Arcane is an animated show with gorgeous visuals, excellent character design, top-shelf voice acting, and some truly impressive fights. For a show based on the essentially story-free video game League of Legends, Arcane has far surpassed my expectations. However, as great as it is, Arcane still has a long list of problems. Since approximately everyone in the world has watched Arcane, that gives us a great opportunity to sharpen our analytical skills by examining how the show could have been improved.
Spoiler Notice: Arcane’s first season
1. Less Confusion
Something I didn’t expect when loading Arcane for the first time is how confusing the show is. At first, I would stop and rewind whenever I didn’t understand something, but after the 10th time, I gave up and just checked the wiki instead. I can’t tell you about everything that made me go “huh,” but here are a few choice examples:
- Before we even know who Jayce is, we get a flashback where a kid and his mother are saved by a mysterious mage. The kid is a young Jayce, but that’s not immediately clear, and we never get context for that scene.
- Jayce and Viktor say their inventions will help sick people in the undercity, but so far they’ve only invented powered armor and a laser gun. Maybe it’s a medical laser?
- Heimerdinger says that Jayce’s new power crystal needs more safety measures, but safety measures for what? The crystal is already perfectly stable. Does he mean security, so it won’t be stolen?
- Silco’s plan and objectives are kept extremely vague for the whole season. Even by the end, it’s not clear what he was trying to do or how he planned to do it
- When visiting a brothel for information, Vi tells Caitlyn to start flirting with the customers for unknown reasons. Then they leave without mentioning it again.
- In a council meeting, Vi gives no indication of being pro-war but gets very angry at the possibility of peaceful negotiation. The scene ends without clearly indicating what Vi actually wants.
- Ekko’s group of resistance fighters have somehow turned their corner of the poisoned undercity into a green paradise with healthy trees. How did they do that? The whole place is poisoned!
- The “undercity” appears and sounds like it’s underground, but it’s accessed by going across a normal bridge that leads to a distinctly aboveground city. I have pored over maps of Piltover, and I’m still having trouble with this one.
- Jayce orders all traffic across the bridges to be searched, but in the next scene, we see that no one is allowed through at all. Maybe someone applied creative license to Jayce’s orders.
- The Piltover council somehow switches from being completely against undercity independence to unanimously voting for it. How does Jayce get them to do that? By being offscreen for a while!
This is not an exhaustive list, and I was still thinking of new things to add even as I typed it, but I think that’s enough to get the point across. Some confusion is inevitable in any story, but Arcane pushes it beyond all limits. The last show I can remember being this hard to follow was Lost, which the writers made confusing on purpose.
Some of these problems could probably be solved with more explanation. For example, we might see the guards search people crossing the bridge at first, but this causes so much delay that the crowd gets rowdy, forcing the bridge to be closed entirely. However, that’s not really a solution when we’re seeing this many points of confusion. Even a novel, which can explain a lot more than a TV show, would struggle with this much exposition.
Other items on the list are just bad plotting. It’s difficult to imagine any scenario in which Jayce convinces the Piltover council to give up half their territory, no matter how persuasive he is.
The best solution that can be applied to nearly all these points is to revise the story so that the initial situation is easier to understand. In most cases, that means making things simpler. That way, each point doesn’t require a lot of explanation, and we’re less likely to have plot problems like Jayce’s offscreen council persuasion.
For a simple example, the term “undercity” makes it sound like the whole thing is underground, but we can tell from the visuals that it isn’t. Some of the undercity is just a normal city, while other parts appear to be in deep canyons that are still open to the sky. A less confusing choice would be to call it the “lower city,” which would encompass everything not in the rich upper districts. This is a common naming practice that wouldn’t need much explanation.
For a more complicated example, the story needs Jayce and Viktor to be working on something they think will help the people of the undercity, but it also needs them to be working on powered armor and laser guns, something no one in the undercity would benefit from.* An easy solution is to have Jayce fund public services in the undercity: hospitals, housing, food and water, etc. He needs the money from new inventions to keep those services going. This is easy to explain and would fit well with Jayce rushing new inventions to market before they’re ready.
We can apply this method to most of Arcane’s confusing plot points. Instead of Jayce needing to convince the council to grant the undercity independence, he might work to make them accept Silco as the new undercity governor, someone with a lot of autonomy but who still ultimately answers to the council. Likewise, gaining that position would be a good plan for Silco, easy to understand and with clear stakes. The list goes on, and the more confusion we can fix, the more time there is to enjoy the story.
2. More Efficient Backstory
Arcane’s first season was released on Netflix in three chunks, each a week apart and containing three episodes. From this, you might imagine that the show is divided into three distinct parts, but it’s not. Instead, episodes 4 to 9 form the main story, while episodes 1 to 3 are backstory that takes place before a time jump of several years.
