At the end of season 1 I was thinking that jinx would end up taking Silco’s place and that there would be a huge class warfare ending to the show. But we got something totally different instead
@@TheJanooby you know if you're coming at it from a leftist pov, piltover is basically a paradise as far as social justice is concerned. there's no racial problems, no sexism or queerphobia. all that's left is one class fucking the other
i'm gonna be honest, this video still doesn't adress half of the problems with season 2, like how Heimerdinger showed great concern in s1 to how dangerous and catastrophic hextec could be, that was a huge thing in s1. But in s2, everything that would be extremely concerning about hextec happens and he doesn't give a fuck, he doesn't seem to notice or care at all, that was his main conflict with jayce in s1, that was his character, but they've completely removed it. The narrative also completely moved away from one of the main conflicts of the show like it's nothing, the clash between zaun and piltover, zaun is just ignored, and somehow their relationship seems to be completely fixed by the end, despite all the massive conflict they had throughout the show.
Because their relationship was repaired through the war? The conflict was still there in the final episode man with the zaunites leaving not wanting to join piltover in the battle, of course they rethought and was heavily implied that jinx had something to do with it aswell you can't expect the show to spoon feed you like a little toddler man I mean their relationship wasn't even fully repaired when sevaka sat at the council table they looked at her like she's not belonging there
@@thelastmastergamer2846 The show already "feed us with a spoon" so many info with all the rushed plot lines and musical montage to pretend develop the characters, but still they couldn't gave us the info that truly matters, like the plot and reconciliation that Cait and Vi cooked off-camera to betray Ambessa, it's not about us wanting the show feed us with the info right into our mouths, its just us wanting the show to make sense for once
@@Ed_Contiello the Cait and vi plan happened on Camara dude did you skip something? There was a an entire scene dedicated to it and honestly the show makes perfect sense maybe not to some people with low comprehension skills, seeing as how you thought the plan was an off screen moment, also seeing the not so good grammar your putting out aswell... along with you thinking the music videos meant "pretend dev" brother every music video has a different purpose. Seeing as how you came to conclusion just boggles my mind
@@skrolreapr His argument didn't even make sense dude, he said the plan to betray ambessa happened off screen when it didnt? You gotta agree with me there. Never said anything about the rushed plot lines as I kinda agree with him there as I think they were too ambitious with the amount of plot lines going on, the raw story works and is very good tho, needed a bit more time to cook though
I think S2 is getting way more praise than it deserves because everyone really, really wanted it to be good. Once the initial celebrations die down this season is going to age like milk.
Exactly. Think about any other project *cough* Last Jedi *cough* that people wanted to be good and how they initially had a chorus of defenders. Arcane Season 1 is one of the best shows ever made, so of course people wanted Season 2 to be good, myself included. The defense of this season is going to die out over time.
@@AmmiO One thing I thought was particularly baffling was how in episode 7 the alternate timeline branched offwhen Vi died... and everything is better for everyone. That is an extremely bizarre way to frame your protagonist and basically a reversed It's a Wonderful Life. Now, I doubt the writers' intention was for the takeaway to be that everything sucks because Vi didn't have the common decency to die when she should have... but intended or not you can't really draw any other conclusion, and more talented writing team would have realized that.
@gathenhielm9977 Finally someone else who notices that! It turns out Vi dying was actually the good ending! Best solution would be for Ekko to go back in time and arrange it so Vi dies in that explosion then! One of the reasons why I hate that episode so much.
@@hkd8227 Genuinely don't get why that episode is so beloved by the fanbase. Not only is the story it tells almost entirely pointless but it's also focused on what is probably the least interesting aspect of a Good AU Timeline to explore. Granted, I generally don't really care for romances in fiction but I really couldn't give a single crap about Ekko's and Jinx's relationship. I was *begging* for the camera to cut back to Vander and Silco, or Claggor or Milo, hell even Benzo would have been more interesting. And even if I did care about the romance it's still a waste of time because has nothing to do with the greater narrative, AU Jinx is gone forever and the man she fell in love with doesn't even exist. And you know what, I wouldn't even mind too much that an episode or two branched off into irrelevant sidestories if the season had the screentime to spare, but it absolutely doesn't. Filler's fine when the rest of the season doesn't suffer because of it.
As someone who was beyond hyped for season 2, getting through each act and thinking to myself "that's it?" Was incredibly deflating. And the ending... oh boy, season 1's ending was so good that almost anything season 2 attempted would've been held to the fire... but holy shit, how many deus ex machinas in a row do we need!?
Guess class conflict isn't what we as viewers are supposed to spend too many thoughts on. Maybe the decision to scrap all that from s2 wasn't a creative decision. Would explain the jumbled and incoherent mess we got.
Season 1 made it so very clear that the conflict between Zaun and Piltover was complex and that there were no easy solutions. Repairing the rending of the city would take time, hard work, compassion and wisdom, if it was even possible at all. Season 2 solves the conflict in, like, one sentence and then drops it entirely for the climax. ... Thanks, show.
I guess we aren't the target audience (anymore?). Season 2 has better imdb ratings, it has more reviews and, if i'm correct, more total viewers. Bizarro world.
I firmly believe the praise season 2 is getting atm is pure copium and the majority fanbase will eventually turn against it. The bigger problem is that the show creators will see all the praise and conclude they did a smashing job, ensuring future LoL projects are of the same quality.
I don’t think it’s copium. I think you mentioned in the video. There is so much good will from season one (like SO MUCH) that most people will love s2 regardless. Even me, I was so invested in the characters, particularly Vi & Jinx, and waited so long to see s2, that by the time it came out, I was happy to see them on screen. It takes a lot of time and nostalgia to realize, “You’re not the only one who changed.”
@@binyaminbass Yeeeah, basically the whole writing and audience relations can be summed up by just one scene from S2 itself It's enough for writers to just say "cupcake" and it makes viewers melt like Catelyn, gasp in excitement and choke on nostalgia so thick it is What an awful season smh
I can't believe you didn't mention the way the show simply skips scenes. Jinx knocks out like 2 guards and releases hundreds of prisoners; they are never mentioned again, apparently they just walked out of jail and nobody noticed or did anything. Vander recognizes his daughter, cut to black, now he's simply gone and they have to find him again. There isn't a single scene with vander and his daughters beyond the first hug. Cait fake captures Vi and brings her to ambessa, Vi uses this opportunity to throw a net at ambessa and then... just walks out of camp and she's back in the hippie place one scene later. Somehow she isn't arrested or executed for this. The show does this CONSTANTLY and it's incredibly damaging to my suspension of disbelief, it's simply too many contrivances sewn together.
Warwick leaps straight at Ambessa's face from a distance of a few feet away. Camera cuts, and when we see Ambessa again she's perfectly fine. So... what the heck happened there? Did he just run past her? Why? He is clearly slaughtering everyone else who gets in his way. Did she fight him off? Seems unlikely, but that's what I'm forced to assume, I guess. This moment doesn't even hold any tension because we all know the show won't kill off its primary antagonist off-screen. Weird decision in so many ways.
@@AmmiO yes please tear this shit apart, let no future viewer have a shred of doubt that this show wasn't shit that got overrated thanks to nice visuals
@@AmmiO If you have to, if you want to. I'd watch it. In comparison, look what Random Film Talk did with RoP or Hobbit trilogy. When it's done right, it pays off.
Thank you, this video deserves wayyyyyy much more views and engagement. Let's not forget the Cait/Vi is pretty inconsistent in terms of character writing, defying all kind of logic not biased by desperate shippers. Especially that cell scene with not only the ongoing war but also the fact Jinx just implied she was going to off herself just seconds ago. Basically, Mel & Caitlyn vs Ambessa was the figurative and literal embodiment of plot armor 101. It's reassuring to see that not everyone judges the quality of a show solely on the aesthatics.
Them banging in Jinx cell is probably one of the most irritating things in this Season 💀💀 I mean it feels so out of place, so unnatural and disgusting it makes my stomach sick. The second this cell opens Vi should be out of that cell searching for her sister to save her. Like what's wrong with people who wrote this scene? How anyone approved it into final cut? 💀
Timebomb is also way more inconsistent btw. Like, in s1ep7 Ekko beat Jinx to death on the bridge, and there is no interaction between them whatsoever until s2ep8 and we're supposed to believe that all of a sudden they're lovers??
I disagree with you on the Cait and Vi sex scene... Because it's actually worse than you put it. Vi was in that cell because she tried to free Jinx and then Jinx locked her up and ran off before saying, "I'm going to break the cycle," in a depressed nihilistic tone. Now if I were Vi, I'd be worried sick thinking "My sister's going to unalive herself! I got to get out of here and save her!" Mostly because that is what Jinx is unambiguitously planning on doing. So, you'd think as soon as Cait unlocks the cell, Vi would immediately sprint out of there and try to do everything in her power to find Jinx as quick as possible... But no. That's not what she does, because it turns out she is very horny. Somehow... being intimate with Cait is more important to her in this moment that her sister's life... This is probably the worst character assassination I've seen in my entire life. And I've seen plenty. This was the precise moment I turned on the show. And if that wasn't enough, - Mel just knows how magic works and is really good at it despite finding out she was a witch literally yesterday. - Ambessa's motive is that she thinks mages are dangerous and bad, so she teams up with Vicktor.... a techno-mage... - Oh, and the Noxians even attack Piltover despite the fact all Ambessa wanted to do was defeat the Black Rose. So why is she attacking Piltover? Wouldn't that create just a little bit of an awkward situation given Piltover and Noxus are trading partners? Is she doing this because Viktor (or more accurately the script) told her to? - And don't even get me started on the fact that Jayce tells Viktor that the wizard who saved boy Jayce was future/alternate Viktor, and this convinces Viktor to not take peoples' free will away because... Actually, why would that convince him to stop his plan he seems to be really committed to just now? Man, this season was just so disappointing. At least the soundtrack was fire.
We were told if one word was to describe season 2 in one word it was war, well where the fuck is this war it's only a single battle in the final episode. Episode three of season two set up Kait as a Piltover dictator thinking all of act two will be the Piltover-Zaun war we were promised and then in episode seven have Embessa betray Kait and Piltover then have episodes eight and nine have Zaun and Piltover team up to take on Noxus. But even that would still feel rushed I'd argue that Ekko,Hiemer and Jayce's trip though the Arcane verse could have been a whole act while if it had happened in season one Vi's pit fighter story would have been a whole episode instead of two minutes.
Yep they speed run every plotline that's the problem. It's not the story or the plot that is the problem it's the speed running. Our boy Ekko cooked up time travel and multiverse in less than 40 minutes 😂😂😂 wtf? There was a compelling story to be told with him in that timeline but riot dropped the ball hard.
Yes! Season 2 is a total writing collapse. Like joker 2 or late season game of thrones. They retconed season 1. Of is jinx finally at peace being a villain? Nope, retconed. She's sad again and doesn't want to be a villain doesn't want to be jinx. Why? She's best girl can't do anything wrong. Can't support women's wrongs. In season 1 she was an elite mob assassin who killed at least multiple dozens of people, probably hundreds if not low thousands. She laughed maniacaly as she gunned them down. She committed multiple terrorist attacks that killed people. But season 2? She best girl. Silly jinx! Color smoke attack! It would make sense that Catlyn would become more desperate to get jinx, more unhinged in the pursuit of jinx if she was running around killing people left and right. But know. Jinx does color bombs and then retires. So why does Caitlyn become obsessed with jinx? Like yeah jinxed killed Caitlyn's mother of course but why be dictator and opress the entire under city. Just personally try to track jinx down. But since jinx isn't killing anyone it's not the same intensity. There's a million ways to Sunday where you could have taken the story that would have been better than this
And Caitlyn never even does anything bad. Because she is also best girl. That's why she should have accidentally killed Iesha. Or even just accidentally wounded her. Jayce accidentally killed a kid in camera in season 1. Imagine if he didn't. It went from him going the undercity is dangerous to you Silco my man let's have peace you can get independence. Like what? Oh i changed my mind off camera But that's exactly what Caitlin did in season 2
It's sad so many people are saying s2 is a masterpiece cuz that tells me that it's lost to so many people what truly made arcane s1 so special. But most people get caught up in the hyped moments and spectacle which is amazing. I still enjoyed it it's good but not the same level of s1. I don't think the storylines were bad either just didn't cook for long enough. But it does scare me because so many people are saying this is a masterpiece I'm afraid the future projects will be similar and they won't ever find their way back to what made s1 incredible.
I swear it is not bad, it had moments where it was better than s1. Here is how I see the stories, Ambessa is great Jayce is great Ekkko is good WW was good in the beginning after he's just a husk Cait is cringe Vi is a victim of cait Jinx is good Viktor his original story is way better this just complicated everything so he is bad Now they fked camille
@@roronoazoro8403 I never said it was bad I said it's not a masterpiece. I agree the hype moments were peak in s2. But that's not a reason to ignore the terrible pacing and bad story telling. S2 had Ekko cook up time travel and a whole ass multiverse in less than a 40-minute span like wtf? The Ekko storyline could be it's own season tbh at least a whole arc with him as the main. Riot literally speed running through everyone's plotline. Like I said before this scares me for future shows in this universe if this is the direction they go in it's going to turn into modern day MCU 2.0 and be dog shit. It's not only about the spectacles we need to see the characters stories their motivations their conflicts that's how to properly develop characters that is why Silco was such a good bad guy that is why everyone loves Jinx. We need that not just some cool animations and rushed plotlines.
@edgybravo4287 yeah I agree with you with rushed story lines, but in there defence they had that 3 episodes per act system, so it is a bit hard. And I hope it doesn't become MCU type of universe
@@roronoazoro8403 Yeah I hope not I've been a league player for 12 years and seeing characters I main be in a show is absolutely insanely cool. I loved s1 and I want to love whatever they make I just hope it doesn't turn into just some cool animation fan service crap. That is my deepest fear for this show. S1 is still one of my top 5 favorite animation series of all-time though absolute masterpiece. S2 is still good too I just hope they learn from it and don't undercook plotlines going forward.
Thank god I found this video, I thought I was going mad. Reading all the toxic positivity comments on Rotten Tomatoes & Letterboxd from mOdErN aUdIeNcE consumers and/or bots is so disheartening because it'll deem this season a success and the creators will have learnt nothing and will put out more below par "content".
OK so you guys are just Throw around toxic positivity all Over the place, that it won't mean anything. like people crying woke. news flash but alot people actually like the show and think it's was good .if you didn't like it okay just realize not everyone is going to share your opinion .
@@kingj9664 This comment was about as well as constructed as the show was. You're in such a hot rage and so eager to get your nonsensical point across, you're all over the place. Thanks for proving my point.
@@jonmetcalf6565 Yeah sorry about that, Text of speech really does just suck. Honestly dude everything you just said about me applies to you As well. calling everything toxic positivity getting mad people are enjoying the show and mad that riot is probably gonna make more content like this and acting like this is the worst show of all time. I don't know dude that sounds a little bit hot rage to me
@@kingj9664 ok, i get where you're coming from, but seriously 100% from critics & 91% audience score for a season that was nowhere near as good as the first?! It's a bit over-the-top is it not? And I get that there are those who are gonna like it, fair enough, but whenever I ask people what they like about it, I get nothing but empty statements like "oooh, it's art", "oooh, the music is good", or "wow, the parrallels"... so what!? What about the writing?? You can have the best looking tv show, film or video game but if the writing and story isn't good (and the story sucks, and I'll die on that hill) you have nothing.
@jonmetcalf6565 I guess that is over the top almost the same as saying that the show is completely terrible and I'm going to take what you just said about the people you've had conversations with about this showWhere the grain of salt. Because it's beyond as no one trusts critics scores Rotten tomatoes. Good night audience like it then hey bud I know to tell you they just like it
THANK YOU yeah I don't agree with everything, but the underlying reality remains that they fumbled this season. I really wanted to love it and I'm sad that most people don't agree only because it means the future LoL projects will probably go the same way
It was very painful to watch. I guess i will need to watch season 1 again to wash off this mess. Season 2 is basically glorified animations and music videos. No story whatsoever to tell
I think main problem is it cheap writing. End of season 1 jinx look like she will replace silco. It should be conflicted of zoine and piltover. And some Fing reason noxus come 0 hin from season 1 and becomes main plot
Yes a broken jinx that just lost her father figure and committed 9-11 on the piltover government would totally take on the mantle of Silco… Glad the commenters didn’t write the story
@ptr4410 another stupid point is cait just forgive jinx because vi say so 🙄 she kill her mother and make her father gone depressed noone in the world will forgive her if something like that happen to them
@@vimukthimendis4708 Everything you just said sounded so stupid. Just because they like it doesn't mean they're not being honest they just like it. And the people who have brought up the flaws to this show don't think it's bad because guess what these problems aren't as bad as you are making them out To be
“More interested in big, applause-generating moments built on emotions over substance” hit the nail right on the head!!! As an aspiring screenwriter and a huge nerd when it comes to storytelling, I hate hate HATE when stories are more focused on the audience than the story. It never works out, NEVER. It just turns your story into a shallow, insecure spectacle. Good (and enjoyed) media is made when you just forget about the audience and focus on what YOU want the story to be!
