arcane feels so much more alive than a lot of shows I've watched. The only other show I'm watching that's hitting that balance in any meaningful way is the Owl House, and it still falls into the abusive parental figure trap with its villain.
I've watched The Walking Dead a bit in the last time. It has so much potential. In the 2nd and 3rd season the group faces the leader of a pretty big city. First hes introduced as this big hero, that protects his peoples, which transitions to him doing very questionable stuff, like morally. The show play a little with this ambiguity, like is he really evil or is he just not naive and does the things necessary? But pretty fast it transitions to him being just evil, lying all the time over his motives, things happening, just being completely corrupt. Also, instead of searching for peace, he tells lies with the goal of making his peoples pro war. While the main group around Rick did some questionable stuff, too, they are always portrayed as good. There is this scene, where they find survivors in the prison which they cleared from zombies to live there and they didn't know what to do with them, because new peoples in the group are of course always danger. So in one situation Rick just killed on of them, after trying to integrate them in the group, since he wouldn't cooperate. That moment isn't portrayed as ambiguous. Later a member of the group said "I wish, we had killed them (the prisoners) directly", since they lost some members of their group due to the prisoners. At this point, The Walking Dead tries to discuss such moral questions, but fails in my opinion, because it still gives straight answers. (Rick good, the other one bad)
I don’t agree with the idea that Silco, and Sevika are evil for the sake of evil. The freedom of Zaun was something even Vander wanted at some point. The oppressed overthrowing the oppressor. Zaun overthrowing Piltover. Silco is not in it for personal power he is in it for the collective gain of his people. Singed on the other hand is striving for immortality at the cost of other people. In the long run if he can give other people immortality as well, not just himself it might be a utilitarian good. Though if he is striving for immortality just for himself, it is harder to argue that stand point.
I'd argue that with Mel and Jayce that it's not as much a "political corruption storyline" as much as a "reverse corruption arc." Mel starts out in an essentially corrupt position, clearly looking to continue building on her power. Within her first moments we know she's already the wealthiest person in piltover, and "the poorest Medarda" which tells us that she's also busy seeing her own influence in a relation to the sway her family holds in the world at large. She's driven to increase her power and finance by any means to try and show up the family that shunned her. The thing is, when she starts interacting with the idealistic young inventor (jayce) she begins to soften up. She starts out by trying to manipulate him for her personal gain, but over the course of the show she finds herself being more legitimately concerned with not only his wellbeing, but also with what he's concerned about. Mel begins to realize that she doesn't need to show up her family, especially after her mother's arrival, and that she doesn't have to go down the path of war and imitate her familial hunger for power.
That is a really good description and it makes much sense. I do also enjoy The Owl House and I do agree with what you said abt it. I wouldn’t be completely surprised if the decision to have the villain be a bad parent more of company interference to have him be like that. Who knows for sure bc the way they are handling the child figure is done very well so far so it might’ve been the writers but it also might have been the company interfering with that
Et toi ça va toi pas trop de boulot en ce moment j'enchaîne je suis en pause pour le boulot et je suis en pause pour le moment donc je vais pas tarder à aller au boulot en bus pour te laisser dormir the only thing that can be done is the fact that the water is a bit of a cold water pump on the ground floor of the water heater on the ground floor of the water heater on the ground floor of the water heater on the ground floor of the 5 water heater on the water heater on the back of the water heater on the back of the water heater on the back of the water heater on the back of the water heater on the back of the water heater on the back
I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING. Rule #3 applies to Kino (Mel's brother), by being a ruthless diplomat -- yet being peaceful in talking, being a fox among the wolves, he got himself killed, murdered. By being diplomatic in his approach to power unlike his mother Ambessa, he faced the consequences via death.
It's funny to think that the event that kicked everything off was the same event that ended the series. "Give us the girl that caused so much visible destruction and you will be given what you ask." Truly shows that no matter how much people try to change, humanity falls back into its own loop. It makes the same mistakes for what it believes is the right reason, not because they don't learn but because it's a new person making the mistake someone else has. No one is immortal, but if there were some, maybe we could learn.
@@driftingdruid yep because there are only a few concepts and scenarios in this world and they've all been done before so its only a matter of time before history repeats itself.
So glad someone else noticed this. I was talking with a friend about it and I mentioned to him (he hasn't finished it yet) that "give us powder and the Lanes stay safe" becomes almost a theme throughout the season
19:55 I think one point you missed is that the inclusion of relative morality makes the characters stand out as individuals from each other, and as individuals with personalities, they expand our understanding of their world. Characters have different lines that they will or will not cross. And the story challenges them. Because of Vander’s honesty, he won’t turn over someone that didn’t commit the actual crime. Because of Vi accurately listening to Vander’s lesson about responsibility, she is prepared to turn herself in, even if she knows Vander wouldn’t let her. Because Viktor grew up in the undercity, he is more willing to risk getting caught sneaking into Hiemerdinger’s lab, compared to Jayce, who grew up more privileged, and is shocked at the idea. Many, many times, the characters make choices that define their morals or challenge them. But what is considered “good” and “bad” is not clear in this show. Much like in our real world. Earlier, you made a point that Caitlyn and Ekko were on the “good” moral grey spectrum. But a big difference between them is that Ekko would definitely kill to achieve his means, (him stopping his firelight friend from killing Vi implies that they probably wouldn’t be opposed to finishing off enemies), but Caitlyn, even as an enforcer, would not. (Despite her internal conflict to take control of the situation at the tea party). So does it make Ekko “good” that he’s fighting oppression? Or does it make Caitlyn “good” that she chooses not to take lives? They are both defiantly aligned as good and trying to achieve the same goal of peace, but the two characters are written well enough to be distinct from each other and have different personalities. We, the audience know they are good people, but their morals and what lines they are willing to cross makes them compelling characters. Side note: Vi follows Vander’s morals of being responsible and protecting ‘the family’. Vander expanded that definition to mean ‘protect the community’. Maybe Vi will expand her definition of ‘family’ from ‘Jinx’ to ‘the citizens of the city’ in season two. Who knows?
Yeah, I can see Vi trying to help the undercity now that she’s got nowhere to go and Silco’s gone. She and Sevika may continue their fight for power. Or, she’ll go back to hunting for Jinx, until she loses track has to go back. Vander WAS willing to turn himself in instead of Vi. It wasn’t about honesty, but cooperation with Piltover for peace.
Yeah, Vi follows Vander's philosophy. But Vander failed lost everything. He lost his sons to the explosion, his daughters to prison and Silco. His life and his leadership of his community. Everything he stood for was ripped from him and killed him. He was killed by family, the thing he swore to protect. So hopefully Vi learns the faults of Vander and doesn't just copy him %100, but she is simple and a meat head. So at first it seemed she was just trying to be a Vander Jr. Perhaps as Jinx split from Silco to become herself, Vi will then have to learn to be a new approach to Vander's view.
OOH when you pointed out the ill-fitting Ambesta scene, I noticed also that Ambesta takes up waaaay less of the frame than the painting. Not only is she silent, but she's less in your face. You can't even see her face in the shot. The shot isn't about her, but about her recognizing Mel, seeing her as her own POWERFUL individual for the first time. No longer is she the most powerful person in frame, Mel has done something far more grand.
I wouldn't totally condemn Mel for being manipulative and power hungry. She runs an independent city state surrounded by super powers that could invade, or perhaps even revoke its independent status unless it'ss useful being run the way it is. In return, Mel runs a state that doesn't need to brutally invade others, but triumphs through trade. The contradiction though is that libertarian trade city crushes those who don't succeed in it.
Yeah also she is against war and one of the only people on the council that seems to listen to Vi and Caitlyn. She is in a difficult spot and oblivious which leads to her not really being able to make good choices because no matter what she does every choice will be bad and she is constricted by the rules of aristocracy
Someone in a video commented this part, and I like it a lot: "Mel decided to be a sneaky and cunning fox... rather than a merciless wolf wanting to kill."
good intentioned people do things that are both good and bad Mel is an idealist and wants an ideal world, one free of the violence of the Medardas. She pushes for prosperity and trade to achieve her ideal, but lets the undercity fester for too long, and is corrupt and manipulative in her own way. Good and bad, moral ambiguity
Silco is hands down my Favorite character in this series. He's so much more than we were first presented, but he's still also that guy. He's a fallen hero that is still despite everything, trying do what's right, although now through 'villainous' means. And my gosh it's so so nice to see a healthy father daughter relationship...even though neither are mentally healthy... :v
@@occultnightingale1106 I think that's what he meant by neither actually being mentally healthy lmao, both of them think it's healthy when it's clearly not XD
I cannot even begin to express how much I love these analysis videos. I’m usually a silent watcher of most, but I can’t keep quiet when I’m faced with SUCH well-thought out takes like these. From the first episode, I was obsessed with Arcane. I was also obsessed with Game of Thrones (before it went off the rails) and despite loving them for surface-level reasons, I couldn’t understand why I was so blatantly effected by their stories. I think stories as well written as Arcane, especially in terms of gray morality, are on a different level. It feels so different watching them, never knowing what’s gonna happen next. You’ll be surprised, but it’ll make sense. When you take such well written characters and make them the centerpiece of your story, something strange happens. They feel so incomprehensibly REAL. It reminds me when I sometimes take a look at psychology, or ask questions like nature vs. nurture-in the sense that it makes you realize just how unpredictability predictable life really is. There’s so many small things, experiences or perhaps just plain genetics, that contribute to who we are. When you find stories like Arcane, it embodies that, it feels like humanity’s underlying story, and I think that’s what art should be all about. Art oftentimes means taking something ugly and showing the beauty in it, a concept which Arcane establishes perfectly. Somehow, it took all these characters, made them feel REAL (which is a very understatedly difficult task, mind you), and then made the story they all contributed to feel beautiful. It carried stunning art, animation, character arcs, world building, and most importantly: themes. How the writers even began taking so many characters-making them developed, contribute eloquently to a plot, to a theme, and then made most of them LIKEABLE-that’s completely beyond me. Contributing to a MASTERPIECE like Arcane would be a dream, it’s something I strive to be able to do someday. But anyways, these analysis videos are absolutely insane. Somehow, on a routine schedule, you manage to take a show as brilliant as Arcane and dissect it in a way that is comprehensive, educational, entertaining, and correct in all the right ways. It’s amazing. And, not to sound dramatic or anything, but that ending bit of why morally ambiguous stories are important was just what I needed. It’s easy to doubt yourself as an artist, and give up when you don’t see a grander purpose in your work. But, in reality, creating stories can be for far more than simple entertainment purposes. Stories can really help guide people and help them comprehend the realities they face and the judgements they should make based on that. It’s amazing how you managed to explain that and chase that doubt out of my head, because now, as an artist, I feel like my work has been able to find that deeper purpose I’ve been chasing. So, thank you. These aren’t just bits of entertainment, they do so much more. You should be proud. I love your videos so much :)
Upon reading your reply, I am curious to discover the art such a beautiful mind as yours has created. I’m a 47 year old hobbyist filmmaker and Arcane ranks first in my personal Hall of Fame, bar none, even the work of demi-god David Lynch. I wish you all the best in your creative endeavours.
Absolutely same thing for me! These videos help me so much to understand how a good story is made and inspires me to make my own! (my biggest dream is making a game with an emotional and diverse story) I wish you lots of fun and luck with creating your own stories! ^o^
beautifully said!!! i'm completely floored not only by the wealth of information in all of schnee's vids, but also by the thoughtful, intelligent comments found under each one of them. it's been a long time since i've felt so inspired to create stories and i hope you feel something similar! wishing you all the best in your craft
I also like how this show makes different people feel different things from one scene. Like when you said you felt happiness for jinx in the final scene, for me it was mostly despair. Like the jinx fell somewhere so deep, she already won’t get up. And this costs so much for so many people
It is something I love about this first season of Arcane. It can (and should) be be used in education. As a writing example. As an animation example. As a film making in general example. But also for exploring philosophy and theology. For exploring the relationships between action and consequence. Such a great show.
For the final scene, I felt so much guilt and sadness for Cait primarily. Even though I was not responsible for the probable death of Mrs Kiramman, I still felt guilty. The expression on her face of undiluted pain and fear and sadness shattered me. But then I felt a sense of relief that the council voted for peace; Mel, who is a character I love, had finally made a step away from corruption. And then cut to Jinx, I just felt sorrow and I wanted to comfort her. She was visibly suffering and I wanted to ease that. But then at the same time, she was causing Cait, and subsequently Vi, extreme pain; which brings me back to the start when I felt for Caitlyn’s experience.
What caught me the most off about most of the characters is how human they felt. When you understand their motives and flaws every decision makes sense and become a relatable "I would do that in their position" kind of deal rather than just good or bad but very clearly products of the environment in the story's world.
