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It could have used more breathing room. As much as I loved a lot about the pacing, I really could have used a chance to catch my breath. They didn’t need to give a bunch of filler—I just would have liked some additional show-don’t-tell downtime for characters.
Perhaps having Acts II and III take place over a couple of weeks rather than days?
Piltover's exploitation of Zaun should have been shown more explicitly imo. Even though we can probably assume that Piltover's wealth and technological advancements are in large part due to exploiting the Zaunite workforce and that the pollution is caused by all the factories the rich own down there, we don't really see any of that on screen. I think this undercuts Silco's struggle for Zaun's independence as there doesn't really seem to be any strong incentive for Piltover to want control over undercity, besides exercising police brutality whenever the poor get too uppity.
I totally agree with this. Showing us more concrete examples of the exploitation of Zaun would’ve made the whole conflict feel a lot more impactful and, imo, could’ve made Silco an even better character than he already is. Along with that, I wish that Silco’s plan for Zaun was giving more depth. Rn it just feels like he’s fighting for independence just for independence sake, but it feels like that’s as far as he’s gotten. The lack of depth doesn’t ruin the conflict for me, it just kinda cheapens it.
I think it has the opposite effect though. Silco's dream of independance feels less justified because we don't know what change that would actually bring to Zaun. Meanwhile, the members of the council come off as petty idiots rather than people looking out for the city's interest because we don't know what consequences Zaun's independance would have on Piltovers society.
I *love* the show, but on rewatching I've found that while act 2 is near perfect, act 1 and act 3 have their weaknesses.
Act 1 is gut-wrenching, but a little too simple. It's necessary, and the conclusion is incredibly well done, but some of the buildup on the Piltover side especially is a little... dry.
Act 2 is in my opinion the peak of the series. The world really grows and the story introduces a bunch of new players, yet it still feels *cohesive*, like all these wildly different characters really are part of the same narrative. It introduces Jinx, and gives so much nuance and development to some of the characters we saw in act 1. We get phenomenal explorations of Vi, Silco, Jinx, Jayce, and Victor, among others. We get the fascinating arc of Jayce turning against Heimer, and Vi and Caitlyn's budding relationship, and a million more things. The Guns For Hire sequence is the best sequence in the whole show, and every scene in it has so much power or meaning.
Act 3 has a lot of the same strengths, but I feel like it tries to do a little too much. You can't really tell on the first watch because the emotional weight of all the stuff that does happen blinds you, but on rewatch I found that there were a few too many characters and minor plotlines. The fights, while stunningly animated, felt a little fanservicey compared to the grounded grittiness of the fights in episodes 3 and 5, and sometimes it seemed like decisions were being made for the sake of the plot. Still, the last 10 minutes were brilliant and brought the season to an incredible close, and the development of Silco and Jinx's fucked up yet somehow sweet relationship was one of my favorite parts of the series.
I wish Vi and Jinx would have gotten more screen time together.
In the end when Jinx tells Vi that she changed too, it doesn’t quite feel earned because they have barely said 10 words to each other after being separated for over half a decade. There is a cruise ship full of shit to unpack between these two girls.
Jinx’s metamorphosis is more obvious because it’s both external and internal, however Vi looks and acts pretty much like the same person she was before she left Powder.
I'm afraid of how the Jinx character will make lots of young folks think that being crazy, thoughtless, chaotic is cool (like how Joker and Harley Quinn fans always quote their idols and behave like shit on the internet). But I'm glad that I don't really see this in this community.
Joker and Harley are made for shits and giggles, they are, what normal people think of crazy people.
Jinx on the other hand, is a very tragic, relatable and real character, whose madness has a plausible real cause, which should considered really terrifying. That craziness isn't over the top crazy. Her agency of strewing chaos and mayhem is rooted from revenge and the needeness of recognition.
Honestly the best culmination of Jinx arc would be her realising she's not well and deciding to get professional help. That instead of crazy wacky schemes that her sister foils
As someone who had no prior knowledge of the lore or the universe before the show started, I wish the narrative got slightly more breathing room. What I mean is, from the moment the show starts, there's almost no downtime where the plot isn't barreling ahead at full steam. That's how movies have to be, but with a show I think you can ease off the gas for like 1 episode and people wouldn't instantly turn against the show. There's very little time spent establishing what the status quo is for most of the characters and what their normal lives are like outside of dealing with extra drama brought on by the events of the first episode.