That is, to put it mildly, too much backstory, and it creates a number of problems. Most urgently, it introduces several potentially interesting characters like Vander and Grayson, then abruptly kills them off before their story can properly resolve.* Three episodes is enough time to get attached, but not enough time for any kind of satisfactory conclusion. It doesn’t help that Grayson is killed offscreen by a mook and Vander dies from an explosion so magical that it’s somehow more deadly to people on the other side of a steel door than people in the same room.
The other big problem with this backstory is that it takes up precious time that the main story desperately needs. Arcane is incredibly ambitious with its storytelling, and later plots are often starved for time. The political plots especially suffer from this. Maybe with a couple more episodes we could see how Jayce is able to get his radical independence proposal through the council. But we could also have used more time to learn about the Firelights, or to develop how Silco runs his drug empire, since that question is suddenly very important in the later episodes.
Why is this backstory so long? Partly because it has backstory of its own. Even though Vander dies before the main story begins, these first three episodes spend a lot of time establishing his complex history with Silco and the history of previous political conflicts in Piltover. In fact, we learn more about previous political conflicts than we do about the current one. The backstory episodes also have to establish how Jayce and Viktor became famous inventors and introduce a few disposable side characters like Mylo and Claggor, both of whom die at the end of episode three.
With so much going on, it’s no wonder the backstory takes three entire episodes to complete. But believe it or not, there’s something very important that the backstory didn’t have time for: establishing a relationship between Jinx* and Ekko. The two of them barely interact, which is weird considering how important their connection is to the iconic bridge fight in episode seven.*
To cut this backstory down, we’d need to tear out everything that isn’t related to Vi and Jinx. That means Jayce and Viktor can get on out of here until the main story starts. We just need to know they’re rich inventors; we don’t need to see how they got that way, especially since the conflict over Piltover not trusting magic goes exactly nowhere. Likewise, Vander and Silco’s history should be simplified or eliminated entirely. All we really need to know about them is that they’re both criminal leaders, but one does good crimes and the other does bad crimes. We can probably keep how they’re old comrades from the failed revolution, but we absolutely don’t need the convoluted story of Vander trying to drown Silco.
Next, we’d get rid of unnecessary characters. Mylo and Claggor are the first to go, as their only purpose is to die so Jinx will feel guilty, and Vander already has that role covered. Instead, put Ekko on Vi and Jinx’s crime team. That will give Ekko and Jinx the time they need to bond so that the bridge fight hits as hard as it’s supposed to. This would be easy, since most of the needed footage already exists; it’s just hidden in this music video for some reason. Since we probably don’t want Ekko or Vi to invent the name “Jinx,” as that’s meaner than they’re supposed to be, it can be something a random bar patron shouts at them after a failed job.
I’d also cut Grayson, even though she’s played by one of my favorite voice actors, as her character is largely unimportant once the main story starts. Vander’s unofficial treaty with the Enforcers is interesting, but since it doesn’t matter in the later episodes, we don’t need it. From there, the backstory can play out largely the same way it does in the current version: the crew steals a magic crystal that both Silco and the cops want, they fight over it for a bit, and then Vander is accidentally killed by Jinx’s bomb. That way, Jinx has a motivation for her heel turn, Vi is whisked off to jail, and Ekko is left on his own.
I can’t say for sure how long this more efficient backstory would take, but my guess is we’d save at least one episode, maybe even two. It depends on how much time we want to spend developing the bond between Vander, Vi, Jinx, and Ekko.* Even if we only cut down the backstory by a single episode, that still gives the later stories more breathing room, especially once we enact my next few changes.
3. Fewer Characters
In addition to too much backstory, Arcane has too many characters. Way too many characters. Some of this comes from the need to shove as many League of Legends champions into the show as possible,* but a surprising number don’t come from the game at all.
Granted, a TV show can handle more characters than a novel for the simple reason that we have more things to remember them by. Instead of relying entirely on the written word, we can also see what a character looks like and hear what they sound like. That helps jog the old memory, even if we can’t recall a character’s name.
But Arcane still has too many characters. It has so many that a lot of important moments are crowded out by lack of development. In one scene, we meet an old friend of Vi’s who is now strung out on fantasy drugs, but it’s really hard to remember where we saw him before. In another, Viktor’s lab assistant has what should be a tragic death, but we’ve barely gotten to know her. The show is still figuring out Mel’s character when everything about her is turned upside down by the arrival of Warlord Mom. The list goes on. I’ve already talked about which backstory characters need to go, so let’s look at a few other prospects from the main story.
Professor Heimerdinger
Despite being a beloved champion from the game and featuring a lot of screen time, Heimerdinger does almost nothing in this show. His main purpose is to interfere with Jayce’s plans, which is pretty frustrating, and that interference never even goes anywhere. Of all his warnings about Jayce’s tech, the only problem to come from it is when someone steals a power crystal, something Heimerdinger didn’t even consider. His only real contribution is to be a do-nothing ruler who fiddles while his city burns, and any of the other random council members can do that.