The thing about Ambessa and Mell(you weakend me moment) is even stronger if you take culture of Noxus into a account. It was showned in Arcane but not said, but Noxus is centerd around strengh. In this culture weaknes is treated Illness-like that needs to be purged, they go by ,,strong live, weak die" mentalty and we can se that in how they move, act and even dress. Noxus is black and red, those are the colors they only use and its symbolic of strengs, darknes/cold in heart, Blood and brutalty, and all there cloths are sharp looking, even wepons and tools. Its sharp iron eages that makes you feel intimitaded. With this knowlage the moment is even stronger and more important in my opinion.
I do hope that in season 2, when we get to see more of Noxus, they go into all the complexities of this. Because while, yes, the central theme of Noxus is "survival of the fittest", different Noxian characters have significantly different perspectives and mindsets and focuses on what that actually means, and some are even arguably *incompatible* with each other. 1. Swain does not see the strong as "fundamentally" more valuable than the weak, he simply sees *everyone* as a tool, and it just so happens (instrumentally, not fundamentally) that the strong are less expendable than the weak, so he expends the strong less. 2. Darius does not see weak people as bad, or even, really, weakness as bad, but rather the contagious nature of weakness as bad. What he wants is not to purge weak people, or even to purge weakness out of people, but rather to purge the weak out of positions of power and influence, where their weakness has memetic potential. 3. Talon and Katarina don't really make value judgments about the strength and weakness of others, they just self-impose a desire to become stronger on themselves, as an aesthetic rather than per-se ethical maxim. 4. Karthus values the ability of the weak to find facile ways to turn their weakness *into* strength, if they're up to doing so. 5. (this is interesting because it originates in Noxian thinking but lends a very credible mindset for hatred of Noxus) Kayn values strength while abhorring the use of strength to exploit the weak, which motivates him to become strong to *oppose* Noxus, because of the way they throw their weight around. This (the be-merciless-to-oppressors mindset) is true for all the Navori, don't get me wrong, but Kayn puts a more Noxian spin on his motivation to perfect shadow magic and weapon mastery, seeing this personal growth in power as an alternative terminal goal in itself rather than just a means to an end. 6. Draven is Draven. There's really a *lotta shit* they can get to explore therein.
@@tudornaconecinii3609 cant forget urgot who was the executioner, and that followed him in his morals but not only that but also morde, he was very much a survival of the fittest person too(he was the one who made the bastion)
@@d4s0n282 Yeah, now that I think about it, Morde is one of the *purest* examples of a Noxian mindset. It sort of fits story-wise that he predates Noxus, and that modern day Noxus is *not Noxian enough* to even want Morde to return.
@@tudornaconecinii3609 who says morde does not want to return? in his lore its said he is biding his time and growing his power, and looking for a chance to return
@@d4s0n282 Nonono, I said modern day Noxus doesn't want morde to return. He obviously does. Like a lot of swain and leblanc's plans are eithet to prevent morde from returning or fuck him up if he does.
Also when Jayce was trying to tell silco to give him Jinx his eyes move back-and-forth and panic he hesitates if he was just using her he would’ve not panicked like that he may be a panic but not like that
Bruh, your video just keep getting better man. Keep putting the connections to the real world in these videos. It makes video essays feel more like a complete story, an oratory almost, rather than just some guy gushing about good writing. Doing this could easily separate you from so many other video essayist. The WHY DOES THIS MATTER is something I've only seen from you. Keep it up, love the stuff.
This was an absolutely great analysis and really made me realized something on why moral ambiguety works in arcane and doesn't in so many other series and why the audience roots for pretty much every character: Moral not being defined just by actions and intentions, but by impact. And Arcane also assumes that those things don't always allign as there is a certain form of chaos. And that's actually the main thing with Jinx. As Powder we see someome with good intentions really just innocently, childishly wanting to Help, believing in the good if her action but consequently always leading in anegative outcome (her family being killed-many other people being killed). As Jinx we see someone who's really just intentionally Killing actively making the choice to steel and persumably setting them on a path of negative Impact yet the outcome is mostly postive: we finally see the change we always wanted to see. Only through her Zaun gets oppurtunity to even be seen and considered by Piltover and finally getting persumable Independence. Jinx challanges the system of the whole sphere completely not on purpose without ever holding any vision belief or anything connected to the system. Arcane challanges our moral thinking as a whole which is why the show is so good. We as a society predominatly hold the belief that good actions lead to good things, that purposeful good behaviour gets rewarded. The opposite coin to Jinx with that is Jayce. We see someome overall concerned with moral, with doing the right thing, with doing what's best for society but in end we see it leading to negative outcomes and breaking his moral as a whole. Because he beliefs in protecting the people he engages in the same way neglect of the undercity that's ever been present in the Story. Because of this he also engages and even encourages war or weaponry so the death we see isn't just an accident but a wilful ignoring of peaceful solution in the Name of "doing the right thing" going far enough to actually reach the good outcome he sought out. He didn't just made a "mistake" but actively lost a part of his own moral. Jayce had to abondon a part of his moral which is actively helping the undercity and peace as a whole in the pursuit of what he believed was the most morally right thing. And with that Arcane actually challanges the often helf belief that you can be consitently morally good to the core. I think one of the main things that sets Arcane a part from most other series and films is that it is fundemnetally truth based, not ideal based. While many other series or films in the media work from an idealistic point of view: the ideal success Story, the ideal friendships and relationships, the ideal happy ending, the the ideal heros journey, characters growing into a more ideal version of themselves or growing into better people In general learning from their own mistakes, and the ideal Just society. Arcane basicially throws out all the idealism as a core basis. It is well established since episode one that the world just is not just. Good intentions leading to bad outcomes, sympathetic characters doing evil things while still being portrayed as sympathefic, Universal impact on a world with things that are completely outside of your control while you still being made resposnible for and everyone really just being motivated by wanting to survive the best way possible in an unjust world so judging actions by our traditional principles of right and wrong becomes mostly impossible. In this universe our justice completely is abolished by the show. And I think this is why Arcane is a moral masterpiece. It challanges pretty much any societal traditional notion about moral and what it's supposed to be. And questions our desire for Justice, our idealism for moral goodness and ultimately shows a world that it's true to it's core. Because deep down we all kind of know or feel like that the world is unjust, treats us unjustly and generelly doesn't always give us the ideal outcome. Which is the basis on why all characters feel relatable, real and human regardless. In a world that isn't perfect which I use interchangibly for just because I feel like the real ideal for morality and moral society is Justice, the people in the end are just trying to live the best they can while having flaws making mistakes and not everything working out in their favor. Wheras many shows portray our desries and dreams for a greater world or (often a basis for escapisism which series are often used for) or works with pur geatest fears for a worse world like a dsytopia, Arcane portrays a real human expierence in a world that may not be physiologicially real, but very much morally so and the creators done a beautiful job with that. And that's what makes Arcane great so for me personally and I feel like for many others too. Rant end.
This is the best, most affirming video I have ever seen, and I don't like to speak in superlatives. It has not only irrevocably improved the way I write, but it also validated my personal tendency towards radical forgiveness. I've struggled for a long time to put this ethos into words. Truly, deeply, thank you.
Question for the Q&A: When writing a story what should you start building first? I’m talking about the brainstorming part of building/writing a world but also the completed story aspect could also be an interesting one (When the reader is reading the story what should the autour build first in his world for the adventure to be enjoyable, characters, the settings, the themes, the morals, etc…) Anyway love your videos, they made me want to write my own stories with complexe character that really pops compared to the common trend of flat stereotypical ones.
It would be theme and tone first. At least that's how I learnt it. Theme, tone, pivotal questions, and the one thing in your world that is true and won't change, that makes your characters react to it. You'd be building different characters as different answer to you question, and then ask why they would ever react as such. Or you take a Silly Idea, an even sillier design, and you mix them in a character and you Ask a question ; in what World would this character make any sort of sense? And you end up with Arcane. It's not a Bad method if you throw away the unnecessary in you character(s) by the time you try to do a storyline with thoses.
Depends, which do you feel is most important to the story, and which do you feel you can do best? Generally it's a good idea to play to your strengths, and pay extra attention to whatever element you want to hit the hardest; if those two things are the same thing, even better
I feel like you can’t really choose one thing to start with, because every story has a seed that it grows from. You might have an idea for an interesting original character and build a world and story around them, you might have an idea for an interesting magic system and create a story based around that, it doesn’t really matter. Sometimes it’s even much more defined, like how Arcane started from a very clear basis of a cast of already existing character and an already existing setting, and built a narrative from there. It doesn’t really matter where you start, because really you can make a good story about almost anything, all that matters is that once you have that basis you stay consistent with it. If your basis is a theme, don’t emphasise other themes too much except antagonistically, if your basis is a character don’t let them feel out of place unless it’s done very deliberately, if your basis is a magic system don’t break the rules of the system and ensure that any character who tries gets punished somehow. Arcane does a great job of this in that they take these characters and settings and construct a narrative that feels fitting for them, and while they bend characterisations somewhat they never break them (assuming viktor’s future arc is handled well).
These 4D characters are so relatable bc those paradoxes are the essence of humanity. Like I have no problem believing that Silco is at the same time a manipulative villain AND a loving father. Bc this is how it often works in reality, love does not necessarily exclude manipulation. Same as in the Vi and Powder/Jinx relationship vid, all of the theories can in reality be true at the same time. And it's not only true for the traumatised ppl or extreme conditions like in Arcane, but definitely more visible.
A few seconds in and this one is already banger! I've been wanting to write my Main Character as being morally ambiguous for a while now and this will help for sure
Holy crap, this is exactly what I’ve been doing with my character Ora. She is an aunt/ mentor like character to the main character, and she is introduced as a burnt out, rude and tired adult figure in Sophias (main character) life. But, as Sophia starts to really dig into the history of her country and world, and the horrific event of the burning bowl, the narrative of fire starts to split into two. Is this person an apathetic and destructive person who will surround themselves in any delusions that enable them (fire is something that burns), or are they a truth seeking person who has been truly beat down by injustice and prejudice (fire is something that gives light)? As Sophias manifestation (this worlds term for superpowers, basically) is also a pyromancer, she must figure out the source of her need to “save the world” is she hell bent on finding the truth that has been kept from her, at the expense of everything, even the people she loves,, or is she speaking for the injustice of the world, and seeking to right the wrongs of liars? I’d like to think one day people will be making these sorts of videos about my show
After reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelly for my English class, I have come to realize how much themes overlap between the two works. Moral ambiguity, loneliness, family, lost innocence, ambition, and probably a couple others I couldn't remember. Whenever we would discuss these themes in class, I always thought back to these character and theme analysis videos schnee does and connect the similarities from Arcane to Frankenstiein. It's quite interesting how much this draws from Mary Shelly's classic novel.
I can't believe a League of Legends spinoff of all things gave me actual educational writing content on TH-cam. This is just in-depth enough to scratch some big itch I've had for the longest time as an aspiring writer looking for new ways to improve. Thanks for the good videos, Schnee
_I feel completely impotent and unsettled after watching this and I think that only proves your point. It's kinda exactly how I felt about Arcane when it ended. Keep going please, you give me hope and the tools to write the story I want to write._
That’s really neat how u felt happy for Jinx in the beginning, I had a completely different reaction. It felt to me as though her deciding to leave Powder behind was a devastating defeat and the ultimate failure of the protagonists…because Jinx is fucccckeed up.
I had a similar reaction to being happy for her. It was devastating to see her lose everything, but I felt happy that she was the only one to actually accept the nature of the world. I dont personally think jinx was ever truly in the wrong, yes what she did morally is frowned upon, but given the circumstances it was justifiable the path she chose. I think her leaving powder was the healthiest thing she could have done. Powder was what caused her to constantly doubt herself and suffer imposter syndrome; by essentially accepting that part of her is gone, it made her more grounded. The craziest part is that technically, jinx is just as much as one of the protagonists but from a different angle. Jinx isnt inherently fucked up, but rather she is damaged and hurt and has so much anger and pain that was thrown at her based on circumstance. I was happy for her because she ultimately was the single person who became the most realistic of the world.
I don’t really like powder because I’m not a big fan of characters that screw up everything for the characters around them. And since I’m not fond of powder it’s hard to forgive jinx for all the murder and destruction she’s caused but I can see how others may like her. I don’t think she’s badly written, she’s just not the kind of character I like
I... I'm getting chills. I've rewatched Arcane over five times and every time I still get more impressed by how absolutely genius the people who worked on Arcane are. Brilliant as fck.
I feel very similarly, at the end I couldn't decide whether I feel like crying or if I was proud of Jinx, maybe surprised and shocked too. I think your videos are very informative and indepth.
Absolutely wonderful video - managed to keep me actively engaged and interested the whole time. This and your last long analysis really highlight Arcane's amazing writing and breaks it down in ways that are both easy to understand and easy to apply to different pieces of media (my own or otherwise). Keep up the great work!
I'm glad you make these videos cause they help those of use that create characters and worlds find what works. You explaining everything about Arcane's top-notch writing and characters is helping me determining how I'll go about my own stories.
not even gonna lie, I've seen a lot of writing essays in my time to improve my own craft, yours is the first ive legit wanted to take notes for. Thanks for making this incredible video, and here's hoping we can use what you taught me for my own work :)
I honestly just think this is the story of humanity, how there's no just good or bad. There's bad actions with good intentions, bad intentions making bad actions, and etc. No one person is completely 2D bad or good. There's always a 4D model in everyone, we just don't always get to see every one of those sides.
