Note fellas this is *technically* a part one review, you can expect the part 2 on the negatives/lore implications sometime this week ALSO another video tomorrow I need to hunker down for that should be out tomorrow
The issues with the lore can be easily be fixed with a bit of brain, trust me, i tried to see the amount of inconsistencies arcane could've made and they're mostly fixable@@milicabojic9434
I hope the negatives will not be about champions death, in terms of story it befneficial for champions to be in mortal thret and not just carried by "its champion" plot armor
The way i took how victor was defeated/saw reason was because ekko wasn’t suppose to come back, (future)Viktor sent jayce back on purpose in the time loop, ekko found his own way back and became…the boy that shatter’d time
Singed is the MAN, THE MANNNN, bro got his daughter back, got a full time job with Noxus, and LIVED TILL THE END, HES THE MANNNNNNN, sorry jinx, ur probably dead, sorry Jayce u and ur soul mate dead, sorry EKKO UR ALONE, HAHAHAHAH
I loved when Sevika said "I propose we establish some sort of League made up of the Legends who fought in this war." And the other council member said "….Say that again."
Everyone have a bittersweet ending , meanwhile Singed the GOAT , got his daughter back, got a full time job with Noxus, and lived till the End . He got all and more, the one true Winner of Arcane.
he technically dont have to work for noxus cuz... every noxus in piltover died and ambessa too lmao he can now enjoy the time he has left with his daughter but who is gonna give weapons to noxus or why did they added ambessa to every riot game and even prepared book for her just to kill her off... idk s2 writing genuinely felt horrible, so many things unexplained and so many things that doesnt makes sense like why didnt viktor follow singed literally after saying "i understand now doctor was right" also stuff we get way too different from the original lore or stuff we have in game and its not really a upgrade either. if they really gonna go with the idea that arcane is canon, they cant just rework everything just for the show, its just so dumb and fucks up so many other champs
I mean does he still works for Noxus? He worked for Ambessa, and now he is free. As well as he doesn't really want to work for them, now he's happy and wants to spend all the time with his daughter
@Morlund2710 "the one true Winner of Arcane"? It's not a competition. Can people stop repeating this nonsense in comments please? It's a classic "ends justify the means" L take, missing so much important nuance. This level of reduction is dismissive of all the work the writers and artists put into the show. There's no guarantee that Singed is even happy in the end or that his daughter is in there anymore
Ambessa’s rule is passed down to Mel. He still has a contract as the Medarda’s esteemed advisor (alchemist). So should Mel follow through with the Black Rose’s purge she needs the second invasion of Ionia to succeed in order for Swain to gain the support of the people to purge the Black Rose. All of this requires Dr Corin Reveck.
Except, since Arcane should by all accounts take place before the Noxian invasion of Ionia, that means Swain doesn't have the Raven demon yet, which means, either this is not Swain, just the Demon, or they changed yet another part of the lore, Hurraaaayy....
Honestly amazing how the writers can make me like Ekko and Jinx so much in just one episode. Episode 7 was absolute peak Arcane and I really wish we got more episodes like that where it was focused on few characters.
Agreed. The rest of the season was at such a breakneck pace, it was super nice just having an episode with 3-4 characters that takes its time with them
It is baffling to me how that episode is getting so much love when 95% of the runtime is completely irrelevant to the overall story. Every singly season 1 scene fills multiple purposes, doesn't waste a second of screentime, the scripts are so freaking efficient. And here in season 2 we have a whole episode that is essentially entirely pointless. And people are calling it the best in the series. It's also really bizarre how the episode frames Vi's death as something overwhelmingly positive. Life is better in every respect for every single character, it's like reversed It's a Wonderful Life. Just very weird creative choice to say that the death of the primary protagonist would have solved every issue in the world. Guess I like Vi way more than the actual writers.
@@gathenhielm9977 Its not better for Jayce, who likely was exiled following the raid where his experiments literally killed a child. Viktor likely wound up dying due to his condition. Mel isn't as well off either, as we can see that her house tower doesn't exist in the Piltover skyline. I'm sure they thought these things through, my guy.
@@snorkelwackjr All of that is speculation with no basis in the presented narrative. Absolutely everyone we see on screen is better off. And even if what you're saying is true it's still wrong. All of those things happening to those characters *would* be preferable to what is happening to them in the main timeline.
Loved when blitz showed up at the final fight and said “this guy is out of our League, we are gonna need some Legends” then hooked ekko into the fight to help him get close
I’m torn on it, but overall happy. I do believe it was rushed. They clearly wanted to explore a lot and I don’t think everything was given the proper time that was needed. Especially the task force, its characters, and the occupation of Zaun. It tried to pack a lot in and I feel it’s weaker than the first season because of that. On the other hand, it’s still awesome. Just a drop from near-perfection to great. Episode 7 was pure emotion and art. The finale was epic, absolutely gripping, and delivers a mostly satisfying conclusion that leaves plenty of room for more. I don’t think what it misses undoes what the brilliance of what it’s accomplished.
Episode 7 proves that when they get the time to take it slower they cook. Like S1 in it's entirety proves this. And also episode S2E 1 & 4 f.e. And then most of the rest of the episodes kinda just show they weren't given the time they wanted. Which is a bummer, but I see the vision of the masterpiece S2 could've been. And with a bit of imagination I guess it can still be that.
I can't help but wonder if the writings was affected by the writers strike in some way. That would explain some of the weaknesses of the season and explain why it seemed to lean more into having music video type moments where the scenes would just be visuals and music
Exactly this. We all know... it was the execs fault, they tightened the purse at the last second again, which is kinda stupid with how much already went in this series. But this... it is liking saying 98 in 100 isnt good because it isnt 100, which is STUPID. As fans... we can point out the flaws, we should not turn a blind eye, but this is still an incredible piece of media.
I mean think about it, Piltover alone has guns, magical artillery, airships, and toxic gas, Zaun brings more people, body augments, and the hoverboards of the firelights to the table, on top of all that their position was pretty defendable.
@@Psub950 yeah, but noxus soldiers have in spades what piltover and zaun dont. Experience. Noxus could go up against the frejord, demacia, and ionia all at once and still come out on top. Noxus is terrifying in the league lore, there was no way in hell even their small detachment of soldiers was going to lose to a bunch of glorified cops when there's a good chance every soldier there has seen plenty of battle.
jinx living but us having to dig into frames and pay attention to microexpressions and read blueprints on a screen and remember call backs to figure it out is insane work
This is how real stories are told. Do you really want them to put "JINX LIVED AND IS GOING TO SHOW UP NEXT SHOW GUYS!!!" in big green text or something?
nah if you are paying attention to the final moments there are a lot of clues. the biggest one for me was caits final complex and very obviously dificult expression. you have her scene just before showing the tunnels. idk I think if you don't think about the ending it doesn't make sense. but if you put together some pieces it very clearly shows that there is room for more.
Literally powders first line is "one day I'm gonna ride in of those things" and you can see the exact same blimp at the end. And of course they wouldn't include Caitlyn looking at the vents while holding Jinx' grenade for no reason. Doesn't require much to put those together, idk what microexpressions you are referring to.
I have to not that I haven't seen anyone mention this yet. Viktor and Jayce seem to have been trying to fix this loop of the Arcane World Ending scenario for several tries already, noting that each time old man Viktor gave young boy Jayce a different rune. Note that they only succeeded in this timeline because Ekko managed to create the Z-Drive and bring the second anomaly to cause the original one to disable. How did Ekko get to the Z-Drive? SPECIFICALLY because he does an inversion of Jayce's Accelaration Rune, the one he got in this timeline, so it was finally them finding that one small change that was enough to change everything.
I'm glad you took the time to praise the show (weird as it's ending is) seperate from the insane lore implications it has. The shows's absolutely not perfect but it deserves a lot of appreciation in my book.
Because the present Lore IMO is very static for some Characters. I Love the Viktor Shorts etc. But theyre Not really good for longer, more interesting Stories
@@justhair17 Of course that's unusual, the last retcon of the universe was 10 years ago ! And it was fare less extent than today, and now there's billions of establish things that have been made during those 10 years you. People are very attached to the actual lore of Runnettera, reworking the universe would make no sens at all.
@@isaw9969I mean they had 3 seasons cut, they had to wrap up people’s arcs unfortunately. I would say the earlier parts with the police brutality and use of the grey + the war mongering (in general) says something in that regard though
@@isaw9969 Vision and taking chances doesn't mean having something to say about real world politics or some form of stance on this or that. They had a vision for the story, regardless of the implications in the greater League universe. Jinx both changed and is now dead, Ekko shattered time in his own way, Viktor and Jayce are gone, Cait lost an eye, Singed is Orianna's father... Every character you can think of had something change, something more than just "fixing problems" to make it acceptable to be background lore. If Arcane ended at Season 1, they would have needed little more explanation to determine how the characters we know and love from Arcane became the boiled potatoes that they are in League; they decided to go further. That was their vision, their own glorious evolution of their characters. Did they hit the mark in every way? No, but as the original comment said, they didn't try being cautious. That's commendable.
It's soooo frustrating that Riot tries to convince us that Arcane is actually canon, while doing almost absolutely nothing to actually make it canon, besides selling overpriced cosmetics for their live-service game. Other then that, i personally loved the 3rd act, my jaw was on the floor for most of it. The sequences with viktor and his creepy bio-puppets were just amazing.
Maybe somebody should give them the hint that Arcane works fine as an alternate universe. Matter of fact, wasn't that what they were doing in the first place? But then again, Riot probably fired the Lore team given the absolute drought of stories for the last, what, year now?
They need to do something to make it canon? Like what? Remove them from the game? It's canon if they say it is and incorporate the story into the rest of the lore.
@@aflyinfaux1447 they even already set up the LoL multiverse in episode 7 i dont know why they are so insintant that Arcane and LoL is the same 100% when its clearly not
@@Dew-b8bThing is, I don't think Arcane should be canon at all, it works perfectly fine as its own thing and its own universe. But when Riot confirmed Arcane is canon, they inevitably opened a can of worms, plot holes and clashing versions of the same characters. Yes, bringing arcane and league lore together would take A LOT of effort and work, which would not be needed, had Arcane not been canon. As it is now, it just feels like Riot wants to please the lore people with as little effort as possible, which is just lazy.
4:24 That confused me too because, as powerful as Viktor is at the end of the show, I don’t think they ever implied he can time travel and reality. It’s kind of a strange twist that doesn’t tie things together. It’s way better had the wizard just been some random dude over Viktor causing all these events across all timelines.
Episode 7 shows Ekko, Heimer and Jayce being sent to a different timeline when they touched the Arcane. So I think you could say this version of Viktor is so powerful and intertwined with the Arcane, he can just timetravel. Makes you wonder why he didn't do more, but I believe Heimer says a brief thing about Ekko not giving himself away to not disrupt time so it could just be explained away by that.
? Jayce Heimer and Ekko travelled time with the Hexgate anomalies, which... Viktor needed (and got) to start his gloeious evolution... Which used to send jayce back in the right time back in the past... Did you even watch the show?
End of the show Viktor, is not even remotely as powerful as the wizard Viktor. Wizard Viktor has completed his glorious evolution and consumed the entirety of the world, it makes sense to me he can manipulate time. End of the show Viktor didn't complete the evolution.
Wizard Victor is in another realm of power compared to End of the Show Victor When Ekko throws his anomaly to Victor, he claims this is an impossible one whereas Wizard Victor has solved all equations and is capable of such feat
I wish arcane was allowed 3 seasons so the compressed pacing of the story could allow more characters time to breathe. Thoughout the entirety of the second season I could feel them speedrunning so many moments and character archs.
The part where Heimerdinger does a guitar solo and after a moment of silence Viktor says: "that... was awesome!" and changes his mind still gives me goosebumps
Honestly, seeing Vander/Warwick suffer once more while losing his humanity got to me. He's been suffering so much, and just seeing how much pain and grief (he was crying!) he was in while Singed stripped away what's left of him just...damn. Great scene. Sad, but great. I do find it funny (but also impressive) that Singed did some horrible shit to numerous people and yet he not only suffered no consequences, but was actually able to revive his daughter. Though there has to be some catch. Won't say too much negative stuff here, but despite the rushed ending, I still found it very enjoyable. I just think we needed a few more episodes. Probably won't happen, but I kind of hope that this isn't the last time we see Piltover & Zaun outside of the games.
Vander died, got tortured by Singed for like 7 years... Then dies again by the explosion, gets revived only as a husk... I didnt like they brushing him aside, as this robotic monster but oh well.
I kinda love it how Singed did the most horrible stuff and succeeded. Like it's not a good message much it's a fun bit of depth in the show. And even moreso his story impact was huge even tho he was in the background. He invented Shimmer, he helped Viktor with his new body. Like without him things wouldn't have gone to shit as much, and yet he achieves his goal.
Honestly im fine with the changes. If they start actually making more shows and stuff that move the story forward for multiple characters, im down. If they continue like now, where we get ONE little story and then never hear from said champ ever again, thats ass But if they actualy start doing stuff like arcane plus the MMO, im okay with a reboot. A lot of characters just doesnt exist at the moment like Shaco, Chogath etc. If they can be introduced with ACTUAL lore in a tv show, idc im good with a reboot of the lore I think people are a bit too close minded to the changes. Im looking forward to seeing more
This. This is the perfect mindset. The lore is finally unshackled from plot armor for heroes, cuz u know, Warwick is dead etc. They can make new things with actual characters now. While I still regret that we'll never get the Jinx/Vi stories of old, I think this is an acceptable sacrifice for moving forward. Plus, doing it in Piltover/Zaun was pretty smart, as they don't matter *that* much on the global stage. That of course is only good, if they don't screw this up now.
best approach! I only see crying from the hardcore lore fans ... This is the FIRST Show that sets up a whole universe... Maybe just wait for whats coming and dont cry about everything
@@heyitsmeagain6897 I am a mega lore fan too, but I still think this is the best shot LoL lore has to actually become something, instead of being background noise.