I hate time travel in shows, Jayce only made made hextex because the Wizard (Victor) gave him that stone, so he went back to give Jayce the stone because? he caused the death of hundreds to thousands because why? He said it's the only timeline where Jayce taught him to do (something i forget), how about you go with the timeline where you don't cause needless death you selfish asshole. Characters with time travel shouldn't be flawed in that way unless their meant to be irredeemable villains. Viktor *was* a likeable character
It's also doesn't make any sense to me. Because if we buy it, ok Viktor, you now God trough space and Time. SO WHY TF did you don't fix YOUR YOUNGER SELF but instead playing with jayce in every dimension. That's some lame shit.... Like they wrote this right in the end, so Viktor can say " oh jayce only you can show me this ☺️" and fans of their ship will have food for decades
Basically, in that ep 7 timeline where Viktor wins and creates the hive mind, he regrets it. That timeline is the one in which Ekko does NOT come back with the Z drive. So, once he achieved perfection, he was alone with nothing to strive for. Jayce, being his one friend, is the only person who could show him that his goal wasn't worth reaching, because Viktor realized how much he missed him. That future Viktor loved Jayce enough to try and go back to fix it, by giving baby Jayce different runes for Ekko to try so he can throw that anomaly in his face. He knows Jayce is the only one who could make him change his mind (because he DID change his mind, just too late in that timeline). Yes, it was ultimately Viktor's future self saying the words that our Viktor hears that convinces him, but that wouldn't have worked if Viktor didn't have that affection for Jayce. He wouldn't have cared about the solitude. It is implied that if Jayce died as a child, he wouldn't have grown up to become Viktor's friend, so there would be no one to stop Viktor (or someone else) from inventing Hextech that destroys the world. You have to kind of accept that Hextech ruins everything eventually in all realities, but this future Viktor is the only reality in which someone is trying to fix it, and he's trying to fix it ONLY because Jayce exists. I think a lot of the writing this season is stupid, but this part at least is solid.
Introducing time travel and alternate timelines is almost always a terrible idea. There are like 3 examples of time travel in all of fiction that makes any sense. Even in stuff I genuinely like such as Ocarina of Time, Back to the Future, Terminator, etc, the mechanics of the time travel really don't hold up in any way.
@@laurennightingale4752 naw, that's dumb. I do thank you for the in depth description, I do still find it unfulfilling and boring. Plus Viktor wouldn't exist without Viktor going into the past so just don't... the storyline they showed us was a timeline where he's a self entitled ass.
@@hydrabuster3981 Oh I don't disagree that it's dumb that the story went this direction lmao, and there are many other parts of it that don't make sense (like everything Jayce did with the foreknowledge that he could stop Viktor with the power of love... like trying to kill him repeatedly...) BUT I do think future Viktor's plan makes sense. "Entitled Ass Viktor" as you call him, won, but he is also the Viktor that decided to influence time and fix it. Again, you have to assume Viktor inevitably finds a way to his glorious evolution without Jayce in other timelines, but in those he does nothing to fix it.
100000% agreed. Me and my sister struggled to finish season 2 because we were so disappointed with it. Time to forget about it and season 1 only exists in my mind. Kinda like umbrella academy, only 3 seasons exist😂
So we get a whole arc of Jinx becoming a symbol for Zaun and Isha's mother/big sis just for her to do alone what Vi offered her to do together at the end of last season - run away??? Letting her sister believe that she is responsible for her death is actually the cruelest thing you could do to a sibling. And don't tell me Vi could never be happy with her around. Vi clearly accepted her for who she is (remember her saying "What do you think?" in Episode 6 and "use all that explosive potential of yours for good", which clearly directed at Jinx and not Powder) and believed in her nonetheless. And if Jinx had to go anyway, why not at least tell Vi she's alive? I'm 100% sure she would understand.
Letting her sister believe that she is responsible for her death is actually the cruelest thing you could do to a sibling = Thank you for saying this. I’m guessing we’re supposed to interpret this as Jinx feeling like too much of a burden and wanting to protect her sister from herself. Okay, fine-but in that case, let Vi find out she’s still alive and show her otherwise. What message does this send to people who can relate to Jinx? That they should actually fake their death to avoid making their loved ones unhappy? And even then, Jinx was supposed to be feeling a little better after whatever Ekko told her. She should’ve had a better understanding that both Vi and Ekko genuinely care about her. She even told Vi she had freed her from the responsibility of taking care of her, which showed Jinx was starting to move toward a less codependent relationship. If she needed to go and recover in solitude, fine-but faking her death wasn’t necessary for that. I feel like they prioritized shock value and ambiguity about whether she’s alive over a meaningful resolution. I absolutely hated it.
Everyone is so caught up in the hyped moments and spectacle of it all they don't see how bad the writing, storytelling and pacing of this season was. Deadass had someone popping off on me about how I just don't understand the show and the writing is too detailed and complicated for me. 🤣🤣 One thing I'll add to your tangent Jinx was the symbol of Zaun after Ekko disappeared and Ekko saw a good version of Jinx/Powder. There was a compelling story to be told between the two main timeline characters they literally spent ep7 setting it up. Then they drop the ball hard we needed to see how Ekko would convince her there is a good version of her and then we see Ekko realize that she has become the symbol/leader of Zaun after he disappeared. Then we can get them to finally come to an understanding and rally the troops of Zaun to help in the battle. Like there is soooo many things to tell but they speed run every fu*king plotline and it's not "good writing" like everyone seems to think it is... Episode 8-9 were a complete mess cool animations and action sequences but just a complete mess.
I think a better ending would have been if vi and jinx leave together on that airship seen at the end, their sisterhood reunited and healed symbolising the reunification or new understanding between piltover and zaun. It would have also been a nice callback to when at the end of season 1 episode 9 vi proposed jinx that they could leave together and never come back. Having the sister be off to travel the world with vi leaving a letter to caitlyn saying that she will see her soon. That would have been a true resolution to jinx story/character arc. They could than write in the league of legends games how jinx and vi came back to zaun/piltover and how caitlyn reunited with vi. I feel they failed the sisterhood by not having the show ending with them being together, even if it is only in death. The ending feels too open ended and it's almost like jinx story is not even complete. I loathe ambiguous ending, especially for what is supposed to be the end of a show like Arcane. I also think Jinx grossly miscalculated here. Sure Vi will eventually move on and find some form of happiness, but her death/absence will always be a giant gaping hole in her soul. Those sister needs each other, as much as zaun and piltover needs each other. Thats what this whole show kept throwing back in our face for 2 whole season. No matter how angry or hurt they were by the other, they could never really bring themselves to kill or seriously maim each other. Thats why this ending is the worst for the sisters and why it completely ruined arcane for me. The sisters being separated is the worst decision the writer could have made. In the end I believe the sisters should have shared the same fate. Either they die together, or they live together. Just like piltover/Zaun shares each others fate. If one city fall so does the other. Sorry to say but there is nothing that anyone can say that would change my mind. The writer went for the obvious ending, and although not terrible (I liked the show just saying it's the ending that piss me off) it was definitely bad.
Caitlyn inheriting everything doesn't seem to far-fetched since she is a full blood Kiramman and her father just married into the family. One criticism I don't really agree with.
Only men can have direct genetic heritage, so Cait can't be a "full blood" by definition. I get your point tho, traditionally she would inherit the position then and not the father, but was this even explained in the show? They can't rely on the idea that the average viewer dwells in arcane lore, not even their average player does that. Not to mention they completely brushed aside Cait's inner conflict with her big family name and her personal desires, they didn't show the transition if she had one.
@@solarydays why would it need to be explained? we don't need to be handheld she is the only heir her dad has no kiramann blood why would anyone be confused?
@@moe5020 I elaborated on those very questions in my previous comment. You may as well ask then why need anything to be explained in any story or why do even need to make sense at all. Mostly because there is no other way to get the reader/viewer care about the story you are trying to tell.
My thoughts exactly...everyone should stop pretending it's good and finally accept for how bad it is after getting a marvelous masterpiece that is season 1 of Arcane
@@rainnald0 nah, he said pretending it's good. you can like something and still acknowledge that it's just not that good . especially when you were already given a good version to set the standard
It doesn't suck, but it DEFINITELY isn't as good as season 1. My biggest problem that no one has been able to dispute so far, is that Vi lost her status as main character. When it was clearly her story in season 1, in season 2, she takes a back seat and her character becomes a little watered down. There are other problems with the season, but this is the one that comes to mind first for me
Season 1 is awesomely great. Season 2 is dissapointing because i just mostly see a lot of wasted money and what could have been. It has just gone too abstract and illogical. (just my opinion)
The pacing of the story and all the additional plotlines they added was too much. All these nobody characters they kind of force on you is crazy, then dont even get me started on the whole jinx vs vi plotlines. They turned jinx from a psycho wildcard to some predictable caring character like wtf. Her and vi start working together, like cmon man. Its hard to watch this show and im on ep 6.
This video could have easily been 60 or even 90 minutes long with how much dumb nonsense happens, but unlike Arcane season 2, I actually understand pacing.
Yep. I agree with a lot of your points. Season 2 basically changed the premise of the story, and all of the nuanced set up and amazing characterization established in Season 1 was just horrifically butchered. There’s a lot of people banging on about how bad the pacing was, but if anything, I doubt more episodes or another entire season would have fixed anything. That’s a core tenet of writing - you do not throw your premise in the garbage for a new one. All of the problems with this season arise from that singular mistake. That, and the writers kept destroying character motivations, probably because they didn’t want popular characters like Jinx and Cait to come off as the “bad guy.” Jinx suddenly not hearing voices and being okay reconciling with Vi was just…a bad decision. And it was a bad decision that was made because the writers were more worried about pandering to the audience with feel-good moments than allowing the characters to continue their character arcs from Season 1. Vi and Cait were regulated to shipping bait, with Cait’s dictator era just going unmentioned like she didn’t torture and gas people. And honestly, there’s a very strong argument that Viktor and Jayce were also regulated to just shipping bait. Season 2 Ambessa is a stupid shadow of her Season 1 self. Season 1 Ambessa was ruthless and a warrior through and through, but I doubt she would have made the colossal fck-up of not nabbing Jayce before she did anything else. And if her main motivation was her fear of the Black Rose because their mage powers negate the efforts of warriors, why in the hell would she be okay with working with Viktor and the people he’s turned into mind-controlled robots? Ambessa’s character has always been about control, so it makes zero sense she would work with Viktor when she didn’t have any means to control him. Like, if you go through Season 2 beat by beat, character by character, you can see the terrible writing and insane lack of logic every step of the way.
God ya Ambessa's motivations were a mess. Inviting the terrorist attack and NOT interfering to keep Jayce from losing his head? The one guy (since Viktor was in the goop cocoon) who can make the Hextech weapons you came here for? In season 1? I think she kind of forgot..
I love this comment so much. Everyone complaining about the show being rushed…I’m like “there’s rushed, and then there’s completely abandoning character motivation that you painstaking set up in the previous season.” Wild that most people are not seeing this.
This season had way to much stuff going on. Both new and old, it left to many questions unanswered and a some of the deaths feel they were there for shock value sense there not addressed the biggest one being Heimerdinger. Warwick felt more like a plot device more then a character especially compared to the other champions ( he doesn’t even go full werewolf). Now we got time travel multiverse BS, a Noxxian war, Mel is now magic, where’s Warwick and jinx did they both die to. If this is the end of the zaun and puiltover story I’m sorry this isn’t satisfying.
Christian Linke, head writer of the show, did a stream/interview after season 2 where he stated characters we see die in the show aren't actually dead or can come back, specifically stating that Heimerdinger is actually alive. Killed any hope I had for future LoL TV projects.
@@AmmiO It was not, please don't say that lmao. Arcane S2 just undo a lot of the game's lore and made a lot of implications that ruin a lot of the world building that was established before, don't blame the game cannon, it's also a victim of what the writers did in this season.
@@Just_Kumoki Huh looks like Arcane S2 writing brought havoc on both League players and those who like Arcane alike. Seen some Warwick fans disappointment with the way they treated him in the show before. I feel really sorry, this Season is a mess for us all
I agree. They stuffed what should’ve been multiple seasons into one and the plot and writing ended up sucking. People are just used to watching slop now I guess.
Really great video. I watched all of arcane s1 and s2 for the first time the last 2 days, and you are totally right to compare it to TLJ or GOT. The plot, the characters, and the pacing were so beautifully executed in season 1. In season 2, it all just unravels. You could do 10 videos and not capture why entirely. It doesn’t matter that season 2 is an “okay” show in a vacuum. It’s terrible in a way that you feel hearing a bad cover or remix of your favorite song. Not only did the show makers waste the greatest opportunity they will ever be given, they ruined pieces of a show for me I really loved. Very disappointing.
After episode 6 in season 2 I only had one major question, why did Jayce shoot Viktor? That action killed Vander again, separated Vi and Jinx once more and made Viktor switch his beliefs, leading the show into this huge war with Viktor's support. And they failed to deliver that and instead we learned that shooting Viktor was, in fact, the worst outcome possible. If he didn't shoot him then he would save Vander and keep on helping people in pain. If he killed him then the whole thing would be over but instead he shoots him and leaves him alive and immediately goes back to piltover and say they need to get ready to war... WTF? All he had to do was show viktor what the other viktor from another dimension wanted him to show or actually kill him! But they never had a conversation. So, in the end Jayce tries to kill Viktor once more but in the last moment he just wanted his partner back. NO FUCKING SENSE and immature plot! They did some characters dirty in act 3 like Jinx. In the beginning of the season when Caitlin's mother died they handmade some charcoal scenes and it was great. It was an important moment and added to her character. When Isha died no one said her name even once. And it was a huge development in Jinx's character. Isha was the perfect bridge for Jinx to lead Zaun because Isha loved seeing her as their savior. But instead we got Ekko, who she had no connection with, asking her not to kill herself and she does it? After vi tried to help her but again, not mentioning isha's name even once. They tried to force Ekko so much in this last act and made everything confusing and characters were betrayed because of that. 100% fan service. At some point I truly believed they had multiple endings ready and went with the one that would please the crowd. This because of how poorly written the characters became, how weak their conversations were and the plot just went into a crazy direction. Anyone saying episode 7 is great must have their brain on pause. The lack of buildup into ekko and jinx relationship made me feel nothing in that scene where they are dancing together. I could tell the visuals were nice and the music was cool but there was no feeling there. And I think people are missing the fact that ekko is not powder's ekko, he took over his body. Him taking advantage of that situation and not being honest about it is really fked up to me. She even saw him leaving that dimension and was left with some other ekko. It's just weird to me and people saying this was the best episode is crazy.
Louder! Especially part about jinx trust in ekko. Last time they meet they were fighting to death. And now one conversation OFF SCREEN and she all in. And people seems don't care at all ☠️ pure fancervice
I think they tried to do too much. First season they talked about going back and forth for years about the story. Now they have less time, more money, and probably Netflix standing over their shoulders. I bet they were pushed by Netflix and deadlines. Then there is the creators of the game . . .
Finally someone brave enough to call out its flaws. There were things I did like. But largely this was very rushed, felt very much like a video game instead of the grounded show we got in S1, and character motivations kind of just make no sense because just about NOTHING is given enough time. If they were only given 9 more episodes to wrap the story up, truthfully they should've shrunken the scale of what they were trying to write. Because so much of what was good about the show gets lost in all these jumbled up stories. It's really shocking the Piltover/Zaun divide basically disappears by Act II of this season when it was part of the core of the entire series.
I think you absolutely nailed the problems with this season and it reiterates exactly how I felt as I watched along. This season never really catches the heights of S1. I’ve been thinking a lot about how they should’ve taken a different approach this season (i.e. cutting out certain character’s arcs in favor of other like expanding on Heimerdinger (redemption arc) and his flashback’s with Magic destroying the world and the guilt he feels allowing Zaun/Pilltover issues to fester leading to the council incident or how he was a mentor to both Jayce and Viktor so it would’ve been cool to see how he would’ve interacted with the two, etc. but I would love to hear you’re take on what you would change about this season in a follow-up video
Also, I really feel like Jinx should’ve been the main antagonist for S2 (following the set-up of the end of S1) and to really show her unhinged without Silco guiding her emotional state and her embracing the ‘Jinx’ identity. Maybe even eventually uniting Zaun and forcing Jayce to build Hextech weapons (an idea he was vehemently against in S1 but then forgets about it and proceeds to build it anyways without much explanation after the council attack) However, what we got was a Jinx more mentally stable than ever especially after meeting Isha who (literally) falls out of the sky to solve all her problems. She exists for no other reason than to be a function for Jinx’s arc, with her death being so predictable the second she was on screen IMO wait to do the Viktor Messiah arc in a third season after you resolve the Zaun Piltover problem (which was the entire premise of S1 but is put on the shelf in S2) maybe have Viktor awaken in act 3 as a cliff hanger. Have Jinx push Jayce to the edge by forcing him to abandon his morals to fight the undercity and the resulting aftermath of a destroyed city being the reason why Jayce and Viktor split rather than what we got. By shelving that story to S3 you have the runtime to really flesh out all the character arcs / interactions that you worked so hard to build in S1
I think you skipped the one that personally pissed me off the most… And that is Jinx and Vi talking for like 5 minutes, and all of a sudden the whole conflict between them is just resolved. Surely you can say that „oh, but they still hold some grudge against themselves”, but yet the only thing that we see is them just being kinda mean and grumpy. And I guess we COULD somehow just ignore that if it would’ve been just some random side-plotline, but it was the MAIN plot of the WHOLE SHOW. The directors decided that they actually don’t care about it at all, and rather do a huge epic fight with robots and Jesus… this is such a smack in the face towards fans tbh
Jinx and Vi got too much screen time when it should have been the B or C plot. Especially Jinx, they just threw everything out there to try and redeem her and made her character boring. All that Black Rose shit was a complete waste of time, easily the worst part of the season. Multiverse was a necessary evil since they chose to kill off main characters. Being willing to kill of main characters is the one thing that gives me hopes for future seasons.