Yo bro you have no idea how much this helped me with my storytelling and writing! Your list of methods and world building rules on what makes a story memorable and alive and makes you question reality and humanity. Yeah just wanted to say thank you and you’re amazing!!
Vander was even a grey character in my eyes. in addition to Vander’s betrayal of Silco, Vander also betrayed the whole undercity. it’s funny to me when people say sevika was a traitor. she stuck to her guns the whole time and told vander to his face why she no longer could side with him. sevika was about getting the boot off the neck of the people of the undercity. even if it meant working for silco (but she also let’s silco know, “i wouldn’t turn on you for a worm like finn, but if someone else more capable came along, i might”). vander on the other hand made a deal with the one’s oppressing his people (a secret deal i might add) to prevent the people from rising up and resisting oppression. he did it to keep his family safe, so we sympathize, but so often people fail to recognize this as betrayal. this was played out in the scene where vander convinces vi that violence is not the answer. he did make this appeal to the undercity, but having a secret deal with the enforcers is a betrayal.
Yeah it says a lot about Vander's character that he thinks he knows so much better than everyone else, and he chose to go behind all their backs. Why can't he be open with them about the tentative peace treaty he has in place? If he doesn't trust the rest of the undercity to understand his aims, then how can he claim to represent them?
Yeah! I'm actually not much of a Vander fan because of that. I think more could've been said about Vander being a very morally grey character (but I think Schnee already has video on that). Still - he collaborated with the oppressors behind the backs of the people he's supposedly helping. Why exactly is he the only one that gets to decide if Piltover should be allowed to leave their boot unhindered on the undercity's neck? It's a whole layer of tension for the viewer when you agree with Sevika and Silco's reasoning and end goal, but viscerally disagree with their methods(child labour, murder, human experimentation, etc) .
Vander did the opposite of betrayal, he’s protecting the under city. You said he made a deal with the oppressors so they don’t rise up? Bro what were you watching, he made a deal with them so the under city don’t get crushed again. The opening scene shows that whatever conflict happened, Piltover won and it was all for nothing. People died, Powder and Vi lost their parents etc. We literally see piltover soldiers going around executing under city fighters. The deal is that if he keeps the undercity under control then Piltover won’t do anything. He’s keeping the peace. Because the fact of the matter is if they go to war again, the opening scene would just be repeated and the undercity would lose again and people would die for nothing, including his own family. It’s just a matter of differing view points. Some may say resist oppression no matter what, but that also doesn’t mean throw yourself at an unwinnable war and dying senselessly to set your movement back even further. As for Sevika she did betray Vander. Yes she did not betray the cause because her motivation was always the same but she betrayed Vander as a leader by siding with a man who wants Vander kidnapped and dead. To betray someone you just need to not be loyal in a harmful way, usually by helping their enemies. Silco is Vander’s enemy and announcing your reasons for betrayal beforehand doesn’t make you any less of a traitor. She’s still a cool character though.
@@ReblazeGaming imagine writing something that long to someone who's not even going to read it back. "bro". TH-cam is the shittiest platform for debates
@@sabrina0013 Why are you exposing yourself for not being able to read 1 minute worth of text? I'm not losing any sleep over that. Not to mention I didn't even reply to you and my comment was not directed at you, I replied to Rahsaan so I have no idea why you're responding to me lmaoo.
i love how this show isnt just a "grey mess of confusion and complexity" these characters are written like realy people, you can put yourself in any one of their shoes and know how they are thinking. take silco for example, you may think "oh he kills people, i can never relate to him" but since we know why he kills people, and what lead him to be so calm about killing people, we dont have to relate to him, but we can and do understand him. we know these cahracters inside and out and its amazing
I have absolutely loved every single vid you have done on Arcane, I bloody loved the show before but you have opened my eyes to so much more. Through you Arcane has become one of my favorite shows of all time. Your vids are gold. I so cant wait for season 2 and what you will have to say about it. Congratulations on the 50k subs. Its so well deserved!!
Your analysis of all of these subjects is incredible. Everything you say makes sense, is easy to follow, easy to understand, is thought-provoking, and is just all around well-done. Love your stuff, can't wait for the second season to watch you tear into it again.
This video is brilliant. I absolutely love the connection you made at the end to a real-life moral conflict. It really embedded the importance of this discussion of moral ambiguity and explained why I'm so fascinated by the moral dilemmas presented by Arcane.
This is definitely the best character/story breakdown channel I've ever seen. If more amazing shows come out like arcane I can't wait to see this channel hit 100k subs. You're amazing dude keep it up 💯💯
omg yes! when i watched the series i always told that i am happy at who Powder has become a stong person able to defend herself properly... but what am i happy about? a girl lost everything? a girls being traumatized and growing up with shizophrenia? a girl loosing everything and doing everything wrong over and over again? no... how can i be happy and at the same time so full of guilt? i am happy she became who i is now. but for what cost? ''who are you willing to loose?'' -Vander
The whole idea that there is moral ambiguity in these characters and people debate their intentions is just thrilling to me!!! Also the entire concept of morality is quite thrilling too. It's like how we humans understand things better by categorizing and defining them (fair), but the kicker is things are never so simple as 1& 2, black & white or good & evil. There's almost always a middle ground or a grey area. A chaotic spectrum of possibilities where nothing is certain.
i just wanna say i love your analysis videos so much man. as an aspiring writer myself, they’re so beneficial and show me how deep i can get with my own stories. i used to mostly turn to critiques of bad stories to learn what i shouldn’t do, but these videos that show me what i should do are way more beneficial. you’re the bomb and so is Arcane.
I don't even know why I didn't see this ending coming, it makes a lot of sense for this character trope, but oh man was it a good round-up for Jinx's story. Her rejecting both the people that have somewhat of an emotional grip on her, making her own very fittingly messed up decision. But also her kind of fulfilling both the expectations put on her by the two most important figures of her life; Killing Silco, and using the weapon she was supposed to build to destroy the topside. She simultaneously lives up to both their expectations, which is the main driving point of her character, but also finally rejects her dependency on others and just does what she feels like. Its filled with detail, morally despicable, comlicated, and all over the place, just like Jinx herself.
Truly an outstanding video I especially liked the backwards fate section it really hit me when you said that just how present it is all throughout arcane as a whole
I think that moment for Ambessa was her empathizing for the first time in her life. For the first time she saw something and tried to understand how Mel was feeling about everything in silence, as opposed to her taking action and initiative first.
So essentially >the rules are about making your story’s world allow for wondering if there’s more to people and situations; having some questions unanswerable to drive how much you question, reward good and punish bad to make people crave a morally correct resolution and allow for both morally bad and good characters to balance things out and use them as a way to act as a sort of moral compass >the first method is establishing a character as one thing and then revealing something else relatively different about them that changes how we see them, that makes us question our perception of them and keeps us questioning >the second method is having an already well established and 3 dimensional character do something out of character in an important moment for them that they not only try to fix but makes us reconsider our previous thoughts of them >the third method is through a character with morally good intentions and goals having issues achieving said goals leading them to do what is morally questionable and the consequences of their actions make us judge them >the fourth method is about applying a grey morality via watching characters so stuck in one way of thinking for the betterment of something that it ultimately hinders other things around them >the first method is to have characters judge other characters on their decisions, natures, morality, etc to create conflict and further make the audience question the morality of the characters being judged >the sixth method is to give morally bad characters redeeming qualities to also make us slightly question how we see them and the world around them and to what effect that makes them less evil >the seventh method is to give us an excuse to not see a character and their morally objectionable actions as completely objectionable (say, complete manipulation, mental illness, stuff out of their control etc) >the eighth method is having characters with zero strong moral ideals or proper understanding of moral frameworks to good or bad things and make us question if we can really say they were good or bad >the ninth method is to pit two or more things/worlds we believe to be morally good or simply just good that we’re invested in separate and then finally against each other and make us wonder if one is morally just or not or if neither or both are? Did I get that right? It’s a lot of info and I don’t normally try to understand sometihng like this since I’m not really good at absorbing something this long but helpfully informative all at once but I kind of felt I had too? It’s odd and I don’t know why but my brain just told me not to rest until I’d watched it all. Like this is the kind of thing English teachers would go over in a whole semester
Great summary! I think you stated everything pretty clearly. I'll leave my summary from my own notes in case it's also ends up being helpful for you: 1 2d introduction → moment that doesn’t fit → every scene after this fits into 2 different versions of the character 2 3d introduction → moral failure → redemption becomes a goal; audience withholds judgment 3 morally pure character incapable achieving moral ends due to sloppy thinking 4 operating from radically different timeframe → we perceive as immoral 5 characters forced to make difficult moral judgments of other characters 6 “bad” characters given “good” qualities that don’t change our judgment, but affect it 7 “bad” characters given “outs” that discourage us from placing blame 8 characters operating from completely non-moral mindset 9 two good frameworks forced into antagonistic relationship, good and bad framework forced into unjust alliance 1 world plays with expectations in setting/characters to signal depth 2 plot explores REAL moral dilemmas without providing resolutions 3 unjust fate creates a need for morality 4 diverse levels of morality in cast
Your breakdown of Silco described my view of him on Both ends. I don't see them as mutually exclusive, Silco *admires* the monster within everyone. To him, a Monster is Truth, it's the Real version of a person, their darkest depths are the reality, that's what he cultivates in Powder, he sees the steps, her darkest moment, her truth, and he admires that she is already on that path, and cultivates it for the entirety of her stay with him...
really wonderful video, I love how you analyze shows and bring out how writers might be thinking. It's majorly impressive! As for the question... how did you begin to learn about and recognize these super nuanced things (the tropes, etc), and how do you synthesise them into something cohesive? It seems like you're untanglinh a complex web with each video and it's super intriguing.
Am I the only one who thought of a “powder keg” when I first heard Powders names when I started watching the show? Like, without even really knowing the game I just knew this girls mind was just waiting to explode in everyone’s face. Thanks for the videos btw! Recently discovered the channel and I appreciate your analysis! Keep going! :)
How about something different for your 50k vid like your theories or what you would want or expect to see in season 2? The ending to season 1 was great and it felt like a really really good set up for all the characters to just fly and develop from. Another great analysis, by the way! I'm always looking forward to your next arcane video lol
@schnee (QnA) I love the way you can dissect a piece of media down so well. I wanted to ask how you do it, how did you learn to do it. How do you write an analysis for an arc/character, how do you break down the themes and messages being conveyed by the narrative? Also: how many times have you watched arcane? looking at all your videos, I can tell you've watched it several times haha
What he said about stories teaching us to react to real world situations was true for me for the first time a couple years ago. Getting into college was my first time learning all the ins and outs of American Imperialism and all the suffering we as a country caused. Reading my history books, it sounded exactly like the fire nation from ATLA- and ATLA taught us that countries like that can be redeemed if enough people in power (like Zuko) choose to make the change and make up for all the harm they caused. Here's to hoping.
Every single one of your analyses of Arcane are mind-blowing and brilliant! I'm learning so much about how characters and stories can and should be told. Thanks so much for making these!
I love this videos and your explaination of the characters, arc, themes and conflicts. But on 11:40 i don't think Mel is just thinking about corruption, money and power. My take is that she's trying to use the city and Jayce to acomplish her desire to peace and power through wits, not brawl power. Hextech as a weapon, as a pivotal force to put Piltover on the map
Somehow you always manage to make me love this show more and more. With each video you put things into words so well that I find new dimensions to everything. I’m really glad I found this channel. Awesome work!
Please, please, PLEASE make videos about Better Call Saul! It's honestly insane how much value I get out of your analysis. The amount if depth that you've shown me exists in this show is amazing and I'd love to hear what you think about Better Call Saul. I've never seen a show that respects it's audience more, the amount of subtlety and potential for peeling back the layers is honestly nuts. I hope you'll consider it. Congrats on 50k :^)
I used to love writing as a kid but now I’m in college and getting back into writing was hard because there’s so more I wanted to add and I didn’t know how to do it but watching your videos helped me so much I can’t thank you enough for helping rediscover a passion I have
I saw Mel taking off her ring as symbolic of something else entirely. that was the emblem of her homeland (which are warriors) and by taking the ring off and siding with Zaun's independence, I saw her cutting ties with a brutal heritage and choosing peace instead.
Moral issues are really well implemented in this story. It's like in reality: there are many gray areas, actually no one is pure good or pure evil. Characters make mistakes, some do evil for good reasons, or "do great things but fail to do good", etc. The story and its characters are simply multifaceted. That's what I like about Arcane. I watched the first season several times, but even the first time I watched it, I liked all the characters and I could understand their reasons. In the bigger picture, I understood the motives, opposites and perspective of Piltover and Zaun (and their characters) and I was on both sides, even though I knew they would never find a peaceful solution.
12:19 I think that's one of the things I like the most. Not in Arcane in particular, but in general. How does good and bad actions balance each other to make realistic characters.
