How Arcane Uses Setups and Payoffs
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- Arcane uses setups and payoffs in ways that continually blow my mind the more I think about it. I am a sucker for good writing and setups and payoffs are a cornerstone of this. Look I just like Arcane ok?
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#arcane #setups #writing
00:00 Introduction
00:20 Sponsor
01:18 The Setup
02:49 The Firelights
05:20 Arcane Goes Further
07:44 Everything Connects
09:56 Closing Thoughts - Фільми й анімація
Thanks again to Manta Sleep for sponsoring this rant. Use code WALRUS at checkout for 10% off. bit.ly/38ZK5PF
Also I've stopped being lazy and started wearing it every night and have noticed I sleep considerably better with the mask on.
Whenever I try and sell this show to people I do so by saying "everything matters, nothing they do is a waste"
That really is the best way to describe it. It's a show that respects your time
The extra bit for the pay off is that the mechanized firelights is actually a new smaller way of Jinx weaponizing someone else's inventions. Just like the original monkey bomb with the hextech stone.
She stole the mechanical bugs when she went to cause chaos during Progress day. There's like... a 2 second scene at the top of Progress day of a tall gentleman in a top hat showing off the mechanical bugs
Came here to say this!
Me too! The first mechanised firelite confusingly enough does appear at progress day. I'm so sorry it's flywalruse's job to battle with geeks. It is not an easy remit.
I'm glad someone pointed that out.
Plus it feeds more into the lie that the Firelights are responsible for Shimmer/Piltover's problems.
The "mechanical bugs" are all butterflies that have a green explosive attached to them on the end (they only *sort of* look like firelights, which are more round/bulbous).
@@renshank6736 yea of course
But making the robotic butterflies glow green like a firelight co-opts the firelight coloration, the green for an option that ISNT Piltover or Zahn.
At the same time corrupting the idea of progress by stealing someone else's work and warping it to her own needs.
It's a good basis representation of making Jinx the 4th access across from the Firelights. The same way Piltover and Zahn, while not necessarily opposite sit on different sides of the spectrum for the show
Life and growth via Firelight and chaos and destruction via Jinx (who technically has her own coloration of Purple)
I thought jinx stole the mechanical bugs when she went to piltover. They were part of the progress-day toys entertaining kids. which then goes back to jinx's toys are now corrupted from something innocent to someting explosive.
Yeah she has reverse engineer them and modify them.
More setup and payoff: Marcus grabbed Powder's braid at the arcade in Episode 2. Powder made the shooting range target chomp down on Marcus' arm. Powder later blows up two arms from two people: Sevika (ep 3) and Marcus again (7). Marcus also blew up his arm (and more) in his own fantasy when Silco gave him a grenade. Damn all these arms.
Maybe this is more foreshadowing than anything but still.
Arcane is one of the too rare stories when the more you think about it, the more brilliant you find the storytelling. Usually this is quite the opposite.
This is one of the reasons why arcane is such a satsifying watch, it basically rewards you for paying attention and being curious about the story whereas other shows build something up (sometimes even a very major looking thing) but never follow up on it.
Well, that's just one reason on top of the amazing graphics sound design story telling lore and everything
The biggest setup of all I feel was the tension that was constantly built up throughout the 8 episodes between jinx and jayce(+the council). We even see Silco and Vi meet Jayce and subconsciously wonder "hmm i wonder why Jinx still hasn't come across Jayce yet even though they're already merging all the other character arcs one by one". All of that tension and ambiguity created between Jinx and Jayce, in a way the face of Zaun and the face of Piltover, built up so sneakingly but perfectly, all that tension to be beautifully broken by Jinx's rocket towards the council finally bringing Jinx and Jayce(+the council) into one arc and leaving us stunlocked on the perfect cliffhanger
Had a discussion about this back when the episodes came out. It's a very modern form of tragedy, working past ancient Greek version. There's no great person brought low by an action. There are just people, making understandable decisions that in a large sense, lead to devastation. Another good example of this is book one of ASoIaF, what happens to Lord Stark.