Honestly I don't think the changes were my biggest problem, the show just had a lot of trouble focusing on the characters with so much things happening. The first two cours were quite good in setting up things but the finale just didn't have time for a proper payoff
Then i appriciate that your Open minded! Change is Not Always Bad... I watched it with Skyen and now this...i dont Like that they start crying when we have only 2 Season to Go Off on. Like who knows what Happens when we get another view auf Zaun/Piltover ...how they will write the Storys ...Just wait@@Melon11776 ❤
I actually kinda like it in the first design cause the man face combined with the fucked up half-wolf-half-man proportions and his hunched posture does a really good job at selling the whole horrific frankentstien vibe, but on his second one in act 3 it stops being unsettling and just looks kinda goofy imo
@@ShibuNub3305doesn't help the bit blood hungry wolfman becomes a small part in Viktors army. And with small I mean he fights Vi and Jinx only and barely has any screentime. I also think the whole color change makes him less intimidating.
Necrits interview made me feel a lot more positive on it all, yes league lore has changed but i am much more excited to see how the story evolves. There are plenty of opportunities for follow ups in Piltover and Zaun now and i do hope riot now fleshes it out again through whatever medium, recanonising champs like zeri, Seraphine, Renata, blitzcrank etc should be their main aim
I really liked old viktor, i think the fact that he couldn't choose between fully embracing the glorious evolution vs his remaining human parts/ emotion was what made him interseting imo, if he wanted he couldve made himself fully into a robot, not even with a humanoid shape but he retained some of his body/emotions, and i think that only shows that deep down he is still human but the injustice of the situation of piltover and zaun brought out the worst in him
Only thing i'm not sold on new Viktor yet (which i'm assuming at this point is how he'll look in his VGU) is that he's losing the "robotic" part in traditional sense. No don't get me wrong, I think the new take on "evolution" is more unique and cool but it is a shame to lose that heavily and explictly METAL theme to him.
Since he isn't completely dead, and he still has a goal. He just realized that forcing everyone and everything to the dreamless solitude isn't the way. That's where he may become not necessarily good, but neutral. Going for enhancing and evolution, but providing it for those who are willing
Wouldnt be the first tbh. Riot completely changes Aatrox and Morde when they reword them, both lore and gameplay wise and for the better IMO. Also, I think Victor is still alive, so he can still go for the same thing
Yeah its definitely a loss but I think the metal theming was so contradicted by the existance of fully alive robots like the counsilor. It made viktors glorious evolution look just dumb
4:44 my understanding of the multiple stones is it’s a time loop because he kept on trying giving him a different magic to get it perfect and now he’s finally realized that it’s just a bad idea
I believe something else. Viktors final evolution needed a rune to bond to in order to become a wild rune and die basically. The problem with hextech is that it's unpredictable. He couldn't have known which rune it would be, aka the multiple attempts. It had to be Jayce to un-do everything because they're partners.
When ekko was inventing the Z-drive, he said that Jayce's rune was an Acceleration Rune, which he based the runes used in the Z-drive off of, just the opposite of it. So the reason why Viktor could be defeated was because time-traveling Viktor gave Jayce that rune led to Ekko inventing the Z-drive
Season 1: The problem is the money. The problem is the power. The problem is violence. The problem is the prejudice. Season 2: JK! The problem was the magic crystals and the axolotl juice. Duh!
There should honestly just have been 3 seasons, there was just no freakong way of wrapping it all up in the time that they gave. After season 2 episode 6, i became extremely worried because it was setting so many fantastic plotpoints up, that could weave in so many insane directions, but simultaneous left no room in what the series had left to fully explore it. Like if they had like one more arc in the season, 3 extra episodes, i think it could have worked, or again another season, this series could have reached insane places. But with what we got it unfortunally just became extremely rushed in the finale arc. And credit where it is due, they did manage somehow tk wrap it up kinda, but with no room to breathe, no room to really have the impact that this amazing story deserves, it really makes me quite sad, and wonder, what could have been...
Caitlyn losing faith in being a dictator, literally anything about the task force, the occupation of Zaun, the consequences of using The Grey, all this and more were simply not fleshed out and it feels like a real shame. I wish they were given more time to expand upon these stories like they were w/ Ekko in episode 7.
@@shmooters5599 I feel like the worst offender was in the final episode when Jinx was alone and about to kill herself and we see Ekko start to talk her out of it... and then suddenly Jinx is not only not killing herself, not only joining the fight, but LEADING ZAUN INTO BATTLE??? How did that happen??? Why didn't we get to see it? Ekko convincing Jinx that life is worth living and Jinx stepping into her role as a symbol of rebellion for Zaun is like... a REALLY important thing that shouldn't have been done off screen!
As someone who doesn't know a whole lot about the lore, i liked it very much. I think people probably focus too much on the lore and not on the, in my opinion, great story that was told. I'm sure that the lore got changed a lot, i mean loads of people died, but as a standalone series as of now and as a VIDEOGAME adaptation this is still top notch. Other adaptations butchered their source material whereas you can see that the creators paid attention and genuinely made something for everyone to enjoy. Then again i don't know the huge lore implications so i'm looking forward to that video nicky 😄
Well yeah, people are not saying the show is bad because there are changes. The problem is that the lore is now established for pretty much 10years (or more in some cases) and from nowhere Riot said that Arcane is now new canon. NOW the changes in lore are the problem, because it touches too much of it to just ignore. League lore for a quite some time operated on concept of basicaly alternate universes for its different medias and that was the way for Arcane to work. Not to destroy all the previous lore and then shame poeple who acctaully cared about it (prior to Arcane) for complaints.
There was talk episode nine was supposed to be an hour and half, but it was cut. It would make sense, the start of the battle was so jarring it had to have been a cut. Some points I feel was off was how it started into escalating class warfare between two groups of citizens in Piltover just kind of fizzled in light of a greater existential threat. Like at some point somewhere a higher-up in Riot wanted "bigger stacks" in the finale, probably as a way to hook in more viewers to future shows. I mean they did tease a lot of little things outside Piltover/Zaun, so the need to keep people hooked is there. While Fortiche delivered beyond expectations, you can feel the disconnect still in the finale. The rushed feeling to me stems from seeing a whole bunch of characters each having a minor yet critical part in the finale. So much so it got cluttered up. You had Caityln, Vi, Jinx, Mel, Ambessa, Singed, Jayce Viktor, Ekko all playing roles in the finale the beats just kept coming and going, especially considering there was a cut it was hectic. And some characters got more lackluster conclusions than others. Heimerdinger was sac'd upon immediate use (while some debate he's not "dead" it could be for the show). Re-using Vander/Warwick to freshly re-traumatize Vi and Jinx felt a bit off. It made some sense in terms of the unstoppable army, but they just had to revive him to... I guess create a clean break for Jinx to escape Piltover? Ambessa seems to have a few bouts of "planned incompetence" after going full Noxian general seemed off. Especially since the only protection against mages she got was from her second-in-command and makes me wonder why the Black Rose didn't get her BEFORE that point? Sky was just a straight up prop (again) and when she finally left it felt like she knew it all along. Jayce and Viktor kind of got "deleted" to fix everything, and while the build up to that was fantastic they both just... blipped and gone? Sevik, for all her work and pull, was just given a seat on the Council. And she def doesn't look like she wanted to be there?And while Cait and Vi end up together, Cait lost an eye and Vi is left thinking she has no family left. Ekko and Jinx are more full, satisfying conclusions to their stories (depending on who you ask). Ekko made sacrifice after sacrifice, gave up on being allowed to live out a better timeline, actually having his found family back AND having a version of Jinx not rocked by consistent trauma. He went back to make everything right, and he went back to let the other Ekko live the life he wanted all along. And Jinx finally was able to walk away and break the cycle, faking her death to free those she cared about from being the "jinx" she still believes she is. And then there's SINGED... I'm sorry but did he nat-20 the whole thing. He helped Silco create an extremely addictive drug, re-purposes Vander's body TWICE, gave Viktor power that would literally turn their world into a lifeless husk, used some of that power to make automatons for Ambessa's unstoppable army. All of it, every single step, in persuit of research to "cure death" to bring his daughter back. And he got his daughter back and there were ZERO CONSEQUENCES. He just walks away, unscathed and unpunished, getting everything he wanted. And answering questions linger still. Jinx escaped, but where to? Mel is going back to Noxus to take place as head of her House (and a weird Swain crow for good measure). What exactly are mages in Runeterra now? There is some kind of secrecy and forbidden power to them, and yet they seem largely unknown? What did Ambessa do to incur the wrath of the Black Rose (LeBlanc)? Did Mel actually "kill" her or is the Black Rose still around? Is hextech still going to be a thing? Don't get me wrong, all in all I thoroughly enjoy Arcane, I can immerse more easily to avoid getting frustrated by inconsistencies. At least until after the fact, but I've no idea what Riot is planning to do with League if they attempt to make Arcane canon.
I haven't kept up with league lore in a long while, so I approached arcane as "inspired by" from the beginning. I love the references to things we already know and are familiar with, but they went in a new direction to tell their own story in their own version of the world. I understand a lot of people wouldn't like that, but it works for me personally. And in a vacuum, I think this is the best ending everyone could have gotten.
not many people who actually care about the league lore would be bothered if riot werent trying to push arcane as the new canon to stories. the conflict comes from the fact many fan favourite characters are either changed or now need to be, and we are meant to expect these changed to be the permentant new stories. if arcane was its own what if thing, similar to LOR, no one would mind. but rn we are set to have old viktor stripped from the game and replaced
@@jynxed66six54 Nobody plays Victor anyways, so whats the problem? Yeah, his old lore was kinda cool, but they went back and forth with him so much anyways, that I don't think its a bad thing if they have a clear direction now
@@justhair17 there are 32 champs with a lower pickrate than viktor. thats not "nobody". and even if he was the least picked, thats not an excuse to ditch everything written about him in the last decade. aatrox got rewritten because he didnt fit anywhere in leagues canon world, but viktor does. theres no real reason to do this to him. thats not to mention that i wasnt talking about viktor specifically to begin with. where does blitzcrank fit into this new story? he cannot coexist with the arcane story without a complete retcon. where does camille fit? if this series has swain with the demon (the raven at the end of act 3), that means this takes place after the ionian invasion occurs. which means noxus should already know who singed is, he supplied then chemical weapons. yet they dont. so now singed's involvement in the war is called into question. without singed, yis and darius stories cant play out the way they do. those chem weapons were a major part of their stories during the war, in yis case it ended the wuju clan. yasuo and riven and yones stories all begin with the chem attacks too. so did singed take part? did he fund them weapons? the events imply he didnt, which is an issue. arcane calls literally half of the established CANON lore into question. which is an issue, two conflicting canons cant both be canon. so which is it?
@@jynxed66six54 In terms of Singed and Noxus. Im also not sure how he fits. With Ambessa gone and Singed accomplishing his goal of reviving Ori. Does he need to create weapons for Noxus I'm not sure. You make a good point
@@jynxed66six54 Don't get me wrong, I understand how much of a mess this could be. I was there at the piltover and zaun refresh when blitzcrank and viktor became heroes. So I get it, but I just want to enjoy arcane as its own thing, and keep what I did learn from league back in the day as it's own thing. But I completely understand current fans problems with it.
i think it ended really well honestly. as devastating as it was i really liked a lot of the wrap ups, i like that the black rose is set up, i want to see more of Mel especially (im really surprised they added Ambessa as a champion instead of Mel tbh). episode 7 was amazing. i think Jinx's whole deal was really cool, it was so gut wrenching to see her hollow like that. arcane does a brilliant job of making almost every character a sympathetic one and i think this is a really good ending to that. it does feel rushed in a few places- we can definitely blame streaming cutting down episode numbers for that tbh- but it still did a fantastic job.
It would be kinda interesting if they chose Mel as a champion next year, and I think they did not wnat her bc. about the amount of new knowledge we have now
@@farao6627 absolutely, but then why not just wait? it feels unlikely that they'll release both Mel and Ambessa as champions but I hope they do! she'd be really cool to see in the game
Honestly I don't have as big of a problem with Arcane absolutely purging lore of league... like they may insist this is now canon but I call bullshit. They still havent finished retconning the SUMMONERS from the game, and then they wrote short stories. If going foward we'll be getting lore of league only by 1-2 cinematics per year + Arcane-style big projects.. it's literally never going to actually matter that some champions have to be literally changed completely or else they dont fit. Arcane is a great adaptation of it's source material until proven otherwise to be canon - you can't change my mind.
I, personally, absolutely love Jayce and Viktor story arch a lot. The conflict between perfection, ideals, progress, consequences and humanity is one of my favourite tropes, and it was excited in this show GLORIOUSLY. Just like graphics, designs and art direction. Just top notch. And 7th episode is perfect
my take is that this season could have benefited heavily from 1 more ep per act to have more breathing room ; i couldnt care less about the stablished lore anyways since its a mess and we have already been told that arcane is now the canon and will slowly take over. the thing that i disliked the most was the fake out jinx death like that just seems like drama for the sake of drama specially when they drop that many hints about her being alive like just give her a semi happy ending at that point it was like the equivalent of a jumpscare in a horror game it lacked substance it was just there for the shock value and the crying faces on reactions and interactions on twitter
About Viktor and the Jayce rune: ep9 Viktor says: "I thought I could bring an end to the worlds suffering, but when the equation was solved, all that remained were fields of dreamless solitude. In all timelines. In all possibilities. Only you, can show me this" implying that with or without Jayce, Viktor finds a way to fuck shit up big time. Viktor giving Jayce the rune is a fixed point in time, and the only thing Viktor can do, is give Jayce the right Rune (the accelerating one Ekko studies and have the knowledge to use it somehow) so it ends up with them creating hextech together as partners. Viktor realized at the endgame that taking away human's emotions is a curse, and that his intention to do good failed him in the end. Every other universe this fails, and the future of the Runeterra is doomed.