I love you're videos because i take them as masterclasses. I learn a lot from them! Things that I knew i loved about arcane but didn't exactly know how to explain any of it. Thank you so much for sharing this passion.
I have a question about Arcane, and specifically how it relates to the source material. I'm curious what you think about the idea of "plot armor." A lot of people have pointed out that they never expected certain characters to die because they exist in the League of Legends game, and this idea that 'champions' have plot armor I think fuels a lot of the speculation about some characters in the council room potentially surviving Jynx's Super Mega Death Rocket. My question is, do you think that champions from LoL have "plot armor" in Arcane, and if so, how do you think it affects the story (if it does at all)?
@Schnee what are some stories that changed your life? And I'm not just talking about fictional ones, but stories that changed the way you look at writing, character development, themes, people, culture, relationships, etc.
You have to consider that when Silco was at the statue of Vander that’s when he saw why Vander chose peace instead of war.He also saw why it was so hard for Vander to make a choice because Silco finally saw a chance to get Zaun’s independence but he chose Jinx instead. Just like how Vander chose his kids over helping the Lanes which put him in a tight position and that causes us to do drastic actions. Jinx was trying to redeem herself during the shooting at the building scene by trying to get what Silco wanted. Even her rocket launcher, Fishbones, is a tribute to Silco as a reminder since he liked sea monsters and had a fondness for them and the rocket launcher has a scar on it’s eye. When it comes to judging a character you have to put yourself in their point of view and consider the choices. Jinx is trying to prove herself and make Silco proud because we never saw Vander acknowledge Jinx for her inventions or actions. The only person during her childhood who was paying attention to her was Vi. While Mel has to face the expectations of her mother while Vi had to fulfill Vander’s ideologies and as Silco said, become the prodigy and successor. The hard part is Jinx finding happiness and satisfaction within in herself even though her personality tends to shift she’s always going to have those voices in her head and have other people change her view of things. Sorry if this is a leap but could you talk about the symbolism of the crow and the firelights because it is an interesting subject that foreclosures the events and upbringing of the Firelights and what the crow represents.
My favorite fable about the Well Intentioned Idiot: "Oh, no, you're drowning! Here, let me help you!" cried the Monkey to the fish. The Monkey scoops up the fish from the shallow pond and carries him to the top of the tree. "There, you're safe now," says the Monkey to the dying fish.
@schnee I have loved all your Arcane analysis videos and have a few questions for you! - If you could sit down and have a conversation with Christian & Alex (creators of Arcane, for those who are unfamiliar) what would you say and what questions would you want to ask them? - What writing projects do you currently have going on atm? How have the lessons you learned from Arcane been incorporated (if at all) into your own writing? - what do you hope to see from Arcane S2? Any predictions/guesses? Thanks 😊
This analysis was totally fascinating in and of itself, but your ending is probably the most important message anyone talking about storytelling can say - Stories Matter. Stories help us think about who we are and what we are as humans, flawed, complex, challenging people. If that's something anyone reading this comment got from the video, good. Remember that. Stories are a mirror on humanity, and they need to reflect EVERYTHING that we are, not just the bits that you or a certain group might prefer.
How do you come up with this stuff? Where did you learn to think about stories like this? What put you on the path of having so many insights to talk about regarding Arcane? Love your content, it always makes my day better!
Watching your videos is like a whole writing seminar I love it 😍 And totally agree with the Princess Mononoke analogies, I always loved how they flesh out their characters and they don't at all get lost in a story about gods - would love to see you talk more about Studio Ghibli writing if you're up for that!! Also so great that you grounded it with the real life application at the end - I think way too many people gloss over /why/ telling these stories is important, is awesome to see you share your thoughts on it.
I’m a visual artist so I work and listen and I’m rarely looking at the screen while I listen to these, but I’ve never been more happy to take a glance as when you said “they’re old” and slapped BOOMER over Heimerdinger and Singed😂😂😂
Your videos always feel so informative and understandable even to someone who has no experience in this sort of thing. Its so easy to follow along with your thoughts and points and it all makes so much sense with how you describe it. You are astonishingly good at both this long form and the short form analysis of storytelling, narratives, characters and all the rest of it. You deserve all the success you achieve because you have well and truly earned it. Congrats on 50k as well; it wont be the last milestone you reach, im certain of it.
Have I asked you before to talk about Singed? I think he has some interesting themes related to him, like amoralism, scientism and his need to progress science at all cost aka the greater good. Great vid btw!!
Both this show and your channel are absolute gems. I'm going through the comments and it's mind-blowing just how much of a conversation you've started around this. I appreciate your appreciation for good writing-your content is fascinating, instructive, and entertaining. Keep it up!!
I have to disagree with you on Heimerdinger being a moral character. The guy is a founding member of Piltover and has been head of the council for decades (at least). So, everything that's wrong with Zaun, the poverty, the pollution, the deprivation, the stranglehold of crime lords, etc etc, all happened under his watch. He's the closest thing to a true villain in the whole story, but no one apparently sees it because he's a cute little furball.
Completely agree! His immortality causes such blatantly harmful shortsightedness for those currently alive. And he can't even see it. It truly is horrible.
He is like a leader who wasn't leading for centuries, but him ignoring state matter isn't something that could be considered evil. He was just one single councilor after all. He didn't had much interest in governing and his title was more of a symbol for tools he invented.
Yes but Heimerdinger lives for god knows how long. He's probably thinking of the long term, to the point where it's blinded him to the now. Effectively a 'well- intentioned idiot'
i loved the point you make about good being punished and bad being rewarded bc in Arcane we get to see just why people opt for evil and neglect good, it makes the world believable and the conclusion less certain. Its also just how things have worked historically. In many countries, security and power were built from evil and then later that prosperity is used by good people to remove the evil. Some continue to use evil bc its tried and true, some will take the rewards of evil as inspiration to more concretely visualize what they want to accomplish through good (minus the evil) and know that its possible. In this way Arcane’s story just feels relevant.
![[#2024MAMA] ROSÉ (로제), Bruno Mars - APT. | Mnet 241122 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dgGqD28J6aQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I still can't believe they reached such heights of characterisation with what started as a HARLEY QUINN KNOCKOFF
LMAO FR
To be fair, at the time, Jinx was much more for League than that. She was thé character comming just After Vi, the first female character with an other body type than 'typical perfect hourglass model' and was more often describe as "Genderbend Joker" than "Harlequeen". Second character with a song, first with a full fleshed videoclip dedicated to her, and first to alter the LoL website in a true metanarrative way (pink painting all over and comments on all characters). She was a crossplateform project from the start.
@@Diamanrouge yeah she's the opposite of Harley she is manipulated not manipulating
Silco=male harleyqueen(-Quinn?)
Jinx=female Joker
Silco+Jinx=joker+ Harley Quinn just reverse (Harley in complete and *OBVIOUS* (joker is being manipulated but it looks like Harley is under him) control and joker just being manipulated)
@@blutwirbel3180 Wait are you saying Harley is manipulating the Joker? From what context
@@CrackedPropane ehhi picked that up in a few bullshit theories and summaries, knew about 3 hours after writing this comment that it was bullshit but didn't bother going back here
I find it really interesting of how Arcane uses these mixed emotions, understandings, and 4d characters. When I saw Silco hug Powder, I saw it as empathy, that he was upset with how the world has treated them and wants revenge for both him and Powder. While my friend, she saw it the other way, that Silco was just using Powder to turn her into a “monster”/Jinx. I find this very peculiar to see, you don’t really get these different perspectives/arcs in quite a few shows.
Silco is one of the best antagonist ever written. Exactly because of what you wrote. He was scumbag, but he had quite noble goal and cared about Powder. And in the end had great bittersweet conclusion to his character. We need more characters like him.
It's funny how people saw different perspectives in that scene. I was conflicted because I saw both and I ended up wondering: "Does Silco take Powder in because he sees himself in her or because he's trying to manipulate her? Maybe both? Who knows?" And until the very end I kept wondering if he truly cared about her or he was manipulating her.
Either way I was not expecting to find his death so heart-wrenching. That's when you know you have a well-written villain. Or I would rather call him anti-villain because he does terrible things but he has redeeming qualities (he cares about his daughter and he wants the independence of Zaun).
@@rjofusetsudzin8011 another thing to note is that, no matter what opinion you hold on silco, his death is always in some way upsetting. Why? Because we feel upset for Powder/Jinx in this moment. You see Silco as an actual caring father figure? It hurts to see Jinx lose someone who accepts her. You don't like Silco as a whole and see him as manipulative? You still feel for Jinx because she is enduring more trauma and even if it was manipulation, SHE still cared about him
@@shayhuntz6139 Indeed it was hearbreaking that she killed him and did not really want to harm him. Seriously Arcane is probably only story when main bad guy became emotional heart of the whole plotline.
I definitely saw that scene as sinister, Silco taking advantage of Powder's vulnerability to brainwash her, raise her as his own so he could use her. I didn't get his real love for her until later on. Just the idea of her being alone and vulnerable with nowhere else to go, and falling into the arms of the first man she sees... that's chilling to me
Can we talk about the Viktor diffusing Chomper grenade scene while Jayce and Viktor are talking about war? That was so symbolic and foreshadowing and aligns with the central theme I think most people missed other than Viktor and Jinx are both engineering geniuses
That and he could have ended that discussion of hextech weaponry temporarily right there. Dumb observation there but the hesitation shows some lapse in trust maybe?? Idk picked up small bits from then but when i look too much into it i think im dumb
Yes, that was a GREAT scene. What Mel and Jayce are saying _sounds_ reasonable, but then you realize actually, they’re panicking about the “enemy” having weapons. Only Viktor is actually staying calm in the face of an actual weapon from the under city - and then disabling it and saying, “there is _always_ a choice.” 🤌🏼👏🏼 If the overall themes of Arcane are about like the unpredictable chaos of life and the world, and the effect our choices have within that, that scene was so perfect.
@@saraholivares4747 I agree completely, Viktor is like the undercity guy too inferior to stand up between the two councilors. He was placed in the middle for a reason. Once Mel left, Viktor was able to talk to Jayce as a friend.
Yep, very good scene thematically. Jinx builds weapons and not much else. Victor never builds weapons and dismantles hers. Zaun/Jinx want war. Piltover/Jayce/Victor want peace.
@@MALICEM12 That but also Zaun has BEEN at war with Piltover . Meanwhile while Piltover has "peace" through the exploitation of Zaun. It's a facade of peace through subjugation not actual peace. Ultimately, Zaun mines and innovates everything useful to Piltover that isn't Hextech. So it's not about what either side WANTS. It's about facing the situation they're IN.
I’m living purely on your Arcane content while I wait for season 2
that makes two of us lol...
Just few more months to go ............... about 19 (since i think they'll release nov. again .. during Worlds) :)
same
Same, my dude.. Same.
I feel with you, but there will never be a season 2 of this show that is worthy of season 1.
Okay, can Jinx be a character representation of Zaun?
I've been thinking about this for a bit. But it's almost as if Jinx and Zaun have matching arcs. First Zaun is under Vander's control/influence, but after his death it's Silco calling the shots. Vander lets Piltover be in charge of the "younger sister" city, but after Zaun gains distance from her "sister" with the help of Marcus, Zaun becomes a wilder and freer place. Yet as Zaun is relying on Silco for its' wellbeing, Zaun is struggling between the dependence of the crime lord and sister city, not knowing from where to pull its identity. Yet finally, Zaun is able - not to be granted its idependance by an outside force - but actually taking it for itself through violence and embracing its own chaos away from the identity provided by Piltover.
Let me know your thoughts.
Ooh I really like this theory! I had a video on Silco's "you're perfect" line about how thematically Jinx is an embodiment of Zaun, but I never considered the arcs matching up. Really cool perspective! Thanks for sharing!
Ohh that is actually an amazing theory
Thanks. I'm not sure if Vi's arc matches with Piltover though. @@Isla-eq9qh
After watching the show again, I’m not sure this is a theory… this is just a fact. Vander gave Zaun/The Sisters what they needed most. For Zaun, it was safety and security from not only the other side (sorry I can’t remember the name), but also from those who exploited each other. It’s why we got Vander sticking up for that one guy in one of the earlier episodes. It’s showing us that he had such a big influence on the safety and security of the place.
While I could argue the same for Jinx… I think Vi fits here the best. Vi needed a mentor and/or a father-like figure to promise her safety and show her morals. To get after her when she was beating herself. Vi then would try to pass those teachings down to Powder.
Vander’s death was not just the death of a The Sister’s father figure… but was the death of an era for the entirety of Zaun. Vi punching Powder wasn’t just Powder’s death, it was to show that the of Zaun lost a protector and the security they so needed. Vi being taken away despite trying to come back, shows that the trust in one another was gone. Those who could be trusted and had good intentions, took to hiding. Ekko, is the best and obvious example for this one.