Gotta say, one of my favorite smaller moments of setup and payoff is when Powder revisits the training simulator and shoots the crow, then later when she's seen working on learning the hextech, she's used that crow's feathers as bookmarks.
ALSO: The theme of crows has been an integral metaphor for Powder's transformation into Jinx.
When Powder shoots the crow, it's an allegory for how she deals with her mental trauma, when Powder hears the crow, as she's fixated on Caitlyn after reuiniting with Vi, it's in the same vain as how Jinx has attempted to quell her mental distress. She tries to silence it. Then, finally when Powder has Vi, Silco, and later Caitlyn at the table in the building where Vander and her friends died, she lets the crows be. A small bit of foreshadowing of how Powder later reconciles with herself by choosing to become Jinx permanently.
and her Jinx chair in that last scene has crow feathers all over it!!!! the crow symbolism is aaaallll over her character
There are some very interesting theories about the crows that have been hinted at in the Lore of LoL that I won't spoil
@@AFlyingWalrus I think I know what you are talking about.
3:03 with the Firelights, it's a reach, but I'd vouch to add in an even earlier clue-- when Jayce and his mom are first brought to Piltover through Arcane magic, it's shown he is in awe at a small butterfly as it flutters away from its perch
This was by far my favourite part of Arcane. Everything: every backstory, philosophy and motivation, character (both main and side), every contraption made, every word uttered, it all has knock-on effects somewhere else in the story. There are too many to list and yet all of them feel logical and satisfying. There were so many moments where I'd watch a scene and my mind would flashback to the moments before. So many character reveals, no matter how small, were so shocking simply on the basis they were people we'd met before even if they were just mentioned in passing. It all comes together in a story with so many branching paths that all have definitive starts and ends. I need to watch this show again, it is the perfect example of how to tell an amazing story and make the best use of your characters and their interactions.
I love the "What could have been " soundtrack in the background
story plots and payoffs are like tieing a shoe lace, the characters are the shoelace, and the holes are the problems they face. each hole must be inserted by the lace and at the end when you pull the laces and tie a knot, the shoe should be completely intertwined and come together. that is how i see storytelling, everything needs to be tied together in order to make a knot or a payoff.
This video clearly just sets up a video about season 2
You caught me
The initial mechanical firelight actually appears at the beginning of Episode 4. It was a mechanical butterfly made in Piltover. Jinx has a talent for reverse engineering things and then weaponizing them, which ties to the discussions of hextech being turned into weapons if it gets in the wrong hands.
Listening to all set ups and payoffs remind me so much of American Beauty and how all the different characters stories link together so deeply
Season 4 of stranger things reminded me of Arcane. Different story lines that are tied to eachother. Huge setups and payoffs leading to epic moments, while still having time for the small character moments.
Absolutley everyting in the show is either a setup or a payoff or both
And most of the time it's both
Arcane is the perfect tragedy, where at any given moment any character could have done something different to change the outcome, but to have done anything else would go against their character, meaning that in the end what ended up happening was the only truly possible outcome.
We also see the butterflies during Progress Day, suggesting she stole a crate of them on the way out of stealing the crystal.
Great video! I love your enthusiasm as well haha :)
I'm wondering about the parallel between Jinx's firelights and Ekko's firelights. So there's a theory that Jinx and Ekko are parallels of each other, they were in the same position as children but Ekko is the "what if Jinx didnt go and try to help and stayed inside instead" version if that makes sense. What do you think is the role of mechanical vs natural/impersonated firelights?
👍👍
Arcane is so wildly well crafted that the best suitable word I can think of while watching it is ‘inevitability’.
GOT up to season 4 (and some moments of season 6) worked this way too.
The writers decided to replace the careful storyweaving that made for the big clashes and tragic moments, especially character deaths that the show got famous for, feel shocking and YET so well laid out and foreshadowed, that each felt like a natural conclusion to a character's arc, and making the audience realize they weren't seeing the obvious because they themselves were hopeful for a different, happier ending, blindsighting themselves as the show subtly hinted time and time again that mistakes were piling up and collapse was inevitable...