All I know is yall owe my boy jayce an apology. Everybody was hating him in act 2 when it was pretty obvious he was gonna be a good guy 😂 He also got the blunt end of the situation. Heim and ekko got to chill out in the best situation while he was stranded in the worst
I don't get why future Viktor sent him back to stop current time Viktor and the first step was to shoot him in the chest. And even after that Jayce was very hostile towards him kinda for no reason. Like he's the only one that can change Viktors mind, being out for blood doesn't help with that
@@p.8967 I have to re-watch, but I think he "killed" him to weaken him and buy time to prepare Piltover's defenses. Literally the only good consequence of shooting him was that he got so weak, he needed more time and more help to invade Piltover, so I find no other explanations. Jayce's flip flopping is confusing tbh
@DeadKraken but at that point Viktor wasn't even trying to invade Piltover and just stayed in his little area I think. Because he was of the opinion ppl had to be helped willingly. After Jayce shoots him he realizes humanity is in the way of helping itself so he does it by force. That's why I think it's a bit weird Jayces actions only caused worse things rather than helping Viktor like he was supposed too. You could say it's cause he was corrupted, but I feel like that's kinda lazy for the plot twist.
@@p.8967 considering what Jayce saw in the future, I don’t think he wanted to take any risk and instead just chose to take viktor out of the equation fully. I know it seemed like a hasty decision from our pov but he was stuck in that apocalyptic future for weeks, if not months. Also, I think we all know it was a matter of time before Viktor spread his “glorious evolution.” He dropped hints about his abandonment of humanity when he was speaking was singed.
For all the crazy and amazing things this season did and i do agree on most of what Nicky says here i have a big problem in which the way season 2 was conducted and that's is the conflict between zaun and piltover being sidelined. In season 1 every decision, every pivotal moment is deeply rooted at the inequality between the sister cities, silco and vander fallout, Jinx and vi being stranded for one another, hextech being a tool that only widened the economic gap instead of a way to build a better future, etc, etc. While i love the artstyle and (some of) the music and the characters i think what Made season 1 special was how the story was deeply rooted in this social divide. Season 2 started strong by making cait a dictator powered by a f*scist promising her vengeance and seeing the effects that hextech is leaving in the undercity, and then... Nothing. We get a montage that sums up months of civilian unrest and the conflict we ended season 1 expecting, in like 4 minutes and the plot from that point onwards treat the divisions between the cities as a minor plot at best and a silly or inmature nuissance at worst and making Big loops to make sure that the enforcers are seen as good guys, which is a shame because i think that absence is what turned it from a masterpiece to just a good series, at least for me
I wasn't originally onboard with Arcane being an alternate timeline from League after what Riot stated, but I think I like that idea a lot better. Arcane (and season 2 specifically) was presented as a tragedy on many levels, yet the characters who survived have gained a lot of what they needed in the wake of all their loss. Also, I love Arcane and can't wait to hear your rant more about, especially with how invested you are in the lore. This video is much appreciated.
My entire thought process for this is the Ekko quote, "Sometimes taking a leap forward means leaving a few things behind." If Riot doesn't pull through with good new lore, however, I'm gonna have some words.
i know people will have their negative opinions but i really do just want to say how much arcane really hit me. it’s so emotionally powerful. to me, the main overarching theme of arcane is actually embodied by a quote that singed says: “Why does anyone commit acts others deem unspeakable? For love.” This made me so emotional because if you really think about it, every character is motivated by love. they do things that end up having terrible consequences but in the end, they only did it out of love. this show was beautiful, and i hope that others can see it that way too
Ngl I cried when I watched the last episode, mainly because that meant Arcane was done, but also because Arcane, imo, is the PEAK of the artistic expression humanity can do Sure, I can reconigze some flaws here and there, but at the end of the day Arcane was so CINEMA 🙌 Best thing i've watched ever
Im going to be honest... The ending is not great but I unironically LOVE how they killed characters, it means that riot is finally good with ending characters storys, I know they left a lot of plot holes in the overall lore, but I still really like it
Sorry to burst your bubble but a rioter have indirectly and directly confirmed that Heimer, Jinx and Warwick is alive. And Jayce and Victor is not dead dead since he said there will be more with them.
Characters dying should be fine BUT how their deaths merges with the rest of the lore 'cause we never reached the present day in the lore is something to deal with
I think it sucks actually. By killing Viktor and Jayce it takes away 2 of the most interesting Piltover and Zaun characters, and replaces their interesting Conflict from the lore with "Viktor just turned good again and they died". In general, after Arcane there is no story to tell there anymore. That sucks so bad. I
Im actually legitimately surprise and somewhat disappointed that the mage that gave Jayce the runestone was not Ryze. Literally has Realmwarp as an ability, and they were all fucking with primordial magic too. It felt like it was somewhat lining up
They prob didn't do that cause it would mean nothing to non-LoL players. Maybe if they had more time they would've built up Ryze and done it tho who knows
My opinion, is that 1: arcane was definitely not supposed to be cannon and should probably not be measured on that merit(but you totally can because that is justified), and 2: it was extremely good, maybe not a masterpiece, but very good. Multiple rewatches are like, a must to get a good idea on how good Arcane is.
I really feel the main thing that's gonna hold peoples' feelings on Arcane back is the fact Arcane is "meant" to be canon. If it were just it's own thing the reception would be a lot warmer I feel.
I mean overall S2 is just rushed. No attention on the Piltover vs Zaun conflict after act 1, Jinx becomes a symbol after 1 montage for 1 episode, a setup for villain Cait which they do nothing with, Warwick appears epically- hugs it out- goes mad again- does nothing for an act, Vi goes through an emo phase shown in a few minutes, Viktor is 'evil' like we know him from he game for like 1 episode, Vi and Jinx' relation from the game is also there for 3 episodes (after a 3 year wait too) "I see the vision" is how I'd describe this season as I see the masterpiece it could've been had it more episodes to flesh these things out. Still a lot to enjoy tho, but not as good as S1 for sure.
Im treating arcane as its own thing, its own timeline like episode 7; rito saying its canon just seemed to hamper them and the show. It felt like such a disconnected executive move that ultimately doesnt do anything but add confusion Untangling the lore implications it has for league itself is prob a step even rito wont dare to take
your so right, i'd prefer to have champs i enjoy have their lore basically time capsuled in place for 6+ years never to conclude, never to move forward just kind of sat there while new champs get released to suffer the same effect a few years after their release because how can you possibly keep 150 champions stories moving forward with not a single one ever concluding. this seems like the better option then actually trying to move the universe forward and conclude some champs stories that actually need it lmao.
this really confirm how much riot retconning everything around arcane was a mistake because if this was its own standalone story (and tbh it still is if you're watching it and have no plans to touch league) half the discussion would just not exist. honestly despite it being so rapid, i did enjoy all of it. characters emotions could've been more fleshed out but the plot itself felt coherent to me, and the music and visuals meant it was never a slog to watch, so for me the positives outweighed the negatives. i think my one big gripe is ambessa and caitlyn's story felt lacking in consequences. caitlyn mainly just felt a little bad but i wish she'd like, stepped down or had to sacrifice power or something, because it felt like she abused her authority so much but no one was all that mad at her (that we got to see, im sure plenty of zaunites would not forget the gas but vi is just really down bad for cait and since she just wants her loved ones back she's willing to forgive somewhat easily, same with jinx) and ambessa felt a little shallow for how they hyped her and her backstory up
My take was the show is a loop. viktor gives a rune to Jayce, they make hextec, Viktor merges with the core, glorious evolution, bad future, Viktor realizes he's wrong, goes back and gives Jayce a DIFFERENT rune, loop. I only say this because I Ekko mentions inverting Jayce's acceleration rune, which allows for Ekko to achieve time travel. In every other timeline Ekko either wouldn't get back, or things would play out differently without his time reversal. Effectively, it was Viktor seeing his future self that allowed him to listen to Jayce and end things and the only changed variable we know of was the symbol on the rune he gave to Jayce.
I hate what they did with Warwick. Even more when Viktor did his "evolution" to him. They should have made him more wolf-like. We all know it was Vander, man-face or not. Ugh, can't believe LoL's monster design affected Arcane as well. I hope after the events of Arcane, we get to see a wolf Warwick. Vander might be lost...but his soul has moved on now. Now we should get the Beast.
Uhm... we have already gotten to see a wolf Warwick... you know... the one in the game? Where other than the game is it we're supposed to get the Beast?
I think the "big thing coming to league in 2025" is a lore overhaul. They'll probably still keep a sizable chunk of story for some region and champs the same. Also I'm glad they have actual deaths in the story for playable characters in league.
Singed and Ekko are the only characters who stayed real to themselves. Couldn't be more disappointed to see Warwick looking like a gorilla more than a werewolf
When it comes to the lore and how much Arcane messes with it, I think Riot should treat it kind of like how DC and Marvel treat lore whwn compared to movies and tv shows, where they take some of the best stuff and find a way to incorporate it into the new lore. A bit like how DC took Batman: The Animated Series original ideas like Joker's killing laughing gas, Mr.Freeze's tragic backstory, and the entire character of Harley Quinn and stuffed them into the main continuity. Trying to make Arcane the new continuity like Riot claims to be doing feels like there's just too many things to make that feasible, but I could see them putting in some of the amazing elements from the show into mainline cannon. I mean, Arcane was the first introduction to Ambessa before she became a champion, so who knows what other things from arcane could find their way into LoL?
I actually know how much time Jayce was trapped that timeline, the same amount of time Ekko and Heimer were in the other everything went mostly well timeline, how much Heimer said? like 100 someting days? thats why hes beard grew so much, he was there a LOT of time
Good god what a character Ambessa was! She had an incredible aura to her in that final confrontation, like when she walked up the stairs from Cait's perspective with the vocals hitting I was sent reeling from how cool she was
The Enforcer Trio of Maddie, Steb and Lorys were the biggest disappointment/question mark for me. These characters were present just enough, so you'd expect something to happen with them but then nothing really does.
The only thing I really didn't like was what they did to Warwick. Like, burning away the last memories of Vander and stripping his animalistic form down to the weird HexHusk version of it before we ever got snout and tail full Wolf Warwick as the canonical version of him just sucks. I don't personally love the full Technorganic Glorious Evolution design, woulda liked to seen Viktor go through more experiments with Zaunite body augmentations enhanced by hex tech or maybe transmutated onto oneself permanently. But that's all just visual design stuff. Warwick losing his humanity completely means we never get furry Zaun serial killer killer Warwick that kind of still remembers the girls. I think the storytelling was great though, for the story they wanted to tell. It's just not always the one I would have preferred. But I don't think there's any better version of This story.
@@kauanjos3199below another video someone half-called me a furry for saying this But yeah this Warwick design reminds me of Beast from the live action Beauty and the Beast. Not the best thing to be reminded of. I will say in act 2 this design makes sense, as it shows Vander is still there. But I kinda expected the wolf design in act 3. At the same time he didn't really contribute anything to act 3, so I get why they didn't do that but still a bummer. Also hearing the Arcane creator said he's alive so we can headcanon him becoming the wolf I guess lol. (how his further lore works with the implied new and better version of Zaun is a mystery tho)
@kauanjos3199 exactly. The color change actually just makes him look less like Warwick than he already did, even tho they set it up like he was gonna look more like Warwick. It's just an odd choice, but seeing as how little he had to do in act 3 I can kinda see why they did it this way. Still dislike it tho
I've said it a few times and I'll say it again here. Arcane, self contained, not tied to anything else, is amazing. As a stand alone show based on a video game property it does an amazing job as an interpretation of the games lore... HOWEVER, the biggest issue for me is Riot canonizing it, because there is just too much that changes suddenly and recontextualises. Like if it was just a show having things being left ambiguous would be one thing, the issue is this HAS to now feed back into LOL and now we're just left here waiting for an update onto what this means for league and the rest of the franchise, and as such that's incredibly frustrating.
I wish I could add other things I liked beyond moment to moment scenes, but what you said is pretty much it for me too... art and music are absolutely amazing, when the Season allowed itself go slower and take its time, like in E7, it was some of the best piece of media ever made, no joke about that and the artistic side of all is just so perfect too. But the general pacing of it all and the implication that it cause for the main lore do really sour this incredible experience... I'm definetly still looking forward to what comes next from Fortiche and their partnership with Riot, especially since it was softly confirmed that two of my absolute favourite characters were teased in the show: Jhin and Swain.
I think the thing that I’m disappointed mainly by is that arcane season 1 was great by any standard: animated show, video game show, LoL show. I don’t think I can say that for season 2. This kind of story is what I’d expect from a “video game show,” but I’m just sad at what could have been.
crack pot theory: league vgu and asus were so slow because they were updating all the champions that need changes and they totally won't forget to update certain characters like they did with shaco, corki, cogath, e.t.c.
Loved that my boy Ekko got his moments to shine. Episode 7 is by far my favorite episode in the entire series. He really lived up to both his monikers, the Boy Saviour and the Boy Who Shattered Time. I’m glad he got the show stealing moments in both seasons.
As a show, its an absolute 10/10 story and i believe thats the way one is supposed to watch it, because as part of the main canon its destroys so much established lore
Season 2 does feel inferior to Season 1 in a lot of aspects, although some of the visual and musical sequences are certainly as good or even better. Still a good series, of course, but there are certainly some negatives IMO: There are just too many plotlines, which ends up making half of them have most of their development happen off-screen (including main ones), and characters to sometimes feel like they are acting out of character. The focal conflict for the series, Piltover vs Zaun, or a story about oppression and inequality, feels heavily sidelined to the whole Arcane/Ambessa plot and it ends up giving the impression that it was solved by proxy, without actually tackling the underlying issue. The ending also leaves too much open-ended, and it feels like it is trying too hard to set up sequels while forfeiting closure for its own stories. This includes the potential of around 6 fake-out deaths that are open to interpretation. I also believe that introducing new concepts like the Black Rose with little context may have made non-League players a bit lost here, and the show overall may have lost some people by becoming less grounded. Minor aside, but I also think that a lot of the scene transitions are too abrupt in this season? That might just be me, but it was something that I constantly noticed as I was watching each week. And that's just considering Arcane as a isolated series. We have a whole lot of extra issues once we start to think of it as the new basis for the main Runeterra canon. The mess it creates is just a lot more than many people are able to wrap their heads around, and we essentially have no way of telling what's even supposed to be the lore of a large chunk of the roster at this point. The worst part is that I honestly have little to no expectation that this will be solved ever, much less in the few next years. Overall, I still hold that the decision to reframe Arcane as the main canon for the League universe was a bad move, that will not only affect the lore itself negatively, but also the future series themselves.