Who did they turn to after that? Silco and poison. Silco gave Jinx what he could, but it ended up being a poison. Her morals became skewed, her mental state spiraled, her behaviour became more intense and chaotic. She became more and more desperate for Silco’s approval to the point of losing herself and practically everything she cared about. Just like how shimmer poisoned Zaun. People became addicted, desperate to get any drop they could. Zaun became more corrupt, unsafe, and chaotic. It was relying on Silco for anything and everything. Jinx, at that point in the story, that’s when she embodied the people of Zaun. When that rocket fired, it wasn’t just Jinx who fired it. It was the entirety of Zaun firing and showing that they don’t need to be cared for anymore.
@@cdytpandaalt I agree with all your points.
Watching your analysis on Arcane with morally ambiguous characters is really helping me when writing my own morally gray characters. So thank you so much
My tired ass brain read that as morally gay and I was extremely confused for about 5 seconds.
@@X-35173 Well,95% of my characters are apart of the LGBTQ+ community in some way so that checks up XD
@@dragonuprising8378 Seems horridly imbalanced. Come on man, like Schnee says, if they're all -gray- gay there's no complexity
@@dragonuprising8378 what is your story about ? :o
@@temperino I'm working on two at the moment.
1) This one is a sapphic urban fantasy where a werewolf is tasked with killing the head of a mega logging corporation to save her home and people and a vampire who's trying to escape the clutches of her abusive boss while finding the truth of her parents
2) This one is a sci-fi/fantasy story about a group of teens who gets experimented on by the government to further his vision of a better humanity. When they escape,they along with their symbiotic partners need to stop the government and will ask themselves along the way: Whether they want to fix the world or watch it burn all around them?
What amazes me about this show is that the only criticism I've seen from people is that it's hard to follow who's "bad" and "good" and that there aren't any blatantly "good" people. Such a masterpiece
Despite how absolutely tragic her past is, by the end Jinx is unambiguously bad and just a straight up villain.
@@Michael-bn1oishe may be bad but she’s also not herself, she’s having hallucinations and being manipulated while unable to trust anyone
Ikr! I love her and I want her to make the decision and stop suffering in the middle. And I’m proud that she did and respect her decision. It’s almost the right decision because now she will be free. But it’s also just about to kill characters I care about. And I just can’t agree with it
@@Michael-bn1oi There are other exceptions too. While Jayce's actions are very grey and have lead to both good and bad, he is an unambiguously altruistic insanely well intentioned person. Almost all of his actions are in service of helping as many people as possible. Likewise Ekko and Cait as this video mentions are very good people who have been doing good things (although I suppose Cait could be considered morally ambiguous for being an enforcer). I'm not sure if Silco would count as morally ambiguous. He has a tragic incident in Vander's betrayal and his scar, he has an adopted daugther he loves, and he seemed to have good intentions for freeing Zaun. However not only were his means of freeing Zaun arguably unethical, but he did absolutely fuck all to actually go to war or cause any liberation. He just destroyed all unity and comraderie in Zaun while increasing the violent crime rate and getting everyone addicted to drugs. He's complex but I'd argue him and Jinx are evil.
@@Chaotic-v4x That has 0 to do with anything I said lol she is still unambiguously a villain. A tragic one for sure, but it is what it is.
I've heard it said that we do need a lot more morally-ambiguous stories and characters and whatnot, and I've also heard people say they want more characters who are evil and unredeemable. I think Arcane does give us both. Redemption implies that the character changes their ways for the better. We get redemption with Jayce and with Mel in that regard (neither were villains but they had that whole political corruption storyline), but the characters we consider villains like Silco, Sevika, and Singed do not go through that. They have moments that endear them to us but nothing that clearly changes their ways for the better.
In any other show, with any other writers, Silco's arc would have either swung to making him abusive towards Jinx or his love for her as her father would have made him a "good guy". It takes a certain amount of skill, I think, to strike that balance they manage to do in Arcane.
Most shows refuse to strike that balance. Villains cannot do good things unless it's in service to a redemption, and very rarely is the redemption actually handled well. Maybe that's why Arcane feels so much more alive than a lot of shows I've watched. The only other show I'm watching that's hitting that balance in any meaningful way is the Owl House, and it still falls into the abusive parental figure trap with its villain.
I've watched The Walking Dead a bit in the last time. It has so much potential. In the 2nd and 3rd season the group faces the leader of a pretty big city. First hes introduced as this big hero, that protects his peoples, which transitions to him doing very questionable stuff, like morally. The show play a little with this ambiguity, like is he really evil or is he just not naive and does the things necessary? But pretty fast it transitions to him being just evil, lying all the time over his motives, things happening, just being completely corrupt. Also, instead of searching for peace, he tells lies with the goal of making his peoples pro war. While the main group around Rick did some questionable stuff, too, they are always portrayed as good. There is this scene, where they find survivors in the prison which they cleared from zombies to live there and they didn't know what to do with them, because new peoples in the group are of course always danger. So in one situation Rick just killed on of them, after trying to integrate them in the group, since he wouldn't cooperate. That moment isn't portrayed as ambiguous. Later a member of the group said "I wish, we had killed them (the prisoners) directly", since they lost some members of their group due to the prisoners.
At this point, The Walking Dead tries to discuss such moral questions, but fails in my opinion, because it still gives straight answers. (Rick good, the other one bad)
I don’t agree with the idea that Silco, and Sevika are evil for the sake of evil. The freedom of Zaun was something even Vander wanted at some point. The oppressed overthrowing the oppressor. Zaun overthrowing Piltover. Silco is not in it for personal power he is in it for the collective gain of his people.
Singed on the other hand is striving for immortality at the cost of other people. In the long run if he can give other people immortality as well, not just himself it might be a utilitarian good. Though if he is striving for immortality just for himself, it is harder to argue that stand point.
I'd argue that with Mel and Jayce that it's not as much a "political corruption storyline" as much as a "reverse corruption arc." Mel starts out in an essentially corrupt position, clearly looking to continue building on her power. Within her first moments we know she's already the wealthiest person in piltover, and "the poorest Medarda" which tells us that she's also busy seeing her own influence in a relation to the sway her family holds in the world at large. She's driven to increase her power and finance by any means to try and show up the family that shunned her.
The thing is, when she starts interacting with the idealistic young inventor (jayce) she begins to soften up. She starts out by trying to manipulate him for her personal gain, but over the course of the show she finds herself being more legitimately concerned with not only his wellbeing, but also with what he's concerned about. Mel begins to realize that she doesn't need to show up her family, especially after her mother's arrival, and that she doesn't have to go down the path of war and imitate her familial hunger for power.
“For the better” what’s that look like though? Everyone views better as different.
That is a really good description and it makes much sense. I do also enjoy The Owl House and I do agree with what you said abt it. I wouldn’t be completely surprised if the decision to have the villain be a bad parent more of company interference to have him be like that. Who knows for sure bc the way they are handling the child figure is done very well so far so it might’ve been the writers but it also might have been the company interfering with that
also hearing those analysis really helps me to see how and what to write in my own stories for them to be good. thank you!
Same
Yeah, same :D
These videos always help me in my writing somehow
Et toi ça va toi pas trop de boulot en ce moment j'enchaîne je suis en pause pour le boulot et je suis en pause pour le moment donc je vais pas tarder à aller au boulot en bus pour te laisser dormir the only thing that can be done is the fact that the water is a bit of a cold water pump on the ground floor of the water heater on the ground floor of the water heater on the ground floor of the water heater on the ground floor of the 5 water heater on the water heater on the back of the water heater on the back of the water heater on the back of the water heater on the back of the water heater on the back of the water heater on the back
Same.
EXACTLYY
I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING. Rule #3 applies to Kino (Mel's brother), by being a ruthless diplomat -- yet being peaceful in talking, being a fox among the wolves, he got himself killed, murdered. By being diplomatic in his approach to power unlike his mother Ambessa, he faced the consequences via death.
It's funny to think that the event that kicked everything off was the same event that ended the series. "Give us the girl that caused so much visible destruction and you will be given what you ask."
Truly shows that no matter how much people try to change, humanity falls back into its own loop. It makes the same mistakes for what it believes is the right reason, not because they don't learn but because it's a new person making the mistake someone else has. No one is immortal, but if there were some, maybe we could learn.
great take honestly
Na we’d still fail. It’s human nature. A mistake will always be made because that’s nature in general. I’m nature there is not complete peace.
subjects like sociology, psychology, anthropology, and especially History become very important for this reason
@@driftingdruid yep because there are only a few concepts and scenarios in this world and they've all been done before so its only a matter of time before history repeats itself.
So glad someone else noticed this. I was talking with a friend about it and I mentioned to him (he hasn't finished it yet) that "give us powder and the Lanes stay safe" becomes almost a theme throughout the season
19:55 I think one point you missed is that the inclusion of relative morality makes the characters stand out as individuals from each other, and as individuals with personalities, they expand our understanding of their world. Characters have different lines that they will or will not cross. And the story challenges them.
Because of Vander’s honesty, he won’t turn over someone that didn’t commit the actual crime. Because of Vi accurately listening to Vander’s lesson about responsibility, she is prepared to turn herself in, even if she knows Vander wouldn’t let her. Because Viktor grew up in the undercity, he is more willing to risk getting caught sneaking into Hiemerdinger’s lab, compared to Jayce, who grew up more privileged, and is shocked at the idea.
Many, many times, the characters make choices that define their morals or challenge them. But what is considered “good” and “bad” is not clear in this show. Much like in our real world.
Earlier, you made a point that Caitlyn and Ekko were on the “good” moral grey spectrum. But a big difference between them is that Ekko would definitely kill to achieve his means, (him stopping his firelight friend from killing Vi implies that they probably wouldn’t be opposed to finishing off enemies), but Caitlyn, even as an enforcer, would not. (Despite her internal conflict to take control of the situation at the tea party). So does it make Ekko “good” that he’s fighting oppression? Or does it make Caitlyn “good” that she chooses not to take lives? They are both defiantly aligned as good and trying to achieve the same goal of peace, but the two characters are written well enough to be distinct from each other and have different personalities.
We, the audience know they are good people, but their morals and what lines they are willing to cross makes them compelling characters.
Side note: Vi follows Vander’s morals of being responsible and protecting ‘the family’. Vander expanded that definition to mean ‘protect the community’. Maybe Vi will expand her definition of ‘family’ from ‘Jinx’ to ‘the citizens of the city’ in season two. Who knows?
Yeah, I can see Vi trying to help the undercity now that she’s got nowhere to go and Silco’s gone. She and Sevika may continue their fight for power.
Or, she’ll go back to hunting for Jinx, until she loses track has to go back.
Vander WAS willing to turn himself in instead of Vi. It wasn’t about honesty, but cooperation with Piltover for peace.
Yeah, Vi follows Vander's philosophy. But Vander failed lost everything. He lost his sons to the explosion, his daughters to prison and Silco. His life and his leadership of his community.
Everything he stood for was ripped from him and killed him. He was killed by family, the thing he swore to protect.
So hopefully Vi learns the faults of Vander and doesn't just copy him %100, but she is simple and a meat head. So at first it seemed she was just trying to be a Vander Jr. Perhaps as Jinx split from Silco to become herself, Vi will then have to learn to be a new approach to Vander's view.
@@MALICEM12
Ooh, I love that arc for Vi!
Didn’t know about his sons…
@@Zephirite. "sons" referring to Mylo and Craggor (however you spell his name) as they were killed by powder.
@@MALICEM12
Okay, that makes sense. I thought this was extra LoL lore…
OOH when you pointed out the ill-fitting Ambesta scene, I noticed also that Ambesta takes up waaaay less of the frame than the painting. Not only is she silent, but she's less in your face. You can't even see her face in the shot. The shot isn't about her, but about her recognizing Mel, seeing her as her own POWERFUL individual for the first time. No longer is she the most powerful person in frame, Mel has done something far more grand.
I wouldn't totally condemn Mel for being manipulative and power hungry. She runs an independent city state surrounded by super powers that could invade, or perhaps even revoke its independent status unless it'ss useful being run the way it is. In return, Mel runs a state that doesn't need to brutally invade others, but triumphs through trade. The contradiction though is that libertarian trade city crushes those who don't succeed in it.
Yeah also she is against war and one of the only people on the council that seems to listen to Vi and Caitlyn. She is in a difficult spot and oblivious which leads to her not really being able to make good choices because no matter what she does every choice will be bad and she is constricted by the rules of aristocracy
Someone in a video commented this part, and I like it a lot: "Mel decided to be a sneaky and cunning fox... rather than a merciless wolf wanting to kill."
good intentioned people do things that are both good and bad
Mel is an idealist and wants an ideal world, one free of the violence of the Medardas. She pushes for prosperity and trade to achieve her ideal, but lets the undercity fester for too long, and is corrupt and manipulative in her own way.
Good and bad, moral ambiguity
Silco is hands down my Favorite character in this series. He's so much more than we were first presented, but he's still also that guy.
He's a fallen hero that is still despite everything, trying do what's right, although now through 'villainous' means. And my gosh it's so so nice to see a healthy father daughter relationship...even though neither are mentally healthy... :v
I hope that's not who you're talking about Silco and Jinx, because they are not even kind of close to a healthy father-daughter relationship.