Nah, it wasn’t that they got too much screen time - it was that their screen time didn’t amount to anything and was very poorly written. You can honestly say the same of every single character in Season 2, unfortunately. Example - what happened to Ekko’s tree that was blighted by the arcane? That went nowhere. Cait doing heinous acts against Zaun in her grief…yep, I guess we’re just going to sweep it under the rug. Vi only existed for Cait, and didn’t have much of a real interest in her own sister. Viktor and Jayce’s arcs were then tied tightly to the arcane and trans humanism, but their original - and actually interesting - arc about using hex tech to help solve poverty and disease and human suffering went out of the door. The real problem is that the writers veered away from the original premise of Piltover vs. Zaun’s class war, and the fact that they were more interested in fan fiction-level writing than anything else. It’s such poor writing that they’ve got people like you blaming Vi and Jinx, who were some of the best parts of Season 1, when it really was just terrible writing that and erasure of the show’s premise that’s the problem.
You summarized my frustrations perfectly and most disappointingly, I really think 5 minute longer cut per episode and dropping some scenes would resolve most of the issues, making the second season perfect. Somebody, call Zack Snyder! :D
Season 1 was a simple, grounded story. Efficient and effective. Season 2 decided it was Leaguin' Time so yea, a lot of stuff felt rushed and a few too many plot threads that could've been trimmed out entirely, namely the Black Rose. I agree about the overuse of music video montages. I thought episode 1's "I Can't Hear It Now" worked well in setting up Caitlyn's arc and was an emotionally effective scene. I thought episode 2's "Sucker" was great for conveying the current state of Undercity in the wake of Silco's death. Much of the rest do feel self-indulgent and don't really do anything for the story. But FCK, "Isha's Song" makes me cry. I hate season 2's emotional manipulation but it's soooo good. Guilty pleasure/misery. My biggest gripe is also the "Blisters and Bedrock" flashback and, by extension, the "Remember Me" memory flashback from episode 6. I do believe they create a plot hole in season 1, especially Silco as not only does he not seem to know who Vi and Powder are, other than being Vander's adopted kids, I do not believe Silco would go so far as to kill Vi and Powder knowing they were Felicia's kids, one of the reasons he was fighting for Zaun's independence. That said, I enjoyed season 2 overall but it pales in comparison to season 1 and I can live with that.
So true! That thing really boggles my mind too. If Silco intitially had really known Vi and Powder are his friends daughters, there's no way he would be ready to kill them! Instead of ordering to his goons to deal with Vi on this old factory when they came for Vander, he would try to talk to her, to manipulate her to be on his side, but not straight up order killing her AND all of her friends. Besides he would have really good odds at least at making Vi doubt her worldview, since in these episodes they both say something along the line "I want respect (from Piltover)" But that thing they did in the Season 2 is just... something
@aaltuxov Silco actually did know who they were last season since he goes up to Powder and asks "Where's your sister?". There's nothing to suggest he would be against killing Vi and Powder just because he knew their mother a long time ago. You have to consider too that he needed them dead to get rid of Vander and he was already at the "at any cost" stage of his plan.
@@za-ir5ni He did knew they are sisters because it's damn obvious. He had his eyes on them (those teenage goons that were beaten by Vi & the gang). Plus it's just a pure logic: there are two girls that look alike, most likely they are sisters. There's nothing in Season 1 that indicates he knew their parents and/or was in good relationships with them or the girls. S1 and S2 Silco story regarding those kids is like two completely different universe 💀
@aaltuxov He knew who they were for a long time and that Vi was Vander's prodigy. He just never around them growing up. There's nothing to contradict in S1 that he knew them. That's just an assumption you made.
@@za-ir5ni I'm sorry but there's nothing to prove your assumption either without using S2 materials. Considering only S1 story my point on Silco initially not knowing the kids and their parents has stronger basis supporting it. Yes, Silco did know about the kids for a long time. But he initially had no connections to them whatsoever (he didn't know personally neither their parents nor the kids themselves) So I'm afraid you're the one in the wrong in regards of S1 narrative
I'm particularly ticked off that Jinx's minigun is actually useless. She never kills anyone with it except Silco. Bullets literally harmlessly bouncing off cyber-Vander in the finale.
@@AmmiO I didn't agree with everything you stated in your video essay here. For example, it should be glaringly obvious that the Kiramman family is matrilineal. Caitlyn's father seems to occupy the same space in their household as Kino's father did in Ambessa's. She was a Medarda, her husband married into HER family. I mean, you do realize that Tobias took Cassandra's last name, right? And surely you saw that long line of matriarchs in those paintings on the wall in Cassandra's study. What did you notice? No men. So, anything that was to be passed on posthumously would obviously go to the first born girl, who by birthright was an "actual" Kiramman. Little things like that aside I did agree with about 97% of what you said. A buddy of mine worked on this show and even he (in private) had reservations about what was going on in this second season 2 years back. His exact words..."some of this doesn't make any sense". lol
I agree with the vast majority of your analysis.. However seeing the majority of people who enjoyed season 2 having absolute meltdowns and levying their own counterarguments towards your analysis, sometimes wuth merit, sometimes with just pure salt, had me intrigued until i got to a point where your analysis completely contradicted how i felt about episode 7. Curiously enough in this episode, from a technical standpoint the writing was more reflective of the former glory the show captured in season 1. The episode, as much as it might have been a misuse of time considering where it stands in the context of an overaching plot thats rushed and messy, when you look at it in isolation; the character writing is stronger since the writers are focusing on a smaller more intimate number of people - and not juggling a dozen story threads. Just obseve rhe detail in how Ekko doesnt immediately just fold and start to go along with Powder, but still caries the trauma and hatred from his reality which he has to coax out of himself before he can start to appreciate this reality, all while never losing sight ofnthe fact he has to get back home. That was detailed and thoughtful writing on par with season one, at least on the character level, and proved that had they not gotten carried away, and kept the story more grounded and focused on the quieter intimate themes, they still had the juice. Was the episode fanservice and somewhat indulgent (hence a waste of limited time) yes. But was it well written self indulgent fanservice? Also yes. So while I enjoyed episode 7 and the character work, I don't disagree with your critique, because your perspective takes stock of the positioning of episode in the plot. I think this might be a similar thing occuring with people who enjoyed the show despite the decline in quality and they feel the need to crush dissenting voices simply to feel validated in their opinion. Episode 7 is the true successor of season one in my view, episode 9 was mostly saved by lack of indulgent music video/amv sequences and a greater focus. The rest of the season was subpar, Well polished, well voice acted, very lavishly presented excess of mediocrity.
Oh dude I thought I was going insane. I loved Season 1. And I did really like the first two acts of Season 2, although the fact that Sevika didn't get much attention gnaws at me, I forgave it. Then Act 3. GOd damn does it fill me with such revulsion. I already hate the concept of alternate universes, so seeing a whole episode dedicated to a alternate universe that doesn't fucking matter...Whew. Anyway. You raised some of my issues in this vid. The Zaunites that fought with Piltover, sure, but putting on the enforcer uniform?! Goodness. We saw Sevika rushing into the battle with some Zaunites and that was cool. But to be honest, Episode 7 should have been Sevika rallying Zaun behind her. I say Sevika because she's the one that winds up being a Councilor. Give her being a councilor a bit more substance. It's just all the people that somehow think Episode 7 is the best in the series...I can't wrap my head around it. It is such a bad take to believe that Episode 7 is the best of Arcane. I just can't believe people would belittle themselves to the copium of the whole "what if" aspect of the alternate universe.
It's baffling. Every single scene in season 1 fills multiple purposes, the script is so goshdarn efficient, and here in season 2 you have an entire episode that is almost emtirely meaningless. And people are calling it the best of the show. Boggles the mind.
Episode 7’s Ekko pieces gave the audience a moment to breath and be happy. It showcased Ekko’s development and gave him motivations to go after Jinx, which was a critical piece of her own arc. People loved that episode because it emotionally resonated with them and their own lives. Season 2 has all kinds of problems , but if you focus on Jinx, you find a great story of destruction, love, loss, and sacrifice. Ekko plays a critical role in that arc.
@@gathenhielm9977 No, my defense is that it’s a character development piece that has emotional resonance with a huge fraction of its audience. It reiterates the themes of love, loss, and sacrifice beautifully. Sorry it made you unhappy, bro.
I mostly agree. However, I decided to watch both, Seasons 1 and 2 once again. I've finished to rewatch S2E4 by now. I never claimed that S1 was completely flawless, but I can confirm that this was, in general, a masterpiece. Though I spotted this 'transformation of Vander into Warwick' calamity already at the end of S1, hence perhaps the authors had this in mind already creating S1. Who knows, maybe S1 worked that well partially by the accident. Anyway, I can say that S2 Act 1 hold together... relatively well, now, when I rewatched it. But already with the E4, everything goes bad. What pains me most is what they have done to Jinx. I don't mind her getting better along the story. Regaining her mental health and sanity, especially with the help of Isha. But... We all have seen what Jinx is capable of when we erase Powder from the equation. This is a sociopathic, careless person, not care for others' lives. She has 'fun' killing people and blowing things up. And now, from one episode to the other, we have virtually a normal girl - yeah, with a difficult past, maybe a little depressed, but all that insanity is (almost) gone. We have now a caring sister, and a 'big fat hero' to add to this. sister Ok, I know this is probably due to Isha's influence, but we don't really have enough screen time to show us that transformation. Because I think turning a psychopathic murderer into a relatively normal girl is quite a journey, and can't be quick and easy. Even for such a therapist as Isha. Aside from that, I generally agree with all you said, with one major exception. Victor did not take a random book. This was Sky's journal. I see people liking the S2E7 for some reason, but for me this was crappy, totally unfitting to the climate S1 created, but instead copying this 'what if' trope we've seen so many times in many TV series, and does this in that worst (from my point of view) 'teenager' style.
thank you for displaying HOW STUPID season 2 is by the way. each and every... really stupidly portrayed thing. omg. the writing is just SO BAD. wtf. wtf. happened to the writing department.
it just seems repetitive. loss, hope, then loss again and make the audience emotional. then we get an avengers fight scene at the end extending like an hour long ending with jinx dying. aight... the tea party scene was gold and we really didnt need another season. season 2 is good but something everyone asked for but it would be awkward if we actually got it. unless you're a casual who just doesnt know anything.
@@King_Pitt repetitive, as in like a self replicating pattern of violence? If only the show had manifested this in some way and maybe had themes around it. Such an anomaly surely wouldn't be missed by haters. It's not like we see characters finally breaking the cycle or anything. Why do I keep seeing "avengers fight scene" in hater comments? It's like a mind virus slurping up the brains analytical functions.
@@Joeda89 Oh i loved season 1. Its the same situation with prisoners 2012. repetitive cycle done in the film/show because it symbolizes that the cycle seems endless. but there isn't much of an ending you can give if the third act of a film/show seems bleak or if you are rushing the cycle you wrote in ur script straight to the ending. thats why people say its rushed. by the way it was technically an avengers fight scene we haven't gotten many fight scenes in arcane that extend to a whole hour. the bridge scene with ekko should have been enough.
God god god, thank you for making this video, I am genuinely disappointed how many people think the ending is perfect or a masterpiece. While I was willing to forgive how messy it was in act 1 & 2, act 3 just absolutely fumbled everything I don't think I would be willing to even call it "good" There are definitely worser shows out there for sure but for a gold standard s1 to drop the ball like this? And you were right, god I didn't think act 1 was that bad at first and things made sense surface level but the inconsistencies run so deep it gets worse the more you look into it. An even bigger shame that they don't just stay under the surface anymore, do they?
There is so much bad in the season I didn't manage to catch it all even watching it all the way through twice. A full breakdown of every problem would have probably made the video 90 minutes.
I do agree that season 2 had a lot problems - how some minor characters doesn't really serve as much impact as the ones in s1. Like maddie with her relationship with cait was unnecessary, the other dude idk the name of was just some nobody to me, and loris who had some potential to be like the "vander" in vi's life but only for him to die later on. - then the inconsistencies of the main characters in s1 - the scene for vander's past with felicia might've been good but i feel like vander being this stranger adoptive parent is much better story for me - the consistent music intro videos felt repetitive in the next episodes - the pacing was fast not because of the events of the story but the multiple storylines and chosen scenes felt off.
Season 2 had way too much happening and I was left confused. It felt rushed and it didn’t pay off. They needed 3 seasons, it just skipped around too much and it felt so empty.
I have no clue how Victor's ascension works. Everybody ascended just dies besides Orianna AND Warwick because he comes back to life to kill Vi. Additionally, I doubt Warwick is actually dead because he took 3 cores to the face and still had a pulse, but I am supposed to believe his stronger ascended form would die to one (at least I think it was 1). I can't wait for future series to bring back supposedly dead characters because most of them either vanish or die off screen so they aren't actually dead (even Ambessa could come back knowing this series).
Christian Linke, the lead showrunner, went on a stream after the finale and flat out stated that multiple characters who are supposed to be dead actually aren't or could come back. For example, he said Heimerdinger didn't die.
@@AmmiO Heimerdinger is a spirit of some kind and his body is some manifestation that's not important, so when he dies he reappears as spirit somewhere else, it's some league lore about his species. Jinx, Victor and Jayce were at least hinted to be alive. I don't know how they will give Cait's eye back tho or it doesn't matter anymore that they divert from the game.
some extra annoyances: - wtf is this security?? you have a funeral following a terrorist attack, all the heads of state are attending and somehow the bad guys casually walk in and smack the speaker in front of everyone? no I don't buy that ambessa could have arranged it. does piltover not have it's own security? what's even more ridiculous is somehow jayce found himself fighting in a 1v1 in a public funeral attack. trump had better security - jinx casually strolls in and out of prison, twice. she gets incarcerated for months and doesn't go on trial or anything. - vi's plot armor is reaching brienne of tarth levels, she can join the police force, dismiss half the squad before confronting jinx, sabotage caitlyn, ditch work and get into an emo street fight phase, meet up with the mass murderer and not arrest her, attack ambessa in her quarters. attack a prison guard and release the terrorist, and STILL 0 CONSEQUENCES FOR ANYTHING. fuck this character, vi and cait are the worst thing about arcane. I could overlook things if she was entertaining or charismatic or remotely interesting but she's not. - cait sucks, I don't even concede that she was good in season 1, she always sucked. She does nothing, accomplishes nothing, constantly gives annoying sappy speeches and changes her entire worldview every 3 scenes. The way she is magically turned on and forgets everything when she gets called cupcake is akin to brainwashing, not romance. she randomly went from junior cop to leader of the city, piltover is just the worst. - some dramatic moments are just too fake, like the ep3 fight, oh no this 5 year old ran 30 meters in 1 second and stood in front of my punch, what can i possibly do? I guess I'll just attack my partner derp. did this writer never have siblings or what? push the brat away and take the shot. it's nowhere near as tense as the show is pretending it is. - jinx' personality; hardened cold blooded killer does not go well with traumatized child losing her sanity does not go well with marvel quipping dipshit, also she's a master engineer, master of stealth and master martial artist now. where does she have the resources? I don't know how she even manages to feed herself after sylco died, let alone pull off all the shit that she does with impunity while basically everyone in the world is searching for her. - Ambessa talks too much, this is a limitation of a liberal writer, they just can't begin to conceive a character that is stoic and ruthlessly efficient, so they tell instead of show. same goes with writing a supposedely wise character like heimerdinger, he became a joke instead.
Your last point was lampshaded in Episode 6 when Vi was handcuffed in Ambessa's tent. Not only did Vi call her a "self-righteous windbag," but told her to "shut the f--- up!" 😂 I do wish they wouldn't have the characters be so on-the-nose with their dialogue, though. Vi would speak in ways that a streetfighter from the slums would never speak, such as, "How long were you sidled up with that self-serving warpig? She oinked poison in your ear and you just ate it!" This was most likely a reference to Hamlet, but having Vi of all people say it was clearly a case of writer's conceit.
It's extra satisfying to see someone so openly call put this show on its bullshit. Writing in this Season sucks and it's pity that many decide to ignore the current show quality. Can agree upon most of the things you said. And it's refreshing to see some new I haven't noticed before. Like fr writers giving Vi lines that doesn't align with her taught by the streets kind of character feels out of place a bit
I was pretty much arguing with the screen about these exact things. I still don't get how is Jinx able to move faster than what's physically possible even in that universe. I thought they gonna use Jayce messing with the arcane as a catalyst for the characters to gain some special abilities that eventually makes them champions, but that did not happen.
@@solarydays She was revived with Shimmer, remember? Shimmer is what's giving her the powers, it's reminiscent of her passive in League where she'll gain AS and Movement Speed after getting a takedown or taking down a turret.