Ambessa Medarda
In the early episodes, the writers are clearly still figuring out Mel’s character. What she wants is exceedingly vague, yet also somewhat sinister, and it seems like she’s pushing Jayce to take greater risks. Then, before we can get any understanding of Mel, her mom Ambessa shows up and completely overshadows her. Suddenly, Mel’s main role is being the voice of reason who wants peace, with her previous motivations remaining unexplored. Meanwhile, Ambessa spends all of her time hanging out and foreshadowing a possible conflict in season two. We don’t need an entire character for that! Saving this character for next season would give Mel time to develop properly, and she’d also have plenty of time to foreshadow future problems in Noxus.
Finn and the Crime Board
For most of the show, we pay very little attention to the workings of Silco’s criminal empire. Then, we suddenly find out that he has a board of criminal investors who are apparently unhappy with his quarterly earnings. They try to overthrow him, it predictably fails, and the story keeps going as if this side adventure had never happened. The only reason these characters exist is because without them, Silco has nothing to do for large sections of the show. That’s a problem because Silco is a villain: he should be doing villain things that affect the protagonist! If the writers wanted to explore Silco’s empire, they should have made that the story’s focus.
Sheriff Marcus
I’ll admit I’m still confused as to why this corrupt cop has so much screen time in Arcane. It’s reasonable to have a named enforcer for Jayce to order around, but why give that enforcer an abortive character arc? The show spends a lot of time focusing on how torn Marcus is about serving Silco, which should then conclude in him either turning against Silco or falling permanently into his dark side. Instead, he’s killed off by Jinx’s explosive butterfly cloud. At time of death, Marcus is still working for Silco, but he also still has doubts about working for Silco, so nothing is resolved. Granted, as a cop who both beats up civilians and takes mob bribes, it would be difficult for Marcus to generate enough sympathy for a proper arc, but that’s another problem.
There are plenty of other characters whose roles could be reduced or cut, but those four* are the most obvious. Despite their screen time, they have very little to do with any of Arcane’s storylines, so cutting them would require few changes to other aspects of the show.
4. Related Storylines
Arcane’s biggest structural problem is that a bunch of its storylines are largely or completely unrelated to each other. We first see this in the backstory, where Jayce tries to get his invention approved while Vi tries not to get caught by either Silco or the Enforcers. Other than Vi and her crew stealing some of Jayce’s power crystals in the first episode, these arcs have no effect on each other.
Unfortunately, that trend continues past the backstory episodes. There are not one, not two, but three main stories:
- Jayce and Viktor working on new inventions
- Vi and Caitlyn looking for Jinx
- Silco’s revolutionary adventures
Plot #1 is almost entirely self-contained, only briefly interacting with the other two when Jinx steals a magic crystal. Again. Plots #2 and #3 sound like they should be connected, since Jinx is Silco’s main lieutenant, but they mostly aren’t. Instead, Silco is largely passive for most of the story, occasionally dealing with the ornery crime board but otherwise hanging out in his office. It’s not until near the end that Silco finally starts pushing his political agenda, and even then, it mostly seems to fall into his lap as a side effect of Vi’s fight with Jinx. Silco himself seems a little confused that Jayce is already suing for peace after just one raid on a drug factory.
Compounding the problem, we have several significant subplots that also branch off on their own with little relation to each other or to the main plots. The two most significant of these are Viktor’s quest to cure his illness and whatever is going on with Ambessa. Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than happy to watch a badass lady relax and enjoy herself, but I would like it to be plot relevant somehow. The only effect Ambessa has on the rest of the plot is when she urges Jayce to be more ruthless, and he was clearly going in that direction already. Viktor is even less related; he’s just working on a side project.
These fractured storylines have two major effects on the story. First, the early episodes aren’t nearly as engaging as they could be. Instead of developing one story, we keep switching around between them. I really enjoy Vi and Caitlyn’s investigation, and I would like it a lot more if we didn’t keep cutting away to Jayce and Heimerdinger arguing over unrelated inventions.
Second, the later episodes feel rushed because the writers are literally rushing to tie off their many storylines as best they can. Even after watching the entire season, I cannot articulate what Silco’s plan was before Jayce called him up and offered independence. Likewise, the undercity gains independence in about 10 minutes, with no buildup or anything to justify how it’s even possible. The Firelights completely vanish after seeming pretty important, and we briefly see Heimerdinger try to help out in the undercity before immediately giving up. Granted, that’s fairly in character for him, but it’s still frustrating.
To fix this, we need to decide what Arcane is actually about. A story can be about anything, but it can’t be about everything. Personally, I think Arcane is about Piltover’s political struggle. The magitech is great for novelty, but it doesn’t need to form part of the plot. There are other possible directions to take the story, but we can’t explore all of them in one article, so let’s look at this approach.
First of all, this means axing the entire Hextech-invention storyline. It’s done, get it out of here! Jayce is already on the Piltover council when the main story starts, propelled to leadership at a young age because his inventions are so important to how the city functions. Heimerdinger is now the counselor who urges restraint when dealing with the undercity, while Mel argues for decisive action so that Piltover can be ready for a conflict brewing in Noxus, which will be important next season. Jayce is caught in the middle, and we could even make him originally from the undercity if we want to add some depth to his character. We’re also axing Silco’s problems with the crime board, because honestly no one has time for them.
