How Heimerdinger Makes Everyone's Writing Worse - Arcane Analysis
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- I guess it shouldn't be so surprising that the most common complain about season 2 was not addressing the Piltover/Zaun conflict.
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Arcane (titled onscreen as Arcane: League of Legends) is an adult animated steampunk action-adventure television series created by Christian Linke and Alex Yee. It was produced by the French animation studio Fortiche under the supervision of Riot Games, and distributed by Netflix. Set in Riot's League of Legends universe, it primarily focuses on sisters Vi and Powder. The series was announced at the League of Legends tenth anniversary celebration in 2019, and its first season was released between November 6 and 20, 2021. A second and final season was released between November 9 and 23, 2024.
Amidst the escalating unrest between the rich, utopian city of Piltover and the seedy, oppressed underbelly of Zaun, sisters Vi and Powder find themselves embroiled in a developing conflict over clashing convictions and arcane technologies.
Heimerdinger is a renowned and respected figure in Piltover. A scientist, professor, dean, and once the head of Council, Heimerdinger has helped mold the minds of young scholars at the Academy while, having lived for over three centuries, hoping to guide and caution them from the potential risks of science and magic.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Oaky... maybe 'worst written character' is an exaggeration. What even was the point of Loris?
Something something "its deep because he shows the pointlessness of war!" 🙄
8:47 I got the implication Ekko's AU was better because Heimer spawned in 3 years before and immediately got to work putting more focus on improving Zaun. When musing on whether Ekko should stay he says something like "I've been able to achieve amazing things here" implying he wasn't just being a musical hobo the whole time. Season could've benefitted greatly from actually showing that, like by dedicating at least half an episode to Heimer arriving early and course correcting his AU self's political actions. But skipping over vital scenes seems to be S2's greatest failing in general. There needed to be at least one more season to give everyone's character arcs justice.
The problem I have with Heimi is his "redemption". In season 1 he's meant to be written as ignorant. I do think that him just walking around Zaun and meeting Ekko was a rushed but it worked as a good starting point for Ekko to show him the error of his ways. It's just that in season 2 we never really get that. Yes, he's living with the people of Ekko's commune now and he wants to help save the tree, but that's it. He never has that moment where he feels like all this is his fault for being ignorant. Also this man is a genius inventor, so don't tell me that he couldn't invent some stuff to increase quality of life in Zaun (and no the bubble machine does not count). Later in episode 7 he's in an altetnate time line where everything is going pretty good. I wanted to know so bad what Heimi had see and maybe where he and his au counterpart differed. This would have been perfect to show him how thing should have been handeled. Maybe this could have even started an arc where he now genuinly cares about getting back into politics and "make things right". But all they did was make him sing a song and be comic relief.
it wouldve been nice for the show to aknoledge this at least somewhat to show that NOONE in arcane is innocent plus the guy could live for hundreds of years why is he JUST NOW realizing that the GLOWING GREEN RAVINE is a crap hole? quite a waste of life to NOT do anything if you ask me
"In my experience no one in power, is innocent. "
-Singed
Or rather, Dr Reveck reminisces his past with Heimerdinger, i hazily remember he knows Heimerdinger to some extent before he gets ostracized.
0:25 no the show acknowledges his inaction and his role as, as schnee puts it, "Apathetic Evil" when Jayce boots him of the council, the audience just dismisses what Jayce says because they think he is to emotional because of Viktor's condition
Since the end of the season 1 up to the very end i've talked with my friends about Heimerdinger being completely irrelevant for the whole story of the Arcane. He does absolutely nothing for the council and even in season 2, Powder could have very well be the only one helping Ekko with his Z-drive without any harm for the narrative.
His ONLY real contribution to the story is that he brought Ekko to Jayce so they could talk about side effects of using hextech and he doesn't even participate in the discussion.
Encapsulated my thoughts on the character and then made me see other things that are problematic in this show - a lot of things happen that are never properly acknowlegded by the characters for the sake of moving the story along.
I'd go as far as to say, that even with Hextech ,even though he was right about the repercurssions of the pursuit of the techonlogy, he was a terrible mentor to Jayce and especially Viktor.