My biggest gripe is that they WAY overcommited to Caitlyn and Vi's relationship instead of focusing on actual plot relevant things like Ekko, Jayce, and Mel. Cait and Vi are a toxic couple that should never have gotten back together after everything they went through and its kinda sad to see that the show wants to somehow say that its okay to cheat and abuse your partners. Felt super boring watching Vi and Cait this season, I wanted more Jayce
@@danutghidia5820 Aside from a super gross and out of place sex scene in act 3 youre right. But Act one and two were far too slow, beciase they spent too much time on them, and the final act suffered for it
There's all this talk of how they needed more episodes, as if that would have solved anything. I don't know. Pacing? I think it's a problem in writing, sure. But it's also a problem of style. Every action scene has so many shots that are that hyper slow-motion, extended countdown, "are they? aren't they???" with EPIC music that drag out the moment... and it's like 3 or 4 of those every episode.
20:30 What an insult to Silcos character man. What made him and Vander great is that they took care of the girls without their mother deliberatly telling them to do so. These 2 scenes just ruin him, and that letter from Vander to him, my god, what trash writing. Also both his deaths were pivotal and important for the story and they just bring them back like that... I would be less disappointed in this season if it didn't piss all over great characters from season 1. Caitlyn and Vi getting it on in the dungeon is cringe af, also in this season people just go into max security buildings with completely no effort, even getting the keys, it is just plain dumb. It happens multiple times in one season. How Zaun didn't take over Pilitover by this point in time is beyond me. Every was crapping their pants when they heard Enforcers are coming in season 1, but in the 2nd one they are just a joke. People getting hit by Warwick and surviving is massive plot armour aswell, when he basically 1 tapped Rictus. Especially when he grabs people. With Oriana - Singeds daughter I think he later went and collected what is left of Warwick, since he can't die(which makes Jinxs sacrifice even more stupid), and he was already evolved by Victor, combination of Hextech and Shimmer, so that could aid him in his endevaour of treating her. The only characters that I liked how they ended is Ekko, Jayce and Viktor + Singed. Why did Viktor leave Ekko untouched though I dunno. It just had to be this way for plot to get where they wanted it to be and there are multiple instances of that in this season. Also why Viktor just didn't see what Jayce has seen before he shot him. Completely don't get it. It wasn't explained. I understand your disappointment and I caught myself aswell pretty excited for season2, wouldn't even cross my mind it could be this trash, when the first one was almost masterfully written. Got burned aswell with this show. It is not all bad, but damn...
This is what happens when you rush out to have a clickbait review about how a great show sucks you make silly mistakes and arguments that don't make sense. Hermendinger was there for decades when it was about 1200 days. You make horrible nitpicky arguments about how Caitlyn is moving acrobatically while you cut to her literally doing nothing of the sort. You say Ambessa dies for no reason when they literally have been foreshadowing that sacrifice is how to achieve strength (win) and that she would and has sacrificed everything and that you don't lament a warriors death you avenge it so Caitlyn her daughter figure who she preached to about this loses an eye to cut of the runes that are protecting Ambessa from Mel and the Black Rose and Mel loses her mother to finally get vengeance for her brother and meets her mom's approval. You mention that it is marvel humor that an enforcer doesn't recognize her for a cheap joke while there are a bunch of jinx impersonators everywhere and then you make its seem like it is some failing while in reality this isn't really logical criticism just oh I don't like marvel humor so bad when real interactions like this do happen and the enforcers are not all elite professionals a lot of topsiders have been recruited for it because of the crack down on Zaun and that doesn't lend itself to the most serious and professional recruits especially when this has been happening for months. How is incompetence a valid criticism of the show they have shown multiple times that there is a lot of incompetence and neglect in the enforcers. Oh, wow Vander should not be alive because he died in seasons 1 is so dumb right??? The show is fiction just because people die in the real world and don't comeback except Jesus of course does not mean that it can't happen in this universe where people double in size and speed from a drug and time travel and that has a lot of set up from season 1 to that episode. PS making up scenarios in your head of how things happened is not criticism on the show it is a strawman argument to pad your run time. Victor and Jayce do not have a rushed disagreement they have a logically consistent character argument were Jayce makes emotional arguments to justify his weaponization of hextech and use of the arcane and Viktor calls him out for not keeping his promise setting up Jayce in the future to keep his promise to future Viktor. Wow music videos that are supposed to convey time passage and character moments with different lyrics and art styles feel to quote "samey"??? so your solution is exposition about what happened which we all know audiences love to hear about and there is no criticism of you should write a show you'd be a really good showrunner. To be clear the show has things to criticize but set up is not one of them nor is logic. It is pacing because you actually have to watch the show more than once because it is very full of story and small details that people will miss when they first watch it. Instead of trying to justify your Clickbait title.
so glad u spent the time writing out all my angry thoughts watching this. he talks about how a lot of the scenes "are pointless and mean nothing for the show" like.....did we watch the same thing? are we talking about the same thing right now?
You're not 100% wrong about your critique of his critique 😂 but the pacing and story telling of s2 was definitely a mess. Most characters had terrible development Mel got captured and mind fucked then broke out of it and then just walked back to piltover from noxus or where ever? Jayce literally promised Viktor he would not fail then proceeds to NOT double tap main timeline Viktor when he had the chance to kill him? Ekko cooked up time travel and a multiverse in less than 40 minutes time? 😂 The entirety of s2 was badly paced. This is coming from someone who thinks s1 is a masterpiece and top 3 animation series of all time. Don't get me wrong I still liked s2 but it was not as good I'd say 7-8/10 not on the same level as s1.
@@edgybravo4287 Tbf, Mel's home (which is likely where she was, as it was the same place she was during her childhood flashback) as revealed in Ambessa's lore is very close to Piltover. It's basically right on the shores of Noxus, so her getting back quickly isn't that out of place. Plus the Hexgates were still working when she returned, and those allow essentially teleportation. Ntm she also has her new powers that maybe she could use. My point is, even though they didn't show how she got back, there's enough hints that she definitely realistically could have done so without much issue. Also Ekko didn't do that all in forty minutes, it was clearly a montage of many days passing. The Jayce not finishing off Viktor thing does seem odd tbh and I agree the pacing was pretty out there, but I'd still say the vast majority of the story still makes sense if you pay attention to the small details, or if you know the lore.
@@bluntbangs Oh I know buddy, but the original lore has changed a lot over the years and will continue to change with them wanting Arcane to be canon. That's the thing you basically said the issue "montage" it's such a cheap tactic and honestly overused in this season. They do like 1-2 music videos every episode. That's why it has huge pacing issues. That isn't good story telling it's just a cheap tactic to show us time passing and events occurring. Also, just because you show easter eggs or hints doesn't make it good writing/foreshadowing. A foreshadow can still be shit. Just because I take a shit behind a tree and tell someone then 30 minutes later their mom walks around the three and steps on it doesn't make it "good writing" it's still shit. I don't even think the story is bad tbh it's just undercooked that's the main issue I have with it. It's honestly sad to see so many people saying s2 is a masterpiece cuz it's so far from it. It shows me so many don't realize what made s1 truly incredible. And it actually scares me being a fan of the show and the lore. Because people get so caught up in the hyped moments and the spectacle, they don't see how terrible the pacing and the storytelling is. This will turn into current day MCU so fast with the other regions because of this and that's scary af to see.
season 2 was good.... But it wasn't as good as season 1. Main problems with season 2 - too many plots introduced, too many characters introduced just to be ignored/overlooked than killed for no reason at all. Sevika needed more screen time. The potential of her finding out about Jinx's murder of Silco and confrontation/fight after would've been way more epic. Big guy with shield needed either more screen time or just not introduced at all. Maddie sucked. So did the other guy. Isha's sacrifice was rendered completely meaningless in act 3 thus made her sacrifice lose that impact on me. Warwick got turned into a soulless robo-cat thing by Viktor... CRIMINAL. Heimerdinger's sacrifice was completely unnecessary. I mean ok. Yordles are technically immortal but still. What a unceremonious, unimpactful way to send off a great character. Black Rose was unnecessary, in fact, Mel's whole story should've been reserved for later. Viktor's character was butchered. His drastic change in view was also too forced. Ekko's story was great. But yeah. Him suddenly being able to turn back time much longer without much explanation of how/why he was able to do it and without any consequences.. was kind of disappointing. Jinx's sacrifice... most of all, felt really forced. This show would've been way better if they focussed more on piltover vs Zaun and turned more attention towards Vi and Jinx. All in all, this show was still amazing to watch. But unlike season 1 of Arcane, season two left a bad taste in my mouth. And a feeling that it could've been more. A masterpiece, even. But they kind of blew that away. Still a great show... not denying that part.
Agreed with most of what you said. Basically I feel like everything was undercooked. Like outside of jinx and vi's relationship development. They finally got to the point of understanding which was nice to see. But outside of that every other plotline and character stories were rushed and a giant mess.
6 years labour of love compared to 6 months of corporate crunch, this is what this feels like. Tell me what you want, this season was hacked together without passion or any actual plan of how to make sense out of all the plot lines. Every music montage gives me 'omg this paper is due tomorrow' vibes, with tracks so on the nose they could show a sign: 'feels now!'. Smells of execs pimping their CV. Bummer.
I feel like you have so many valid criticisms but also some dumb points. Why did you call Sky's notes that Viktor takes "a random book". With the Cait Vi scene sex scene there is literally no one in the area because Caitlyn took away all the security earlier. Your questions related to the crow, the black rose and Mel will most likely all be answered in the next show which will be about Noxus based on the way the show ended. I feel like you could have easily made your opinions have no issues if you took some more time to think about what happened in the show lol.
Why were Vi and Caitlyn making out shortly after Jinx implied that she was going to kill herself to Vi? Seems veeerrry out of character for Vi to prioritize getting laid over saving her sister...
@@Gloomy_Knight-dw5pm She said she was leaving so that Vi could be with Cait and we do not know how long ago that was. I got the impression Vi was in that cell by herself for hours. When a show doesn't explicitly spoon feed you as to why something happened, your job as a viewer isn't to say hey, they didn't spell it out for me so that doesn't make sense. It is for you to figure out how it can make sense, and only if there is no way that it could make sense do you then say, oh that was bad writing.
@teraxe the sad thing is I loved season one but season two felt rushed and left me disappointed. Best why to describe Arcane, season one is a pile of gold with specs of shit and season two is a pile of shit with specs of gold
Arcane fanboys and LOL players like "wah it didn't suck it was just massively flawed and poorly paced with a poorly written story line and plot holes" so just the individual characters and art was good? that means it sucks lmao
While I disagree with some of your complaints in regards to certain story beats, overall I feel the same. Story went from gripping class conflict to mindless marvel slop. At least they had decency not to include "HUGE BEAM OF LIGHT STRAIGHT TO THE SKY" that superhero movies love so much. They threw away all conflict besides immediate inter-champion issues and even those became illogical and contrived for the sake of cool actions scenes or cliff hangers. I still love the show because of how insanely good it looks, but story wise I'm not holding my breath. And I also agree with you that writing for popular media has become very weak recently. I come into any series I'm interested in with expectation that it would nosedive later on.
I still really loved this series overall and is one of my favorites, but I tend to prefer more grounded, character driven plots than ones that try to be all epic and including things like time travel and literal Gods. I don't think a season was enough to fully tie in these big plot points. This show is extremely expensive and there is so much expert work that goes into a show like this that I can see why they only made it two seasons. I wish they would save more of the Black Rose plotline for later. Season 2 does live up more to the "Arcane" title though. They just needed more episodes to flesh it out.
Say it with me. the show was never about class conflict. If it was it wouldn't never have been the ground breaking show it was for riot. It would have been utter filth
@@disconcerningcitizen2224 Out of curiosity, what the conflict between Zaun and Piltover is then? Why do characters always bring up how one city is poor and another is rich? Why does one city looks like slums with beggars and other is all white and gold? There must be a name for this type of conflict... Hmmm...
@gelatinouscatgirl8369 because it's the setting....look at the season 1s plot none of it ever moved forward by "class conflict." The plot is entirely moved by the characters changing relationships with each other. That's what it means to be a character driven plot. You'd have to ignore the last 6 episodes to think the show was about class conflict.
@@disconcerningcitizen2224 You can't separate characters from the setting. Ep 7 very clearly shows what would happen if poverty and struggle was removed from the setting. You can't set up the conflict between two cities for the majority of the show, and then handwave it in the last episode because everyone suddenly forgot their differences in the face of common enemy.
I agree with most of your criticism about the quality of the second season and the many lacks on the plot, but there are some details that I think you just went over just for nitpick sake and I'll gladly give my opinion over those: 5:37 Caitlyn inherits the Kiramman Key and basically her mother's power because it seems like the Kiramman house is a matrialchal family based on the portraits in the office where she later learns about the gray. It may be stupid but at the same time... if the genders were reversed I don't think we would be thinking that, we would be like "yeah, the son inherits the father's power, make sense." 7:48 It's not "random book" it's Sky's notebook, it literally has her signature. 12:11 Jinx told Sevika that she was planning "To finish what's left of her family" She wanted to die along side Vi during the fight and then for the bomb to be triggered so the gray was release into piltover. Until that point is super obvious that Jinx is suicidal so it's not a crazy idea. The plan didn't went exactly how she wanted once it was clear that Vi was going to win the fight but she gave up "I'm glad it's you, it had to be you." but then Isha intervenes and saves her life. She gets upset because she wanted to die, this whole spectacle was her swan song. idk it was obvious for me... 17:20 That would have been super cringe HAHAHA but sure? 22:06 Jayce didn't immediately shut down the hex gates because they were being used to evacuate all the civilians from both Piltover and Zaun. 22:41 That's even more outrageous since Caitlyn's Ult doesn't deal magic damage. (sorry) 24:01 Ekko established the limit himself because when he pushed said limit there was an explosion (we got a lovely scene of Heimerdinger blowing up like a water balloon). He used that same explosion during the fight against Viktor to break free from his automatons. that why there were "no limit" suddendly. 24:47 Oh no, the lore is still a mess, and the second season of Arcane after the Devs saying that Arcane is the new main lore makes it even worse, if you think that the people praising the second season of arcane are league players that are very into the lore you are super mistaken. Also Aatrox and Sweetheart Jinx-Yuumi do not exist in the same universe what are you talking about. 25:47 No it wasn't??? The characters are wayyyy further from their in-game counterparts now more than ever. Please, don't try to sweep Arcane S2's flaws under the "It's the game's fault" rug, Arcane literally did it's own thing ignoring the game's lore, it's it's own mess. Seriously go talk to a any of the main characters mains about what they did to their favorite character in the series and you'll find a lot of opinions... Anyway, I liked the show, I had a good time but I definitely think that we didn't need this second season. The team behind the show proud themselves about how they knew when to end the story after info about the second season being the finale of the show was made public. Well, I honestly think that the ending of the first season was the perfect moment... we could have lived perfectly fine without anything presented in the second season.
To be honest i kinda enjoyed s2.Even with lots of these flaws i have to say the ideas and concepts they brought were still amazing even though with execution they definitely could have done better especially with "THAT" vi and cait scene which lasted a bit but i can definitely say that it does have its flaws but it is a low A tier or a b tier. BTW:how much time did arcane s1 take compared to s2 i just wanna know
Including intro and credits, both seasons are the same length at 370 minutes each, or 6 hours and 10 minutes. Breaking it down further: All episodes in season 1 are between 40-44 minutes. All episode in season 2 are between 39-42 minutes, except episode 9 which is 50 minutes. So slightly less time for each episode in season 2 except the finale.
My favorite part of the "alternate universe" episode with Ekko was that it confirmed a very basic premise that I pulled out of season 1. That premise is: The entire thing is all Vi's fault. She is the big action hero of Arcane, and is also the undeniable cause of the entire calamity. Season 1 was largely about character themes. Powder's theme was.. she implements pretty good ideas very badly. And Vi's theme was.. she implements very bad ideas pretty well. There was a comment made on Twitter by one of the writers of season 1 of Arcane about a specific scene that puts the success of season 1 into perspective. She mentioned that "all I put on the page was" and a very simple description of what occurred, then remarked at how marvelous the final scene was, with so much ADDED by the visual interpretation by Fortiche. So, here is what I think happened. In season 1, Riot dropped off the script, and someone.. some GENIUS at Fortiche sat down and read the whole thing front to back and thought about it.. and thought... and thought.. and thought. They came up with their own implications about every single detail of every single scene, pulling out extra layers of meaning.. layers upon layers upon layers, and brought every bit of that fantastic interwoven perfection to the screen with visual cues. One of my favorite scenes in season 1 is when Powder is sitting on her bed drawing on her toy and Vi comes in to cheer her up. It's actually maybe too deep of a scene, because everyone I saw react to it got the incorrect impression. Everyone thought it was sweet, and remarked at how Vi cheered up her her little sister... but that is NOT what happens in that scene. Vi's words don't encourage Powder in that scene, they make it worse. Powder finishes the scene with a completely dejected slump of her shoulders. If you sit and watch that scene and really think about what is visually portrayed, and think about WHY it was (obviously intentionally) animated that way... it is nothing short of phenomenally brilliant storytelling. There is so much nuance in that scene.. so much inter-connected glory to other aspects of S1 Act1.. it's just.. perfection. NONE of that is present in Season 2. It's like Riot dropped off the script and Fortiche just said.. OK, put what is written on the screen.