The plot kicks off with Jinx stealing a power crystal for Silco. Silco wants to reverse engineer the crystal so he can equip his soldiers with Hextech weapons, thus making them a match for Piltover’s Enforcers. If Viktor is still in the story, he can be working on that for Silco. Jayce, with his famous out-of-the-box thinking, pairs Caitlyn up with Vi and sends them both to retrieve the crystal. If they can get it back, a heavy-handed response won’t be needed. Officially, Vi is doing this to earn her freedom, but she’s got her own agenda to find Jinx, just like in the existing show. Vi could even have an arc where she starts off only caring about herself and Jinx, but eventually realizes that she needs to fight for all of the undercity.
From there, the story mostly follows Caitlyn and Vi, but it also cuts to either Jayce or Silco occasionally as the political conflict slowly escalates. Caitlyn and Vi meet the Firelights, of course, who are against both the upper city for how it oppresses them and Silco for how he exploits the very people he claims to champion. We don’t meet Ambessa until next season, but Mel can mention her as foreshadowing. The climax could even be similar, with Jayce offering the undercity independence to avoid a war, but this time it would be built up enough to be plausible.
That’s obviously only one way to unify Arcane’s disparate storylines, but it gives you an idea of what has to be done. A story can get very complex and still be great, but once it starts pulling in different directions, there’s a problem.
5. A Stronger Conclusion
Now that we’ve looked at Arcane’s story from a bird’s-eye view, it’s time to zoom in for our final section. Specifically, zoom in to the show’s climax. While the scattered plotlines yield several possible candidates for the climax, one scene is clearly more dramatic than the others: teatime with Jinx. That is, Jinx captures Vi, Caitlyn, and Silco, then ties them all up at an Alice in Wonderland-style tea party. I have some serious concerns about the potential ableism of this trope, but for now I’ll leave that to more qualified critics and focus on the drama instead.
This scene is meant as the culmination of Jinx’s character arc. Will she choose her sister Vi and turn good, or will she stick with her adopted father Silco* and stay evil? Caitlyn is there too, but mostly as a catalyst to raise the stakes from just words to both bullets and words.
The first problem is that Jinx’s choice is made in a rather arbitrary fashion. Vi and Silco are at a standstill in their verbal battle when Silco flips the table by trying to shoot Vi, forcing Jinx to shoot him first. Jinx then feels guilty and decides to stay evil. I can see what the writers wanted here, but it’s not very satisfying, as it places all the agency on Silco rather than on Vi, the actual protagonist.
Once Jinx has made her choice, she goes on to launch a rocket at the council building, right after they’ve voted to grant undercity independence.* This is also really unsatisfying because Jinx’s motivation is extremely hazy. While Jinx is a violent person, she’s never shown much interest in Piltover’s political situation, so this particular act of violence feels very out of left field. I think the idea is that she’s carrying out Silco’s wishes after killing him, but there isn’t much to indicate why Silco would want the council building bombed or why Jinx would think he does. Put together, the whole climax leaves you feeling emotionally disconnected. Something certainly happened, but there isn’t a strong reason for you to care.
Fortunately, fixing this climax doesn’t require rewriting the major storylines like the last entry, though of course that wouldn’t hurt. The first thing we need is a real turning point in Vi’s conflict with Silco, something to show that Jinx is actually being convinced one way or another. The most obvious option would be for Vi to say something that actually gets through to Jinx. Ideally, this would demonstrate Vi’s growth as well.
- Vi might offer forgiveness for Jinx’s part in Vander’s death.* This would represent something she was unwilling to do before, even when she was trying to help Jinx.
- If we’re able to revise previous scenes, then Vi might confess that Vander’s death wasn’t Jinx’s fault, showing that Vi is finally able to move on and stop blaming her sister.
- Alternatively, Vi could focus on how Jinx didn’t kill Ekko when she had the chance, offering Jinx proof that she isn’t completely lost. This would require some modifications to the bridge sequence, but it’s hardly a stretch that Jinx could have finished Ekko when he was wounded from her grenade.
Whatever the turning point is, we would see Jinx starting to turn toward Vi. That’s when Silco escalates to violence and Jinx shoots him. Alternatively, we could also see Vi fail her turning point, which makes Silco overconfident, thinking he can kill Vi and Jinx won’t intervene. That turns out to be false, and Jinx shoots him. Whatever happens, it needs to be rooted in Vi’s actions – success or failure.
Next, we need a better ending for Jinx, something that puts her firmly in villain territory for season two but is more satisfying than a random rocket attack. To keep the theme of trying to carry out Silco’s wishes, I would have Jinx take over his organization and vow to finish what he started. That puts Jinx in charge of Team Bad, which is currently leaderless.