Did it deliver? No. Unfortunately not quite. I’m not mad at arcane for what it changed (mad at Riot for making it canon). But there were just… too many things not explored as deeply as I hoped. It did not quite manage to live up to what it set up.
those are gonna get explored in new series now that the old lore doesnt exist, so they made a blank slate after the lore revision after the blank slate after the first iteration of this game lore, wanna bet they do it again in 10 years?
@@mantraki No, they can’t properly explore Jinx and Isha bonding now. They can’t explore how Caitlyn becoming authoritarian oppressor of Piltover affects her relationship with Vi or what drove her to abandon it immediately after Vi came back into her life. Things like that.
i really like most of the things in the ending but my biggest personal gripe is the two for jinx endings becouse if she died then it looks like she tried to kill herself the whole season and it actually ends with her killing herself which is really wierd especially after the ekko talk and if you think she survived (the one i think happened) just feels unresolved like is running away from everthing thinking its all your fault and her never coming to terms with who she is feels unresolved and like they are teasing her coming back in another show
If you'll be looking in the eyes of non league player with no lore knowledge it is a win with the only take away that it felt a little bit rush in a sense that an act 4 could is needed. But for lore nerds like us, its a whole **wait, what?** moment for us. 😂
Arcane should never be part of the game lore. Exactly as Marvel did, Arcane and all the others series should be a cinematic univers, a fantastic way for Riot to explore the incredible world they have build. But not related to the lore. Separated univers. Because if not, it either breaks the total written lore, suppresses a lot of champions, destoying the fantastic entire concept of Zaun/Piltover relationship, or it limits the liberty of scenarists to only put on screen the written story. And as the MCU, Arcane will be the story everybody will know and consider as the true one, but please Riot, PLEASE do not destroy 10 years of insane storytelling for a "simplification", that actually makes everything more difficult
Honestly one thing i loved was Swains/Raums crow at the end, digging around through jayces hammer trying to figure out just wtf happened and gain as much information as possible, but the thought that hes able to pretty much gain information from anywhere in runeterra because of the crows is kinda terrifying
As a person who ships both Ekko x Jinx and Jinx x Lux i actualy loved this act because not only do we get Ekkos thing with Powder but Jinx is implied to have survived and gone off into the world which makes Lightcannon possible. It separates the ships in a nice way that fits because Ekko loves Powder not Jinx Also in a Vacuum i love the story even if i feel like some things were underdeveloped and it could've used like 2 more episodes per season But as a League Lore fan holy shit this BREAKS SO MANY THINGS!
I think the main reason none of it clicks is because Arcane SHOULD NOT be canon to league and rather its own universe (You know, like how the MCU isnt cannon to the comics) Because if it where, the show would've ended on a completely different note (Jinx living, Heimerdinger too, Jayce and Viktor part ways but Viktor stays machine jesus, Caitlyn now is the official sheriff/commander of the enforcers, Clean Arcane-free hex-tech is created, Ambessa is alive and becomes Chosen of the wolf, etc.) So many of the ending's plotlines would be acceptable IF Arcane wasn't part of the mainline, the show is amazing and I was still quite happy with the ending, but the fact that it leaves more questions than answer despite being what the canon lore is going to be based on from now on is really taking me back from fully appreciating this otherwise masterpiece of a series. (Also, the epilogue needed to be longer, and we def needed a scene where the firelights make a new mural of Jinx, Isha, Lorris, Heimerdinger and all the good people that were lost in the series)
i agree basically arcane should be Ultimate Marvel, i dont get why is CANON they forgot they fired the lore-guy of the entire game and how they are making a MOBA out of this xD
@@Morfe02 Yeah, and it takes me back Isha doesn't get mentioned as much in the last 2 episode (On top of Vi and Caitlyn clapping cheese when Vi's to concern was Jinx killing herself)
@@soulstalker4624 i mean Isha only cares with Jinx which causes an unexpected scene of Jinx "firing" all but my problem with the VI Cait scene is that CAIT knows Ambessa is going to attack so the first time she does is "##$$ Vi before setting the actions for war just HILARIOUS, i mean Vi doesnt know or cares but Cait is the "serious adult one" and she does nothing xD
@@Morfe02 I think at this point in Jinx's and Vi's rekindled sisterhood, Vi did care, to me it seemed a bit out of nowhere they just fucked right then and there when Vi literally had shown to finally care for Jinx again, and Caitlyn should've honestly told Vi to hold on to this before they went any further since yeah, she's the sensical one
I mean they left a huge door open for fanfic writers with the fact the alternate Powder has knowledge of how to make Hextech now, and still has crystals stashed away. Thought I believe the way she put the necklace in the drawer showed her "walking away" like "our" Jinx always should have.
I truely wished Arcane had been left as this alternative universe / alternative scenario bc I love it for what it is as a bit of storytelling. Sure, I wish some episodes had been given an extra 10 minutes of run time just to flesh out and more directly explore and explain certain character motivations / headspace switches (Vi, Caitlyn, Jinx) and had done a better job of resolving the social economic issues explored in S1, but as a whole I feel all the emotional payoff was there for all characters. So many people are saying the show would have benefitted from a 3rd season, but I disagree. While S2 needed more breathing room, there isn't enough content there to cover another 9 episode, but also thinking back over the entire season I can't really think of anything that could be cut out as it's all set up in s1. The impact on the lore though is truely where the biggest issues lie. So many characters stories have been overhauled, making more things redundant / created bigger inconsistencies that if Arcane had remained an AU. I'm hoping they release a massive universe overhaul now now Arcane s2 is over, but I also have very little faith in Riot upper management to care to even do that or invest the money needed to adjust past work.
How can this even be a big issue for the show ARCANE It being called cannon is not even close to being a valid criticism for the show there is a lot of valid criticism, but this just fucks shit up for league of legends lore, which is fixable, but not the show
I liked Arcane but i think there are 4 negative points for me 2 of witch being my personal opinion. 1. Arcane season 2 should have been at LEAST 12 episodes. Very big pacing issues. Many of plot points were rushed or not explained where there were times things just happend and that was... It? For example Heimer who randomly disappeared and he not only wasnt mentioned again but its like he was forgotten. Or what Arcane is. I belive it was poorly explored thing as well as wild runes. 3 or more episodes would have time to not rush things over and properly explain us stuff. Im aware that stuidio was forced into making 9 episodes 2. Arcane works really well as its own story but there is a context of it being said that its CANON. Where half of lore of region and characters is either strongly retconned or straight up doesnt work anymore. I like that they... Killed? some of the characters because it moves story foward and im into it but there is for example Ambessa in league BUT she is dead in Arcane. Oh speaking of Ambessa... PERSONAL TAKES 3. Ambessa either didnt have well told goal of conquering piltover/zaun or she just didnt have one. And its not like its Noxus ideal to conquer all, because if that was the case, Swain would get interested or even aided Ambessa, but he didnt. And it leaves Ambessa, in my opinion, as extremely shallow character. 4. Community forcing and claiming that Jayce and Viktor are gay couple. This is surprisingly most controversial take where I dont have issues in Arcane itself but in community. They didnt interact in any sexual/romantic way ONCE. From my perspective they were established as really good friends. Jayce *seems* straight or bi at most and Viktor *seems* aroace. Please, dont force your headcanon as being canon.
nah man i dont care out of Heimer, in fact, like people say . . . maybe he gets mad and turns into OG Heimer in another series also the Ambessa and Mel plot i was saying is pointless because of the end of Arcane but they shut my month with an open ending even a Swain cameo also the death of Ambessa is so damn funny man THEY COULD MADE SEVIKA INTO A CHAMPION but they choose Ambessa who the fuck wants to play Darius but woman into the game when Sevika is more original and gameplay crazy also yeah i dont understand her motives at the end is like act 1 and 2 "i use hextech to win against the mages, the Black Rose" but act 3 is totally "i want revenge, im going to use hex-thing of Viktor and i hate the mages because they are powerfull even if i use magic runes and magic robots of Viktor" they really fired the guy writing her or what xDD the worst part of Arcane is the retcon man : Viktor is good or something, Noxus is before the war of Ionia i think and Singed even if he gets Orianna now he is "over of evil work" since he is done with his actions xD aahhh and Jinx alive LOL
One thing that confuses me is Swain's raven because he got control over Raum after the Invasion of Ionia when his arm was cut off by Irelia so I wonder how they're going to have this new story
Riot needs to stop saying that to this point forward, Arcane is the canon lore. Stating this show and future shows will handicap the creativity of the stories. It's going to be hard to kill characters after that point and connect major events in Runeterra... Oh no, I can see it in their eyes, a cinematic universe starts forming. A LoLCU
Arcane biggest winner: singed Arcane biggest loser: ekko... just kidding it was 100% Warwick and especially Warwick fans. They not 1 but 2 golden opportunities to give us actual Warwick but we just got... evolved? furry and... evolved furry... but unleashed...? Like what the actual fu-
Note fellas this is *technically* a part one review, you can expect the part 2 on the negatives/lore implications sometime this week
ALSO another video tomorrow I need to hunker down for that should be out tomorrow
The lore is ruined, just say it NickyBoi, you'll never get the LPP anyways
The issues with the lore can be easily be fixed with a bit of brain, trust me, i tried to see the amount of inconsistencies arcane could've made and they're mostly fixable@@milicabojic9434
I hope the negatives will not be about champions death, in terms of story it befneficial for champions to be in mortal thret and not just carried by "its champion" plot armor
Nickyboi catch a breath my boy
@@milicabojic9434 Can U please explain why the lore is "ruined"
The way i took how victor was defeated/saw reason was because ekko wasn’t suppose to come back, (future)Viktor sent jayce back on purpose in the time loop, ekko found his own way back and became…the boy that shatter’d time
That is a super cool read.
The reason that Ekko was able to come back was because of the Rune that (future) Viktor gave to Jayce. Ekko called it the acceleration rune.
And that the only time line he could back 'cause of the acceleration rune
@@blazikentwo Yep, it seems this cycle has been going for a while, the rune of acceleration was the one that made the difference
@@swisher8990 Viktor was also astonished to see a second anomaly being formed by Ekko over tuning his Z-drive
Singed biggest winner of Arcane
Correct
My goat splitpushing and winning is all that matters
he's just built different, ha can't lose
Singed is the MAN, THE MANNNN, bro got his daughter back, got a full time job with Noxus, and LIVED TILL THE END, HES THE MANNNNNNN, sorry jinx, ur probably dead, sorry Jayce u and ur soul mate dead, sorry EKKO UR ALONE, HAHAHAHAH
@@festivegod335Jinx is not dead though
I loved when Sevika said "I propose we establish some sort of League made up of the Legends who fought in this war." And the other council member said "….Say that again."
Cut to end title in all of those league cinematics
12th time
Everyone have a bittersweet ending , meanwhile Singed the GOAT , got his daughter back, got a full time job with Noxus, and lived till the End . He got all and more, the one true Winner of Arcane.
he technically dont have to work for noxus cuz... every noxus in piltover died and ambessa too lmao
he can now enjoy the time he has left with his daughter but who is gonna give weapons to noxus or why did they added ambessa to every riot game and even prepared book for her just to kill her off...
idk s2 writing genuinely felt horrible, so many things unexplained and so many things that doesnt makes sense
like why didnt viktor follow singed literally after saying "i understand now doctor was right"
also stuff we get way too different from the original lore or stuff we have in game and its not really a upgrade either.
if they really gonna go with the idea that arcane is canon, they cant just rework everything just for the show, its just so dumb and fucks up so many other champs
I mean does he still works for Noxus? He worked for Ambessa, and now he is free. As well as he doesn't really want to work for them, now he's happy and wants to spend all the time with his daughter
@Morlund2710 "the one true Winner of Arcane"? It's not a competition. Can people stop repeating this nonsense in comments please? It's a classic "ends justify the means" L take, missing so much important nuance. This level of reduction is dismissive of all the work the writers and artists put into the show. There's no guarantee that Singed is even happy in the end or that his daughter is in there anymore
If her daughter is back, why did he help Noxus. His goal is complete?
Ambessa’s rule is passed down to Mel. He still has a contract as the Medarda’s esteemed advisor (alchemist). So should Mel follow through with the Black Rose’s purge she needs the second invasion of Ionia to succeed in order for Swain to gain the support of the people to purge the Black Rose.
All of this requires Dr Corin Reveck.
I fucking SCREAMED when the noxian crow opened its other eyes. cuz that means SWAIN BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Must feel great to see one of your favorites existing in a new canon. I'm wondering what's gonna be with Blitzcrank at this point.
*Raven, but yeh.
does that imply invasion of Ionian already happened?
As soon as i saw the raven with red eyes i was like LET ME SEE THE EYES, LET ME SEE THE EYES!!
Except, since Arcane should by all accounts take place before the Noxian invasion of Ionia, that means Swain doesn't have the Raven demon yet, which means, either this is not Swain, just the Demon, or they changed yet another part of the lore, Hurraaaayy....
god i loved the ekko final scene it was so well put together
EKKO MY GOATTT IT'S TIME TIME
Singed just walked into enemy base, unleashing war crimes, and then went back to base to chill. Most gameplay accurate character.