With just cheap, 'aha you didn't expect ARYA to be the one to do the thing, since her character arc pointed at an entirely different path' moments, characters making irrational choices or choices way off their well established patterns for the sake of the soap-drama like plot, and of course bulks and bulks of plot armor...
Hopefully Arcane, not just this story but the world as a whole, if the companies involved decide to expand into other LoL canon regions, won't lose sight of what made this first season phenomenal, as the GOT writers (who did masterfully translate the world and characters from book to TV series through the first half) did when they ran out of source material.
Seriously, the way you write essay videos are phenomenal and so captivating. You deserve so much more traction but sadly youtube's algorithm is really broken currently. Hopefully yt fixes it soon as it really isn't on the side of small upcoming creators imo.
Well thank you. I do my best
One of the few shows that get better everytime you watch, so many little details to discover each time.
You could study Arcane and Obi-Wan Kenobi side by side for writing lessons and everything Arcane does RIGHT, Kenobi does WRONG. It's kind of amazing.
Especially when it comes to the use of Chekhov's Gun in Arcane vs Kenobi. In Arcane as mentioned here, there's that set up and BOOM gun fired aka payoff.
In Kenobi, there's setup, but low to no payoff. Or payoff that isn't satisfying because we saw it coming a mile away.
That is somehow one of the best pieces of writing advice ive ever heard.
Well played friend.
7:15 the chain reaction did not start there. It started when Powder dropped the hexcrystal in Jayce's apartment. Remove that scene, and the ENTIRE season of Arcane would change
It didn't start there either. It started off-screen when Jayce visited Benzos. Ekko tailed him and reported back to the kids, which is where they got the tip to hit his apartment.
I love your passion for this show. It's awesome hearing how excited you feel about it and it makes me feel even more excited about the show as well.
Basically everything in the show is a setup or a payoff…there’s probably a lot of shows like that…but it’s always interesting when they’re drawn attention to
I just love the show. I wven love the edits with songs. My 14 yo daughter got me into it and i was surprised how good the show was. It really is art
Arcane is simply a masterclass of show don't tell - in EVERYTHING!
I just wanted to say, I just finished watching Arcane and now I'M OBBSESSED with the series and came across your channel to understand a bit more since I don't play LoL. New subsriber here!
Welcome. I try to cover writing concepts here or really anything that comes to mind that I want to rant about. If you are interested in the Lore of League, (which is fantastic btw) might I recommend Necrit. He covers all of the Lore of Runeterra, (the world Arcane takes place in.) And has gone over many of the connections from Arcane to the canon lore.
thank you so much !!
I just remember the gun shooting of silco anf marcus, both fathers had daughters, marcus is an unfinished character opposite to silco and then marcus died without a proper goodbye to his daughter and then silco who inspired jinx as a farewell. I just wanted to know what is their meaning? Arcane is always about parallel storylines of the characters relationships and conflicts.
Me, watching a payoff in Arcane: *Slams table.* This is a setup!
I didn't even think a show of any form could pull of what Arcane did. The fact that most people I know have never seen it is a fucking travesty. It is literally the greatest piece of film I have seen in my 44 years on this rock.
So true I literally watched that scene and I literally slapped my fore head when I rewatched it and was like OHHHHH a that’s why she was doing that .
I love your arcane vids soo much most I've seen were a masterpiece
This one felt a bit mumbly and confused rushed even specifically min 6
The "masterpiece moment" in Arcane for me came when Powder finally got one of her bombs to work and killed her friends. I wanted so bad to see her be successful and when she was, the pain I felt for the character.
This is, in my opinion, the best example of using setup/payoff to subvert expectations in a way that doesn't feel cheep. Through most of Arc 1, Arcane presents itself like your more typical animated series. Grittier than most (look no further than the opening of Episode 1), but still using familiar story beats, particularly that of a nefarious underground villain vs. a ragtag team of plucky kid heroes, with special emphasis on the inexperienced underdog who wants to prove themselves.