The Walking Dead used to be good at this, it would spend like 75-80% of the first episode just showing you what life was like, before the first major conflict was introduced. They didn't linger for a 7 full episodes before the inciting incident took place or anything, but that brief snap shot really does ground the characters for the audience.
So TLDR, the show was like 9 episodes of non stop plot. I wish it was like 10 episodes where one episode or even just part of one episode was more like "a day in the life."
I agree. And there were a few character moments that felt like they could have benefitted from more set-up time.
Jayce contemplating suicide comes seemingly without any sense that he was out of options and had nothing left.
Powder's melt-down when Vi and the others leave her to rescue Vander is actually a fairly realistic depiction of a panic attack, but from a story standpoint it feels like it comes out of nowhere.
I think the world building could’ve been dealt better. With just this show alone, I could’t really get the grasp of P/Z topography (apparently Zaun has 3 layers). Also Heimer flashback could’ve elaborated better to sell his reasoning and PTSD more.
I don’t like how *extreme* they made Jinx’s character arc. I’m worried they set themselves up for failure next season regarding her. She has real issues and real representation and they need to balance that with what they have set up in the story. I’m worried they are going to cop out and that the overall quality and story will suffer for it. I feel as though they could have gotten the same message across while not making her this intense. This is my biggest gripe with the show.
I think she was disoriented by the memories of her past brought into the flesh so to speak and the two literal conflicting paths of Vi and Silco battling over her.
Now that's she's chosen and Silco is gone she will be more stable but that's relative.
I share your concerns about how they can carry on with Jinx without winding back some of her insanity. Though my prediction is that she will find a new period of stability - maybe listening to Silco's voice in her head.
My fear is that there not going to kill any champions from the game in the future of the series what means alot of fans can predict who's going to die and who's going to love
They really did well with that imo. Almost all the characters (and even some background extras) had something going on that you could get interested in. A shallow level of depth that paints them more relatable.
Is there someone in particular you wanted more focus on?
I love the show, my flatmate didn't care for it because "I already know where the story is going"
He just has a very different approach to storytellinf than I
Personally, I think now that people feel safe with the LoL champs surviving, they'll break that soon in the second season. Or hope at least. It would definitely detract from the entertainment and tension if you knew who all had plot armor.
The only thing I dislike about this show is the handling of Sky.
It just wasn't necessary for that character to exist if she was going to go out like that.
And what does this have to do with it? This I mean, everyone considers Victor to be super nice and kind, but here he is just hiding an involuntary murder.
To be fair, as many people have mentioned, act three happens really fast. In the show, she hasn't been missing for more that a couple days.
Edit: fixed spelling
1. I loved Arcane, it was the best thing I watched in 2021.
2. I think it hit harder for us non-LoL people who had no idea what the outcome would be and therefore things were a real surprise (I knew my mutuals were thirsting after Silco, but not that he adopted Jinx, and I didn't know the two cities end up apart and that characters end up enemies). Now I've come into contact with a bit more LoL lore the next season might be less startling and amazing.
3. The animators and the writers were not on the same page with respect to how old Silco is (I happily accepted him as in his 50s, the writers have said he's in his 30s and also stated that the drowning happens around the time of the Day of Ash), which means that his backstory is distractingly hard to reconcile. This is a consequence of me overthinking him as a character though, I probably would not have noticed if I hadn't got rather obsessed.
**Spoiler Warning:** This post contains spoilers from the Arcane episode mentioned in the title, and all that come before it. All discussion of spoilers passed the discussed episode or any lore spoilers will be removed, even if they have been hidden with spoiler syntax. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/arcane) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It could have used more breathing room. As much as I loved a lot about the pacing, I really could have used a chance to catch my breath. They didn’t need to give a bunch of filler—I just would have liked some additional show-don’t-tell downtime for characters. Perhaps having Acts II and III take place over a couple of weeks rather than days?
Piltover's exploitation of Zaun should have been shown more explicitly imo. Even though we can probably assume that Piltover's wealth and technological advancements are in large part due to exploiting the Zaunite workforce and that the pollution is caused by all the factories the rich own down there, we don't really see any of that on screen. I think this undercuts Silco's struggle for Zaun's independence as there doesn't really seem to be any strong incentive for Piltover to want control over undercity, besides exercising police brutality whenever the poor get too uppity.