Honestly amazing how the writers can make me like Ekko and Jinx so much in just one episode.
Episode 7 was absolute peak Arcane and I really wish we got more episodes like that where it was focused on few characters.
Agreed. The rest of the season was at such a breakneck pace, it was super nice just having an episode with 3-4 characters that takes its time with them
tbh i liked they from the moment i saw both
It is baffling to me how that episode is getting so much love when 95% of the runtime is completely irrelevant to the overall story. Every singly season 1 scene fills multiple purposes, doesn't waste a second of screentime, the scripts are so freaking efficient. And here in season 2 we have a whole episode that is essentially entirely pointless. And people are calling it the best in the series.
It's also really bizarre how the episode frames Vi's death as something overwhelmingly positive. Life is better in every respect for every single character, it's like reversed It's a Wonderful Life. Just very weird creative choice to say that the death of the primary protagonist would have solved every issue in the world. Guess I like Vi way more than the actual writers.
@@gathenhielm9977 Its not better for Jayce, who likely was exiled following the raid where his experiments literally killed a child. Viktor likely wound up dying due to his condition. Mel isn't as well off either, as we can see that her house tower doesn't exist in the Piltover skyline. I'm sure they thought these things through, my guy.
@@snorkelwackjr All of that is speculation with no basis in the presented narrative. Absolutely everyone we see on screen is better off.
And even if what you're saying is true it's still wrong. All of those things happening to those characters *would* be preferable to what is happening to them in the main timeline.
Loved when blitz showed up at the final fight and said “this guy is out of our League, we are gonna need some Legends” then hooked ekko into the fight to help him get close
I’m torn on it, but overall happy. I do believe it was rushed. They clearly wanted to explore a lot and I don’t think everything was given the proper time that was needed. Especially the task force, its characters, and the occupation of Zaun. It tried to pack a lot in and I feel it’s weaker than the first season because of that.
On the other hand, it’s still awesome. Just a drop from near-perfection to great. Episode 7 was pure emotion and art. The finale was epic, absolutely gripping, and delivers a mostly satisfying conclusion that leaves plenty of room for more. I don’t think what it misses undoes what the brilliance of what it’s accomplished.
people want more of it, and that's good
imagine some of the arcs got fleshed out like ep7
Episode 7 proves that when they get the time to take it slower they cook. Like S1 in it's entirety proves this.
And also episode S2E 1 & 4 f.e. And then most of the rest of the episodes kinda just show they weren't given the time they wanted. Which is a bummer, but I see the vision of the masterpiece S2 could've been. And with a bit of imagination I guess it can still be that.
I can't help but wonder if the writings was affected by the writers strike in some way. That would explain some of the weaknesses of the season and explain why it seemed to lean more into having music video type moments where the scenes would just be visuals and music
Exactly this.
We all know... it was the execs fault, they tightened the purse at the last second again, which is kinda stupid with how much already went in this series.
But this... it is liking saying 98 in 100 isnt good because it isnt 100, which is STUPID.
As fans... we can point out the flaws, we should not turn a blind eye, but this is still an incredible piece of media.
Oh. Well, I think I've finally found a translation of how I feel about it. So thank you very much!
I couldn't agree more
That last grenade was Jinx blowing up like half the lore
She's always trolling xP
I mean, they showed the shaft that she escaped from, she's not dead
Paralleluniverses my man
@@garochompo5454 Parallel universes are a can of worms best not opened too much
@@emptyasmrman coping
Props to the Noxian soldiers, they where pretty effective considering how advanced Piltover is.
I mean think about it, Piltover alone has guns, magical artillery, airships, and toxic gas, Zaun brings more people, body augments, and the hoverboards of the firelights to the table, on top of all that their position was pretty defendable.
@@Psub950 yeah, but noxus soldiers have in spades what piltover and zaun dont. Experience.
Noxus could go up against the frejord, demacia, and ionia all at once and still come out on top. Noxus is terrifying in the league lore, there was no way in hell even their small detachment of soldiers was going to lose to a bunch of glorified cops when there's a good chance every soldier there has seen plenty of battle.
@@doorsday147 Then why has Noxus not conquered Piltover yet?
@@mrlucky9157I think they’re prepping to invade Iona, that hasn’t happened yet in the lore, I imagine that’s their goal
@@mrlucky9157in the lore noxus were more interested in Ionia
jinx living but us having to dig into frames and pay attention to microexpressions and read blueprints on a screen and remember call backs to figure it out is insane work
I think it is supposed to be hidden
This is how real stories are told.
Do you really want them to put "JINX LIVED AND IS GOING TO SHOW UP NEXT SHOW GUYS!!!" in big green text or something?
nah if you are paying attention to the final moments there are a lot of clues. the biggest one for me was caits final complex and very obviously dificult expression. you have her scene just before showing the tunnels. idk I think if you don't think about the ending it doesn't make sense. but if you put together some pieces it very clearly shows that there is room for more.
Literally powders first line is "one day I'm gonna ride in of those things" and you can see the exact same blimp at the end. And of course they wouldn't include Caitlyn looking at the vents while holding Jinx' grenade for no reason. Doesn't require much to put those together, idk what microexpressions you are referring to.
@@SaggyWaggy-is8it They literally did, since Jinx is the only character to think in hatches. The Story was THE END for the cycle of Zaun and Piltover.
I have to not that I haven't seen anyone mention this yet. Viktor and Jayce seem to have been trying to fix this loop of the Arcane World Ending scenario for several tries already, noting that each time old man Viktor gave young boy Jayce a different rune.
Note that they only succeeded in this timeline because Ekko managed to create the Z-Drive and bring the second anomaly to cause the original one to disable. How did Ekko get to the Z-Drive? SPECIFICALLY because he does an inversion of Jayce's Accelaration Rune, the one he got in this timeline, so it was finally them finding that one small change that was enough to change everything.
I'm glad you took the time to praise the show (weird as it's ending is) seperate from the insane lore implications it has. The shows's absolutely not perfect but it deserves a lot of appreciation in my book.
Also, I dont get why ppl are surprised with the lore implications, when Riot made it clear they are changing things.
@@justhair17 because the lore has been around for over 10 years and people are not ready for change that isnt necessarily good, like why change ww????
@@pannkaka5138 they changed the lore multiple times already, its not unusual.
Because the present Lore IMO is very static for some Characters. I Love the Viktor Shorts etc. But theyre Not really good for longer, more interesting Stories
@@justhair17 Of course that's unusual, the last retcon of the universe was 10 years ago ! And it was fare less extent than today, and now there's billions of establish things that have been made during those 10 years you. People are very attached to the actual lore of Runnettera, reworking the universe would make no sens at all.
I loved how they took chances, had a vision and went for it instead of being cautious trying to please everyone. F Warwick though
@@isaw9969I mean they had 3 seasons cut, they had to wrap up people’s arcs unfortunately. I would say the earlier parts with the police brutality and use of the grey + the war mongering (in general) says something in that regard though
@@aerindinescarro47 I believe that's been debunked.There was never going to be more than 2 season of this storyline.
@@isaw9969 Vision and taking chances doesn't mean having something to say about real world politics or some form of stance on this or that. They had a vision for the story, regardless of the implications in the greater League universe. Jinx both changed and is now dead, Ekko shattered time in his own way, Viktor and Jayce are gone, Cait lost an eye, Singed is Orianna's father... Every character you can think of had something change, something more than just "fixing problems" to make it acceptable to be background lore. If Arcane ended at Season 1, they would have needed little more explanation to determine how the characters we know and love from Arcane became the boiled potatoes that they are in League; they decided to go further.
That was their vision, their own glorious evolution of their characters.
Did they hit the mark in every way? No, but as the original comment said, they didn't try being cautious. That's commendable.
@@isaw9969I don't want to sound mean.....but don't they repeat breaking the cycle over and over again? I think thats their message.
@@aerindinescarro47right but then they just link up with the police and stay united with piltover. Ehhhhh
It's soooo frustrating that Riot tries to convince us that Arcane is actually canon, while doing almost absolutely nothing to actually make it canon, besides selling overpriced cosmetics for their live-service game. Other then that, i personally loved the 3rd act, my jaw was on the floor for most of it. The sequences with viktor and his creepy bio-puppets were just amazing.
Maybe somebody should give them the hint that Arcane works fine as an alternate universe. Matter of fact, wasn't that what they were doing in the first place?
But then again, Riot probably fired the Lore team given the absolute drought of stories for the last, what, year now?
They need to do something to make it canon? Like what? Remove them from the game? It's canon if they say it is and incorporate the story into the rest of the lore.
@@aflyinfaux1447 they even already set up the LoL multiverse in episode 7 i dont know why they are so insintant that Arcane and LoL is the same 100% when its clearly not
or you can just slowly let go of what you previously considered canon , and be ready for everyone's story to slowly but surely change.
@@Dew-b8bThing is, I don't think Arcane should be canon at all, it works perfectly fine as its own thing and its own universe. But when Riot confirmed Arcane is canon, they inevitably opened a can of worms, plot holes and clashing versions of the same characters. Yes, bringing arcane and league lore together would take A LOT of effort and work, which would not be needed, had Arcane not been canon. As it is now, it just feels like Riot wants to please the lore people with as little effort as possible, which is just lazy.
4:24 That confused me too because, as powerful as Viktor is at the end of the show, I don’t think they ever implied he can time travel and reality. It’s kind of a strange twist that doesn’t tie things together. It’s way better had the wizard just been some random dude over Viktor causing all these events across all timelines.
Some other commenter said maybe it's a timeloop, where he keeps sending Jayce back with different runes to try again
Episode 7 shows Ekko, Heimer and Jayce being sent to a different timeline when they touched the Arcane. So I think you could say this version of Viktor is so powerful and intertwined with the Arcane, he can just timetravel.
Makes you wonder why he didn't do more, but I believe Heimer says a brief thing about Ekko not giving himself away to not disrupt time so it could just be explained away by that.
?
Jayce Heimer and Ekko travelled time with the Hexgate anomalies, which... Viktor needed (and got) to start his gloeious evolution... Which used to send jayce back in the right time back in the past... Did you even watch the show?
End of the show Viktor, is not even remotely as powerful as the wizard Viktor. Wizard Viktor has completed his glorious evolution and consumed the entirety of the world, it makes sense to me he can manipulate time. End of the show Viktor didn't complete the evolution.
Wizard Victor is in another realm of power compared to End of the Show Victor
When Ekko throws his anomaly to Victor, he claims this is an impossible one whereas Wizard Victor has solved all equations and is capable of such feat
I wish arcane was allowed 3 seasons so the compressed pacing of the story could allow more characters time to breathe. Thoughout the entirety of the second season I could feel them speedrunning so many moments and character archs.
This. I felt like the steaks and crazy time travel stuff was season 3 or 4 material, there needed to be something more grounded between the two.
And maybe develop more things instead of shoehorning Vi/Cait stuff waaaay too much.
The part where Heimerdinger does a guitar solo and after a moment of silence Viktor says: "that... was awesome!" and changes his mind still gives me goosebumps
Honestly, seeing Vander/Warwick suffer once more while losing his humanity got to me. He's been suffering so much, and just seeing how much pain and grief (he was crying!) he was in while Singed stripped away what's left of him just...damn. Great scene. Sad, but great.
I do find it funny (but also impressive) that Singed did some horrible shit to numerous people and yet he not only suffered no consequences, but was actually able to revive his daughter. Though there has to be some catch.
Won't say too much negative stuff here, but despite the rushed ending, I still found it very enjoyable. I just think we needed a few more episodes. Probably won't happen, but I kind of hope that this isn't the last time we see Piltover & Zaun outside of the games.
Vander died, got tortured by Singed for like 7 years... Then dies again by the explosion, gets revived only as a husk... I didnt like they brushing him aside, as this robotic monster but oh well.
I kinda love it how Singed did the most horrible stuff and succeeded. Like it's not a good message much it's a fun bit of depth in the show.
And even moreso his story impact was huge even tho he was in the background. He invented Shimmer, he helped Viktor with his new body. Like without him things wouldn't have gone to shit as much, and yet he achieves his goal.
@@p.8967 singed out there doing crimes against humanity and saving his daughter
Agreed! It has its flaws but I’m still so happy with the second season. I’m really excited to see the future of Mel!
Honestly im fine with the changes. If they start actually making more shows and stuff that move the story forward for multiple characters, im down.
If they continue like now, where we get ONE little story and then never hear from said champ ever again, thats ass
But if they actualy start doing stuff like arcane plus the MMO, im okay with a reboot. A lot of characters just doesnt exist at the moment like Shaco, Chogath etc. If they can be introduced with ACTUAL lore in a tv show, idc im good with a reboot of the lore
I think people are a bit too close minded to the changes. Im looking forward to seeing more
This. This is the perfect mindset. The lore is finally unshackled from plot armor for heroes, cuz u know, Warwick is dead etc. They can make new things with actual characters now. While I still regret that we'll never get the Jinx/Vi stories of old, I think this is an acceptable sacrifice for moving forward. Plus, doing it in Piltover/Zaun was pretty smart, as they don't matter *that* much on the global stage.
That of course is only good, if they don't screw this up now.
best approach! I only see crying from the hardcore lore fans ... This is the FIRST Show that sets up a whole universe... Maybe just wait for whats coming and dont cry about everything
@@heyitsmeagain6897 I am a mega lore fan too, but I still think this is the best shot LoL lore has to actually become something, instead of being background noise.
Honestly I don't think the changes were my biggest problem, the show just had a lot of trouble focusing on the characters with so much things happening. The first two cours were quite good in setting up things but the finale just didn't have time for a proper payoff
Then i appriciate that your Open minded! Change is Not Always Bad... I watched it with Skyen and now this...i dont Like that they start crying when we have only 2 Season to Go Off on. Like who knows what Happens when we get another view auf Zaun/Piltover ...how they will write the Storys ...Just wait@@Melon11776 ❤
Still upset they didn't give Warwick a snout. They flattened my boy's face!