@@occultnightingale1106 I think that's what he meant by neither actually being mentally healthy lmao, both of them think it's healthy when it's clearly not XD
Healthy??????????????
I cannot even begin to express how much I love these analysis videos. I’m usually a silent watcher of most, but I can’t keep quiet when I’m faced with SUCH well-thought out takes like these. From the first episode, I was obsessed with Arcane. I was also obsessed with Game of Thrones (before it went off the rails) and despite loving them for surface-level reasons, I couldn’t understand why I was so blatantly effected by their stories.
I think stories as well written as Arcane, especially in terms of gray morality, are on a different level. It feels so different watching them, never knowing what’s gonna happen next. You’ll be surprised, but it’ll make sense. When you take such well written characters and make them the centerpiece of your story, something strange happens. They feel so incomprehensibly REAL.
It reminds me when I sometimes take a look at psychology, or ask questions like nature vs. nurture-in the sense that it makes you realize just how unpredictability predictable life really is. There’s so many small things, experiences or perhaps just plain genetics, that contribute to who we are.
When you find stories like Arcane, it embodies that, it feels like humanity’s underlying story, and I think that’s what art should be all about. Art oftentimes means taking something ugly and showing the beauty in it, a concept which Arcane establishes perfectly. Somehow, it took all these characters, made them feel REAL (which is a very understatedly difficult task, mind you), and then made the story they all contributed to feel beautiful.
It carried stunning art, animation, character arcs, world building, and most importantly: themes. How the writers even began taking so many characters-making them developed, contribute eloquently to a plot, to a theme, and then made most of them LIKEABLE-that’s completely beyond me. Contributing to a MASTERPIECE like Arcane would be a dream, it’s something I strive to be able to do someday.
But anyways, these analysis videos are absolutely insane. Somehow, on a routine schedule, you manage to take a show as brilliant as Arcane and dissect it in a way that is comprehensive, educational, entertaining, and correct in all the right ways. It’s amazing. And, not to sound dramatic or anything, but that ending bit of why morally ambiguous stories are important was just what I needed. It’s easy to doubt yourself as an artist, and give up when you don’t see a grander purpose in your work. But, in reality, creating stories can be for far more than simple entertainment purposes. Stories can really help guide people and help them comprehend the realities they face and the judgements they should make based on that. It’s amazing how you managed to explain that and chase that doubt out of my head, because now, as an artist, I feel like my work has been able to find that deeper purpose I’ve been chasing. So, thank you. These aren’t just bits of entertainment, they do so much more. You should be proud. I love your videos so much :)
Upon reading your reply, I am curious to discover the art such a beautiful mind as yours has created. I’m a 47 year old hobbyist filmmaker and Arcane ranks first in my personal Hall of Fame, bar none, even the work of demi-god David Lynch. I wish you all the best in your creative endeavours.
Absolutely same thing for me! These videos help me so much to understand how a good story is made and inspires me to make my own! (my biggest dream is making a game with an emotional and diverse story) I wish you lots of fun and luck with creating your own stories! ^o^
Completely agree.
beautifully said!!! i'm completely floored not only by the wealth of information in all of schnee's vids, but also by the thoughtful, intelligent comments found under each one of them. it's been a long time since i've felt so inspired to create stories and i hope you feel something similar! wishing you all the best in your craft
I also like how this show makes different people feel different things from one scene. Like when you said you felt happiness for jinx in the final scene, for me it was mostly despair. Like the jinx fell somewhere so deep, she already won’t get up. And this costs so much for so many people
It is something I love about this first season of Arcane. It can (and should) be be used in education. As a writing example. As an animation example. As a film making in general example. But also for exploring philosophy and theology. For exploring the relationships between action and consequence. Such a great show.
I don't get the theology bit as it tries very hard to not be religious. But in every other aspect I agree.
@@MALICEM12 Maybe this person is atheist.
For the final scene, I felt so much guilt and sadness for Cait primarily. Even though I was not responsible for the probable death of Mrs Kiramman, I still felt guilty. The expression on her face of undiluted pain and fear and sadness shattered me. But then I felt a sense of relief that the council voted for peace; Mel, who is a character I love, had finally made a step away from corruption. And then cut to Jinx, I just felt sorrow and I wanted to comfort her. She was visibly suffering and I wanted to ease that. But then at the same time, she was causing Cait, and subsequently Vi, extreme pain; which brings me back to the start when I felt for Caitlyn’s experience.
What caught me the most off about most of the characters is how human they felt. When you understand their motives and flaws every decision makes sense and become a relatable "I would do that in their position" kind of deal rather than just good or bad but very clearly products of the environment in the story's world.
The thing about Ambessa and Mell(you weakend me moment) is even stronger if you take culture of Noxus into a account. It was showned in Arcane but not said, but Noxus is centerd around strengh. In this culture weaknes is treated Illness-like that needs to be purged, they go by ,,strong live, weak die" mentalty and we can se that in how they move, act and even dress. Noxus is black and red, those are the colors they only use and its symbolic of strengs, darknes/cold in heart, Blood and brutalty, and all there cloths are sharp looking, even wepons and tools. Its sharp iron eages that makes you feel intimitaded.
With this knowlage the moment is even stronger and more important in my opinion.
I do hope that in season 2, when we get to see more of Noxus, they go into all the complexities of this. Because while, yes, the central theme of Noxus is "survival of the fittest", different Noxian characters have significantly different perspectives and mindsets and focuses on what that actually means, and some are even arguably *incompatible* with each other.
1. Swain does not see the strong as "fundamentally" more valuable than the weak, he simply sees *everyone* as a tool, and it just so happens (instrumentally, not fundamentally) that the strong are less expendable than the weak, so he expends the strong less.
2. Darius does not see weak people as bad, or even, really, weakness as bad, but rather the contagious nature of weakness as bad. What he wants is not to purge weak people, or even to purge weakness out of people, but rather to purge the weak out of positions of power and influence, where their weakness has memetic potential.
3. Talon and Katarina don't really make value judgments about the strength and weakness of others, they just self-impose a desire to become stronger on themselves, as an aesthetic rather than per-se ethical maxim.
4. Karthus values the ability of the weak to find facile ways to turn their weakness *into* strength, if they're up to doing so.
5. (this is interesting because it originates in Noxian thinking but lends a very credible mindset for hatred of Noxus) Kayn values strength while abhorring the use of strength to exploit the weak, which motivates him to become strong to *oppose* Noxus, because of the way they throw their weight around. This (the be-merciless-to-oppressors mindset) is true for all the Navori, don't get me wrong, but Kayn puts a more Noxian spin on his motivation to perfect shadow magic and weapon mastery, seeing this personal growth in power as an alternative terminal goal in itself rather than just a means to an end.
6. Draven is Draven.
There's really a *lotta shit* they can get to explore therein.
@@tudornaconecinii3609 cant forget urgot who was the executioner, and that followed him in his morals but not only that but also morde, he was very much a survival of the fittest person too(he was the one who made the bastion)
@@d4s0n282 Yeah, now that I think about it, Morde is one of the *purest* examples of a Noxian mindset. It sort of fits story-wise that he predates Noxus, and that modern day Noxus is *not Noxian enough* to even want Morde to return.
@@tudornaconecinii3609 who says morde does not want to return? in his lore its said he is biding his time and growing his power, and looking for a chance to return
@@d4s0n282 Nonono, I said modern day Noxus doesn't want morde to return. He obviously does. Like a lot of swain and leblanc's plans are eithet to prevent morde from returning or fuck him up if he does.
Also when Jayce was trying to tell silco to give him Jinx his eyes move back-and-forth and panic he hesitates if he was just using her he would’ve not panicked like that he may be a panic but not like that
Bruh, your video just keep getting better man.
Keep putting the connections to the real world in these videos. It makes video essays feel more like a complete story, an oratory almost, rather than just some guy gushing about good writing. Doing this could easily separate you from so many other video essayist. The WHY DOES THIS MATTER is something I've only seen from you. Keep it up, love the stuff.
Interesting, I didn't think about that as something so unique! But thanks, I really appreciate the support!!
I was so happy you used that Seinfeld bit. First thing that came to mind when you said "worlds are colliding"
This was an absolutely great analysis and really made me realized something on why moral ambiguety works in arcane and doesn't in so many other series and why the audience roots for pretty much every character:
Moral not being defined just by actions and intentions, but by impact.
And Arcane also assumes that those things don't always allign as there is a certain form of chaos.
And that's actually the main thing with Jinx.
As Powder we see someome with good intentions really just innocently, childishly wanting to Help, believing in the good if her action but consequently always leading in anegative outcome (her family being killed-many other people being killed).
As Jinx we see someone who's really just intentionally Killing actively making the choice to steel and persumably setting them on a path of negative Impact yet the outcome is mostly postive: we finally see the change we always wanted to see. Only through her Zaun gets oppurtunity to even be seen and considered by Piltover and finally getting persumable Independence. Jinx challanges the system of the whole sphere completely not on purpose without ever holding any vision belief or anything connected to the system.
Arcane challanges our moral thinking as a whole which is why the show is so good. We as a society predominatly hold the belief that good actions lead to good things, that purposeful good behaviour gets rewarded.
The opposite coin to Jinx with that is Jayce. We see someome overall concerned with moral, with doing the right thing, with doing what's best for society but in end we see it leading to negative outcomes and breaking his moral as a whole. Because he beliefs in protecting the people he engages in the same way neglect of the undercity that's ever been present in the Story. Because of this he also engages and even encourages war or weaponry so the death we see isn't just an accident but a wilful ignoring of peaceful solution in the Name of "doing the right thing" going far enough to actually reach the good outcome he sought out. He didn't just made a "mistake" but actively lost a part of his own moral. Jayce had to abondon a part of his moral which is actively helping the undercity and peace as a whole in the pursuit of what he believed was the most morally right thing. And with that Arcane actually challanges the often helf belief that you can be consitently morally good to the core.
I think one of the main things that sets Arcane a part from most other series and films is that it is fundemnetally truth based, not ideal based.
While many other series or films in the media work from an idealistic point of view: the ideal success Story, the ideal friendships and relationships, the ideal happy ending, the the ideal heros journey, characters growing into a more ideal version of themselves or growing into better people In general learning from their own mistakes, and the ideal Just society. Arcane basicially throws out all the idealism as a core basis.
It is well established since episode one that the world just is not just. Good intentions leading to bad outcomes, sympathetic characters doing evil things while still being portrayed as sympathefic,
Universal impact on a world with things that are completely outside of your control while you still being made resposnible for and everyone really just being motivated by wanting to survive the best way possible in an unjust world so judging actions by our traditional principles of right and wrong becomes mostly impossible. In this universe our justice completely is abolished by the show.
And I think this is why Arcane is a moral masterpiece. It challanges pretty much any societal traditional notion about moral and what it's supposed to be. And questions our desire for Justice, our idealism for moral goodness and ultimately shows a world that it's true to it's core. Because deep down we all kind of know or feel like that the world is unjust, treats us unjustly and generelly doesn't always give us the ideal outcome. Which is the basis on why all characters feel relatable, real and human regardless. In a world that isn't perfect which I use interchangibly for just because I feel like the real ideal for morality and moral society is Justice, the people in the end are just trying to live the best they can while having flaws making mistakes and not everything working out in their favor.
Wheras many shows portray our desries and dreams for a greater world or (often a basis for escapisism which series are often used for) or works with pur geatest fears for a worse world like a dsytopia, Arcane portrays a real human expierence in a world that may not be physiologicially real, but very much morally so and the creators done a beautiful job with that.
And that's what makes Arcane great so for me personally and I feel like for many others too.
Rant end.
Great comment
This is the best, most affirming video I have ever seen, and I don't like to speak in superlatives. It has not only irrevocably improved the way I write, but it also validated my personal tendency towards radical forgiveness. I've struggled for a long time to put this ethos into words. Truly, deeply, thank you.
I LOVE this new format with longer videos!💙 Gives more time to digest each video, plus makes every new one a fantastic little event!)))
thx!! (let me know your thoughts once you digest!)
@@schnee1 😆
I will!
i second this!
Question for the Q&A:
When writing a story what should you start building first?
I’m talking about the brainstorming part of building/writing a world but also the completed story aspect could also be an interesting one (When the reader is reading the story what should the autour build first in his world for the adventure to be enjoyable, characters, the settings, the themes, the morals, etc…)
Anyway love your videos, they made me want to write my own stories with complexe character that really pops compared to the common trend of flat stereotypical ones.
It would be theme and tone first. At least that's how I learnt it. Theme, tone, pivotal questions, and the one thing in your world that is true and won't change, that makes your characters react to it.
You'd be building different characters as different answer to you question, and then ask why they would ever react as such.
Or you take a Silly Idea, an even sillier design, and you mix them in a character and you Ask a question ; in what World would this character make any sort of sense?
And you end up with Arcane. It's not a Bad method if you throw away the unnecessary in you character(s) by the time you try to do a storyline with thoses.