The current ending also builds a lot of drama on the irony of Jinx starting a war just as the council was voting for peace. If that’s important to keep, then we can end with Jinx declaring that independence isn’t enough – they’re going to take over the upper city too. To justify this, she can pin Silco’s death on Caitlyn, who is clearly one of Jayce’s associates. Jinx tells her followers that they were betrayed, and the season ends with the undercity mobilizing for war.
Not only does this scenario give Vi and Jinx’s arc a more satisfying conclusion, but it also ends with a stronger hook for season two. In the actual ending, all we have are question marks. Presumably, some of the councilors are dead, but we don’t know who, nor what the consequences might be. It’s likely the upper city will make some kind of response, but against whom, now that Silco is dead? Will it be a hunt for Jinx or a general war? It’s good to leave the ending with some unanswered questions, but without a strong idea of where the story is going, there’s little to draw audiences back except for the beautiful visuals. Granted, those visuals are so impressive that Arcane will probably do fine, but the point stands.
Given Arcane’s impressive acclaim from both critics and audiences, I imagine a lot of folks will see this article and conclude I’m just trolling. It’s already so good, why bother improving it? Partly for the challenge. Improving on a quality story is a great way to stretch the editing muscles. But more importantly, because no matter how good a story is, it can always be better. Except for Vi’s fight against Sevika. That one’s perfect.
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You said the show was confusing. I got confused just reading your article about why Arcane was confusing lol
Why was the article confusing? Or was the show so confusing it made the article confusing as well? Now I’m confused…
The show is about the characters and the character developments, not how they do it. For example, the ending is super important. Jinx lost everyone. No one was there to control her or lead her. So she made a decision for the first time ever. She chose after never being able to.
It’s interesting seeing a different interpretation of the show!
Recently, I’ve been really liking long backstory, like in The Faraway Paladin. Things like Vander’s death made so much sense for Silco’s position taking over the Underworld and the rampant use of shimmer. Tonally, it changed a lot to know Vander’s position, including his deal, and then the long term affect on the community when he was lost. I don’t think the same effect could be achieved just by people talking about how it used to not be that bad. It’s true, both Arcane and Paladin then feel rushed after the backstory, I’d love to see someone find a way to make long backstory work!
I had such a different understand watching the tea party, I feel like I need to rewatch to compare the two. Mine goes something like this:
Jinx was presenting Vi with a false choice, deep down she knew she could never really be the Powder Vi remembered. The very un-Powder requirement of killing Caitlyn is very telling, but also the revelation that Jinx was not made by Silco, but by Vi. Jinx wasn’t offering Powder, she was trying to make Vi like her by killing someone she cared about. Jinx still wants her sister, but she knows her sister will never get over what Powder became, so she needs Vi to understand by going through the same thing.
So why the rocket launcher? Obviously, I don’t think Jinx was following Silco’s wishes, I think she was basically already decided on killing him and his presence was mostly a bit of theatre to add pressure to Vi. Jinx was angry at Silco, and she knew his final actions were related to the council. She shoots the rocket because just killing Silco didn’t get all the anger out, she still wants to blow stuff up, so she aims at his plans. Jinx is a completionist who likes overkill. She’s not about leading a thought out battle, she wants instant gratification and a loud boom.
That’s how I remember it anyway, I thought it was worth sharing because it was so different to what you saw!
Are you guys going to be taking on the Wheel of Time tv show soon? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it; I didn’t think it was very good, and I think that’s the opinion you have of the show as well, based on the occasional tweet I’ve seen you guys put out.
We’ve got a podcast on that coming in a few weeks, as it happens. We actually liked it quite a bit, but there’s still plenty to critique, as is our standard operating procedure.
Like arcane, I think it has significant problems, but it exceeded expectations. I don’t think I had time to mention this in the podcast, but the disparate storylines is definitely an issue in Wheel of Time as well as Arcane, and if it’s following the books, it’s only going to get worse.
I feel like most of Arcane’s issues stem from trying to cram WAY TOO MUCH into nine forty-five minute episodes.
Part of this is likely that the show was not guaranteed to have a second season (We know now that they will, but a video game adaptation with an unusual art style and dark tone was a HUGE creative risk). They had nine episodes, so they decided to go for broke and throw in absolutely everything they could come up with. This has it’s charm- the show has a very fast pace with no downtime, fat, or filler- has drawbacks. The undercity and topside plotlines feel kind-of disconnected for most of the plot, and while I did not have a problem with it, I can see how the show could be confusing.
There is almost no explicit exposition, and a lot of the world-building is done visually and the viewer has to read between the lines a little bit. For one example, enforcers wearing gas-masks when they go into the under-city, the under-city being underground, and one one mention of ‘the miners’ by Jayce, lead me to think that the actual underground portions of the under-city are in fact converted mine-shafts. EVERYTHING is like this, and while I liked it, it can also be kind of exhausting.