I actually kinda like it in the first design cause the man face combined with the fucked up half-wolf-half-man proportions and his hunched posture does a really good job at selling the whole horrific frankentstien vibe, but on his second one in act 3 it stops being unsettling and just looks kinda goofy imo
@@ShibuNub3305doesn't help the bit blood hungry wolfman becomes a small part in Viktors army. And with small I mean he fights Vi and Jinx only and barely has any screentime.
I also think the whole color change makes him less intimidating.
Did my son filthy! Who is that!?
i was expecting that Vander metal wolfman is going to "flourish" as a wolf
nah man they really want Vander furry instead of the doggo
Grenade blew him up, metal parts shed, regenerates as a full wolf. Easy explanation.
Necrits interview made me feel a lot more positive on it all, yes league lore has changed but i am much more excited to see how the story evolves. There are plenty of opportunities for follow ups in Piltover and Zaun now and i do hope riot now fleshes it out again through whatever medium, recanonising champs like zeri, Seraphine, Renata, blitzcrank etc should be their main aim
Where can you see the interview?
@@Papuaiknecrits last stream
@@Papuaik on his twitch channel. Got some info on why certain decisions were made.
Does they speak about champions that wasn't showed in arcane? Because i was very hoping to see Camille, Zac, Mundo, etc
@@Papuaik also on youtube now
I really liked old viktor, i think the fact that he couldn't choose between fully embracing the glorious evolution vs his remaining human parts/ emotion was what made him interseting imo, if he wanted he couldve made himself fully into a robot, not even with a humanoid shape but he retained some of his body/emotions, and i think that only shows that deep down he is still human but the injustice of the situation of piltover and zaun brought out the worst in him
Exactly my thoughts.
Only thing i'm not sold on new Viktor yet (which i'm assuming at this point is how he'll look in his VGU) is that he's losing the "robotic" part in traditional sense.
No don't get me wrong, I think the new take on "evolution" is more unique and cool but it is a shame to lose that heavily and explictly METAL theme to him.
Yeah being the half man helf machine is his whole identity. His short stories are some of the best too involving trying to fix humanity.
Since he isn't completely dead, and he still has a goal. He just realized that forcing everyone and everything to the dreamless solitude isn't the way. That's where he may become not necessarily good, but neutral. Going for enhancing and evolution, but providing it for those who are willing
Wouldnt be the first tbh. Riot completely changes Aatrox and Morde when they reword them, both lore and gameplay wise and for the better IMO. Also, I think Victor is still alive, so he can still go for the same thing
Yeah its definitely a loss but I think the metal theming was so contradicted by the existance of fully alive robots like the counsilor. It made viktors glorious evolution look just dumb
What's unique about him? Dude looks like discount Malzahar mixed with Dark Star.
4:44 my understanding of the multiple stones is it’s a time loop because he kept on trying giving him a different magic to get it perfect and now he’s finally realized that it’s just a bad idea
I believe something else.
Viktors final evolution needed a rune to bond to in order to become a wild rune and die basically.
The problem with hextech is that it's unpredictable. He couldn't have known which rune it would be, aka the multiple attempts.
It had to be Jayce to un-do everything because they're partners.
When ekko was inventing the Z-drive, he said that Jayce's rune was an Acceleration Rune, which he based the runes used in the Z-drive off of, just the opposite of it. So the reason why Viktor could be defeated was because time-traveling Viktor gave Jayce that rune led to Ekko inventing the Z-drive
Season 1: The problem is the money. The problem is the power. The problem is violence. The problem is the prejudice.
Season 2: JK! The problem was the magic crystals and the axolotl juice. Duh!
There should honestly just have been 3 seasons, there was just no freakong way of wrapping it all up in the time that they gave. After season 2 episode 6, i became extremely worried because it was setting so many fantastic plotpoints up, that could weave in so many insane directions, but simultaneous left no room in what the series had left to fully explore it. Like if they had like one more arc in the season, 3 extra episodes, i think it could have worked, or again another season, this series could have reached insane places. But with what we got it unfortunally just became extremely rushed in the finale arc. And credit where it is due, they did manage somehow tk wrap it up kinda, but with no room to breathe, no room to really have the impact that this amazing story deserves, it really makes me quite sad, and wonder, what could have been...
Caitlyn losing faith in being a dictator, literally anything about the task force, the occupation of Zaun, the consequences of using The Grey, all this and more were simply not fleshed out and it feels like a real shame. I wish they were given more time to expand upon these stories like they were w/ Ekko in episode 7.
@@shmooters5599 I feel like the worst offender was in the final episode when Jinx was alone and about to kill herself and we see Ekko start to talk her out of it... and then suddenly Jinx is not only not killing herself, not only joining the fight, but LEADING ZAUN INTO BATTLE???
How did that happen??? Why didn't we get to see it? Ekko convincing Jinx that life is worth living and Jinx stepping into her role as a symbol of rebellion for Zaun is like... a REALLY important thing that shouldn't have been done off screen!
the scene where Vi relives the loss of Vander only for Victors control to fade away from Warwick and attack her was quite sad.
The fact the funny bottle guy got the best ending is really funny
the was the Arcane all along
also he is the gigachad big player of the entire league lore after Ionia
@@Morfe02 Turns out after all the real arcane is the crimes against humanity we make along the way.
As someone who doesn't know a whole lot about the lore, i liked it very much. I think people probably focus too much on the lore and not on the, in my opinion, great story that was told. I'm sure that the lore got changed a lot, i mean loads of people died, but as a standalone series as of now and as a VIDEOGAME adaptation this is still top notch. Other adaptations butchered their source material whereas you can see that the creators paid attention and genuinely made something for everyone to enjoy. Then again i don't know the huge lore implications so i'm looking forward to that video nicky 😄
Well yeah, people are not saying the show is bad because there are changes. The problem is that the lore is now established for pretty much 10years (or more in some cases) and from nowhere Riot said that Arcane is now new canon. NOW the changes in lore are the problem, because it touches too much of it to just ignore. League lore for a quite some time operated on concept of basicaly alternate universes for its different medias and that was the way for Arcane to work. Not to destroy all the previous lore and then shame poeple who acctaully cared about it (prior to Arcane) for complaints.
There was talk episode nine was supposed to be an hour and half, but it was cut. It would make sense, the start of the battle was so jarring it had to have been a cut. Some points I feel was off was how it started into escalating class warfare between two groups of citizens in Piltover just kind of fizzled in light of a greater existential threat. Like at some point somewhere a higher-up in Riot wanted "bigger stacks" in the finale, probably as a way to hook in more viewers to future shows. I mean they did tease a lot of little things outside Piltover/Zaun, so the need to keep people hooked is there. While Fortiche delivered beyond expectations, you can feel the disconnect still in the finale. The rushed feeling to me stems from seeing a whole bunch of characters each having a minor yet critical part in the finale. So much so it got cluttered up. You had Caityln, Vi, Jinx, Mel, Ambessa, Singed, Jayce Viktor, Ekko all playing roles in the finale the beats just kept coming and going, especially considering there was a cut it was hectic. And some characters got more lackluster conclusions than others.
Heimerdinger was sac'd upon immediate use (while some debate he's not "dead" it could be for the show). Re-using Vander/Warwick to freshly re-traumatize Vi and Jinx felt a bit off. It made some sense in terms of the unstoppable army, but they just had to revive him to... I guess create a clean break for Jinx to escape Piltover? Ambessa seems to have a few bouts of "planned incompetence" after going full Noxian general seemed off. Especially since the only protection against mages she got was from her second-in-command and makes me wonder why the Black Rose didn't get her BEFORE that point? Sky was just a straight up prop (again) and when she finally left it felt like she knew it all along. Jayce and Viktor kind of got "deleted" to fix everything, and while the build up to that was fantastic they both just... blipped and gone? Sevik, for all her work and pull, was just given a seat on the Council. And she def doesn't look like she wanted to be there?And while Cait and Vi end up together, Cait lost an eye and Vi is left thinking she has no family left.
Ekko and Jinx are more full, satisfying conclusions to their stories (depending on who you ask). Ekko made sacrifice after sacrifice, gave up on being allowed to live out a better timeline, actually having his found family back AND having a version of Jinx not rocked by consistent trauma. He went back to make everything right, and he went back to let the other Ekko live the life he wanted all along. And Jinx finally was able to walk away and break the cycle, faking her death to free those she cared about from being the "jinx" she still believes she is.
And then there's SINGED... I'm sorry but did he nat-20 the whole thing. He helped Silco create an extremely addictive drug, re-purposes Vander's body TWICE, gave Viktor power that would literally turn their world into a lifeless husk, used some of that power to make automatons for Ambessa's unstoppable army. All of it, every single step, in persuit of research to "cure death" to bring his daughter back. And he got his daughter back and there were ZERO CONSEQUENCES. He just walks away, unscathed and unpunished, getting everything he wanted.
And answering questions linger still. Jinx escaped, but where to? Mel is going back to Noxus to take place as head of her House (and a weird Swain crow for good measure). What exactly are mages in Runeterra now? There is some kind of secrecy and forbidden power to them, and yet they seem largely unknown? What did Ambessa do to incur the wrath of the Black Rose (LeBlanc)? Did Mel actually "kill" her or is the Black Rose still around? Is hextech still going to be a thing?
Don't get me wrong, all in all I thoroughly enjoy Arcane, I can immerse more easily to avoid getting frustrated by inconsistencies. At least until after the fact, but I've no idea what Riot is planning to do with League if they attempt to make Arcane canon.
I haven't kept up with league lore in a long while, so I approached arcane as "inspired by" from the beginning. I love the references to things we already know and are familiar with, but they went in a new direction to tell their own story in their own version of the world. I understand a lot of people wouldn't like that, but it works for me personally. And in a vacuum, I think this is the best ending everyone could have gotten.
not many people who actually care about the league lore would be bothered if riot werent trying to push arcane as the new canon to stories. the conflict comes from the fact many fan favourite characters are either changed or now need to be, and we are meant to expect these changed to be the permentant new stories. if arcane was its own what if thing, similar to LOR, no one would mind. but rn we are set to have old viktor stripped from the game and replaced
@@jynxed66six54 Nobody plays Victor anyways, so whats the problem? Yeah, his old lore was kinda cool, but they went back and forth with him so much anyways, that I don't think its a bad thing if they have a clear direction now
@@justhair17 there are 32 champs with a lower pickrate than viktor. thats not "nobody". and even if he was the least picked, thats not an excuse to ditch everything written about him in the last decade. aatrox got rewritten because he didnt fit anywhere in leagues canon world, but viktor does. theres no real reason to do this to him.
thats not to mention that i wasnt talking about viktor specifically to begin with. where does blitzcrank fit into this new story? he cannot coexist with the arcane story without a complete retcon. where does camille fit? if this series has swain with the demon (the raven at the end of act 3), that means this takes place after the ionian invasion occurs. which means noxus should already know who singed is, he supplied then chemical weapons. yet they dont. so now singed's involvement in the war is called into question. without singed, yis and darius stories cant play out the way they do. those chem weapons were a major part of their stories during the war, in yis case it ended the wuju clan. yasuo and riven and yones stories all begin with the chem attacks too. so did singed take part? did he fund them weapons? the events imply he didnt, which is an issue.
arcane calls literally half of the established CANON lore into question. which is an issue, two conflicting canons cant both be canon. so which is it?
@@jynxed66six54 In terms of Singed and Noxus. Im also not sure how he fits. With Ambessa gone and Singed accomplishing his goal of reviving Ori. Does he need to create weapons for Noxus I'm not sure. You make a good point
@@jynxed66six54 Don't get me wrong, I understand how much of a mess this could be. I was there at the piltover and zaun refresh when blitzcrank and viktor became heroes. So I get it, but I just want to enjoy arcane as its own thing, and keep what I did learn from league back in the day as it's own thing. But I completely understand current fans problems with it.
8:19 playing the pvz soundtrack while talking ab the black rose was funny af
i think it ended really well honestly. as devastating as it was i really liked a lot of the wrap ups, i like that the black rose is set up, i want to see more of Mel especially (im really surprised they added Ambessa as a champion instead of Mel tbh). episode 7 was amazing. i think Jinx's whole deal was really cool, it was so gut wrenching to see her hollow like that. arcane does a brilliant job of making almost every character a sympathetic one and i think this is a really good ending to that. it does feel rushed in a few places- we can definitely blame streaming cutting down episode numbers for that tbh- but it still did a fantastic job.
It would be kinda interesting if they chose Mel as a champion next year, and I think they did not wnat her bc. about the amount of new knowledge we have now
probably cuz if they released mel, it wouldve spoiled that she was a mage.
@@farao6627 absolutely, but then why not just wait? it feels unlikely that they'll release both Mel and Ambessa as champions but I hope they do! she'd be really cool to see in the game
It's been leaked that Mel is the next champion
Honestly I don't have as big of a problem with Arcane absolutely purging lore of league... like they may insist this is now canon but I call bullshit. They still havent finished retconning the SUMMONERS from the game, and then they wrote short stories. If going foward we'll be getting lore of league only by 1-2 cinematics per year + Arcane-style big projects.. it's literally never going to actually matter that some champions have to be literally changed completely or else they dont fit. Arcane is a great adaptation of it's source material until proven otherwise to be canon - you can't change my mind.
I, personally, absolutely love Jayce and Viktor story arch a lot. The conflict between perfection, ideals, progress, consequences and humanity is one of my favourite tropes, and it was excited in this show GLORIOUSLY. Just like graphics, designs and art direction. Just top notch. And 7th episode is perfect
I'm glad that it wasn't a naruto and sasuke thing. They never really betrayed each other and were always able to discuss things.