Depends, which do you feel is most important to the story, and which do you feel you can do best? Generally it's a good idea to play to your strengths, and pay extra attention to whatever element you want to hit the hardest; if those two things are the same thing, even better
I feel like you can’t really choose one thing to start with, because every story has a seed that it grows from. You might have an idea for an interesting original character and build a world and story around them, you might have an idea for an interesting magic system and create a story based around that, it doesn’t really matter. Sometimes it’s even much more defined, like how Arcane started from a very clear basis of a cast of already existing character and an already existing setting, and built a narrative from there.
It doesn’t really matter where you start, because really you can make a good story about almost anything, all that matters is that once you have that basis you stay consistent with it. If your basis is a theme, don’t emphasise other themes too much except antagonistically, if your basis is a character don’t let them feel out of place unless it’s done very deliberately, if your basis is a magic system don’t break the rules of the system and ensure that any character who tries gets punished somehow.
Arcane does a great job of this in that they take these characters and settings and construct a narrative that feels fitting for them, and while they bend characterisations somewhat they never break them (assuming viktor’s future arc is handled well).
I always start with genre and tone.
These 4D characters are so relatable bc those paradoxes are the essence of humanity. Like I have no problem believing that Silco is at the same time a manipulative villain AND a loving father. Bc this is how it often works in reality, love does not necessarily exclude manipulation. Same as in the Vi and Powder/Jinx relationship vid, all of the theories can in reality be true at the same time. And it's not only true for the traumatised ppl or extreme conditions like in Arcane, but definitely more visible.
A few seconds in and this one is already banger! I've been wanting to write my Main Character as being morally ambiguous for a while now and this will help for sure
Holy crap, this is exactly what I’ve been doing with my character Ora. She is an aunt/ mentor like character to the main character, and she is introduced as a burnt out, rude and tired adult figure in Sophias (main character) life. But, as Sophia starts to really dig into the history of her country and world, and the horrific event of the burning bowl, the narrative of fire starts to split into two. Is this person an apathetic and destructive person who will surround themselves in any delusions that enable them (fire is something that burns), or are they a truth seeking person who has been truly beat down by injustice and prejudice (fire is something that gives light)? As Sophias manifestation (this worlds term for superpowers, basically) is also a pyromancer, she must figure out the source of her need to “save the world” is she hell bent on finding the truth that has been kept from her, at the expense of everything, even the people she loves,, or is she speaking for the injustice of the world, and seeking to right the wrongs of liars? I’d like to think one day people will be making these sorts of videos about my show
Good luck!
After reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelly for my English class, I have come to realize how much themes overlap between the two works. Moral ambiguity, loneliness, family, lost innocence, ambition, and probably a couple others I couldn't remember. Whenever we would discuss these themes in class, I always thought back to these character and theme analysis videos schnee does and connect the similarities from Arcane to Frankenstiein. It's quite interesting how much this draws from Mary Shelly's classic novel.
I can't believe a League of Legends spinoff of all things gave me actual educational writing content on TH-cam. This is just in-depth enough to scratch some big itch I've had for the longest time as an aspiring writer looking for new ways to improve. Thanks for the good videos, Schnee
_I feel completely impotent and unsettled after watching this and I think that only proves your point. It's kinda exactly how I felt about Arcane when it ended. Keep going please, you give me hope and the tools to write the story I want to write._
That’s really neat how u felt happy for Jinx in the beginning, I had a completely different reaction. It felt to me as though her deciding to leave Powder behind was a devastating defeat and the ultimate failure of the protagonists…because Jinx is fucccckeed up.
I had a similar reaction to being happy for her. It was devastating to see her lose everything, but I felt happy that she was the only one to actually accept the nature of the world. I dont personally think jinx was ever truly in the wrong, yes what she did morally is frowned upon, but given the circumstances it was justifiable the path she chose. I think her leaving powder was the healthiest thing she could have done. Powder was what caused her to constantly doubt herself and suffer imposter syndrome; by essentially accepting that part of her is gone, it made her more grounded. The craziest part is that technically, jinx is just as much as one of the protagonists but from a different angle. Jinx isnt inherently fucked up, but rather she is damaged and hurt and has so much anger and pain that was thrown at her based on circumstance. I was happy for her because she ultimately was the single person who became the most realistic of the world.
Same. Wasn't happy at all; just frustrated, sad and worried.
Honesty, I really dislike Jinx and Powder so I couldn’t really enjoy Arcane as a whole
@@ButterPecan37 why do you dislike jinx/powder? Genuine question, most people seem to love her so I'm curious.
I don’t really like powder because I’m not a big fan of characters that screw up everything for the characters around them. And since I’m not fond of powder it’s hard to forgive jinx for all the murder and destruction she’s caused but I can see how others may like her. I don’t think she’s badly written, she’s just not the kind of character I like
Man, these real life stories at the end make the already great videos 10x better. Good job, love your style, love your content.
I... I'm getting chills. I've rewatched Arcane over five times and every time I still get more impressed by how absolutely genius the people who worked on Arcane are. Brilliant as fck.
I feel very similarly, at the end I couldn't decide whether I feel like crying or if I was proud of Jinx, maybe surprised and shocked too. I think your videos are very informative and indepth.
Absolutely wonderful video - managed to keep me actively engaged and interested the whole time. This and your last long analysis really highlight Arcane's amazing writing and breaks it down in ways that are both easy to understand and easy to apply to different pieces of media (my own or otherwise). Keep up the great work!
I'm glad you make these videos cause they help those of use that create characters and worlds find what works. You explaining everything about Arcane's top-notch writing and characters is helping me determining how I'll go about my own stories.
not even gonna lie, I've seen a lot of writing essays in my time to improve my own craft, yours is the first ive legit wanted to take notes for. Thanks for making this incredible video, and here's hoping we can use what you taught me for my own work :)
I honestly just think this is the story of humanity, how there's no just good or bad. There's bad actions with good intentions, bad intentions making bad actions, and etc. No one person is completely 2D bad or good. There's always a 4D model in everyone, we just don't always get to see every one of those sides.
Oh my god, this is probably the best analysis AND advising video on storytelling. 30 minutes passed by like a minute, thank you for posting this!
Yo bro you have no idea how much this helped me with my storytelling and writing! Your list of methods and world building rules on what makes a story memorable and alive and makes you question reality and humanity. Yeah just wanted to say thank you and you’re amazing!!
Vander was even a grey character in my eyes.
in addition to Vander’s betrayal of Silco, Vander also betrayed the whole undercity. it’s funny to me when people say sevika was a traitor. she stuck to her guns the whole time and told vander to his face why she no longer could side with him. sevika was about getting the boot off the neck of the people of the undercity. even if it meant working for silco (but she also let’s silco know, “i wouldn’t turn on you for a worm like finn, but if someone else more capable came along, i might”).
vander on the other hand made a deal with the one’s oppressing his people (a secret deal i might add) to prevent the people from rising up and resisting oppression. he did it to keep his family safe, so we sympathize, but so often people fail to recognize this as betrayal. this was played out in the scene where vander convinces vi that violence is not the answer. he did make this appeal to the undercity, but having a secret deal with the enforcers is a betrayal.
Yeah it says a lot about Vander's character that he thinks he knows so much better than everyone else, and he chose to go behind all their backs. Why can't he be open with them about the tentative peace treaty he has in place? If he doesn't trust the rest of the undercity to understand his aims, then how can he claim to represent them?
Yeah! I'm actually not much of a Vander fan because of that. I think more could've been said about Vander being a very morally grey character (but I think Schnee already has video on that). Still - he collaborated with the oppressors behind the backs of the people he's supposedly helping. Why exactly is he the only one that gets to decide if Piltover should be allowed to leave their boot unhindered on the undercity's neck? It's a whole layer of tension for the viewer when you agree with Sevika and Silco's reasoning and end goal, but viscerally disagree with their methods(child labour, murder, human experimentation, etc) .
Vander did the opposite of betrayal, he’s protecting the under city. You said he made a deal with the oppressors so they don’t rise up? Bro what were you watching, he made a deal with them so the under city don’t get crushed again.
The opening scene shows that whatever conflict happened, Piltover won and it was all for nothing. People died, Powder and Vi lost their parents etc. We literally see piltover soldiers going around executing under city fighters. The deal is that if he keeps the undercity under control then Piltover won’t do anything. He’s keeping the peace. Because the fact of the matter is if they go to war again, the opening scene would just be repeated and the undercity would lose again and people would die for nothing, including his own family. It’s just a matter of differing view points. Some may say resist oppression no matter what, but that also doesn’t mean throw yourself at an unwinnable war and dying senselessly to set your movement back even further.
As for Sevika she did betray Vander. Yes she did not betray the cause because her motivation was always the same but she betrayed Vander as a leader by siding with a man who wants Vander kidnapped and dead. To betray someone you just need to not be loyal in a harmful way, usually by helping their enemies. Silco is Vander’s enemy and announcing your reasons for betrayal beforehand doesn’t make you any less of a traitor. She’s still a cool character though.
@@ReblazeGaming imagine writing something that long to someone who's not even going to read it back. "bro". TH-cam is the shittiest platform for debates
@@sabrina0013 Why are you exposing yourself for not being able to read 1 minute worth of text? I'm not losing any sleep over that. Not to mention I didn't even reply to you and my comment was not directed at you, I replied to Rahsaan so I have no idea why you're responding to me lmaoo.
i love how this show isnt just a "grey mess of confusion and complexity" these characters are written like realy people, you can put yourself in any one of their shoes and know how they are thinking. take silco for example, you may think "oh he kills people, i can never relate to him" but since we know why he kills people, and what lead him to be so calm about killing people, we dont have to relate to him, but we can and do understand him. we know these cahracters inside and out and its amazing
I have absolutely loved every single vid you have done on Arcane, I bloody loved the show before but you have opened my eyes to so much more. Through you Arcane has become one of my favorite shows of all time. Your vids are gold. I so cant wait for season 2 and what you will have to say about it. Congratulations on the 50k subs. Its so well deserved!!
I love this analysis! As a writer, I am always impressed by how many valuable writing tips video essayists can give! Thank you for your hard work!
Damn, this made me love the show on a whole other level
JULIAN!!!
''local man finds out he loves show an additional bit more than he previously thought possible''
Your analysis of all of these subjects is incredible. Everything you say makes sense, is easy to follow, easy to understand, is thought-provoking, and is just all around well-done. Love your stuff, can't wait for the second season to watch you tear into it again.
This video is brilliant. I absolutely love the connection you made at the end to a real-life moral conflict. It really embedded the importance of this discussion of moral ambiguity and explained why I'm so fascinated by the moral dilemmas presented by Arcane.
This is definitely the best character/story breakdown channel I've ever seen. If more amazing shows come out like arcane I can't wait to see this channel hit 100k subs. You're amazing dude keep it up 💯💯
omg yes! when i watched the series i always told that i am happy at who Powder has become a stong person able to defend herself properly... but what am i happy about? a girl lost everything? a girls being traumatized and growing up with shizophrenia? a girl loosing everything and doing everything wrong over and over again? no... how can i be happy and at the same time so full of guilt? i am happy she became who i is now. but for what cost? ''who are you willing to loose?'' -Vander
The whole idea that there is moral ambiguity in these characters and people debate their intentions is just thrilling to me!!! Also the entire concept of morality is quite thrilling too. It's like how we humans understand things better by categorizing and defining them (fair), but the kicker is things are never so simple as 1& 2, black & white or good & evil. There's almost always a middle ground or a grey area.
A chaotic spectrum of possibilities where nothing is certain.
i just wanna say i love your analysis videos so much man. as an aspiring writer myself, they’re so beneficial and show me how deep i can get with my own stories. i used to mostly turn to critiques of bad stories to learn what i shouldn’t do, but these videos that show me what i should do are way more beneficial. you’re the bomb and so is Arcane.
I don't even know why I didn't see this ending coming, it makes a lot of sense for this character trope, but oh man was it a good round-up for Jinx's story. Her rejecting both the people that have somewhat of an emotional grip on her, making her own very fittingly messed up decision. But also her kind of fulfilling both the expectations put on her by the two most important figures of her life; Killing Silco, and using the weapon she was supposed to build to destroy the topside. She simultaneously lives up to both their expectations, which is the main driving point of her character, but also finally rejects her dependency on others and just does what she feels like. Its filled with detail, morally despicable, comlicated, and all over the place, just like Jinx herself.
Truly an outstanding video I especially liked the backwards fate section it really hit me when you said that just how present it is all throughout arcane as a whole
I think that moment for Ambessa was her empathizing for the first time in her life. For the first time she saw something and tried to understand how Mel was feeling about everything in silence, as opposed to her taking action and initiative first.