His death in season 2 felt so underwhelming and misplaced precisely because of the issues you highlight in this video.
Great video.
Great critique, I think the writers more or less intended to characterize Heimerdinger in the way you portray him in the video, so they didn't necessarily fail. But the central critique that they didn't develop the nuances of his political position enough with on-screen moments, give him enough direct consequences or accountability from other characters, or opportunity to acknowledge his past is a very valid one. I think almost all critiques that people can give towards the show stem from the fact that they did not have enough run time to tell the story they set up and instead prioritized fight scenes and music videos over character development. Btw you have a cool voice best of luck making more videos
I think his major complaint is "why is Heimerdinger so silly and likable despite being the cause of everyone's problems" and I think that is what was intended by the writers, and kind of the conundrum that Heimer is in the story. You're challenged to see him for what he really is despite how he's packaged.
@@lockekappa500 That is not my complaint.
Great analysis, excellent points. I feel like other commenters are trying too hard to justify Arcane's writing by insisting Heimerdinger's character traits were on purpose, when the problem was always something else - how the whole story other characters treat him, like you said. Many viewers simply accept the story's preposition that Heimerdinger was "oblivious", then "tried to fix things slowly". Willing suspension of disbelief is impossible for me, because not only did Heimerdinger establish Piltover and its dynamic with Zaun as one of the founders alongside the (from old lore evil Stanwick Pididly), but Zaun is literally outside his window for more than a century. There is no way for him to accidentally not hear about the carnage that happened on the bridge. But hey, he played a little song and had a silly montage sneaking into the lab with Ekko. The writing is clearly lacking awareness of what it's doing.
Yes, the video makes great points. I didn't properly realise how immense heimerdingers impact and power was while watching. I believe neither did most of the audience and the writers.
This probably could have been fixed in part if he had not been a member of the council and had spent too much time in the University to understand what was going on.
About time! I've always had issues with Heim for always using his intelligence and long life to force his opinion but failed to notice the true state of Zaun for over 200 years? Trash.
Love this but I have a few thoughts.
Vander and Silco made up not because Vi died but because Silco found Vanders letter in their underground hide out. Jinx saying something like 'imagine how different things could be if Silco found this'.
Onto the point.
I think a point in Hiemerdingers favor that you may have missed (in a plot sense not character redeeming way) is that he is a great negative example of what Jayce could turn into as a scientist at heart placed into politics. Of course Hiemerdinger is bad at it he is a scientist not a politician, just like Jayce whose political motivations are those of whoever he spoke to last. His whole political motivation was not to build a perfect city it was to build himself a haven free of magic, until hextech he succeeded in those motivation so couldnt care less about the rest of it. Fear as a motivator makes for shit leaders.
He is also an example of the damage of apathy.
In stories we need characters who are failures to enrich the moral and philosophical points its trying to make.
I do wish people called him out on his bullshit a bit more because youre right he just skates by under the radar after hes kicked of the council which is insufficient punishment for the magnitude of his blunders.
Vander's letter was really bad tbh. A Silco fixated on violent revolution probably wouldn't have been swayed by "sorry I tried to kill you but we both did bad things you know." It's still inconsistent with his characterization.
@MisterCynic18 Totally agree, I understand needing some solution for Silco in order to make the AU seem like a Eutopia but for how far and hard Silco goes to get his revenge that letter should have been used as kindling. But on the other hand it's an AU we saw in one episode and you could hardly even call Silco or the letter a plot point so I think it's ultimately inconsequential
1:50 Maybe the show just didn't make it clear enough that the Zaun finally got some good air filters during the timeskip.
Edit: Overall, I don't have anything against what's said here. I'm still completely fine with how Heimerdinger is used in the story, but he definitely should have been included when characters talk about the council has failed more often.
ThANK YOU,, I can't STAND him and (as usual) you explained it SO well. He's literally just Exposition Hamster. Even with Mike's charming VA talents, I feel annoyed every time he's on screen...
Oh hey, its the guy who had that argument about a "stolen comment" on that one zoro video
Hahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha,
Yup. That's me.