@@jamesk3612 except both tried to kill each other multiple of times
my take is that this season could have benefited heavily from 1 more ep per act to have more breathing room ; i couldnt care less about the stablished lore anyways since its a mess and we have already been told that arcane is now the canon and will slowly take over. the thing that i disliked the most was the fake out jinx death like that just seems like drama for the sake of drama specially when they drop that many hints about her being alive like just give her a semi happy ending at that point it was like the equivalent of a jumpscare in a horror game it lacked substance it was just there for the shock value and the crying faces on reactions and interactions on twitter
About Viktor and the Jayce rune:
ep9 Viktor says: "I thought I could bring an end to the worlds suffering, but when the equation was solved, all that remained were fields of dreamless solitude. In all timelines. In all possibilities. Only you, can show me this" implying that with or without Jayce, Viktor finds a way to fuck shit up big time.
Viktor giving Jayce the rune is a fixed point in time, and the only thing Viktor can do, is give Jayce the right Rune (the accelerating one Ekko studies and have the knowledge to use it somehow) so it ends up with them creating hextech together as partners. Viktor realized at the endgame that taking away human's emotions is a curse, and that his intention to do good failed him in the end.
Every other universe this fails, and the future of the Runeterra is doomed.
In Viktor's ambitions to do great, he forgot to do good
All I know is yall owe my boy jayce an apology. Everybody was hating him in act 2 when it was pretty obvious he was gonna be a good guy 😂
He also got the blunt end of the situation. Heim and ekko got to chill out in the best situation while he was stranded in the worst
I don't get why future Viktor sent him back to stop current time Viktor and the first step was to shoot him in the chest. And even after that Jayce was very hostile towards him kinda for no reason.
Like he's the only one that can change Viktors mind, being out for blood doesn't help with that
@@p.8967 I have to re-watch, but I think he "killed" him to weaken him and buy time to prepare Piltover's defenses. Literally the only good consequence of shooting him was that he got so weak, he needed more time and more help to invade Piltover, so I find no other explanations. Jayce's flip flopping is confusing tbh
@DeadKraken but at that point Viktor wasn't even trying to invade Piltover and just stayed in his little area I think. Because he was of the opinion ppl had to be helped willingly. After Jayce shoots him he realizes humanity is in the way of helping itself so he does it by force.
That's why I think it's a bit weird Jayces actions only caused worse things rather than helping Viktor like he was supposed too. You could say it's cause he was corrupted, but I feel like that's kinda lazy for the plot twist.
@@p.8967 considering what Jayce saw in the future, I don’t think he wanted to take any risk and instead just chose to take viktor out of the equation fully. I know it seemed like a hasty decision from our pov but he was stuck in that apocalyptic future for weeks, if not months.
Also, I think we all know it was a matter of time before Viktor spread his “glorious evolution.” He dropped hints about his abandonment of humanity when he was speaking was singed.
For all the crazy and amazing things this season did and i do agree on most of what Nicky says here i have a big problem in which the way season 2 was conducted and that's is the conflict between zaun and piltover being sidelined.
In season 1 every decision, every pivotal moment is deeply rooted at the inequality between the sister cities, silco and vander fallout, Jinx and vi being stranded for one another, hextech being a tool that only widened the economic gap instead of a way to build a better future, etc, etc. While i love the artstyle and (some of) the music and the characters i think what Made season 1 special was how the story was deeply rooted in this social divide.
Season 2 started strong by making cait a dictator powered by a f*scist promising her vengeance and seeing the effects that hextech is leaving in the undercity, and then... Nothing. We get a montage that sums up months of civilian unrest and the conflict we ended season 1 expecting, in like 4 minutes and the plot from that point onwards treat the divisions between the cities as a minor plot at best and a silly or inmature nuissance at worst and making Big loops to make sure that the enforcers are seen as good guys, which is a shame because i think that absence is what turned it from a masterpiece to just a good series, at least for me
I wasn't originally onboard with Arcane being an alternate timeline from League after what Riot stated, but I think I like that idea a lot better.
Arcane (and season 2 specifically) was presented as a tragedy on many levels, yet the characters who survived have gained a lot of what they needed in the wake of all their loss.
Also, I love Arcane and can't wait to hear your rant more about, especially with how invested you are in the lore. This video is much appreciated.
My entire thought process for this is the Ekko quote, "Sometimes taking a leap forward means leaving a few things behind."
If Riot doesn't pull through with good new lore, however, I'm gonna have some words.
So happy to hear your thoughts on this I was really looking forward to this video thank you for all the hardwork you have done.
i know people will have their negative opinions but i really do just want to say how much arcane really hit me. it’s so emotionally powerful. to me, the main overarching theme of arcane is actually embodied by a quote that singed says: “Why does anyone commit acts others deem unspeakable? For love.” This made me so emotional because if you really think about it, every character is motivated by love. they do things that end up having terrible consequences but in the end, they only did it out of love. this show was beautiful, and i hope that others can see it that way too
Ngl
I cried when I watched the last episode, mainly because that meant Arcane was done, but also because Arcane, imo, is the PEAK of the artistic expression humanity can do
Sure, I can reconigze some flaws here and there, but at the end of the day
Arcane was so CINEMA 🙌
Best thing i've watched ever
Im going to be honest... The ending is not great but I unironically LOVE how they killed characters, it means that riot is finally good with ending characters storys, I know they left a lot of plot holes in the overall lore, but I still really like it
Sorry to burst your bubble but a rioter have indirectly and directly confirmed that Heimer, Jinx and Warwick is alive. And Jayce and Victor is not dead dead since he said there will be more with them.
Characters dying should be fine
BUT how their deaths merges with the rest of the lore 'cause we never reached the present day in the lore is something to deal with
@mrjones2928 Source?
I think it sucks actually. By killing Viktor and Jayce it takes away 2 of the most interesting Piltover and Zaun characters, and replaces their interesting Conflict from the lore with "Viktor just turned good again and they died". In general, after Arcane there is no story to tell there anymore. That sucks so bad. I
@@mrjones2928not a rioters but the Co creator of Arcane themselves. On Necrit stream
Im actually legitimately surprise and somewhat disappointed that the mage that gave Jayce the runestone was not Ryze. Literally has Realmwarp as an ability, and they were all fucking with primordial magic too. It felt like it was somewhat lining up
They prob didn't do that cause it would mean nothing to non-LoL players. Maybe if they had more time they would've built up Ryze and done it tho who knows
My opinion, is that 1: arcane was definitely not supposed to be cannon and should probably not be measured on that merit(but you totally can because that is justified), and 2: it was extremely good, maybe not a masterpiece, but very good.
Multiple rewatches are like, a must to get a good idea on how good Arcane is.
I really feel the main thing that's gonna hold peoples' feelings on Arcane back is the fact Arcane is "meant" to be canon. If it were just it's own thing the reception would be a lot warmer I feel.
I mean overall S2 is just rushed. No attention on the Piltover vs Zaun conflict after act 1, Jinx becomes a symbol after 1 montage for 1 episode, a setup for villain Cait which they do nothing with, Warwick appears epically- hugs it out- goes mad again- does nothing for an act, Vi goes through an emo phase shown in a few minutes, Viktor is 'evil' like we know him from he game for like 1 episode, Vi and Jinx' relation from the game is also there for 3 episodes (after a 3 year wait too)
"I see the vision" is how I'd describe this season as I see the masterpiece it could've been had it more episodes to flesh these things out. Still a lot to enjoy tho, but not as good as S1 for sure.
Im treating arcane as its own thing, its own timeline like episode 7; rito saying its canon just seemed to hamper them and the show. It felt like such a disconnected executive move that ultimately doesnt do anything but add confusion
Untangling the lore implications it has for league itself is prob a step even rito wont dare to take
your so right, i'd prefer to have champs i enjoy have their lore basically time capsuled in place for 6+ years never to conclude, never to move forward just kind of sat there while new champs get released to suffer the same effect a few years after their release because how can you possibly keep 150 champions stories moving forward with not a single one ever concluding. this seems like the better option then actually trying to move the universe forward and conclude some champs stories that actually need it lmao.
this really confirm how much riot retconning everything around arcane was a mistake because if this was its own standalone story (and tbh it still is if you're watching it and have no plans to touch league) half the discussion would just not exist. honestly despite it being so rapid, i did enjoy all of it. characters emotions could've been more fleshed out but the plot itself felt coherent to me, and the music and visuals meant it was never a slog to watch, so for me the positives outweighed the negatives.
i think my one big gripe is ambessa and caitlyn's story felt lacking in consequences. caitlyn mainly just felt a little bad but i wish she'd like, stepped down or had to sacrifice power or something, because it felt like she abused her authority so much but no one was all that mad at her (that we got to see, im sure plenty of zaunites would not forget the gas but vi is just really down bad for cait and since she just wants her loved ones back she's willing to forgive somewhat easily, same with jinx) and ambessa felt a little shallow for how they hyped her and her backstory up
I'm genuinely gutted because it didn't really stick the landing for me in a few different major aspects
Viktor looks suspiciously like a skin... Is Oriana gonna be a rework???
Orianna looks literally like she is in the game. Only the voice lines need to be updated. Viktor is the "surprise" VGU that is still in the works
Viktor is gonna receive a rework and a legendary skin, the rework was already leaked with an icon
Ye dont get the joke @@kauanjos3199
My take was the show is a loop. viktor gives a rune to Jayce, they make hextec, Viktor merges with the core, glorious evolution, bad future, Viktor realizes he's wrong, goes back and gives Jayce a DIFFERENT rune, loop.
I only say this because I Ekko mentions inverting Jayce's acceleration rune, which allows for Ekko to achieve time travel. In every other timeline Ekko either wouldn't get back, or things would play out differently without his time reversal. Effectively, it was Viktor seeing his future self that allowed him to listen to Jayce and end things and the only changed variable we know of was the symbol on the rune he gave to Jayce.
I hate what they did with Warwick. Even more when Viktor did his "evolution" to him. They should have made him more wolf-like. We all know it was Vander, man-face or not. Ugh, can't believe LoL's monster design affected Arcane as well. I hope after the events of Arcane, we get to see a wolf Warwick. Vander might be lost...but his soul has moved on now. Now we should get the Beast.
Uhm... we have already gotten to see a wolf Warwick... you know... the one in the game? Where other than the game is it we're supposed to get the Beast?
his design is the least of his problems considering the ending they gave him
I think the "big thing coming to league in 2025" is a lore overhaul. They'll probably still keep a sizable chunk of story for some region and champs the same.
Also I'm glad they have actual deaths in the story for playable characters in league.
Singed and Ekko are the only characters who stayed real to themselves.
Couldn't be more disappointed to see Warwick looking like a gorilla more than a werewolf
Bro, the way that Arcane-d Warwick design was shown felt like a fucking pop-up ad for the new skin. It looked so ass and out of place 😭
When it comes to the lore and how much Arcane messes with it, I think Riot should treat it kind of like how DC and Marvel treat lore whwn compared to movies and tv shows, where they take some of the best stuff and find a way to incorporate it into the new lore. A bit like how DC took Batman: The Animated Series original ideas like Joker's killing laughing gas, Mr.Freeze's tragic backstory, and the entire character of Harley Quinn and stuffed them into the main continuity. Trying to make Arcane the new continuity like Riot claims to be doing feels like there's just too many things to make that feasible, but I could see them putting in some of the amazing elements from the show into mainline cannon. I mean, Arcane was the first introduction to Ambessa before she became a champion, so who knows what other things from arcane could find their way into LoL?
I actually know how much time Jayce was trapped that timeline, the same amount of time Ekko and Heimer were in the other everything went mostly well timeline, how much Heimer said? like 100 someting days? thats why hes beard grew so much, he was there a LOT of time
He also fainted when he fell, you can see his beard growing during the time he was in the cave
I had a dream about Viktor's machines hunting me down.
God I love this show!!
Warwick didn't deserve this.
Good god what a character Ambessa was! She had an incredible aura to her in that final confrontation, like when she walked up the stairs from Cait's perspective with the vocals hitting I was sent reeling from how cool she was
The Enforcer Trio of Maddie, Steb and Lorys were the biggest disappointment/question mark for me. These characters were present just enough, so you'd expect something to happen with them but then nothing really does.
Main plot of Piltover vs Zaun switching into God Viktor ending humanity in the last 2 episodes left a bad taste
The only thing I really didn't like was what they did to Warwick. Like, burning away the last memories of Vander and stripping his animalistic form down to the weird HexHusk version of it before we ever got snout and tail full Wolf Warwick as the canonical version of him just sucks.
I don't personally love the full Technorganic Glorious Evolution design, woulda liked to seen Viktor go through more experiments with Zaunite body augmentations enhanced by hex tech or maybe transmutated onto oneself permanently.
But that's all just visual design stuff. Warwick losing his humanity completely means we never get furry Zaun serial killer killer Warwick that kind of still remembers the girls.
I think the storytelling was great though, for the story they wanted to tell. It's just not always the one I would have preferred.
But I don't think there's any better version of This story.
Problem is there were more pressing matters and Warwick was shoved to the side in act 3. Unfort
I really hope that Warwick still somehow ends up as Warwick...
Same, my only grip with this new season is Warwick design they butchered him
@@kauanjos3199below another video someone half-called me a furry for saying this
But yeah this Warwick design reminds me of Beast from the live action Beauty and the Beast. Not the best thing to be reminded of.
I will say in act 2 this design makes sense, as it shows Vander is still there. But I kinda expected the wolf design in act 3. At the same time he didn't really contribute anything to act 3, so I get why they didn't do that but still a bummer.
Also hearing the Arcane creator said he's alive so we can headcanon him becoming the wolf I guess lol. (how his further lore works with the implied new and better version of Zaun is a mystery tho)
@@p.8967 They had a big opportunity to give him the full wolf characteristics, Isha sacrifice but they didn't
@kauanjos3199 exactly. The color change actually just makes him look less like Warwick than he already did, even tho they set it up like he was gonna look more like Warwick. It's just an odd choice, but seeing as how little he had to do in act 3 I can kinda see why they did it this way. Still dislike it tho
I like the League design more but... who fucking cares? That design is still out there and like in the game
Warwicks design upset me so much
even if i love arcane, they should of never made it cannon
Does it rly matter, his design is rather generic in game
I've said it a few times and I'll say it again here. Arcane, self contained, not tied to anything else, is amazing. As a stand alone show based on a video game property it does an amazing job as an interpretation of the games lore...