These videos help me think things differently and helps me be more analytical
i love that arcane isnt just about 1 story every character in arcane all have interesting stories to tell
So essentially
>the rules are about making your story’s world allow for wondering if there’s more to people and situations; having some questions unanswerable to drive how much you question, reward good and punish bad to make people crave a morally correct resolution and allow for both morally bad and good characters to balance things out and use them as a way to act as a sort of moral compass
>the first method is establishing a character as one thing and then revealing something else relatively different about them that changes how we see them, that makes us question our perception of them and keeps us questioning
>the second method is having an already well established and 3 dimensional character do something out of character in an important moment for them that they not only try to fix but makes us reconsider our previous thoughts of them
>the third method is through a character with morally good intentions and goals having issues achieving said goals leading them to do what is morally questionable and the consequences of their actions make us judge them
>the fourth method is about applying a grey morality via watching characters so stuck in one way of thinking for the betterment of something that it ultimately hinders other things around them
>the first method is to have characters judge other characters on their decisions, natures, morality, etc to create conflict and further make the audience question the morality of the characters being judged
>the sixth method is to give morally bad characters redeeming qualities to also make us slightly question how we see them and the world around them and to what effect that makes them less evil
>the seventh method is to give us an excuse to not see a character and their morally objectionable actions as completely objectionable (say, complete manipulation, mental illness, stuff out of their control etc)
>the eighth method is having characters with zero strong moral ideals or proper understanding of moral frameworks to good or bad things and make us question if we can really say they were good or bad
>the ninth method is to pit two or more things/worlds we believe to be morally good or simply just good that we’re invested in separate and then finally against each other and make us wonder if one is morally just or not or if neither or both are?
Did I get that right? It’s a lot of info and I don’t normally try to understand sometihng like this since I’m not really good at absorbing something this long but helpfully informative all at once but I kind of felt I had too? It’s odd and I don’t know why but my brain just told me not to rest until I’d watched it all. Like this is the kind of thing English teachers would go over in a whole semester
Great summary! I think you stated everything pretty clearly. I'll leave my summary from my own notes in case it's also ends up being helpful for you:
1 2d introduction → moment that doesn’t fit → every scene after this fits into 2 different versions of the character
2 3d introduction → moral failure → redemption becomes a goal; audience withholds judgment
3 morally pure character incapable achieving moral ends due to sloppy thinking
4 operating from radically different timeframe → we perceive as immoral
5 characters forced to make difficult moral judgments of other characters
6 “bad” characters given “good” qualities that don’t change our judgment, but affect it
7 “bad” characters given “outs” that discourage us from placing blame
8 characters operating from completely non-moral mindset
9 two good frameworks forced into antagonistic relationship, good and bad framework forced into unjust alliance
1 world plays with expectations in setting/characters to signal depth
2 plot explores REAL moral dilemmas without providing resolutions
3 unjust fate creates a need for morality
4 diverse levels of morality in cast
👍👍
Your breakdown of Silco described my view of him on Both ends.
I don't see them as mutually exclusive, Silco *admires* the monster within everyone. To him, a Monster is Truth, it's the Real version of a person, their darkest depths are the reality, that's what he cultivates in Powder, he sees the steps, her darkest moment, her truth, and he admires that she is already on that path, and cultivates it for the entirety of her stay with him...
really wonderful video, I love how you analyze shows and bring out how writers might be thinking. It's majorly impressive! As for the question... how did you begin to learn about and recognize these super nuanced things (the tropes, etc), and how do you synthesise them into something cohesive? It seems like you're untanglinh a complex web with each video and it's super intriguing.
Am I the only one who thought of a “powder keg” when I first heard Powders names when I started watching the show? Like, without even really knowing the game I just knew this girls mind was just waiting to explode in everyone’s face.
Thanks for the videos btw! Recently discovered the channel and I appreciate your analysis! Keep going! :)
How about something different for your 50k vid like your theories or what you would want or expect to see in season 2? The ending to season 1 was great and it felt like a really really good set up for all the characters to just fly and develop from.
Another great analysis, by the way! I'm always looking forward to your next arcane video lol
26:11 which is shy they chose a PERFECT song when the collision happens the song is blatantly referencing "what could've been"
@schnee (QnA) I love the way you can dissect a piece of media down so well. I wanted to ask how you do it, how did you learn to do it. How do you write an analysis for an arc/character, how do you break down the themes and messages being conveyed by the narrative?
Also: how many times have you watched arcane? looking at all your videos, I can tell you've watched it several times haha
this is genuinely one of the best video essay on a show i have ever watched... amazing ending. keep up the good work man.
What he said about stories teaching us to react to real world situations was true for me for the first time a couple years ago. Getting into college was my first time learning all the ins and outs of American Imperialism and all the suffering we as a country caused. Reading my history books, it sounded exactly like the fire nation from ATLA- and ATLA taught us that countries like that can be redeemed if enough people in power (like Zuko) choose to make the change and make up for all the harm they caused. Here's to hoping.
Every single one of your analyses of Arcane are mind-blowing and brilliant! I'm learning so much about how characters and stories can and should be told. Thanks so much for making these!
I love this videos and your explaination of the characters, arc, themes and conflicts. But on 11:40 i don't think Mel is just thinking about corruption, money and power. My take is that she's trying to use the city and Jayce to acomplish her desire to peace and power through wits, not brawl power. Hextech as a weapon, as a pivotal force to put Piltover on the map
Extreme quality, and decently recognized too. I don't agree on all points but you make great and very understandable cases
Somehow you always manage to make me love this show more and more. With each video you put things into words so well that I find new dimensions to everything. I’m really glad I found this channel. Awesome work!
The scene of silco hugging powder was the exact moment I knew this random show I knew nothing about was going to change my life
Please, please, PLEASE make videos about Better Call Saul! It's honestly insane how much value I get out of your analysis. The amount if depth that you've shown me exists in this show is amazing and I'd love to hear what you think about Better Call Saul. I've never seen a show that respects it's audience more, the amount of subtlety and potential for peeling back the layers is honestly nuts. I hope you'll consider it. Congrats on 50k :^)
these videos are so calming to watch because everything makes sense and i didnt even realize it
I used to love writing as a kid but now I’m in college and getting back into writing was hard because there’s so more I wanted to add and I didn’t know how to do it but watching your videos helped me so much I can’t thank you enough for helping rediscover a passion I have
I saw Mel taking off her ring as symbolic of something else entirely. that was the emblem of her homeland (which are warriors) and by taking the ring off and siding with Zaun's independence, I saw her cutting ties with a brutal heritage and choosing peace instead.
This is probably my favorite video is yours. Keep of the good work.
Moral issues are really well implemented in this story. It's like in reality: there are many gray areas, actually no one is pure good or pure evil. Characters make mistakes, some do evil for good reasons, or "do great things but fail to do good", etc. The story and its characters are simply multifaceted. That's what I like about Arcane. I watched the first season several times, but even the first time I watched it, I liked all the characters and I could understand their reasons. In the bigger picture, I understood the motives, opposites and perspective of Piltover and Zaun (and their characters) and I was on both sides, even though I knew they would never find a peaceful solution.
12:19 I think that's one of the things I like the most. Not in Arcane in particular, but in general. How does good and bad actions balance each other to make realistic characters.
Solid perspective. I'm to attatched to the show myself to rip it apart. Thanks
You analysis are SO GOOD. Makes realize things I wouldn't be able to express into words.
I love you're videos because i take them as masterclasses. I learn a lot from them! Things that I knew i loved about arcane but didn't exactly know how to explain any of it. Thank you so much for sharing this passion.
I have a question about Arcane, and specifically how it relates to the source material. I'm curious what you think about the idea of "plot armor." A lot of people have pointed out that they never expected certain characters to die because they exist in the League of Legends game, and this idea that 'champions' have plot armor I think fuels a lot of the speculation about some characters in the council room potentially surviving Jynx's Super Mega Death Rocket. My question is, do you think that champions from LoL have "plot armor" in Arcane, and if so, how do you think it affects the story (if it does at all)?
@Schnee what are some stories that changed your life? And I'm not just talking about fictional ones, but stories that changed the way you look at writing, character development, themes, people, culture, relationships, etc.
You have to consider that when Silco was at the statue of Vander that’s when he saw why Vander chose peace instead of war.He also saw why it was so hard for Vander to make a choice because Silco finally saw a chance to get Zaun’s independence but he chose Jinx instead. Just like how Vander chose his kids over helping the Lanes which put him in a tight position and that causes us to do drastic actions. Jinx was trying to redeem herself during the shooting at the building scene by trying to get what Silco wanted. Even her rocket launcher, Fishbones, is a tribute to Silco as a reminder since he liked sea monsters and had a fondness for them and the rocket launcher has a scar on it’s eye.
When it comes to judging a character you have to put yourself in their point of view and consider the choices. Jinx is trying to prove herself and make Silco proud because we never saw Vander acknowledge Jinx for her inventions or actions. The only person during her childhood who was paying attention to her was Vi. While Mel has to face the expectations of her mother while Vi had to fulfill Vander’s ideologies and as Silco said, become the prodigy and successor. The hard part is Jinx finding happiness and satisfaction within in herself even though her personality tends to shift she’s always going to have those voices in her head and have other people change her view of things.
Sorry if this is a leap but could you talk about the symbolism of the crow and the firelights because it is an interesting subject that foreclosures the events and upbringing of the Firelights and what the crow represents.
My favorite fable about the Well Intentioned Idiot:
"Oh, no, you're drowning! Here, let me help you!" cried the Monkey to the fish. The Monkey scoops up the fish from the shallow pond and carries him to the top of the tree. "There, you're safe now," says the Monkey to the dying fish.
@schnee I have loved all your Arcane analysis videos and have a few questions for you!
- If you could sit down and have a conversation with Christian & Alex (creators of Arcane, for those who are unfamiliar) what would you say and what questions would you want to ask them?
- What writing projects do you currently have going on atm? How have the lessons you learned from Arcane been incorporated (if at all) into your own writing?
- what do you hope to see from Arcane S2? Any predictions/guesses?
Thanks 😊
This analysis was totally fascinating in and of itself, but your ending is probably the most important message anyone talking about storytelling can say - Stories Matter. Stories help us think about who we are and what we are as humans, flawed, complex, challenging people.
If that's something anyone reading this comment got from the video, good. Remember that. Stories are a mirror on humanity, and they need to reflect EVERYTHING that we are, not just the bits that you or a certain group might prefer.
How do you come up with this stuff? Where did you learn to think about stories like this? What put you on the path of having so many insights to talk about regarding Arcane?
Love your content, it always makes my day better!
Watching your videos is like a whole writing seminar I love it 😍 And totally agree with the Princess Mononoke analogies, I always loved how they flesh out their characters and they don't at all get lost in a story about gods - would love to see you talk more about Studio Ghibli writing if you're up for that!!
Also so great that you grounded it with the real life application at the end - I think way too many people gloss over /why/ telling these stories is important, is awesome to see you share your thoughts on it.
I’m a visual artist so I work and listen and I’m rarely looking at the screen while I listen to these, but I’ve never been more happy to take a glance as when you said “they’re old” and slapped BOOMER over Heimerdinger and Singed😂😂😂
Your videos always feel so informative and understandable even to someone who has no experience in this sort of thing. Its so easy to follow along with your thoughts and points and it all makes so much sense with how you describe it. You are astonishingly good at both this long form and the short form analysis of storytelling, narratives, characters and all the rest of it.
You deserve all the success you achieve because you have well and truly earned it. Congrats on 50k as well; it wont be the last milestone you reach, im certain of it.
Have I asked you before to talk about Singed? I think he has some interesting themes related to him, like amoralism, scientism and his need to progress science at all cost aka the greater good.
Great vid btw!!
Both this show and your channel are absolute gems. I'm going through the comments and it's mind-blowing just how much of a conversation you've started around this.
I appreciate your appreciation for good writing-your content is fascinating, instructive, and entertaining. Keep it up!!
Very well done!!! As GM in rpg, this helps me a lot creating charcters. Thanks. Longer videos way more better.
amazing conclusion. your vids got me to watch arcane!
I have to disagree with you on Heimerdinger being a moral character. The guy is a founding member of Piltover and has been head of the council for decades (at least). So, everything that's wrong with Zaun, the poverty, the pollution, the deprivation, the stranglehold of crime lords, etc etc, all happened under his watch. He's the closest thing to a true villain in the whole story, but no one apparently sees it because he's a cute little furball.
Completely agree! His immortality causes such blatantly harmful shortsightedness for those currently alive. And he can't even see it. It truly is horrible.
He is like a leader who wasn't leading for centuries, but him ignoring state matter isn't something that could be considered evil. He was just one single councilor after all. He didn't had much interest in governing and his title was more of a symbol for tools he invented.
Yes but Heimerdinger lives for god knows how long. He's probably thinking of the long term, to the point where it's blinded him to the now. Effectively a 'well- intentioned idiot'
i loved the point you make about good being punished and bad being rewarded bc in Arcane we get to see just why people opt for evil and neglect good, it makes the world believable and the conclusion less certain.
Its also just how things have worked historically. In many countries, security and power were built from evil and then later that prosperity is used by good people to remove the evil. Some continue to use evil bc its tried and true, some will take the rewards of evil as inspiration to more concretely visualize what they want to accomplish through good (minus the evil) and know that its possible.
In this way Arcane’s story just feels relevant.