4:26 All this music part are literally timeskips, and they are very important to the plot. If season 2 has writing problem, I can’t imagine show what have good writing when
This season was a disaster. The first season was such a rare gem. And that's exactly why this season hurts so much. The glazing over this mediocre season is baffling. "What could have been"
Isha was an unsatisfying plot device but not specifically nonsense, so I opted not to mention her. This video could easily have been 60 or even 90 minutes long with how much nonsense there is, but unlike Arcane season 2, I actually value pacing.
Yeah that's just what I'm talking about! How the fuck did Jinx end up fixing all her insecurities and mental problems when they were so severe?! I absolutely hate that "ehh, but she met Isha and she helped her overcome her ploblems" argument. I mean those kind of problems Jinx has can't be fixed with just one child popping out of nowhere and somehow miraculously heal everything. Healing Jinx wounds should take years, if it is even possible to fix her anyhow at all. But no, somehow one child fixes everything: her PTSD, the fear of abandonment, paranoia, all her guilt, hatred and insecurities, and her tough upbringing. Geez folks if everyone with some sort of mental illness could be helped by just simply adopting a child to support them why would we even need to have psychologists? Just adopt a child or a dog and all your problems will vanish dum-dum, is it that difficult? upd: I'm not even bringing up she's basically filled with shimmer after the surgery, and like have yall seen what shimmer does to mfs? Even VANDER started to lose his shit just after he took it. Jinx wasn't an exception too, since after shimmer injection she went absolutely ballistic in the 9th episode and managed to kidnapp her sister GF, Silco and older sis in a span of a day. Not even mentioning that this surgery severed her paranoia as we see in the scene with Silco.
I'll NEVER get over this one. They ruined Jinx’s redemption arc and the sisters’ reunion, since without Isha, they'd still be enemies,. But since I cannot buy anything related to isha, the sisters reunion doesnt work either. Those two elements were what I cared about most-they were the heart of the show for me. That’s why I’m choosing to pretend Season 2 didn’t happen.
@@aaltuxov Yup. Jinx went from being an unhinged serial killing terrorist with severe PTSD, trauma, paranoia, abandonment issues, and an extreme hatred for Enforcers to the point she would kill many of them even when unprompted by Silco to just chilling in her room alone playing with Isha all day, which was somehow enough to cure her 10+ years of childhood trauma/PTSD in a heartbeat. It's as if the very people who wrote her understand her less than we do which is insane to think about.
I was with you on the premise of this but ironically a lot of your complaints focus on the stuff that actually does "make sense" if you think about it for a minute, e.g. Vi sending the rest of the enforcers away after Cait showed her ruthlessness, because Vi has some control over cait but no control over the rest of the enforcers. But you're mostly right about them "cleaning up" before the fight, which i honestly think is fine. And jinx saying "this wasn't how this is supposed to go" is her admitting she was trying to kill herself. "Finishing what's left of my familiy" wasn't in relation to Vi, she was talking about herself. Isha stopping her is what is what made her connect with her. I guess threading the line of what you can expect your audience to put together on their own is really difficult, what some consider not enough is what other's would consider bloat or overexplaining. All of this just comes back around to "pacing". Honestly if you read between the lines in interviews it's pretty clear they were aware to some degree but I imagine they had a mandate to setup follow-up shows which combined with contractual/financial reasons to not extend the season just way overstuffed it. They needed like 1 or 2 more episodes, I think much more would've been detrimental.
Take the Noxian storyline out of season 1 and you'll have a better season 2. Adding Ambessa in Season 1 was a stupid mistake then, that they tried to fix here. All the "rushed" problems in season 2 were the fruits of those convoluted plotlines in season 1. To say that season 1 was perfect is absolute bullshit.
I have huge issues with how S2 was written. S1 was something that transcended genres, S2 was firmly refusing to do that. Although I enjoyed it very much I can't stop feeling disappointed. When it comes to plot holes I don't think our opinions align but I still want to fill in some that I don't think are actual/serious plot issues Viktor leaving Jayce - That's Sky's notebook. He also sees the blueprints for Cait's hextech-upgraded gun. In s2e5, he tells Jayce he was clouded by emotions when he decided to leave, so it's likely he was too overwhelmed by guilt to think about anything else. Jayce does plead a little, but he also knows he broke a promise. But I too think the scene could use a bit more dialogue. Also, Viktor has had the purple hex leg for a while now, so it's probably not that dangerous. No one else questions it because, like Huck, they could've assumed it was just the typical chemtech body replacements, if they could even see it underneath the blanket. The ghost could just be a manifestation of his guilty conscience, leading him to the worst parts of Zaun to help those in need the most. But that's my interpretation. Jinx's plan - from "finish what's left of my family" in s2e2 and "Jinx is dead" in s2e4 I assume her plan was to die before the traps go off, making her a martyr and unifying Zaun. It somewhat fulfills Silco's wishes and gives closure to Vi. Vander returns as warwick - I don't think Silco secretly disappeared Vander and his family, nor was it necessary for his plan. Finn knows about Silco killing Vander, the people were already fed up with Vander's leadership, and the madame at the pleasure house mentioned he threatened or bought out any remaining loyalists/competitors. Since Silco funded Singed's shimmer experiments it's not that far fetched to allow Singed to take some shimmered corpses for research especially when a lot of it was presumably destroyed in the explosion. In s2e5 you can see Deckard's head in a jar in Singed's lab. you have to remember those were the first human test subjects so there's a lot of valuable knowledge to be gained if he wants to create refined variants of shimmer. I was surprised Vander died from a fall but Deckard survived a hex crystal explosion, so I don't think he was fully dead. We know shimmer has healing properties so it could have kept his body "warm" until Singed scavenged it. Vander's flashback - my take is that Felicia was a representation of their community, not that they were particularly that close. Vander adopted other orphans too. Felicia takes the name suggestion because she couldn't think of anything, like at all. We see remnants of the house her family used to live in next to Viktor's commune, and we know the commune is on the fringes of the fissures, as said by Lest in s2e4. We don't know if she lived in the central part of the Lanes before the family expansion, but the fringes seem like the other side of the district. It would make sense if she and Connol moved out before or shortly after Vi was born, and their visits to the Lanes became less frequent. Since Vander pours the drinks, he would be the one familiar with the neighborhood kids. Silco works mostly out of sight, and this is evident when he shows up in the alt universe once and it was for an event. but even in the prime universe he runs the bar from upstairs, and anyone wanting to see him gets redirected to Sevika, as pointed out by Finn. So hypothetically, the events could happen in a way that results in Silco not fully recognizing Violet or Violet being Felicia's kid. But I would still prefer they don't do the snape thing Jayce almost blasting the kid - we've been shown that Viktor's followers have their fear response suppressed, they still get startled when Vander goes mad but there's no bodily injury the herald can't fix. Jayce being taken to Viktor makes enough sense to me, he was stumbling around in pain, he's got a leg brace, he looks like he just crawled out of a pit, helping people is their priority. I'll admit it's quite ambiguous at this point but I still think he has not yet imposed his will on his followers, he only speaks with them telepathically but it's not all the time. Jayce rallying the people - Zaun is in danger too, Jayce tells them to flee if they didn't want to fight, you see Sevika and the bat guy leave in disapproval. There were only a handful of zaunites who are willing to fight as enforcers, they showed up at the bridge fortification in s2e8. One of them being a jinxer that had second thoughts while boarding the train during the montage then died in front of Vi which had her shooked - she didn't think any zaunite would be willing to do this. Most of them didn't and only showed up with Jinx's balloon. The hex gates were still being used to evacuate people and.. launch shipping containers? but my issue is why didn't Jayce bring people to help him pull the cores faster? Wizard fucking with Jayce - You liked ep7 because Ekko gets to be happy, I liked ep7 because Jayce is miserable. We are not the same. but seriously it would make more sense for his character if he made the promise before being tested. When asked why he was so persistent it was because of his promise, so what pushed him through all the other stuff before it? He was never even shown to be a particularly persistent person. I get that thematically it's supposed to mirror Viktor's struggles but it's not worth making Jayce's character weaker. anyways my headcannon is that the wizard was rolling the dice until he gets a Jayce that could pass his test, like he just leaves and tries another timeline when the hammer smashes the arm or the skull Mel vs Ambessa vs black rose - The show is lacking at explaining Noxian culture and lore but it is just that, code of honor. Mel was using Ambessa as bait, not to kill black rose but to see who black rose is. She sacrificed her mom so she could start hunting down the black rose to avenge her mom and her brother, this earns her mom's approval. Ekko's z-drive - Z drive can rewind beyond 4 seconds but the first time he tried that it made Heimer explode. Singed's daughter - she is not the same type of robot person, or maybe she's a heavily modified one. Either way she's just there for the league players
24:10 That's Orianna. She's my main in league and I was really hoping for her to have a bigger role since her story is perfect for Arcane. But no. It's really disappointing. :(
Personally, I think the main problem was that there were too many cooks in the kitchen, too many people, giving different wild ideas and that took the place of a more coherent and in line with the lore story that could have been told. If i could change some things, I would: 1. ERASE THE ANOMALY SUB PLOT, IT SUCKS!!!. First off, it completely destroyed everything we know about how magic works in runeterra, second of it didn't not completely change Jayce's lore, for the worst, but the series will be way better without it. I will elaborate on the next part. 2. SEND AMBESSA ASS BACK TO NOXUS! She not only took the focus of the series away from the sisters but also her alliance with Singed and Viktor, and his entire lore, for that matter, would have been 100% better with Renata in her place as the big bad, she could just step in after Silco's death, it would be nice I she was prestableched in the chembaron counsel in season 1. She could finance Viktor research into becoming robo Jesus, without the anomaly stuff, his limbs could just rot off at some point, and he switched his focus to replacing them. She also could do the same to Singed, promising him Orianna through Viktor research and making him make warwick as a bio weapon instead of that ugly metal werewolf from chapter 3. With that, she could also get influence in Piltover by making Viktor help people around, like giving Salo robot legs, and also the likes of an certain noble from Piltover which with some minor rewrites would be more than happy to take the leads of piltover police force from Caitlyn hands just like ambessa did, Camille.
25:48 No the show didnt even try to get the characters to a point they resembled their main canon counterparts. Viktor and Warwick visually look nothing like their canon counterparts by the end of the show. Warwick doesnt even have the iconic wolf head and chemtech on him, he is now some glassy manwolf. Same with Viktor, he is no longer a cyborg with clear steampunk inspirations, but rather this organic mutant with magic around him. He looks more like something out of the Void, or an elaborate cosmic entity. Also Caitlyn still has both of her eyes in the main canon, she aint Solid Snake.
@MarcIrisEdition No they don't, not even from a visual stand point. Not even counting the characterizations and background of each character from Arcane, as they haven't matched main canon since S1. But that was fine since back then Riot treated it as its own separate continuity. By forcing Arcane into an established canon, anything it doesn't adhere to should be criticized.
The whole Vander thing. Silco wanted Vander to disappear. Singed, who worked for Silco, offers to make him disappear. Singed wants to experiment with Vander's body, as it is a mutation. Singed realizes that Vander is still alive and decides to keep him hidden to continue experimenting with things that might help his daughter "revive." It's not that hard to understand.
This is a bunch of hippy dippy baloney, episode 7 was about character, not about plot. You really missed the point of that ep for sure. I do agree that Season 2 was not as good as Season 1, but 2x7 was legit my favorite episode in the show…
Sadly I tapped out at the 5:42 mark as soon as he started talking about house kiramman as if season 1 didn't point out that Caitlyn was suppose to be the next matriarch of house kiramman to begin with. But episode 7 was pure gold.
@@maiharuka432 yeah also he says that they needed to be more explicit about Caitlyn's father mental health lol c'mon just look at the man. I feel like so many criticism of this series come from people that just didn't see what the authors put in front of them without explicitly explaining
@@sifaohd8854 Honestly, grief is grief and they handled it very well if the authors needed to push or keep coming back to why Caitlyn had inherited everything, then we need to sit back and look back at royal successions, because at times if the King died the Queen could only be in charge if the Prince wasn't of age. Can't say I agree with peoples negative opinions on the show, they're entitled to those opinions but if we're being honest, he had 13 mins of content which is called "the dumb, bad, and nonsense" which he might've made a valid rant? But again whatever arguments that are made fell short IMHO as soon as he went into that Kiramman rant, when it was explained in season 1.
Now, it's warranted. The intro song was undoubtedly the worst part of season 1. The fact that this is no longer the case for season 2 doesn't change that it's kind of a shitty song.
Naw so many people in these comments who don't know what good storytelling is. You LIKING the show is not the same as the show being good. Arcane season 1 was a masterpiece. This season technically is terrible. It's like a 3/10. Absolutely terrible. Episode 7 was complete garbage waist of time. Only 2 maaaybe 3 things that we actually needed from that episode. If you like it, I think that's awesome. But if you like stuff that's good and havnt watched it yet, don't. Just never watch it. But when they originally planned for 5 seasons and 4 of the 5 main writers left after season 1, it's no wonder it's a dumpster fire.
Geez wait wait, did the original writers actually left?? Oh darn that explains many things then. It's really a pity, if they had stayed and the Season had more time to develop... *what could've been*
PREACH IT!!! This season is honestly just appeasing the audience, smushing cool, dramatic moments, random, shocking plot twists, and fanservice into one messy pile. It’s written like it’s concerned with getting reactions and being entertaining, which I think is why people enjoy it and ignore all the glaring flaws
Arcane has a big list of writers. As I said in the video, 4 of them are credited as having worked on season 1 but not 2. This includes one of the writers for Toy Story 2. Is this the reason season 2 is bad? Were all/some of those writers the real brains behind the project, or was there a particular chemistry that required those writers? Don't know, but it's a possibility.
So sick of seeing all these "Well *I* liked it!" reactions to bad fiction. Okay? All that tells me is that you have terrible taste. You liking it is sompletely worthless information.
Season 2 has many good moments, great even, but it fails to tie them together into a satisfying whole and somehow ends up feeling less than the sum of its parts.
I'm still going to recommend it to all my friends who liked season 1. I want them to see it for themselves and make their own judgements. Maybe they can appreciate some things I couldn't.
I thought arcane s2 had problems but I don’t really agree with you that these were the problems 😭 sure I didn’t like the direction they went a lot of the time but it wasn’t the worst writing I’ve ever seen. .
I was completely enamored with season 1 of Arcane and felt starved of content until season 2.And I think that craving blinded me to a lot of issues that you pointed out in the video (some of which I picked up on and others I missed entirely). I know for a fact that by the time I finished the last episode, I felt hollow; nowhere near how emotional the first season left me.
The thing I most believe is Vander being preserved by shimmer and Singed being able to keep him alive, but I think the result would have been very different, to the point where he would have few memories or traces of who he was, essentially his corpse becoming a scaffold for the creation of Warwick
At the end of season 1 I was thinking that jinx would end up taking Silco’s place and that there would be a huge class warfare ending to the show. But we got something totally different instead
they totally forgot about the topside vs zaun conflict and that was what i was most invested in
@@catherinejanet5806 same
@@TheJanooby you know if you're coming at it from a leftist pov, piltover is basically a paradise as far as social justice is concerned. there's no racial problems, no sexism or queerphobia. all that's left is one class fucking the other
That would have been infinitely better than the story we ended up getting.
Clealry how my fanfic end
i'm gonna be honest, this video still doesn't adress half of the problems with season 2, like how Heimerdinger showed great concern in s1 to how dangerous and catastrophic hextec could be, that was a huge thing in s1. But in s2, everything that would be extremely concerning about hextec happens and he doesn't give a fuck, he doesn't seem to notice or care at all, that was his main conflict with jayce in s1, that was his character, but they've completely removed it. The narrative also completely moved away from one of the main conflicts of the show like it's nothing, the clash between zaun and piltover, zaun is just ignored, and somehow their relationship seems to be completely fixed by the end, despite all the massive conflict they had throughout the show.
Because their relationship was repaired through the war? The conflict was still there in the final episode man with the zaunites leaving not wanting to join piltover in the battle, of course they rethought and was heavily implied that jinx had something to do with it aswell you can't expect the show to spoon feed you like a little toddler man I mean their relationship wasn't even fully repaired when sevaka sat at the council table they looked at her like she's not belonging there
@@thelastmastergamer2846 The show already "feed us with a spoon" so many info with all the rushed plot lines and musical montage to pretend develop the characters, but still they couldn't gave us the info that truly matters, like the plot and reconciliation that Cait and Vi cooked off-camera to betray Ambessa, it's not about us wanting the show feed us with the info right into our mouths, its just us wanting the show to make sense for once
@@Ed_Contiello the Cait and vi plan happened on Camara dude did you skip something? There was a an entire scene dedicated to it and honestly the show makes perfect sense maybe not to some people with low comprehension skills, seeing as how you thought the plan was an off screen moment, also seeing the not so good grammar your putting out aswell... along with you thinking the music videos meant "pretend dev" brother every music video has a different purpose. Seeing as how you came to conclusion just boggles my mind
@@thelastmastergamer2846 the moment you resort to belittling someone, your argument crumbles.
@@skrolreapr His argument didn't even make sense dude, he said the plan to betray ambessa happened off screen when it didnt? You gotta agree with me there. Never said anything about the rushed plot lines as I kinda agree with him there as I think they were too ambitious with the amount of plot lines going on, the raw story works and is very good tho, needed a bit more time to cook though
I think S2 is getting way more praise than it deserves because everyone really, really wanted it to be good. Once the initial celebrations die down this season is going to age like milk.
