A Love Letter to Arcane
SPOILERS BELOW
I. The Emotional Core and Perfect Pacing
I am currently feeling nostalgic for Arcane. You can watch it on Netflix. I don’t know why, maybe it is because I am hearing the albums for it right now and I am remembering all the good stuff I saw in it. Arcane feels like a good, meaty video game that you are satisfied when finished playing.
When I watched it, there would be times I would laugh and cry. There are so many emotions in it. The terrific, emotional music stands completely on its own. I still remember the anticipation for Arcane Season 2. I wasn’t in the Arcane-verse at the time to anticipate Season 1, but the anticipation for Season 2 makes so much sense. Arcane Season 1 had established Arcane as a terrific show and it had ended on a big cliffhanger. Every week getting three episodes was exhilarating. I remember marking the dates on my calendar, and rushing to watch the episodes when they came out. The intros that came with each episode for Season 1 and Season 2 are not only high quality, but also hold so much excitement for what is about to come in the episode. Season 2 even has slightly different intros per episode to hint at what is to come. After watching, I would hop on the internet and find people dissecting various parts of the new episodes, making updated predictions, reaction videos, analyses, and so on. What a great time! I also remember watching the final Arcane Season 2 episode and thinking damn, that’s it. I will never watch Arcane the same again.
II. The Brilliance of Character Arcs and Complexity
Arcane has a brilliantly complex plot to sink in to. The characters are wonderfully complex, and feel truly human because of their complexity. I love the message the Jayce and Victor give about human imperfection. The moment where Jayce is telling Victor he is perfect this whole time is chef’s kiss.
Jayce’s arc is pretty great. Going from the golden boy/inventor, to a badass councilor, to finding his creation will cause everyone’s doom, to saving everyone at the cost of his life is certainly an arc. I still mourn his death.
Victor’s arc from being a broken boy, to god, to realizing his flaws are perfectly acceptable feels like a reasonable arc. Seems like textbook character growth. Too bad he dies in the ethereal realm. The moment where Jayce and Victor died was kind of surreal to watch.
Jinx’s arc from the kid that caused trouble to the badass young woman and the self-awareness to remove herself is pretty great. She has clearly matured from the kid crying in front of a burning building. I don’t like how she is literally gone from Piltover, but that is the story.
I wonder if Vi knows if Jinx is alive. Caitlyn for sure knows. Or maybe Vi knows and has come to terms with possibly never seeing her sister again.
Have to mention this: Alternate Universe Ekko/Powder (TimeBomb) are a beautiful couple.
III. Themes, Philosophy, and World-Building
I love how Arcane touches on so many things, such are depression, suicide, lesbian love, death, the role of technology in the world, politics, the desire for peace, the desire for glory, etc. There is so much to unpack in this story.
Arcane is a world with depth, and has great world building. It is a universe I want to live in, and this desire shows that Arcane is a well thought-out world.
I find it interesting how in the two universes we were shown, Jayce and Viktor ended up separated from society for reasons. Even in Jayce’s universe he ends up as just a broken statue and Viktor is all alone. In a way, alternate universe Victor and Jayce are no longer part of that alternate universe society. Maybe Jayce and Viktor are doomed in every universe, just like Hextech is doomed to kill society or cause Jayce and Viktor to be alienated. Kind of sad to think about. There are so many questions arise from the other universes, such as what happened to various characters in them. For example, what happened to Ambessa in the TimeBomb universe?
It is crazy that if Singed didn’t exist, none of Arcane’s problems would have occurred, but then all the good wouldn't have happened either. It raises the question if good and bad are tightly intertwined. For example, Caitlyn would have never met Vi if Singed (and hence Shimmer) never existed.
If Shimmer didn’t exist, then would have Hextech been the doom of everyone, if Vi didn’t get killed in the TimeBomb universe? Is there a universe where Hextech actually does good and fulfills Jayce’s vision? I could imagine a world where the heist happens, Vi does not die, Power drops the loot, Jayce makes Hextech actually work, and Piltover prospers because of it. Would that world be significantly different from the TimeBomb universe?
IV. Visuals, Community, and Lasting Impact
I’m beating a dead horse with this one, but Arcane has great animation quality. The animation is so great, one realistically argue that every scene in Arcane could be a wallpaper. Arcane is clearly made by people, as seen in beautiful mistakes, such as the wrong/outdated version of Paint the Town Blue being featured in the official episodes. Hey, at least we have the actual version on streaming platforms!
I also love the “climbability” of Arcane’s world. It seems so effortless for the characters to traverse the tall buildings and reach great heights and run fast and such without much physical exertion. Imagine trying to climb a building in the real world lol.
YouTube analysis of Arcane from schnee adds more meaning to the complicated parts of Arcane. Arcane seems much deeper and more intentional that it appears on the surface, thanks to his analysis.
I also love the art of Arcane characters I found on the internet. The internet fans of Arcane are passionate, friendly, and lend so much life to this show.
What a show. Arcane will live on for a long time. Good shows like Arcane don’t die. Love you, Arcane.
P.S.: I definitely missed covering a lot of cool stuff here, such as Ambessa’s arc, or Ekko truly being the Boy Savior! But that's just what happens with a show of this quality. It's so rich and vast that trying to capture all of it in a single post is impossible. It’s part of the magic, and it's why Arcane will keep living on in my head.