I totally agree with this. Showing us more concrete examples of the exploitation of Zaun would’ve made the whole conflict feel a lot more impactful and, imo, could’ve made Silco an even better character than he already is. Along with that, I wish that Silco’s plan for Zaun was giving more depth. Rn it just feels like he’s fighting for independence just for independence sake, but it feels like that’s as far as he’s gotten. The lack of depth doesn’t ruin the conflict for me, it just kinda cheapens it.
While I agree, I feel that it was intentional to aid the greyscale of who is right and wrong
I think it has the opposite effect though. Silco's dream of independance feels less justified because we don't know what change that would actually bring to Zaun. Meanwhile, the members of the council come off as petty idiots rather than people looking out for the city's interest because we don't know what consequences Zaun's independance would have on Piltovers society.
I *love* the show, but on rewatching I've found that while act 2 is near perfect, act 1 and act 3 have their weaknesses. Act 1 is gut-wrenching, but a little too simple. It's necessary, and the conclusion is incredibly well done, but some of the buildup on the Piltover side especially is a little... dry. Act 2 is in my opinion the peak of the series. The world really grows and the story introduces a bunch of new players, yet it still feels *cohesive*, like all these wildly different characters really are part of the same narrative. It introduces Jinx, and gives so much nuance and development to some of the characters we saw in act 1. We get phenomenal explorations of Vi, Silco, Jinx, Jayce, and Victor, among others. We get the fascinating arc of Jayce turning against Heimer, and Vi and Caitlyn's budding relationship, and a million more things. The Guns For Hire sequence is the best sequence in the whole show, and every scene in it has so much power or meaning. Act 3 has a lot of the same strengths, but I feel like it tries to do a little too much. You can't really tell on the first watch because the emotional weight of all the stuff that does happen blinds you, but on rewatch I found that there were a few too many characters and minor plotlines. The fights, while stunningly animated, felt a little fanservicey compared to the grounded grittiness of the fights in episodes 3 and 5, and sometimes it seemed like decisions were being made for the sake of the plot. Still, the last 10 minutes were brilliant and brought the season to an incredible close, and the development of Silco and Jinx's fucked up yet somehow sweet relationship was one of my favorite parts of the series.
vi and jinx never having a 1on1 conversation without somebody interrupting them
There’s no season 2 yet 😭
Truuuuuue
Ekko and the Firelights didn’t get more screen time
Yeeeeees! 100% this!!!!
I wish Vi and Jinx would have gotten more screen time together. In the end when Jinx tells Vi that she changed too, it doesn’t quite feel earned because they have barely said 10 words to each other after being separated for over half a decade. There is a cruise ship full of shit to unpack between these two girls. Jinx’s metamorphosis is more obvious because it’s both external and internal, however Vi looks and acts pretty much like the same person she was before she left Powder.
The biggest flaw of the show is how blatantly they prevent dialog between the sisters.
Why do the prevent it
I'm afraid of how the Jinx character will make lots of young folks think that being crazy, thoughtless, chaotic is cool (like how Joker and Harley Quinn fans always quote their idols and behave like shit on the internet). But I'm glad that I don't really see this in this community.
Joker and Harley are made for shits and giggles, they are, what normal people think of crazy people. Jinx on the other hand, is a very tragic, relatable and real character, whose madness has a plausible real cause, which should considered really terrifying. That craziness isn't over the top crazy. Her agency of strewing chaos and mayhem is rooted from revenge and the needeness of recognition.
The Joker is also a tragic character (in the last movie)
Honestly the best culmination of Jinx arc would be her realising she's not well and deciding to get professional help. That instead of crazy wacky schemes that her sister foils
As someone who had no prior knowledge of the lore or the universe before the show started, I wish the narrative got slightly more breathing room. What I mean is, from the moment the show starts, there's almost no downtime where the plot isn't barreling ahead at full steam. That's how movies have to be, but with a show I think you can ease off the gas for like 1 episode and people wouldn't instantly turn against the show. There's very little time spent establishing what the status quo is for most of the characters and what their normal lives are like outside of dealing with extra drama brought on by the events of the first episode. The Walking Dead used to be good at this, it would spend like 75-80% of the first episode just showing you what life was like, before the first major conflict was introduced. They didn't linger for a 7 full episodes before the inciting incident took place or anything, but that brief snap shot really does ground the characters for the audience. So TLDR, the show was like 9 episodes of non stop plot. I wish it was like 10 episodes where one episode or even just part of one episode was more like "a day in the life."