The whole ‘maybe only one season, so make it count’ context makes a lot of other things make sense too. The series occasional turning into a hyper-stylized music video (and the whole soundtrack, come to think of it), the ‘throw it all in’ approach to plotting, ect, is done not because it needs to be there then and there, but because they may not get another change to. Similarly, the climax with the rocket, as a possible ending of the series and not just a season, is a BOLD choice, to say the least.
P.S Different Joseph than the one who posted further up.
What other ambient exposition did you notice?
A lot of the non-speaking ‘extras’ show up more than once, and I dont think this is just asset re-use.
For one of many examples, remember how the Noxian lady near the end of the season has with her what is strongly implied to be a male prostitute?
Blink and you’ll miss it, but he is actually in the background of the brothel they go to in episode 5. He’s in a mask, but definitely the same person.
So the undercity and the richest of piltover, apparently, draw from the same pool of sex-workers. This is a neat detail.
Also, one of the Shimmer-junkies in episode 6, the one who helps Cat get medicine for Vi, was the haggling trader (?) that Vander helped out in episode 1.
Even the extremely minor characters are CHARACTERS, and not just props. Like any extra in the background could have had an entire show made about them, too.
There are hundreds of tiny details like this.
I find it interesting that Arcane seems to have many of the same flaws as The Legend of Korra, but it still is generally perceived as having handled the issues better.
Both series seem to have had a similar reason behind the issues, which is that neither knew how long they would get to wrap things up.
I was not able to understand a reason why we need to feel sympathy to Vi and her friends. Wiki said that undercity is the place where all dangerous and poisonous production is located and people of undercity had to work for profit of uppercity. Ok, there is a social injustice and we should welcome heroes who fight against it. But the problem is none of heroes on the screen is a worker! They are criminals who steals, fights, sells and buy sex without any thought about social justice! The conflict we see on the screen is between wealthy people and criminals who would like to rob them. And the only person who really want to do something for undercity community is a villan! This is really frustrating.
Um Elga…they’re criminals because they’re poor. They live in a society that requires them to have money for every basic need & hordes that money in the hands of a few. They establish this in the first few minutes of the first episode. One of the characters even asks “how could one person have so much stuff” about a wealthy person’s apartment, cause he’s lived his whole life in poverty. The primary investment the main characters have is in survival. They steal to survive. They fight to survive.
Honestly, I didn’t even like Arcane. But if you can’t find sympathy with people struggling to survive in a society that systematically deprives & disadvantages them, I don’t know what to tell you.
Also…”sells and buys sex”? Yes…And? Is there something wrong with sex work? What are you trying to say here?
Yeah, this pretty much covers what I was thinking when I was watching it. So many times watching it I saw scenes which felt like they were supposed to be big and impactful, but lacked the buildup to really make me care as much as I felt like I should have – probably because it was too busy playing out part of a different plot thread instead. The day of Viktor’s lab assistant, the encounter between Jinx and Ekko, the scene of Silco gassing the crime board, even the relationship between Silco and Jinx – when Silco tells her he never would have handed her to the enforcers even if it would achieve his goal of independence, I just kept thinking “Have I ever seen you two interact when you weren’t furious at each other? “. Those were a few examples that immediately came to mind, I have no doubt there were others.
I talked this over with a friend who plays the games, and whose urging led to me watching the show in the first place. He told me a lot of it works better with the context of the games. This of course led to a discussion about how much an adaptation should rely on pre-existing knowledge of the source material – I know some people say “not at all”, and while I don’t agree with that, I do feel like Arcane missed the mark if what my friend says is true.
Having played LOL like…twice, i felt that all the show (and subsequent seasons) is just backstory dump. Given that the game is set in their future and some of the Champions are appearing in the show i conclude they were trying to show us the character background, but avoiding to set clear sides (that’s why Jinx is not clearly a villain, yeah, she is about to bomb the Capitol, but didn’t kill her sister, so she must be just an adorable nutjob, diminishing any care for mental health).
Vander’s death IS Jinx fault, pretending it wasn’t won’t help and instead asking for forgivenes she just go crazy, what give her superpowers.
I’m getting tired of shows that call a “season” simply to a batch of episodes set apart arbitrarilly.
Editor’s note: I’ve removed a comment for going beyond disagreement and attacking the author’s motives.
Jinx is the protagonist. Everything in the story is driven by her need to be valued, from her failures in the first episode, to her diner party with her Vi and Silco. All other characters respond to her actions.
The dinner party wasn’t about weather Jinx would turn good or stay evil, these concepts are meaningless to her. Jinks wanted to find out if Vi could still love her the way she use to, as she is. She was always going to attack Piltover, she just wanted to know if Vi would be by her side. A part of the tragedy was that she killed a man who loved her like a father so save her sister who no longer loved her but wanted her back the way she was.
That’s what the story was about.
I disagree with most of what Oren wrote.
I never played LoL, or seen any related materials, so I’m an Unsullied with regards to the show. And I liked it a lot. It wasn’t perfect, but most of the places for improvement Oren lists above, I instead saw as masterfully executed.