It's really concerning when people can't differentiate a character being intentionally written to be specific negative traits, and one accidentally written this way and therefore poorly written. Heimer is absolutely the former, and I think the show is pretty consistent about presenting him in such a way. Not to mention he's brought up in basically every conversation where Piltover has failed Zaun in the conversational circles I exist in. So saying he's "hardly presented as the reason for this failure" is such a strange take. Where are you discussing Arcane? Not on the internet I'm on.
Did you watch the whole video? Because I make it very clear that I think his negative traits are excellent writing. The problem is all the other characters and the narrative not acknowledging them.
y'all should finish the video before commenting,
@@immanuel7306 I did, and just because something wasn't his main point, it was absolutely points he was making throughout the episode. My comments are in DIRECT response to points he made throughout the video. So I think its strange for him to say these aren't his points. Maybe he should choose his words better then.
@@lockekappa500 I literally say "It’s all good stuff that ties into his nature as an immortal that moves too slow for humans." in reference to his negative character traits.
There is a very clear point in the video where I start talking about what I think the bad writing is, and it has nothing to do with his character traits.
So I gotta ask, what points are you responding to?
@@JesseGolo Perhaps I attributed too much of your video to the original point of the video, instead of separating it. I'll give it another listen to.
9:00 small point, our heimer has only been in the au for like 3 years, so you can’t even give him credit for making the institutions better in the au. You make excellent points about heimer, and I think the arcane writers missed such great opportunities to explore him more, and his relationship with zaun. Also kinda puts a nail in the coffin in how poorly treated his character is when literally nobody gaf about hiemer being dead at the very end.
Kinda a theme of season 2 tbh, a decent story that missed out on such great opportunities to explore existing characters.
I'd love to see more Yordle rep.
1. Heimer has had basically zero power for years, having been kept oblivious and happy by the other councilors. He still has fault for letting them pull the wool over his eyes, but he's as oblivious as possible to the immediate problems.
2. The things that Heimer does fight over are so major that the council can't keep his eyes off them IE hextech. He does this because his trauma is basically over having seen nuclear war and fearing someone else is gonna invent the hydrogen bomb.
3. The undercity probably doesn't inherently hate heimer because they know he's just the old goofball who made the city in the first place and has no power. They're not oblivious to the corruption of the system and the absence of Heimer in any of the duplicitous actions of the other councilors.
4. As soon as Heimer is out in the real world we see he does care and wants to help but has no power. Even being the founder, he can't go back after going down to Zaun and seeing first hand how terrible it is.
Most of the things you bring up only become relevant with Jace's introduction to the story and they don't even work as excuses because that's what I'm criticizing.
1 Heimerdinger doesn't have zero power. Jace just got more influential than him because of Hextech. Also, this video is about why his obliviousness is bad.
2. What was he doing before Hextech became an issue? You know, over the 193 years before that. Because if the answer is nothing, that's still bad.
3. He was the face of Piltover who did things like give the speech on progress day before Jace, while also being the only one who has always been there, so if the Undercity is going to hate anyone, it's him.
Also, what do you mean by "they know he's just the old goofball who made the city in the first place and has no power." Do you think that's common knowledge? Do you think the people of Piltover think this? I highly doubt The Undercity is paying attention to which specific politician is being corrupt. They don't even have a news system to tell them which decisions are supported by who. How would they even know?
4. Being founder of two cities and never going to one, even after they (as far as you know) try to attack the second one and get gunned down is a bad thing. It's not like he never went into the real world. He just didn't go to Zaun.
@@JesseGolo
1. We see immediate evidence that as soon as Heimerdinger gets in the way of profit and power for the others he is voted out. The opera scene is there to show you that the council is fully corrupt while heimer is placated to keep him busy while they act right under his nose.
2. The only other issue that we know reached the level of expulsion was Singed, but given his attitude towards the hextech situation and what happened to singed when his science went too far its easy to infer that he kicks out people he sees as dangerous, but again you have invents magic nukes and starts highly unethical human experimentation. The man probably hasn't dealt with a mundane issue since the actual first few years maybe decades at best of the city.