Arc 1 sets up Powder as that underdog, and when her big moment comes in Episode 3's climax, you *expect* the payoff would be her saving the day. Instead, her actions just make things worse, and the rest is history.
@Flying_Walrus was right when he summed up Arcane as, "Triumph, moments before tragedy."
The only other show I can think of that does this masterfully is Breaking Bad. And it makes multiple rewatchings so satisfying!
the problem with writers being afraid of using setups and payoff for the sake of expectations subversion is that it severely hurts the world building.
if they didn't setup the firelights the way they did everyone would ask "where did she pull that buillsh!t out of?", a question I find myself asking more and more frequently watching western shows lately.
but they did set it up in a way that made it clear these things are an existing part of that world. and yet the show masterfully subverted my expectations on a consistent basis. for example, when jinx lit the flare Vi gave her i was sure Vi wouldn't show up and that the writers would use it to make jinx resent her sister even more, but Vi did show up, which led to one of the most heart breaking lines in the show: "are you real?" which completely broke me and in an instant made jinx such a more tragic character.
Right, the show is almost paradoxical in that it can very clearly follow setup and payoff arcs with characters making character-consistent choices, while simultaneously able to subvert tropes over and over again.
Yeah, yeah... I *totally* remember all of those firelights moments before the bridge scene... *totally*
Love you video analysis’. Thanks for them. Speaking of Avatar: The Last Airbender, will you make video on that show and its sequel, Legend of Korra, someday?
Potentially? I need to figure out what I would want to say without retreading what has already been said by so many talented people
@@AFlyingWalrus how about, how in a world so completely controlled by benders, Sokka manages to touch every piece of history.
He invented submarines and effective flight travel. He was heavily connected to the spirit world, having been there himself and being connected to Yue's accession. He was the first man to ever train with the kyoshi warriors and studied (and mastered) many different combat styles. He was a master strategist (barely foiled by centuries of planning during the day of black sun), an expert explorer (found Wong Shi Tongs library in a few hours after the researchers had been searching his entire life)
Aka Sokka, the non bending Avatar xD
Oh man, your absolute giddiness when talking about this show is the same way I feel, too. It's a masterpiece.
Thats what i love about this show, everything is connected…
I mean just the whole plot in itself… jayce went to benzo‘s to find things to develop hextech (likely) and ekko followed him to the apartment, enabling Vi and the others to break in… but this is exactly what cost jayce so much at the end of the first season… the deaths of enforcers and the kid, him going to war… and then when the undercity was about to become independent, hell is about to break lose because of what he wanted from silco. if jayce accepted silco taking responsibility for Jinx‘s action, this could have been avoided (maybe, it's jinx and she has a hextech powered rocket launcher, who knows…). But all of this just because the boy didn‘t even haggle… 😂😂😂 everything… AND I MEAN EVERYTHING! has the ability to change the entire story of the show and that‘s what makes it so awesome.
I've watched Arcane at least 6 times. It's just that good. And every time I watch it, I always catch onto something else that I didn't catch before. It's so cool.
I really like how you boil it down at the end to if your audience can say “ah man how did I not see that coming!” That’s the perfect setup / payoff.
I really agreed that the firefights was such a big part of it and everything else so people are so blind about. We need more about this
Great video
there is one last setup for the firelights that i think the vast majority of people missed.
when they were walking on the bridge towards the upper city there were bugs flying towards the street lamps and hitting the glass, but they didn't make the sound you would expect from a bug doing it, they made a distinct metallic sound when they hit the glass.
You missed a big point. Jinx did not make these fire lights from whole cloth. At the beginning of episode 4 (after the intro) we see the Progress Day festival, and these little mechanical bugs are flying around. One even lands on a laughing old man's finger, and he gently launches it back into the air. Jinx did not make these, they were little party favors set loose for the festival. What she did was collect a bunch of these things and then modify them, which is _100%_ in character for her. Her gadgets are impressive and require a lot of technical wizardry, but she almost always cobbles them together from existing things and random junk that she scrounges up from the streets.