The things listed as confusing weren’t for me. For instance:
Jayce being the kid in the flashback was made clear by him having the spent gem, his mom’s missing fingers as well as the fact that he was the one person in all of Piltover to find the crystals. Presumably, his obsession stemming from the rescue made him look harder than anyone before, as well as disregard any moral/legal obstacles.
Silco having no plan was intentional in my view, a contrast to Vander. Vander was building a community, which would allow him to do something about the status quo when and if a chance presented itself. Silco undid all that solidarity and has no idea HOW to change the status quo. He’s angry and ambitious, but his ambition doesn’t truly lie in changing the status quo, rather it lies in rising to the top. His lack of a plan was what cemented him a villain in my eyes. Aside from his talk with Vander’s statue, he came across as a wannabe tyrant manipulating the masses with the dream of independence, whilst exploiting them as badly as the elites. Because he wants to be the new elites, not because he wants equality. That seemed plain to me, not even concealed in subtext.
Vi told Caitlyn to flirt with a rando in the brothel so she could go talk to the madam privately and so she could ditch her there and go about her business. I don’t see how that bit could be confusing, since it was explicitly shown onscreen. The only way it could have been clearer was if Vi had a hard-boiled PI kind of voiceover explicitly stating it for the “slower” folk in the audience.
How did Ekko and the firelights make a home in the muck? They worked hard at it. Made sacrifices. Nothing confusing there.
The term Undercity was used to denote the class of people who lived there, not a geographical term. Didn’t seem very confusing to me.
I do agree that Jayce managing to convince the Council to capitulate was badly done. It was not confusing, but rather quite clear that the writers had written themselves into a corner and decided to toss it offscreen and hope no one pays too much attention to it. It is especially glaring compared to him making backdoor deals with the other councillors to keep from being yeeted off the Council in an earlier episode when he flexed his new authority in a way the other councillors didn’t like. After that, I would have expected him to get laughed out of the council chamber, even literally yeeted, but instead… the writers left PLENTY of room for improvement there.
Still, this one flaw can’t measure up to all the great the show does.
As for the story having too much backstory… that is completely wrong.
The backstory is merely the opening scene on the bridge, which quickly, efficiently and evocatively shows Vi and Powder being orphaned in Vander’s rebellion and him giving up and taking them in. Also, a few flashes of Vander drowning Silco.
All the rest of the show IS the show. It’s all one story, with a time skip after episode 3. The first part of the season is vital to allow us to understand the emotional beats and impacts of the rest of the story. Honestly, if it had been summarized, I suspect Oren would be writing a blog post about how much better the show would have been if the audience got to see more of the crucial backstory of the main characters. ;-)
The story’s two parts work together to better execute the characters’ arcs and showcase the themes of the story, about how past trauma can define a person, or destroy any chance of a good life, if left untreated/exploited. And about how power structures resist changes to the status quo as well as the old adage “plus ça change…”
The explosion which mysteriously killed people through a steel door, but was harmless to those on the same side of the door as the bomb?
Actually surprisingly realistic.
The bad guys on the same side of the door as the bomb were in a big warehouse, which dissipates the blast, and were either prone, or on the lower level, both the best ways to survive a blast, whereas the heroes were in a smal room, which concentrated the blast force. Also, they were shown dying from the room collapsing and flying debris, not the blast itself.
Savika lost her arm in that blast by dive-tackling Silco out of the way of the blast, since the two of them were the baddies standing upright on the other end of the very large warehouse in which the bomb went off.
As for Mylo and Claggor being extraneous characters… I liked them and their deaths onscreen gave weight to Jinx’s descent into… uh, let’s call it lethal mischief syndrome. Plus, I think the writers wanted their “ghosts” to haunt Jinx instead of Vander’s to avoid confusion between “ghost Vander” and “undead Vander” in the next season.
The storylines interacted at pivotal moments and their variety provided a good snapshot of the salient aspects of the city and its players. I liked it. The show could have been more focused on a single storyline, but that would have detracted from it, in my opinion. The writers would either have to cut many aspects of the worldbuilding and a big chunk of the cast, or they would have to infect the show with “everyone went to school together” syndrome, which is often terminal, IMO.
As for Jinx having no interest in the politics and the ostensible main plot… well, duh. The fate/independence of Zaun is not the main plot of season one, Jinx’s descent is. She doesn’t care about anything except stuff blowing up. She can’t. She’s so broken after losing her parents, her sister and her adopted father that when she loses her sister again and her SECOND adopted father… well, I for one felt her despair and her anger, precisely because we were shown her story from the bridge onwards.
Also, did anyone spot Councilor Mel reacting and her outfit suddenly glowing golden right before the rocket hits the glass? It was a secret hextech suit of reactive (plot) armor, I’m sure of it. She’ll be back for season two, just you wait!
Very well put.
I expected Mel’s mom would have convince the council to install some kind of point defense system or shield, especially with what they know about Jinx.