3. The zaunites know all about the corruption of the council. They see goons working for topside businesses and all sorts of problems. At most they're gonna think of heimerdinger as a bleary eyed idiot not as an actual threat. Ekko immediately takes the guy in and shows him how terrible the undercity is and heimer wants nothing but to help.
4. I say real world because piltover is all just fake. It's lying councilers and fancy paint over blackhearted corruption. Zaun is the real world, its the truth of piltover.
Again his oblivious nature is covered by the counselors insulating him.
Beyond all of that you also just have him being a yordle, an immortal being that does not perceive reality the same as us which really gets things weird.
@@Jasonwolf1495
1. You and I clearly interpreted that scene differently because I don't see that as him being powerless. It's him not paying attention. If it was meant to be him being powerless, he would have tried to stop it and failed, but he didn't even notice.
2. Seriously? Your explanation is that he's too busy expelling people from his school? That's the thing that's been more important than half of the city sinking into squalor? You keep bringing up Hextech, but that's a recent development that only really became a problem for him with the Hexcore. What exactly was he doing before all of that? It seems to me you're just headcannoning a non-mundane thing for him to do.
3. Zaunites know abut corruption, but nothing indicates they know who is being corrupt. I have to ask, what in the show has made you think they consider Heimerdinger a 'bleary eyed idiot?' They have no way of knowing anything about him. If your example is that Ekko doesn't, I remind you that that's what I'm critcizing. The show gives us no reason to think Ekko shoul think of Heimerdinger any differently from the other characters.
4. People besides the councilors live in Piltover. I guess you could say it's not real, the same way Hollywood is fake, but Piltover is an actual society. It's not just Councillors and Enforcers.
I think I should emphasize that my problem isn't that he's like this. It's that the other characters don't act the way they should in regards to him being like this. I'm not disputing that he's ignorant. I'm asking why no one else points this out. If Ekko thought that Heimerdinger is a 'bleary eyed idiot' who didn't actually have any power, who he would say so.
You should make a video on Singed.
Heat me out; Piltover Metroman, Zaun Megamind
So wait are we still treating heimer as a bad guy when he was 100% correct, tried to encourage growth if slowly, was punished for it, and then had to help fix it and save the fucking day by inventing time travel with echo? Like what?
You are proving my point. All of this is true, but you are only looking at his character in the context of Hextech and not everything else, which is where his actual mistakes lie.
@ I’m not trying to just look at hextech. I focused there because that was the focus of the show, but let’s look at the rest of his mistakes. The biggest and only real one is how oblivious he is. He had no idea how bad Zaun was, as we see in the show.
When he is kicked out of the council he could have stayed in Piltover or even returned to Bandlecity, but instead he immediately goes to zaun to see if what Jayce said is true. He discovers instantly that his pupil was correct. That his inaction and the actions of his colleagues has lead to suffering of his people, and he gets to work trying to help. However the people of zaun are untrusting and unkind. Thankfully he meets echo, and is able to go to the base of the firelights where he’s able to start making a difference, a true difference, for the people of zaun.
Heimerdinger is a Yordle at the end of the day, and in Bandle city crime isn’t crazy high from what I can tell. It’s very likely he assumes that magic is the root of evil in mankind, so it’s no wonder that he didn’t even think to look for trouble in his sanctuary so untouched by the arcane.
At the end of the day I truly do feel inaction is the only sin heimer commits. He is willfully ignorant, thinking he has fixed the biggest issues of his society, and maybe he should have been called out for it harder? But I feel he was in the scene where he is voted off the council by Jayce
There's a theory that Heimerdinger corrected course in the other timeline after having his eyes opened to the truth
you are right about everything and should say it!! everyone kind of got did dirty by the writing in season 2 (insane to think viktor would ever sign off on the failsafe being built in zaun, i dont believe that for a second), and how much flack everyone both in show and irl gave to jayce for entering a messed up situation, but heimerdinger basically caused all these problems?
while i think s1 is a masterpiece writing wise and s2 is a 4/10 at best writing wise, i think the fundamental mistake was just never considering how making heimerdinger the founder of piltover would also make him the cause of this extreme class disparity. it seemed like a sloppy writing decision in a season (s1) that otherwise had very few bad writing decisions