Exactly. Think about any other project *cough* Last Jedi *cough* that people wanted to be good and how they initially had a chorus of defenders.
Arcane Season 1 is one of the best shows ever made, so of course people wanted Season 2 to be good, myself included. The defense of this season is going to die out over time.
@@AmmiO One thing I thought was particularly baffling was how in episode 7 the alternate timeline branched offwhen Vi died... and everything is better for everyone. That is an extremely bizarre way to frame your protagonist and basically a reversed It's a Wonderful Life.
Now, I doubt the writers' intention was for the takeaway to be that everything sucks because Vi didn't have the common decency to die when she should have... but intended or not you can't really draw any other conclusion, and more talented writing team would have realized that.
@gathenhielm9977 Finally someone else who notices that! It turns out Vi dying was actually the good ending! Best solution would be for Ekko to go back in time and arrange it so Vi dies in that explosion then!
One of the reasons why I hate that episode so much.
@@hkd8227 Genuinely don't get why that episode is so beloved by the fanbase. Not only is the story it tells almost entirely pointless but it's also focused on what is probably the least interesting aspect of a Good AU Timeline to explore.
Granted, I generally don't really care for romances in fiction but I really couldn't give a single crap about Ekko's and Jinx's relationship. I was *begging* for the camera to cut back to Vander and Silco, or Claggor or Milo, hell even Benzo would have been more interesting.
And even if I did care about the romance it's still a waste of time because has nothing to do with the greater narrative, AU Jinx is gone forever and the man she fell in love with doesn't even exist.
And you know what, I wouldn't even mind too much that an episode or two branched off into irrelevant sidestories if the season had the screentime to spare, but it absolutely doesn't. Filler's fine when the rest of the season doesn't suffer because of it.
Only time will tell, but for now my bet is the opposite.
As someone who was beyond hyped for season 2, getting through each act and thinking to myself "that's it?" Was incredibly deflating. And the ending... oh boy, season 1's ending was so good that almost anything season 2 attempted would've been held to the fire... but holy shit, how many deus ex machinas in a row do we need!?
The fact that they dropped the compelling polarized class-conflict story in favor of FIGHT ROBOTS is such a fumble. Disappointing ending to the show
Guess class conflict isn't what we as viewers are supposed to spend too many thoughts on. Maybe the decision to scrap all that from s2 wasn't a creative decision. Would explain the jumbled and incoherent mess we got.
Season 1 made it so very clear that the conflict between Zaun and Piltover was complex and that there were no easy solutions. Repairing the rending of the city would take time, hard work, compassion and wisdom, if it was even possible at all.
Season 2 solves the conflict in, like, one sentence and then drops it entirely for the climax.
... Thanks, show.
THIS!!!
Show was never about class conflict, though
@@gathenhielm9977nahh, the show ends with them being given a single seat at the table. Basically barebones representation.
I guess we aren't the target audience (anymore?). Season 2 has better imdb ratings, it has more reviews and, if i'm correct, more total viewers. Bizarro world.
I firmly believe the praise season 2 is getting atm is pure copium and the majority fanbase will eventually turn against it. The bigger problem is that the show creators will see all the praise and conclude they did a smashing job, ensuring future LoL projects are of the same quality.
I don’t think it’s copium. I think you mentioned in the video. There is so much good will from season one (like SO MUCH) that most people will love s2 regardless. Even me, I was so invested in the characters, particularly Vi & Jinx, and waited so long to see s2, that by the time it came out, I was happy to see them on screen. It takes a lot of time and nostalgia to realize, “You’re not the only one who changed.”
@@binyaminbass
Yeeeah, basically the whole writing and audience relations can be summed up by just one scene from S2 itself
It's enough for writers to just say "cupcake" and it makes viewers melt like Catelyn, gasp in excitement and choke on nostalgia so thick it is
What an awful season smh
@@AmmiOfacts man, the arcane fandom literally feels like a cult.
@@AmmiOMy hypothesis as well
I can't believe you didn't mention the way the show simply skips scenes. Jinx knocks out like 2 guards and releases hundreds of prisoners; they are never mentioned again, apparently they just walked out of jail and nobody noticed or did anything.
Vander recognizes his daughter, cut to black, now he's simply gone and they have to find him again. There isn't a single scene with vander and his daughters beyond the first hug.
Cait fake captures Vi and brings her to ambessa, Vi uses this opportunity to throw a net at ambessa and then... just walks out of camp and she's back in the hippie place one scene later. Somehow she isn't arrested or executed for this.
The show does this CONSTANTLY and it's incredibly damaging to my suspension of disbelief, it's simply too many contrivances sewn together.
Warwick leaps straight at Ambessa's face from a distance of a few feet away. Camera cuts, and when we see Ambessa again she's perfectly fine.
So... what the heck happened there? Did he just run past her? Why? He is clearly slaughtering everyone else who gets in his way. Did she fight him off? Seems unlikely, but that's what I'm forced to assume, I guess.
This moment doesn't even hold any tension because we all know the show won't kill off its primary antagonist off-screen. Weird decision in so many ways.
I missed A LOT of the problems even after watching the season twice. Whatta ya think, should I make the 90 minute nit picking video?
@@AmmiO I'd watch the hell out of that, but I also completely understand if you just want to wwash your hands with this trash. I sure do.
@@AmmiO yes please tear this shit apart, let no future viewer have a shred of doubt that this show wasn't shit that got overrated thanks to nice visuals
@@AmmiO If you have to, if you want to. I'd watch it. In comparison, look what Random Film Talk did with RoP or Hobbit trilogy. When it's done right, it pays off.
Thank you, this video deserves wayyyyyy much more views and engagement.
Let's not forget the Cait/Vi is pretty inconsistent in terms of character writing, defying all kind of logic not biased by desperate shippers.
Especially that cell scene with not only the ongoing war but also the fact Jinx just implied she was going to off herself just seconds ago.
Basically, Mel & Caitlyn vs Ambessa was the figurative and literal embodiment of plot armor 101.
It's reassuring to see that not everyone judges the quality of a show solely on the aesthatics.
Them banging in Jinx cell is probably one of the most irritating things in this Season 💀💀
I mean it feels so out of place, so unnatural and disgusting it makes my stomach sick. The second this cell opens Vi should be out of that cell searching for her sister to save her. Like what's wrong with people who wrote this scene? How anyone approved it into final cut? 💀
Timebomb is also way more inconsistent btw. Like, in s1ep7 Ekko beat Jinx to death on the bridge, and there is no interaction between them whatsoever until s2ep8 and we're supposed to believe that all of a sudden they're lovers??
I disagree with you on the Cait and Vi sex scene... Because it's actually worse than you put it.
Vi was in that cell because she tried to free Jinx and then Jinx locked her up and ran off before saying, "I'm going to break the cycle," in a depressed nihilistic tone.
Now if I were Vi, I'd be worried sick thinking "My sister's going to unalive herself! I got to get out of here and save her!" Mostly because that is what Jinx is unambiguitously planning on doing.
So, you'd think as soon as Cait unlocks the cell, Vi would immediately sprint out of there and try to do everything in her power to find Jinx as quick as possible...
But no. That's not what she does, because it turns out she is very horny.
Somehow... being intimate with Cait is more important to her in this moment that her sister's life...
This is probably the worst character assassination I've seen in my entire life. And I've seen plenty.
This was the precise moment I turned on the show.
And if that wasn't enough,
- Mel just knows how magic works and is really good at it despite finding out she was a witch literally yesterday.
- Ambessa's motive is that she thinks mages are dangerous and bad, so she teams up with Vicktor.... a techno-mage...
- Oh, and the Noxians even attack Piltover despite the fact all Ambessa wanted to do was defeat the Black Rose. So why is she attacking Piltover? Wouldn't that create just a little bit of an awkward situation given Piltover and Noxus are trading partners? Is she doing this because Viktor (or more accurately the script) told her to?
- And don't even get me started on the fact that Jayce tells Viktor that the wizard who saved boy Jayce was future/alternate Viktor, and this convinces Viktor to not take peoples' free will away because... Actually, why would that convince him to stop his plan he seems to be really committed to just now?
Man, this season was just so disappointing.
At least the soundtrack was fire.
We were told if one word was to describe season 2 in one word it was war, well where the fuck is this war it's only a single battle in the final episode. Episode three of season two set up Kait as a Piltover dictator thinking all of act two will be the Piltover-Zaun war we were promised and then in episode seven have Embessa betray Kait and Piltover then have episodes eight and nine have Zaun and Piltover team up to take on Noxus. But even that would still feel rushed I'd argue that Ekko,Hiemer and Jayce's trip though the Arcane verse could have been a whole act while if it had happened in season one Vi's pit fighter story would have been a whole episode instead of two minutes.
Yep they speed run every plotline that's the problem. It's not the story or the plot that is the problem it's the speed running. Our boy Ekko cooked up time travel and multiverse in less than 40 minutes 😂😂😂 wtf? There was a compelling story to be told with him in that timeline but riot dropped the ball hard.
Agreed
Yes! Season 2 is a total writing collapse. Like joker 2 or late season game of thrones.
They retconed season 1.
Of is jinx finally at peace being a villain?
Nope, retconed. She's sad again and doesn't want to be a villain doesn't want to be jinx.
Why? She's best girl can't do anything wrong. Can't support women's wrongs.
In season 1 she was an elite mob assassin who killed at least multiple dozens of people, probably hundreds if not low thousands.
She laughed maniacaly as she gunned them down.
She committed multiple terrorist attacks that killed people.
But season 2? She best girl. Silly jinx! Color smoke attack!
It would make sense that Catlyn would become more desperate to get jinx, more unhinged in the pursuit of jinx if she was running around killing people left and right.
But know. Jinx does color bombs and then retires. So why does Caitlyn become obsessed with jinx? Like yeah jinxed killed Caitlyn's mother of course but why be dictator and opress the entire under city.
Just personally try to track jinx down. But since jinx isn't killing anyone it's not the same intensity.
There's a million ways to Sunday where you could have taken the story that would have been better than this
And Caitlyn never even does anything bad. Because she is also best girl.
That's why she should have accidentally killed Iesha. Or even just accidentally wounded her.
Jayce accidentally killed a kid in camera in season 1.
Imagine if he didn't. It went from him going the undercity is dangerous to you Silco my man let's have peace you can get independence.
Like what?
Oh i changed my mind off camera
But that's exactly what Caitlin did in season 2
It's sad so many people are saying s2 is a masterpiece cuz that tells me that it's lost to so many people what truly made arcane s1 so special. But most people get caught up in the hyped moments and spectacle which is amazing. I still enjoyed it it's good but not the same level of s1. I don't think the storylines were bad either just didn't cook for long enough. But it does scare me because so many people are saying this is a masterpiece I'm afraid the future projects will be similar and they won't ever find their way back to what made s1 incredible.
I swear it is not bad, it had moments where it was better than s1. Here is how I see the stories, Ambessa is great
Jayce is great
Ekkko is good
WW was good in the beginning after he's just a husk
Cait is cringe
Vi is a victim of cait
Jinx is good
Viktor his original story is way better this just complicated everything so he is bad
Now they fked camille
@@roronoazoro8403 I never said it was bad I said it's not a masterpiece. I agree the hype moments were peak in s2. But that's not a reason to ignore the terrible pacing and bad story telling. S2 had Ekko cook up time travel and a whole ass multiverse in less than a 40-minute span like wtf? The Ekko storyline could be it's own season tbh at least a whole arc with him as the main. Riot literally speed running through everyone's plotline. Like I said before this scares me for future shows in this universe if this is the direction they go in it's going to turn into modern day MCU 2.0 and be dog shit. It's not only about the spectacles we need to see the characters stories their motivations their conflicts that's how to properly develop characters that is why Silco was such a good bad guy that is why everyone loves Jinx. We need that not just some cool animations and rushed plotlines.
@edgybravo4287 yeah I agree with you with rushed story lines, but in there defence they had that 3 episodes per act system, so it is a bit hard. And I hope it doesn't become MCU type of universe
@@roronoazoro8403 Yeah I hope not I've been a league player for 12 years and seeing characters I main be in a show is absolutely insanely cool. I loved s1 and I want to love whatever they make I just hope it doesn't turn into just some cool animation fan service crap. That is my deepest fear for this show. S1 is still one of my top 5 favorite animation series of all-time though absolute masterpiece. S2 is still good too I just hope they learn from it and don't undercook plotlines going forward.
See this is a valid point. I'm seeing a lot of comments with some invalid criticisms due to them expecting the story to have been spoon fed to them
I was very hyped coming into season 2, I couldnt make it past episode 4... they really dropped the ball from season 1's standard
Thank god I found this video, I thought I was going mad. Reading all the toxic positivity comments on Rotten Tomatoes & Letterboxd from mOdErN aUdIeNcE consumers and/or bots is so disheartening because it'll deem this season a success and the creators will have learnt nothing and will put out more below par "content".
OK so you guys are just Throw around toxic positivity all Over the place, that it won't mean anything. like people crying woke. news flash but alot people actually like the show and think it's was good .if you didn't like it okay just realize not everyone is going to share your opinion .
@@kingj9664 This comment was about as well as constructed as the show was. You're in such a hot rage and so eager to get your nonsensical point across, you're all over the place. Thanks for proving my point.
@@jonmetcalf6565 Yeah sorry about that, Text of speech really does just suck. Honestly dude everything you just said about me applies to you As well. calling everything toxic positivity getting mad people are enjoying the show and mad that riot is probably gonna make more content like this and acting like this is the worst show of all time. I don't know dude that sounds a little bit hot rage to me
@@kingj9664 ok, i get where you're coming from, but seriously 100% from critics & 91% audience score for a season that was nowhere near as good as the first?! It's a bit over-the-top is it not? And I get that there are those who are gonna like it, fair enough, but whenever I ask people what they like about it, I get nothing but empty statements like "oooh, it's art", "oooh, the music is good", or "wow, the parrallels"... so what!? What about the writing?? You can have the best looking tv show, film or video game but if the writing and story isn't good (and the story sucks, and I'll die on that hill) you have nothing.
@jonmetcalf6565 I guess that is over the top almost the same as saying that the show is completely terrible and I'm going to take what you just said about the people you've had conversations with about this showWhere the grain of salt. Because it's beyond as no one trusts critics scores Rotten tomatoes. Good night audience like it then hey bud I know to tell you they just like it
THANK YOU
yeah I don't agree with everything, but the underlying reality remains that they fumbled this season. I really wanted to love it and I'm sad that most people don't agree only because it means the future LoL projects will probably go the same way
It was very painful to watch. I guess i will need to watch season 1 again to wash off this mess. Season 2 is basically glorified animations and music videos. No story whatsoever to tell
Season 2 is just style over substance. Season 1 has both style and substance.
season 2 ruined season 1 for me
I think main problem is it cheap writing. End of season 1 jinx look like she will replace silco. It should be conflicted of zoine and piltover. And some Fing reason noxus come 0 hin from season 1 and becomes main plot
Yes a broken jinx that just lost her father figure and committed 9-11 on the piltover government would totally take on the mantle of Silco… Glad the commenters didn’t write the story
@ptr4410 another stupid point is cait just forgive jinx because vi say so 🙄 she kill her mother and make her father gone depressed noone in the world will forgive her if something like that happen to them
the fuck language are you speaking rn 💀 im not trusting a review from anyone that types like this
Finally an honest review. Yes season 1 was great, but season 2 is trash with some good moments
You do know there have been plenty of honest reviews they are just reviews you don't like because they like the show
@@kingj9664 If they are honest reviews, they cant like season 2, but no one says its bad which means they are not honest
@@vimukthimendis4708 Everything you just said sounded so stupid. Just because they like it doesn't mean they're not being honest they just like it. And the people who have brought up the flaws to this show don't think it's bad because guess what these problems aren't as bad as you are making them out To be
@@kingj9664 Guess someone is a NPC fanboy😂
@@vimukthimendis4708 Ah so I see were just tossing around Insults set of answering questions, Yeah you guys criticisms are totally valid lol 😆 😄 😂
“More interested in big, applause-generating moments built on emotions over substance” hit the nail right on the head!!! As an aspiring screenwriter and a huge nerd when it comes to storytelling, I hate hate HATE when stories are more focused on the audience than the story. It never works out, NEVER. It just turns your story into a shallow, insecure spectacle. Good (and enjoyed) media is made when you just forget about the audience and focus on what YOU want the story to be!
I hate time travel in shows, Jayce only made made hextex because the Wizard (Victor) gave him that stone, so he went back to give Jayce the stone because? he caused the death of hundreds to thousands because why? He said it's the only timeline where Jayce taught him to do (something i forget), how about you go with the timeline where you don't cause needless death you selfish asshole.
Characters with time travel shouldn't be flawed in that way unless their meant to be irredeemable villains. Viktor *was* a likeable character
It's also doesn't make any sense to me. Because if we buy it, ok Viktor, you now God trough space and Time. SO WHY TF did you don't fix YOUR YOUNGER SELF but instead playing with jayce in every dimension. That's some lame shit.... Like they wrote this right in the end, so Viktor can say " oh jayce only you can show me this ☺️" and fans of their ship will have food for decades
Basically, in that ep 7 timeline where Viktor wins and creates the hive mind, he regrets it. That timeline is the one in which Ekko does NOT come back with the Z drive. So, once he achieved perfection, he was alone with nothing to strive for.