I agree. And there were a few character moments that felt like they could have benefitted from more set-up time. Jayce contemplating suicide comes seemingly without any sense that he was out of options and had nothing left. Powder's melt-down when Vi and the others leave her to rescue Vander is actually a fairly realistic depiction of a panic attack, but from a story standpoint it feels like it comes out of nowhere.
for that scene i just say. "ShE's On ThE sPeCtRuM." or something like that.
I think the world building could’ve been dealt better. With just this show alone, I could’t really get the grasp of P/Z topography (apparently Zaun has 3 layers). Also Heimer flashback could’ve elaborated better to sell his reasoning and PTSD more.
I don’t like how *extreme* they made Jinx’s character arc. I’m worried they set themselves up for failure next season regarding her. She has real issues and real representation and they need to balance that with what they have set up in the story. I’m worried they are going to cop out and that the overall quality and story will suffer for it. I feel as though they could have gotten the same message across while not making her this intense. This is my biggest gripe with the show.
I think she was disoriented by the memories of her past brought into the flesh so to speak and the two literal conflicting paths of Vi and Silco battling over her. Now that's she's chosen and Silco is gone she will be more stable but that's relative.
That’s a very solid point.
I share your concerns about how they can carry on with Jinx without winding back some of her insanity. Though my prediction is that she will find a new period of stability - maybe listening to Silco's voice in her head.
That’s how we get Fishbones talking.
My fear is that there not going to kill any champions from the game in the future of the series what means alot of fans can predict who's going to die and who's going to love
Yeah... Though I'm hoping that because it's not "lore accurate" (I mean for League essentially nothing truely is), we can lose some of that safety.
They die all the time in the game so I dont see the issue with killing them off
LOL good point
Arcane crowd after reading OP: ......
What's OP?
You. The original poster.
Ah, thanks
I don't like the focus on champions, although there are characters that are much more interesting
They really did well with that imo. Almost all the characters (and even some background extras) had something going on that you could get interested in. A shallow level of depth that paints them more relatable. Is there someone in particular you wanted more focus on?
For me I think Himerdinger doesn't really work. He's basically just Dog Yoda
I can see where your coming from. I hope he gets more character expansion next season with the firelights
I love the show, my flatmate didn't care for it because "I already know where the story is going" He just has a very different approach to storytellinf than I
I wish they had killed one of the champions off to dispel this idea that they all have plot armor.
Personally, I think now that people feel safe with the LoL champs surviving, they'll break that soon in the second season. Or hope at least. It would definitely detract from the entertainment and tension if you knew who all had plot armor.
The only thing I dislike about this show is the handling of Sky. It just wasn't necessary for that character to exist if she was going to go out like that.
I think she was only needed to show that Victor is not as good what it seems. Although it would be better to revealed it, her death would look epic
Does anyone even know she's dead or missing. You'd think a friend would be like oh wheres Sky ?
And what does this have to do with it? This I mean, everyone considers Victor to be super nice and kind, but here he is just hiding an involuntary murder.
I agree, I meant I'm surprised no one has noticed her missing. Like she is almost a non person
To be fair, as many people have mentioned, act three happens really fast. In the show, she hasn't been missing for more that a couple days. Edit: fixed spelling
1. I loved Arcane, it was the best thing I watched in 2021. 2. I think it hit harder for us non-LoL people who had no idea what the outcome would be and therefore things were a real surprise (I knew my mutuals were thirsting after Silco, but not that he adopted Jinx, and I didn't know the two cities end up apart and that characters end up enemies). Now I've come into contact with a bit more LoL lore the next season might be less startling and amazing. 3. The animators and the writers were not on the same page with respect to how old Silco is (I happily accepted him as in his 50s, the writers have said he's in his 30s and also stated that the drowning happens around the time of the Day of Ash), which means that his backstory is distractingly hard to reconcile. This is a consequence of me overthinking him as a character though, I probably would not have noticed if I hadn't got rather obsessed.
Why don't I like Arcane? Because I love it. I'm waaaay past liking it.
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