But the most impressive thing, IMO, is how she figured out how to make them only lethal to enforcers not named Caitlyn XD
I mean, it's very subtly implied that they're attracted to the guns (magnetic?), and Cait gave her gun away already. Maybe if she had traded something else, she'd also be dead or dying.
i honestly feel like arcane is the first ever perfect tv series
Other stories are writen in a story line, but Arcane is writen in story chains, and those chains are all tied to each other like a net. The beauty of the story is if you took any character out and analysis their experience and personality, you can clearly understand their motivations and their choices. Every character's choices infect other characters in some way, that is what we called LIFE.
Omg I got a prediction. Season 2 Arcane will go on about the monkies that invade, because remember the Jinx Music Video?
2:10 unless you’re Araki, in which case winging it just works out… somehow. That man is a natural at improvisation
Also let’s not forget the mechanical butterflies were introduced at the progress day event implying jinx got the idea from piltover and proves as an example of what could happen if hextech technology was taken and put in the wrong hands, the bridge explosion is almost foreshadowing the catastrophic destruction of the nuke at the end of the series. Even something as delicate and insignificant as a mechanical butterfly could bring chaos
I haven't been as emotionally invested, hurt and put through an emotional roller coaster since the Good Place and Peacemaker. 😭😭😭
the biggest payoff of all is that the whole story is a butterfly affect, symbolised by the constant butterfly/firefly imagery.
hi! not much to say unlike the rest! but another amazing piece you made again!
Thank you so much
Welldone👍👍
I hope the writers were well paid. They did a great job with this show
Come on, talk about the ending soon. ! Keep it up! Good shit
The writers of this show are amazing glad many people agree, this show is doing so well!
You know whats more amazing christian linke and alex yee, the creators of arcane, its their first time doing this kond of project because you know they work for a game company and most of the things they've done is related to the game (well arcane ia related to the game but making a show and making a game is 2 different things)
it works well as it shown pretty much there is no comic book answer/ending to any problem or the third choice when there are only two the third is the worst one. example Vi goes with Caitlyn initial moral pure plan as it allowed her get her sister back silco gone and peace Zaun sounded great. what really would happen why would a government suffer economic/death to uphold justice on one man and sister believes you sold her out. it feels the whole series is building up to VI choosing Caitlyn or her sister as whatever she does she can't have both.
Finally something of a lighter tone, I am still traumatized after your Jinx and Silco video, hah (not that it was a bad video, it was a very good video but I still haven't recovered)
Have to switch it up every so often so that next time I make a sad video it hits even harder
@@AFlyingWalrus 😆 dammit
Dude, I fucking love your videos! I just thought you should know.
Arcane has very nice butterfly effect.
You're talking about "Chekhov's Gun."
Hey what was the song that you used at 7:44 ?
speaking of setups... is anyone else curious as to who Singed's (woo that name is hard to make possessive) daughter is? there's a tiny clip in the season finale of him holding a picture of her and it... almost looks like Marcus's daughter? maybe I missed a little hint as to who her mother is in like a picture frame in Marcus's house, but it would be an interesting parallel detail if Marcus had taken her similarly to how he took Vi in ep 3. maybe he has a penchant for kidnapping (in his mind, possibly "rescuing") young girls from the undercity folk. he certainly has a hero complex.
Nice theory, but, Singeds daughter is dead. It's why he initially becomes so obsessed with the idea of prolonging life.
His daughter is most likely Oriana.
Late to the overall party, but I'm watching your other videos on Arcane now. Your "When Arcane Became Human" was the first to cross my feed.
First, I have to say that this is not a good show. It's a work of art - a masterpiece of writing, visual storytelling, character development, and artistic style that inspires more fear than hope in what may come from a second season. Is it possible to find the source of all beauty *twice*? And if so, will we even be able to recognize it as such? When promoting Arcane, I try to emphasize that my enthusiasm is not just birthed from my own, personal tastes, but that it is, in fact, objectively one of the greatest works of storytelling in every conceivable category - as if the gods of Imagination finally had enough of the placid drivel that has been so prominent in the current zeitgeist.