Jayce, being his one friend, is the only person who could show him that his goal wasn't worth reaching, because Viktor realized how much he missed him. That future Viktor loved Jayce enough to try and go back to fix it, by giving baby Jayce different runes for Ekko to try so he can throw that anomaly in his face. He knows Jayce is the only one who could make him change his mind (because he DID change his mind, just too late in that timeline).
Yes, it was ultimately Viktor's future self saying the words that our Viktor hears that convinces him, but that wouldn't have worked if Viktor didn't have that affection for Jayce. He wouldn't have cared about the solitude.
It is implied that if Jayce died as a child, he wouldn't have grown up to become Viktor's friend, so there would be no one to stop Viktor (or someone else) from inventing Hextech that destroys the world. You have to kind of accept that Hextech ruins everything eventually in all realities, but this future Viktor is the only reality in which someone is trying to fix it, and he's trying to fix it ONLY because Jayce exists.
I think a lot of the writing this season is stupid, but this part at least is solid.
Introducing time travel and alternate timelines is almost always a terrible idea. There are like 3 examples of time travel in all of fiction that makes any sense.
Even in stuff I genuinely like such as Ocarina of Time, Back to the Future, Terminator, etc, the mechanics of the time travel really don't hold up in any way.
@@laurennightingale4752 naw, that's dumb. I do thank you for the in depth description, I do still find it unfulfilling and boring. Plus Viktor wouldn't exist without Viktor going into the past so just don't... the storyline they showed us was a timeline where he's a self entitled ass.
@@hydrabuster3981 Oh I don't disagree that it's dumb that the story went this direction lmao, and there are many other parts of it that don't make sense (like everything Jayce did with the foreknowledge that he could stop Viktor with the power of love... like trying to kill him repeatedly...)
BUT I do think future Viktor's plan makes sense. "Entitled Ass Viktor" as you call him, won, but he is also the Viktor that decided to influence time and fix it. Again, you have to assume Viktor inevitably finds a way to his glorious evolution without Jayce in other timelines, but in those he does nothing to fix it.
100000% agreed. Me and my sister struggled to finish season 2 because we were so disappointed with it. Time to forget about it and season 1 only exists in my mind. Kinda like umbrella academy, only 3 seasons exist😂
So we get a whole arc of Jinx becoming a symbol for Zaun and Isha's mother/big sis just for her to do alone what Vi offered her to do together at the end of last season - run away???
Letting her sister believe that she is responsible for her death is actually the cruelest thing you could do to a sibling. And don't tell me Vi could never be happy with her around. Vi clearly accepted her for who she is (remember her saying "What do you think?" in Episode 6 and "use all that explosive potential of yours for good", which clearly directed at Jinx and not Powder) and believed in her nonetheless. And if Jinx had to go anyway, why not at least tell Vi she's alive? I'm 100% sure she would understand.
Letting her sister believe that she is responsible for her death is actually the cruelest thing you could do to a sibling = Thank you for saying this. I’m guessing we’re supposed to interpret this as Jinx feeling like too much of a burden and wanting to protect her sister from herself. Okay, fine-but in that case, let Vi find out she’s still alive and show her otherwise. What message does this send to people who can relate to Jinx? That they should actually fake their death to avoid making their loved ones unhappy?
And even then, Jinx was supposed to be feeling a little better after whatever Ekko told her. She should’ve had a better understanding that both Vi and Ekko genuinely care about her. She even told Vi she had freed her from the responsibility of taking care of her, which showed Jinx was starting to move toward a less codependent relationship.
If she needed to go and recover in solitude, fine-but faking her death wasn’t necessary for that. I feel like they prioritized shock value and ambiguity about whether she’s alive over a meaningful resolution. I absolutely hated it.
Everyone is so caught up in the hyped moments and spectacle of it all they don't see how bad the writing, storytelling and pacing of this season was. Deadass had someone popping off on me about how I just don't understand the show and the writing is too detailed and complicated for me. 🤣🤣 One thing I'll add to your tangent Jinx was the symbol of Zaun after Ekko disappeared and Ekko saw a good version of Jinx/Powder. There was a compelling story to be told between the two main timeline characters they literally spent ep7 setting it up. Then they drop the ball hard we needed to see how Ekko would convince her there is a good version of her and then we see Ekko realize that she has become the symbol/leader of Zaun after he disappeared. Then we can get them to finally come to an understanding and rally the troops of Zaun to help in the battle. Like there is soooo many things to tell but they speed run every fu*king plotline and it's not "good writing" like everyone seems to think it is... Episode 8-9 were a complete mess cool animations and action sequences but just a complete mess.
@@Arcana17 So I am not the only one who feels that way...good to know.
So I am not the only one who feels that way...good to know.
So I am not the only one who feels that way...good to know.
I think a better ending would have been if vi and jinx leave together on that airship seen at the end, their sisterhood reunited and healed symbolising the reunification or new understanding between piltover and zaun. It would have also been a nice callback to when at the end of season 1 episode 9 vi proposed jinx that they could leave together and never come back. Having the sister be off to travel the world with vi leaving a letter to caitlyn saying that she will see her soon. That would have been a true resolution to jinx story/character arc. They could than write in the league of legends games how jinx and vi came back to zaun/piltover and how caitlyn reunited with vi. I feel they failed the sisterhood by not having the show ending with them being together, even if it is only in death. The ending feels too open ended and it's almost like jinx story is not even complete. I loathe ambiguous ending, especially for what is supposed to be the end of a show like Arcane.
I also think Jinx grossly miscalculated here. Sure Vi will eventually move on and find some form of happiness, but her death/absence will always be a giant gaping hole in her soul. Those sister needs each other, as much as zaun and piltover needs each other. Thats what this whole show kept throwing back in our face for 2 whole season. No matter how angry or hurt they were by the other, they could never really bring themselves to kill or seriously maim each other. Thats why this ending is the worst for the sisters and why it completely ruined arcane for me. The sisters being separated is the worst decision the writer could have made. In the end I believe the sisters should have shared the same fate. Either they die together, or they live together. Just like piltover/Zaun shares each others fate. If one city fall so does the other. Sorry to say but there is nothing that anyone can say that would change my mind. The writer went for the obvious ending, and although not terrible (I liked the show just saying it's the ending that piss me off) it was definitely bad.
But that isn't Arcane, it isn't supposed to be a happy ending.
Vi has chance at happiness with Caitlyn and that's probably the reason Jinx decided to leave
I can't help but agree. When it comes to media, season 2 of Arcane is one of the biggest disappointments in recent history.
Caitlyn inheriting everything doesn't seem to far-fetched since she is a full blood Kiramman and her father just married into the family. One criticism I don't really agree with.
Yeah, that was a bit of an odd complaint.
@@gathenhielm9977complaining about popular thing gets views.
Only men can have direct genetic heritage, so Cait can't be a "full blood" by definition.
I get your point tho, traditionally she would inherit the position then and not the father, but was this even explained in the show? They can't rely on the idea that the average viewer dwells in arcane lore, not even their average player does that. Not to mention they completely brushed aside Cait's inner conflict with her big family name and her personal desires, they didn't show the transition if she had one.
@@solarydays why would it need to be explained? we don't need to be handheld she is the only heir her dad has no kiramann blood why would anyone be confused?
@@moe5020 I elaborated on those very questions in my previous comment.
You may as well ask then why need anything to be explained in any story or why do even need to make sense at all.
Mostly because there is no other way to get the reader/viewer care about the story you are trying to tell.
My thoughts exactly...everyone should stop pretending it's good and finally accept for how bad it is after getting a marvelous masterpiece that is season 1 of Arcane
People have different opinions, buddy. Just because you don't like doesn't mean people who do are pretending.
@@rainnald0 nah, he said pretending it's good. you can like something and still acknowledge that it's just not that good . especially when you were already given a good version to set the standard
@@solarydays That's what I'm talking about. They're supposing whats pretending somethings good based on their experience of not liking it
@@rainnald0 no, I don't think you understood what I said
@@solarydays maybe... I'm dumb sometimes
I couldn’t say it better. Iam realy disappointed about S2
It doesn't suck, but it DEFINITELY isn't as good as season 1. My biggest problem that no one has been able to dispute so far, is that Vi lost her status as main character. When it was clearly her story in season 1, in season 2, she takes a back seat and her character becomes a little watered down. There are other problems with the season, but this is the one that comes to mind first for me
You have to define what you consider to be a "main character"
Season 1 is awesomely great. Season 2 is dissapointing because i just mostly see a lot of wasted money and what could have been. It has just gone too abstract and illogical. (just my opinion)
The pacing of the story and all the additional plotlines they added was too much. All these nobody characters they kind of force on you is crazy, then dont even get me started on the whole jinx vs vi plotlines. They turned jinx from a psycho wildcard to some predictable caring character like wtf. Her and vi start working together, like cmon man. Its hard to watch this show and im on ep 6.
100% agree. A few minor things I think do have some explanations, and some criticisms were missed in this video, but good job!
This video could have easily been 60 or even 90 minutes long with how much dumb nonsense happens, but unlike Arcane season 2, I actually understand pacing.
Bro, when you compared Game of thrones to Arcane, it was so on point. Watching season 2 of Arcane gave me such ptsd from game of thrones season 8.
i saw the first 3 episodes. dont need to see the rest. the pacing alone ruins it all
Yep. I agree with a lot of your points. Season 2 basically changed the premise of the story, and all of the nuanced set up and amazing characterization established in Season 1 was just horrifically butchered. There’s a lot of people banging on about how bad the pacing was, but if anything, I doubt more episodes or another entire season would have fixed anything. That’s a core tenet of writing - you do not throw your premise in the garbage for a new one. All of the problems with this season arise from that singular mistake. That, and the writers kept destroying character motivations, probably because they didn’t want popular characters like Jinx and Cait to come off as the “bad guy.” Jinx suddenly not hearing voices and being okay reconciling with Vi was just…a bad decision. And it was a bad decision that was made because the writers were more worried about pandering to the audience with feel-good moments than allowing the characters to continue their character arcs from Season 1. Vi and Cait were regulated to shipping bait, with Cait’s dictator era just going unmentioned like she didn’t torture and gas people. And honestly, there’s a very strong argument that Viktor and Jayce were also regulated to just shipping bait. Season 2 Ambessa is a stupid shadow of her Season 1 self. Season 1 Ambessa was ruthless and a warrior through and through, but I doubt she would have made the colossal fck-up of not nabbing Jayce before she did anything else. And if her main motivation was her fear of the Black Rose because their mage powers negate the efforts of warriors, why in the hell would she be okay with working with Viktor and the people he’s turned into mind-controlled robots? Ambessa’s character has always been about control, so it makes zero sense she would work with Viktor when she didn’t have any means to control him. Like, if you go through Season 2 beat by beat, character by character, you can see the terrible writing and insane lack of logic every step of the way.
God ya Ambessa's motivations were a mess. Inviting the terrorist attack and NOT interfering to keep Jayce from losing his head? The one guy (since Viktor was in the goop cocoon) who can make the Hextech weapons you came here for? In season 1? I think she kind of forgot..
but brooooo gay segsss with dictator gf brooo
I guess your points makes sense if you strip away the nuance and try and force a narrative that can be found nowhere but inside your head.
I love this comment so much. Everyone complaining about the show being rushed…I’m like “there’s rushed, and then there’s completely abandoning character motivation that you painstaking set up in the previous season.” Wild that most people are not seeing this.
This season had way to much stuff going on. Both new and old, it left to many questions unanswered and a some of the deaths feel they were there for shock value sense there not addressed the biggest one being Heimerdinger. Warwick felt more like a plot device more then a character especially compared to the other champions ( he doesn’t even go full werewolf). Now we got time travel multiverse BS, a Noxxian war, Mel is now magic, where’s Warwick and jinx did they both die to. If this is the end of the zaun and puiltover story I’m sorry this isn’t satisfying.
Christian Linke, head writer of the show, did a stream/interview after season 2 where he stated characters we see die in the show aren't actually dead or can come back, specifically stating that Heimerdinger is actually alive. Killed any hope I had for future LoL TV projects.
I didn't even know what Season 2 was about
It was about tying into the videogame canon, sort of.
@@AmmiO It was not, please don't say that lmao. Arcane S2 just undo a lot of the game's lore and made a lot of implications that ruin a lot of the world building that was established before, don't blame the game cannon, it's also a victim of what the writers did in this season.
@@Just_Kumoki
Huh looks like Arcane S2 writing brought havoc on both League players and those who like Arcane alike.
Seen some Warwick fans disappointment with the way they treated him in the show before. I feel really sorry, this Season is a mess for us all
That's because you're just too "dumb" and cannot understand how incredibly "detailed" and good the writing is. 🤣🤣🤣
I agree. They stuffed what should’ve been multiple seasons into one and the plot and writing ended up sucking. People are just used to watching slop now I guess.
Really great video. I watched all of arcane s1 and s2 for the first time the last 2 days, and you are totally right to compare it to TLJ or GOT.
The plot, the characters, and the pacing were so beautifully executed in season 1.
In season 2, it all just unravels. You could do 10 videos and not capture why entirely. It doesn’t matter that season 2 is an “okay” show in a vacuum. It’s terrible in a way that you feel hearing a bad cover or remix of your favorite song.
Not only did the show makers waste the greatest opportunity they will ever be given, they ruined pieces of a show for me I really loved.
Very disappointing.
After episode 6 in season 2 I only had one major question, why did Jayce shoot Viktor? That action killed Vander again, separated Vi and Jinx once more and made Viktor switch his beliefs, leading the show into this huge war with Viktor's support. And they failed to deliver that and instead we learned that shooting Viktor was, in fact, the worst outcome possible. If he didn't shoot him then he would save Vander and keep on helping people in pain. If he killed him then the whole thing would be over but instead he shoots him and leaves him alive and immediately goes back to piltover and say they need to get ready to war... WTF? All he had to do was show viktor what the other viktor from another dimension wanted him to show or actually kill him! But they never had a conversation. So, in the end Jayce tries to kill Viktor once more but in the last moment he just wanted his partner back. NO FUCKING SENSE and immature plot!
They did some characters dirty in act 3 like Jinx. In the beginning of the season when Caitlin's mother died they handmade some charcoal scenes and it was great. It was an important moment and added to her character. When Isha died no one said her name even once. And it was a huge development in Jinx's character. Isha was the perfect bridge for Jinx to lead Zaun because Isha loved seeing her as their savior. But instead we got Ekko, who she had no connection with, asking her not to kill herself and she does it? After vi tried to help her but again, not mentioning isha's name even once. They tried to force Ekko so much in this last act and made everything confusing and characters were betrayed because of that. 100% fan service. At some point I truly believed they had multiple endings ready and went with the one that would please the crowd. This because of how poorly written the characters became, how weak their conversations were and the plot just went into a crazy direction.
Anyone saying episode 7 is great must have their brain on pause. The lack of buildup into ekko and jinx relationship made me feel nothing in that scene where they are dancing together. I could tell the visuals were nice and the music was cool but there was no feeling there. And I think people are missing the fact that ekko is not powder's ekko, he took over his body. Him taking advantage of that situation and not being honest about it is really fked up to me. She even saw him leaving that dimension and was left with some other ekko. It's just weird to me and people saying this was the best episode is crazy.
Louder! Especially part about jinx trust in ekko. Last time they meet they were fighting to death. And now one conversation OFF SCREEN and she all in. And people seems don't care at all ☠️ pure fancervice
I think they tried to do too much. First season they talked about going back and forth for years about the story. Now they have less time, more money, and probably Netflix standing over their shoulders. I bet they were pushed by Netflix and deadlines. Then there is the creators of the game . . .
Finally someone brave enough to call out its flaws. There were things I did like. But largely this was very rushed, felt very much like a video game instead of the grounded show we got in S1, and character motivations kind of just make no sense because just about NOTHING is given enough time. If they were only given 9 more episodes to wrap the story up, truthfully they should've shrunken the scale of what they were trying to write. Because so much of what was good about the show gets lost in all these jumbled up stories. It's really shocking the Piltover/Zaun divide basically disappears by Act II of this season when it was part of the core of the entire series.
Agreed with most of this video, happy to see someone address some of the other issues aside from just the pacing
I think you absolutely nailed the problems with this season and it reiterates exactly how I felt as I watched along. This season never really catches the heights of S1. I’ve been thinking a lot about how they should’ve taken a different approach this season (i.e. cutting out certain character’s arcs in favor of other like expanding on Heimerdinger (redemption arc) and his flashback’s with Magic destroying the world and the guilt he feels allowing Zaun/Pilltover issues to fester leading to the council incident or how he was a mentor to both Jayce and Viktor so it would’ve been cool to see how he would’ve interacted with the two, etc. but I would love to hear you’re take on what you would change about this season in a follow-up video
Also, I really feel like Jinx should’ve been the main antagonist for S2 (following the set-up of the end of S1) and to really show her unhinged without Silco guiding her emotional state and her embracing the ‘Jinx’ identity. Maybe even eventually uniting Zaun and forcing Jayce to build Hextech weapons (an idea he was vehemently against in S1 but then forgets about it and proceeds to build it anyways without much explanation after the council attack) However, what we got was a Jinx more mentally stable than ever especially after meeting Isha who (literally) falls out of the sky to solve all her problems. She exists for no other reason than to be a function for Jinx’s arc, with her death being so predictable the second she was on screen
IMO wait to do the Viktor Messiah arc in a third season after you resolve the Zaun Piltover problem (which was the entire premise of S1 but is put on the shelf in S2) maybe have Viktor awaken in act 3 as a cliff hanger. Have Jinx push Jayce to the edge by forcing him to abandon his morals to fight the undercity and the resulting aftermath of a destroyed city being the reason why Jayce and Viktor split rather than what we got. By shelving that story to S3 you have the runtime to really flesh out all the character arcs / interactions that you worked so hard to build in S1
I think you skipped the one that personally pissed me off the most…
And that is Jinx and Vi talking for like 5 minutes, and all of a sudden the whole conflict between them is just resolved. Surely you can say that „oh, but they still hold some grudge against themselves”, but yet the only thing that we see is them just being kinda mean and grumpy. And I guess we COULD somehow just ignore that if it would’ve been just some random side-plotline, but it was the MAIN plot of the WHOLE SHOW.