My take on the council capitulating is they realized that Silco could produce chem soldiers in far greater numbers they Piltover could defend its infrastructure from, even with vastly superior hextech weapons.
I agree with this comment. All but two of the “confusing” statements I thought were quite clear and I want to make a point that has been missed by you, Barba, and the original poster.
Jayce didn’t convince the council. Not alone. The show rushes this a bit, but the decision-maker was Mel. She saw that her path was her mother’s as soon as her mother arrived. Ambessa suggested Mel continue doing what she had been doing, and Mel realized that that was wrong. Rather than accept her path as her mother’s daughter, she removes the ring and rejects it.
The council is shown to always follow Mel’s lead. As soon as she votes, the others are forced to contend with that vote. Whether they think about it and realize they WERE greviously at fault for the state of the undercity, or think about it and realize they need to make a deal to stop the way, or think about it and realize they have vital economic ties to Mel and don’t want to cross her, each council member joins her vote.
Even so, my number 1 complaint about Arcane is that the council voted for peace, even though it makes the ending much more tragic. I don’t believe a ruling council after decades of oppressing a people for profit, would change their positions, and I think the show falsely claims that such a situation is possible. It makes it seem like the oppressed should simply wait until their oppressors decide to stop oppressing, which is a terrible message at any point in our history.
Just a correction of Oren’s text:
He writes that Vander was killed by the explosion little Powder sets off in the warehouse. This is not true. It didn’t sit right with me when I read it, but I only took the time to rewatch that scene today.
Vander is knocked prone by that blast and only killed later, after fighting Silco and his chemically enhanced enforcer.
Claggor dies from a fragment of the hextech crystal which got propelled into the room and detonated/bounced off the ceiling and hit the boy in the head.
Mylo got skewered by a piece of pipe the blast sent flying and then he got brained by falling bricks.
Vi got the big, heavy steel door falling atop her and was knocked unconscious.
Can we also talk about the ableism of this show? Cause good gods does it have a lot.
Seriously, Jinx is a textbook example of the “cr*zy lady in the attic who burns down the house” trope. She’s clearly portrayed as being mentally ill and her mental illness is treated as something dangerous to others when in fact people with mental illnesses are more likely to be the victims of crimes. And the fact that all Victor’s conflict is from how he’s being made to choose between his life/health and some vague “what if hextech makes you better, but also kills your friends, wouldn’t that make you feel bad?” Like, the narrative seems to want us to see him trying to preserve his own life as him being selfish. It’s absolutely baffling.
I don’t think the writers realized that they were writing these themes in, they clearly didn’t think about it much, but they seem to have accidentally made eugenics show. Yikes.
Personally I kind of hated the show, it had nothing new and all the characters were either boring or an offensive stereotype and some were both.
Editor’s note, I’ve removed a comment because it broke our rules about attacking another commenter.
While I’m sensitive to ableism, and have no disability, I would disagree regarding Viktor. It’s clear that Jinx is a trope of the “dangerous psychotic”, and that can and does stigmatize mental illness. I think the show tried to reduce that by humanizing her as much as they could. They did a better job than others of the same archetype, like “Harley Quinn”. Doesn’t fix the ableism, though.
Viktor, however, is portrayed as a noble idealist for most of the show. I don’t see how you think the show portrays his push as selfish – they go out of their way again and again to show his motivations are for others. Everything he says matches this, and only when he’s literally dying does he push the limits (like he always did as a younger scientist). He had no reason to believe that what he was doing would hurt his friends, and as soon as it DID hurt his friends, he rejected the technology and demanded that Jayce destroy it.
That said, I don’t know how they are going to handle Viktor in the future, since his League of Legends counterpart goes off the deep end.
Also, this article is way, way off in general about Arcane’s flaws. Perhaps some people WANT a show where you can rewatch or analyze the show afterward to see deeper into it. What would this author say in an analysis of “The Metamorphosis”? Too confusing?
I’d say that the conclusion creates disconnection mostly because of Vi’s characterisation in act 2. Because of the time skip, we never actually see her confront the grief of loosing all of her friends due to powder’s mistake. Let’s say for years she trying to fight off the pain to believe that powder isnt a jinx, episode 5 giving her the opportunity to overcome this. Well because she never doubts herself, we never understand her reasoning making her appear more than just reckless but unreasonable. Her infallibile inner goal redacts the drama necessary in the third act. Vi as the protagonist in the denouement, because they never emotionally arc past ep5 should have this scene transform her into someone who believes her sister is powder to setup the next season, as her “doubt” in powder becomes her hamartia here. Yet by lacking this, vi becomes an outsider and passive not fully comprehending why jinx is now jinx, setting her up as being confused in the next season. I started super intrigued on how that festering wound of anger towards powder would rot on vi, and how they would try and fail from healing from it with her contrasting heroic characterisation. I wanted to see not guilt but the seperation build between BOTH sisters, for the rubber band to stretch, just a bit more, but alas… It slipped away.