It is truly a pleasure to listen to someone else articulate a kindred understanding.
I love this show.
Man, try watching locke and key... it may not be a masterpiece but I love it's payoffs
Commenting to feed the algorithm
Yeah this show is good
So.... I just noticed in this video, did Jinx fire that rocket from the spot where her monkey bomb went off? I know it's the same warehouse, but she walks up that catwalk, which is the same one Vi was fighting on in Ep 3 and shoots the rocket from the top of it, where her monkey bomb exploded in ep3. or is it the other side?? I can't tell.
Quick question, why is Jinx only haunted by Milo and the other boy but not Vander after the time skip even tho technically she killed him too ?
Your vids are great, but you are absolutely true master of epilogue wrap ups 👏
Wait, you're saying that everything is a setup for a payoff?
Always has been!
if i may, i recommend cutting down on the times when you're not saying anything or speeding up your speech a bit cuz it feels like theres a lot of empty space in the video. good video nonetheless
Can you do some reworking on the obiwan show. Ever since arcane , I can’t unsee mediocrity
Just like league of legends pro analysis video
You don't need 30 seconds you just need to mention Arcane.
For some reason to me your voice sounds quite a bit like GoodTimesWithScar..
(Minecrafter on the less-famous-than-the-Dsmp Hermitcraft server)
I feel like you were setting something up all video and then it ended... 🤔 Lol
Not gonna lie. 4 years ago when i know that riot is making a series, i was hoping it was gonna be about a big event. After knowing it was about them sisters, i was annoyed. Like why of all the good lores there are, you chose jinx and Vi…?? I was not hyped. I was not expecting anything interesting. I was expecting a dull story and a meme-able series.
Boi oh boi was i so wrong…
Man I hope Disney wouldn't buy this franchise and screw it.
Please mouse, stay away!
man, read one piece
Alternate title: "Fanboy fanboys over a little foreshadowing."
If you are expecting people who don't know league of legends to be watching this video, why TF are you spoiling stuff for future seasons?! Not a good move
Poor choice to start saying you have 30 sek to catch my attention and then talk about your sponsor. Lost my interest in 24 sec.
glad I'm not the only one who says m night shamalamadingdong
This show is a masterclass in storytelling, animation, editing and yes, Setups and Payoffs. You feel that they have had the full nine episodes up on a board and gone forward and backward. Using the South Park creator duos mantra of effective story telling, "but, because, therefore" ua-cam.com/video/vGUNqq3jVLg/v-deo.html
An example: I always "loathed" the concept of the "Deadly hallows" and "Horcruxes" in Harry Potter. They where so pivotal to the plot, but nowhere were seen any setup for it, at least as I could see. While JK Rowling might have had a glimpse of it, I lack the setup of it in the earlier books to make them give more effect when introduced later.
Star Wars... Im not even touching that. Both the prequels and the sequels.
Another example is the first season of the Witcher. It was story-wise all over the place. Especially the first episodes. A grand battle and a dying queen. But with no feelings for the one that watches the show. Why do they fight? Why is it important? Am I suppose to feel something for the queen when she dies? You got the feeling that they edited the show totally out of order to get a grand opening, but instead got a big balloon just venting air.
What Riot games and Fortiche manage to do with nine episodes is more than other shows manage to do with three seasons. This season should be obligatory at writer and directors education.
Big disagree on the Witcher. If you didn't feel anything when queen died that's on you not the rest of us who did. Not much in the first episode of course, we don't know her then but that's why its brilliant in it's nonlinear storytelling when we get first flashback to her younger days carrying for a daughter and the death scene replayed again, now with all the context we need to care and relive this experience. It was one of my favorite tv experiences of the year, set up and payed off brilliantly. It just takes some attention to follow, just like it took attention to see firelight Jinx was tinkering with.
I'm not a LoL player but HOLY HELL THIS SHOW IS STUCK IN MY HEAD every single day and how well they gave this show justice... Everything is a masterpiece from the animation to the voice acting... 👌🤌
The writing is so damn magnificent 😍