HOWEVER, the biggest issue for me is Riot canonizing it, because there is just too much that changes suddenly and recontextualises. Like if it was just a show having things being left ambiguous would be one thing, the issue is this HAS to now feed back into LOL and now we're just left here waiting for an update onto what this means for league and the rest of the franchise, and as such that's incredibly frustrating.
What did they do to my boy viktor? Where is the guy that likes technology a bit too much?
I wish I could add other things I liked beyond moment to moment scenes, but what you said is pretty much it for me too... art and music are absolutely amazing, when the Season allowed itself go slower and take its time, like in E7, it was some of the best piece of media ever made, no joke about that and the artistic side of all is just so perfect too.
But the general pacing of it all and the implication that it cause for the main lore do really sour this incredible experience... I'm definetly still looking forward to what comes next from Fortiche and their partnership with Riot, especially since it was softly confirmed that two of my absolute favourite characters were teased in the show: Jhin and Swain.
I think the thing that I’m disappointed mainly by is that arcane season 1 was great by any standard: animated show, video game show, LoL show. I don’t think I can say that for season 2. This kind of story is what I’d expect from a “video game show,” but I’m just sad at what could have been.
0:26 Yo is that nauthilax from Chaotic, I haven’t thought about that series since my childhood. I’m excited for that video!
crack pot theory: league vgu and asus were so slow because they were updating all the champions that need changes and they totally won't forget to update certain characters like they did with shaco, corki, cogath, e.t.c.
Loved that my boy Ekko got his moments to shine. Episode 7 is by far my favorite episode in the entire series. He really lived up to both his monikers, the Boy Saviour and the Boy Who Shattered Time. I’m glad he got the show stealing moments in both seasons.
As a show, its an absolute 10/10 story and i believe thats the way one is supposed to watch it, because as part of the main canon its destroys so much established lore
It was really cool to see that episodes 7-9 had the same titles as 7-9 in s1
The chances of Gankplank straight up dying in a BW series just jumped to a 90%. In fact a bunch of champs might be on the chooping block.
Gangplank bruh, he ain't ganking anything
Season 2 does feel inferior to Season 1 in a lot of aspects, although some of the visual and musical sequences are certainly as good or even better. Still a good series, of course, but there are certainly some negatives IMO:
There are just too many plotlines, which ends up making half of them have most of their development happen off-screen (including main ones), and characters to sometimes feel like they are acting out of character. The focal conflict for the series, Piltover vs Zaun, or a story about oppression and inequality, feels heavily sidelined to the whole Arcane/Ambessa plot and it ends up giving the impression that it was solved by proxy, without actually tackling the underlying issue. The ending also leaves too much open-ended, and it feels like it is trying too hard to set up sequels while forfeiting closure for its own stories. This includes the potential of around 6 fake-out deaths that are open to interpretation. I also believe that introducing new concepts like the Black Rose with little context may have made non-League players a bit lost here, and the show overall may have lost some people by becoming less grounded.
Minor aside, but I also think that a lot of the scene transitions are too abrupt in this season? That might just be me, but it was something that I constantly noticed as I was watching each week.
And that's just considering Arcane as a isolated series. We have a whole lot of extra issues once we start to think of it as the new basis for the main Runeterra canon. The mess it creates is just a lot more than many people are able to wrap their heads around, and we essentially have no way of telling what's even supposed to be the lore of a large chunk of the roster at this point. The worst part is that I honestly have little to no expectation that this will be solved ever, much less in the few next years.
Overall, I still hold that the decision to reframe Arcane as the main canon for the League universe was a bad move, that will not only affect the lore itself negatively, but also the future series themselves.
Did it deliver?
No. Unfortunately not quite.
I’m not mad at arcane for what it changed (mad at Riot for making it canon).
But there were just… too many things not explored as deeply as I hoped.
It did not quite manage to live up to what it set up.
When you try to fit a 3 season show in 9 episodes, that is sadly what happens.
those are gonna get explored in new series now that the old lore doesnt exist, so they made a blank slate after the lore revision after the blank slate after the first iteration of this game lore, wanna bet they do it again in 10 years?
@@mantraki No, they can’t properly explore Jinx and Isha bonding now. They can’t explore how Caitlyn becoming authoritarian oppressor of Piltover affects her relationship with Vi or what drove her to abandon it immediately after Vi came back into her life. Things like that.
@@kiwwat4139 Oh now i know what you mean, yeah thats sad
We got Vi "deeply exploring" Caitlyn instead of exploring the existing topics in a deeper sense
Riot forgot Camille, Blitzcrank and Renata Glasc existed
i really like most of the things in the ending but my biggest personal gripe is the two for jinx endings becouse if she died then it looks like she tried to kill herself the whole season and it actually ends with her killing herself which is really wierd especially after the ekko talk and if you think she survived (the one i think happened) just feels unresolved like is running away from everthing thinking its all your fault and her never coming to terms with who she is feels unresolved and like they are teasing her coming back in another show
She didn’t die
If you'll be looking in the eyes of non league player with no lore knowledge it is a win with the only take away that it felt a little bit rush in a sense that an act 4 could is needed. But for lore nerds like us, its a whole **wait, what?** moment for us. 😂
Arcane should never be part of the game lore. Exactly as Marvel did, Arcane and all the others series should be a cinematic univers, a fantastic way for Riot to explore the incredible world they have build. But not related to the lore. Separated univers. Because if not, it either breaks the total written lore, suppresses a lot of champions, destoying the fantastic entire concept of Zaun/Piltover relationship, or it limits the liberty of scenarists to only put on screen the written story.
And as the MCU, Arcane will be the story everybody will know and consider as the true one, but please Riot, PLEASE do not destroy 10 years of insane storytelling for a "simplification", that actually makes everything more difficult
Both Arcane and Main canon can exist at the same time separately. Riot is so shortsighted.
Warwick was so great in act 2, and in Act 3 they turned him into NPC enemy robot.
0:25 Nauthilax my beloved
Honestly one thing i loved was Swains/Raums crow at the end, digging around through jayces hammer trying to figure out just wtf happened and gain as much information as possible, but the thought that hes able to pretty much gain information from anywhere in runeterra because of the crows is kinda terrifying
Arcane will always be remembered as one of the greatest shows ever made💯🔥
As a person who ships both Ekko x Jinx and Jinx x Lux i actualy loved this act because not only do we get Ekkos thing with Powder but Jinx is implied to have survived and gone off into the world which makes Lightcannon possible. It separates the ships in a nice way that fits because Ekko loves Powder not Jinx
Also in a Vacuum i love the story even if i feel like some things were underdeveloped and it could've used like 2 more episodes per season
But as a League Lore fan holy shit this BREAKS SO MANY THINGS!
I think the main reason none of it clicks is because Arcane SHOULD NOT be canon to league and rather its own universe (You know, like how the MCU isnt cannon to the comics)
Because if it where, the show would've ended on a completely different note (Jinx living, Heimerdinger too, Jayce and Viktor part ways but Viktor stays machine jesus, Caitlyn now is the official sheriff/commander of the enforcers, Clean Arcane-free hex-tech is created, Ambessa is alive and becomes Chosen of the wolf, etc.)
So many of the ending's plotlines would be acceptable IF Arcane wasn't part of the mainline, the show is amazing and I was still quite happy with the ending, but the fact that it leaves more questions than answer despite being what the canon lore is going to be based on from now on is really taking me back from fully appreciating this otherwise masterpiece of a series.
(Also, the epilogue needed to be longer, and we def needed a scene where the firelights make a new mural of Jinx, Isha, Lorris, Heimerdinger and all the good people that were lost in the series)
i agree basically arcane should be Ultimate Marvel, i dont get why is CANON they forgot they fired the lore-guy of the entire game and how they are making a MOBA out of this xD
@@Morfe02 Yeah, and it takes me back Isha doesn't get mentioned as much in the last 2 episode (On top of Vi and Caitlyn clapping cheese when Vi's to concern was Jinx killing herself)
@@soulstalker4624 i mean Isha only cares with Jinx which causes an unexpected scene of Jinx "firing" all
but my problem with the VI Cait scene is that CAIT knows Ambessa is going to attack so the first time she does is "##$$ Vi before setting the actions for war
just HILARIOUS, i mean Vi doesnt know or cares but Cait is the "serious adult one" and she does nothing xD
@@Morfe02 I think at this point in Jinx's and Vi's rekindled sisterhood, Vi did care, to me it seemed a bit out of nowhere they just fucked right then and there when Vi literally had shown to finally care for Jinx again, and Caitlyn should've honestly told Vi to hold on to this before they went any further since yeah, she's the sensical one
Waited 6 years for Timebomb, it disappeared in two hours.
I mean they left a huge door open for fanfic writers with the fact the alternate Powder has knowledge of how to make Hextech now, and still has crystals stashed away.
Thought I believe the way she put the necklace in the drawer showed her "walking away" like "our" Jinx always should have.
I truely wished Arcane had been left as this alternative universe / alternative scenario bc I love it for what it is as a bit of storytelling. Sure, I wish some episodes had been given an extra 10 minutes of run time just to flesh out and more directly explore and explain certain character motivations / headspace switches (Vi, Caitlyn, Jinx) and had done a better job of resolving the social economic issues explored in S1, but as a whole I feel all the emotional payoff was there for all characters. So many people are saying the show would have benefitted from a 3rd season, but I disagree. While S2 needed more breathing room, there isn't enough content there to cover another 9 episode, but also thinking back over the entire season I can't really think of anything that could be cut out as it's all set up in s1.
The impact on the lore though is truely where the biggest issues lie. So many characters stories have been overhauled, making more things redundant / created bigger inconsistencies that if Arcane had remained an AU. I'm hoping they release a massive universe overhaul now now Arcane s2 is over, but I also have very little faith in Riot upper management to care to even do that or invest the money needed to adjust past work.
How can this even be a big issue for the show ARCANE
It being called cannon is not even close to being a valid criticism for the show
there is a lot of valid criticism, but this just fucks shit up for league of legends lore, which is fixable, but not the show
I liked Arcane but i think there are 4 negative points for me 2 of witch being my personal opinion.
1. Arcane season 2 should have been at LEAST 12 episodes. Very big pacing issues. Many of plot points were rushed or not explained where there were times things just happend and that was... It? For example Heimer who randomly disappeared and he not only wasnt mentioned again but its like he was forgotten. Or what Arcane is. I belive it was poorly explored thing as well as wild runes. 3 or more episodes would have time to not rush things over and properly explain us stuff. Im aware that stuidio was forced into making 9 episodes
2. Arcane works really well as its own story but there is a context of it being said that its CANON. Where half of lore of region and characters is either strongly retconned or straight up doesnt work anymore. I like that they... Killed? some of the characters because it moves story foward and im into it but there is for example Ambessa in league BUT she is dead in Arcane. Oh speaking of Ambessa...
PERSONAL TAKES
3. Ambessa either didnt have well told goal of conquering piltover/zaun or she just didnt have one. And its not like its Noxus ideal to conquer all, because if that was the case, Swain would get interested or even aided Ambessa, but he didnt. And it leaves Ambessa, in my opinion, as extremely shallow character.
4. Community forcing and claiming that Jayce and Viktor are gay couple. This is surprisingly most controversial take where I dont have issues in Arcane itself but in community. They didnt interact in any sexual/romantic way ONCE. From my perspective they were established as really good friends. Jayce *seems* straight or bi at most and Viktor *seems* aroace. Please, dont force your headcanon as being canon.
nah man i dont care out of Heimer, in fact, like people say . . . maybe he gets mad and turns into OG Heimer in another series
also the Ambessa and Mel plot i was saying is pointless because of the end of Arcane but they shut my month with an open ending even a Swain cameo
also the death of Ambessa is so damn funny man THEY COULD MADE SEVIKA INTO A CHAMPION but they choose Ambessa who the fuck wants to play Darius but woman into the game when Sevika is more original and gameplay crazy
also yeah i dont understand her motives at the end is like act 1 and 2 "i use hextech to win against the mages, the Black Rose" but act 3 is totally "i want revenge, im going to use hex-thing of Viktor and i hate the mages because they are powerfull even if i use magic runes and magic robots of Viktor" they really fired the guy writing her or what xDD
the worst part of Arcane is the retcon man : Viktor is good or something, Noxus is before the war of Ionia i think and Singed even if he gets Orianna now he is "over of evil work" since he is done with his actions xD aahhh and Jinx alive LOL
One thing that confuses me is Swain's raven because he got control over Raum after the Invasion of Ionia when his arm was cut off by Irelia so I wonder how they're going to have this new story
Riot needs to stop saying that to this point forward, Arcane is the canon lore. Stating this show and future shows will handicap the creativity of the stories. It's going to be hard to kill characters after that point and connect major events in Runeterra...
Oh no, I can see it in their eyes, a cinematic universe starts forming. A LoLCU
Jinx's new outfit is so freaking colorful i love it
Also Mel's new eyeshadow is super pretty
Arcane biggest winner: singed
Arcane biggest loser: ekko... just kidding it was 100% Warwick and especially Warwick fans. They not 1 but 2 golden opportunities to give us actual Warwick but we just got... evolved? furry and... evolved furry... but unleashed...? Like what the actual fu-
Gentrified the furry 😔
Furries when they make the horrible monster a horrible monster and not a generic furry wolf they can lust over 😔
@@slicemup9 You call this shit in act3 an horrible monster ? More like horrible goofy cringe puppet yeah.
@@foxxtitan7028 Its certainly more interesting than an Anthro Wolf Furry
@@slicemup9 Nah badass steampunk bloodfirsty werewolf predator everyday rather than the cringy puppet non-sens.