The directors decided that they actually don’t care about it at all, and rather do a huge epic fight with robots and Jesus… this is such a smack in the face towards fans tbh
I’m talking about the scene after the emo-Vi montage in episode 5 if anyone wonders
Jinx and Vi got too much screen time when it should have been the B or C plot. Especially Jinx, they just threw everything out there to try and redeem her and made her character boring. All that Black Rose shit was a complete waste of time, easily the worst part of the season. Multiverse was a necessary evil since they chose to kill off main characters. Being willing to kill of main characters is the one thing that gives me hopes for future seasons.
Nah, it wasn’t that they got too much screen time - it was that their screen time didn’t amount to anything and was very poorly written. You can honestly say the same of every single character in Season 2, unfortunately. Example - what happened to Ekko’s tree that was blighted by the arcane? That went nowhere. Cait doing heinous acts against Zaun in her grief…yep, I guess we’re just going to sweep it under the rug. Vi only existed for Cait, and didn’t have much of a real interest in her own sister. Viktor and Jayce’s arcs were then tied tightly to the arcane and trans humanism, but their original - and actually interesting - arc about using hex tech to help solve poverty and disease and human suffering went out of the door. The real problem is that the writers veered away from the original premise of Piltover vs. Zaun’s class war, and the fact that they were more interested in fan fiction-level writing than anything else. It’s such poor writing that they’ve got people like you blaming Vi and Jinx, who were some of the best parts of Season 1, when it really was just terrible writing that and erasure of the show’s premise that’s the problem.
The ending was pure garbage, Warwick looks like a cheap version taken from Wildrift Mobile
The dwarf from Willow?
Just finished season2.
Did the developers become drug addicts or something when they worked on this? Like wtf did I just watch? Such a clusterf-k…
You summarized my frustrations perfectly and most disappointingly, I really think 5 minute longer cut per episode and dropping some scenes would resolve most of the issues, making the second season perfect. Somebody, call Zack Snyder! :D
Season 1 was a simple, grounded story. Efficient and effective.
Season 2 decided it was Leaguin' Time so yea, a lot of stuff felt rushed and a few too many plot threads that could've been trimmed out entirely, namely the Black Rose.
I agree about the overuse of music video montages. I thought episode 1's "I Can't Hear It Now" worked well in setting up Caitlyn's arc and was an emotionally effective scene. I thought episode 2's "Sucker" was great for conveying the current state of Undercity in the wake of Silco's death. Much of the rest do feel self-indulgent and don't really do anything for the story. But FCK, "Isha's Song" makes me cry. I hate season 2's emotional manipulation but it's soooo good. Guilty pleasure/misery.
My biggest gripe is also the "Blisters and Bedrock" flashback and, by extension, the "Remember Me" memory flashback from episode 6. I do believe they create a plot hole in season 1, especially Silco as not only does he not seem to know who Vi and Powder are, other than being Vander's adopted kids, I do not believe Silco would go so far as to kill Vi and Powder knowing they were Felicia's kids, one of the reasons he was fighting for Zaun's independence.
That said, I enjoyed season 2 overall but it pales in comparison to season 1 and I can live with that.
So true! That thing really boggles my mind too. If Silco intitially had really known Vi and Powder are his friends daughters, there's no way he would be ready to kill them! Instead of ordering to his goons to deal with Vi on this old factory when they came for Vander, he would try to talk to her, to manipulate her to be on his side, but not straight up order killing her AND all of her friends.
Besides he would have really good odds at least at making Vi doubt her worldview, since in these episodes they both say something along the line "I want respect (from Piltover)"
But that thing they did in the Season 2 is just... something
@aaltuxov Silco actually did know who they were last season since he goes up to Powder and asks "Where's your sister?". There's nothing to suggest he would be against killing Vi and Powder just because he knew their mother a long time ago. You have to consider too that he needed them dead to get rid of Vander and he was already at the "at any cost" stage of his plan.
@@za-ir5ni
He did knew they are sisters because it's damn obvious. He had his eyes on them (those teenage goons that were beaten by Vi & the gang). Plus it's just a pure logic: there are two girls that look alike, most likely they are sisters.
There's nothing in Season 1 that indicates he knew their parents and/or was in good relationships with them or the girls. S1 and S2 Silco story regarding those kids is like two completely different universe 💀
@aaltuxov He knew who they were for a long time and that Vi was Vander's prodigy. He just never around them growing up. There's nothing to contradict in S1 that he knew them. That's just an assumption you made.
@@za-ir5ni
I'm sorry but there's nothing to prove your assumption either without using S2 materials. Considering only S1 story my point on Silco initially not knowing the kids and their parents has stronger basis supporting it. Yes, Silco did know about the kids for a long time. But he initially had no connections to them whatsoever (he didn't know personally neither their parents nor the kids themselves)
So I'm afraid you're the one in the wrong in regards of S1 narrative
Season 2 was so boring and Jinx was no longer the scary juggernaut that you saw in season 1. They ruined every opportunity to make it a great series.
I'm particularly ticked off that Jinx's minigun is actually useless. She never kills anyone with it except Silco. Bullets literally harmlessly bouncing off cyber-Vander in the finale.
@@AmmiOwhat a strange thing to focus on.
@@AmmiO I didn't agree with everything you stated in your video essay here. For example, it should be glaringly obvious that the Kiramman family is matrilineal. Caitlyn's father seems to occupy the same space in their household as Kino's father did in Ambessa's. She was a Medarda, her husband married into HER family. I mean, you do realize that Tobias took Cassandra's last name, right? And surely you saw that long line of matriarchs in those paintings on the wall in Cassandra's study. What did you notice? No men. So, anything that was to be passed on posthumously would obviously go to the first born girl, who by birthright was an "actual" Kiramman. Little things like that aside I did agree with about 97% of what you said.
A buddy of mine worked on this show and even he (in private) had reservations about what was going on in this second season 2 years back. His exact words..."some of this doesn't make any sense". lol
From breaking bad to avengers age of ultron in 3 episodes. So sad to see this show become so bad
Age of Ultron is the perfect comparison. Generic Marvel action against robots that's too busy setting up spinoffs than focusing on the characters
deserved
I agree with the vast majority of your analysis..
However seeing the majority of people who enjoyed season 2 having absolute meltdowns and levying their own counterarguments towards your analysis, sometimes wuth merit, sometimes with just pure salt, had me intrigued until i got to a point where your analysis completely contradicted how i felt about episode 7.
Curiously enough in this episode, from a technical standpoint the writing was more reflective of the former glory the show captured in season 1. The episode, as much as it might have been a misuse of time considering where it stands in the context of an overaching plot thats rushed and messy, when you look at it in isolation; the character writing is stronger since the writers are focusing on a smaller more intimate number of people - and not juggling a dozen story threads. Just obseve rhe detail in how Ekko doesnt immediately just fold and start to go along with Powder, but still caries the trauma and hatred from his reality which he has to coax out of himself before he can start to appreciate this reality, all while never losing sight ofnthe fact he has to get back home. That was detailed and thoughtful writing on par with season one, at least on the character level, and proved that had they not gotten carried away, and kept the story more grounded and focused on the quieter intimate themes, they still had the juice. Was the episode fanservice and somewhat indulgent (hence a waste of limited time) yes. But was it well written self indulgent fanservice? Also yes.
So while I enjoyed episode 7 and the character work, I don't disagree with your critique, because your perspective takes stock of the positioning of episode in the plot.
I think this might be a similar thing occuring with people who enjoyed the show despite the decline in quality and they feel the need to crush dissenting voices simply to feel validated in their opinion.
Episode 7 is the true successor of season one in my view, episode 9 was mostly saved by lack of indulgent music video/amv sequences and a greater focus. The rest of the season was subpar,
Well polished, well voice acted, very lavishly presented excess of mediocrity.
Oh dude I thought I was going insane. I loved Season 1. And I did really like the first two acts of Season 2, although the fact that Sevika didn't get much attention gnaws at me, I forgave it. Then Act 3. GOd damn does it fill me with such revulsion. I already hate the concept of alternate universes, so seeing a whole episode dedicated to a alternate universe that doesn't fucking matter...Whew. Anyway.
You raised some of my issues in this vid. The Zaunites that fought with Piltover, sure, but putting on the enforcer uniform?! Goodness.
We saw Sevika rushing into the battle with some Zaunites and that was cool. But to be honest, Episode 7 should have been Sevika rallying Zaun behind her. I say Sevika because she's the one that winds up being a Councilor. Give her being a councilor a bit more substance.
It's just all the people that somehow think Episode 7 is the best in the series...I can't wrap my head around it. It is such a bad take to believe that Episode 7 is the best of Arcane. I just can't believe people would belittle themselves to the copium of the whole "what if" aspect of the alternate universe.
It's baffling. Every single scene in season 1 fills multiple purposes, the script is so goshdarn efficient, and here in season 2 you have an entire episode that is almost emtirely meaningless. And people are calling it the best of the show.
Boggles the mind.
There are emotionally unstable people who will ignore any plot or logic problems as long as they get gay shipping and familial trauma.
Episode 7’s Ekko pieces gave the audience a moment to breath and be happy. It showcased Ekko’s development and gave him motivations to go after Jinx, which was a critical piece of her own arc.
People loved that episode because it emotionally resonated with them and their own lives.
Season 2 has all kinds of problems , but if you focus on Jinx, you find a great story of destruction, love, loss, and sacrifice. Ekko plays a critical role in that arc.
@@Tikemorris78 Your defence of episode 7 is that it made people happy? Well, it made me unhappy, so now we're back at square one.
@@gathenhielm9977 No, my defense is that it’s a character development piece that has emotional resonance with a huge fraction of its audience. It reiterates the themes of love, loss, and sacrifice beautifully.
Sorry it made you unhappy, bro.
I mostly agree. However, I decided to watch both, Seasons 1 and 2 once again. I've finished to rewatch S2E4 by now. I never claimed that S1 was completely flawless, but I can confirm that this was, in general, a masterpiece. Though I spotted this 'transformation of Vander into Warwick' calamity already at the end of S1, hence perhaps the authors had this in mind already creating S1. Who knows, maybe S1 worked that well partially by the accident. Anyway, I can say that S2 Act 1 hold together... relatively well, now, when I rewatched it. But already with the E4, everything goes bad. What pains me most is what they have done to Jinx. I don't mind her getting better along the story. Regaining her mental health and sanity, especially with the help of Isha. But... We all have seen what Jinx is capable of when we erase Powder from the equation. This is a sociopathic, careless person, not care for others' lives. She has 'fun' killing people and blowing things up. And now, from one episode to the other, we have virtually a normal girl - yeah, with a difficult past, maybe a little depressed, but all that insanity is (almost) gone. We have now a caring sister, and a 'big fat hero' to add to this. sister Ok, I know this is probably due to Isha's influence, but we don't really have enough screen time to show us that transformation. Because I think turning a psychopathic murderer into a relatively normal girl is quite a journey, and can't be quick and easy. Even for such a therapist as Isha. Aside from that, I generally agree with all you said, with one major exception. Victor did not take a random book. This was Sky's journal. I see people liking the S2E7 for some reason, but for me this was crappy, totally unfitting to the climate S1 created, but instead copying this 'what if' trope we've seen so many times in many TV series, and does this in that worst (from my point of view) 'teenager' style.
I feel like Cait character is all over the place. I also don't like how shallow are Viktor's ideals. Is he supposed to be smart?
thank you for displaying HOW STUPID season 2 is by the way. each and every... really stupidly portrayed thing. omg. the writing is just SO BAD. wtf. wtf. happened to the writing department.
Flawed? Yes. Absolutely terrible? No.
A-fucking-men.
There is beauty in imperfection
it just seems repetitive. loss, hope, then loss again and make the audience emotional. then we get an avengers fight scene at the end extending like an hour long ending with jinx dying. aight... the tea party scene was gold and we really didnt need another season. season 2 is good but something everyone asked for but it would be awkward if we actually got it. unless you're a casual who just doesnt know anything.
@@King_Pitt repetitive, as in like a self replicating pattern of violence? If only the show had manifested this in some way and maybe had themes around it. Such an anomaly surely wouldn't be missed by haters. It's not like we see characters finally breaking the cycle or anything.
Why do I keep seeing "avengers fight scene" in hater comments? It's like a mind virus slurping up the brains analytical functions.
@@Joeda89 Oh i loved season 1. Its the same situation with prisoners 2012. repetitive cycle done in the film/show because it symbolizes that the cycle seems endless. but there isn't much of an ending you can give if the third act of a film/show seems bleak or if you are rushing the cycle you wrote in ur script straight to the ending. thats why people say its rushed. by the way it was technically an avengers fight scene we haven't gotten many fight scenes in arcane that extend to a whole hour. the bridge scene with ekko should have been enough.
No unfortunately he's kinda right
God god god, thank you for making this video, I am genuinely disappointed how many people think the ending is perfect or a masterpiece. While I was willing to forgive how messy it was in act 1 & 2, act 3 just absolutely fumbled everything I don't think I would be willing to even call it "good"
There are definitely worser shows out there for sure but for a gold standard s1 to drop the ball like this?
And you were right, god I didn't think act 1 was that bad at first and things made sense surface level but the inconsistencies run so deep it gets worse the more you look into it. An even bigger shame that they don't just stay under the surface anymore, do they?
My god thank you for that. Just thank you. I surprised tho that you didn't mention any of Viktor time bs
There is so much bad in the season I didn't manage to catch it all even watching it all the way through twice. A full breakdown of every problem would have probably made the video 90 minutes.
I do agree that season 2 had a lot problems
- how some minor characters doesn't really serve as much impact as the ones in s1.
Like maddie with her relationship with cait was unnecessary, the other dude idk the name of was just some nobody to me, and loris who had some potential to be like the "vander" in vi's life but only for him to die later on.
- then the inconsistencies of the main characters in s1
- the scene for vander's past with felicia might've been good but i feel like vander being this stranger adoptive parent is much better story for me
- the consistent music intro videos felt repetitive in the next episodes
- the pacing was fast not because of the events of the story but the multiple storylines and chosen scenes felt off.
Season 2 had way too much happening and I was left confused. It felt rushed and it didn’t pay off. They needed 3 seasons, it just skipped around too much and it felt so empty.
I have no clue how Victor's ascension works. Everybody ascended just dies besides Orianna AND Warwick because he comes back to life to kill Vi. Additionally, I doubt Warwick is actually dead because he took 3 cores to the face and still had a pulse, but I am supposed to believe his stronger ascended form would die to one (at least I think it was 1). I can't wait for future series to bring back supposedly dead characters because most of them either vanish or die off screen so they aren't actually dead (even Ambessa could come back knowing this series).
Christian Linke, the lead showrunner, went on a stream after the finale and flat out stated that multiple characters who are supposed to be dead actually aren't or could come back. For example, he said Heimerdinger didn't die.
@@AmmiO Heimerdinger is a spirit of some kind and his body is some manifestation that's not important, so when he dies he reappears as spirit somewhere else, it's some league lore about his species.
Jinx, Victor and Jayce were at least hinted to be alive. I don't know how they will give Cait's eye back tho or it doesn't matter anymore that they divert from the game.
some extra annoyances:
- wtf is this security?? you have a funeral following a terrorist attack, all the heads of state are attending and somehow the bad guys casually walk in and smack the speaker in front of everyone? no I don't buy that ambessa could have arranged it. does piltover not have it's own security? what's even more ridiculous is somehow jayce found himself fighting in a 1v1 in a public funeral attack. trump had better security
- jinx casually strolls in and out of prison, twice. she gets incarcerated for months and doesn't go on trial or anything.
- vi's plot armor is reaching brienne of tarth levels, she can join the police force, dismiss half the squad before confronting jinx, sabotage caitlyn, ditch work and get into an emo street fight phase, meet up with the mass murderer and not arrest her, attack ambessa in her quarters. attack a prison guard and release the terrorist, and STILL 0 CONSEQUENCES FOR ANYTHING. fuck this character, vi and cait are the worst thing about arcane. I could overlook things if she was entertaining or charismatic or remotely interesting but she's not.
- cait sucks, I don't even concede that she was good in season 1, she always sucked. She does nothing, accomplishes nothing, constantly gives annoying sappy speeches and changes her entire worldview every 3 scenes. The way she is magically turned on and forgets everything when she gets called cupcake is akin to brainwashing, not romance. she randomly went from junior cop to leader of the city, piltover is just the worst.
- some dramatic moments are just too fake, like the ep3 fight, oh no this 5 year old ran 30 meters in 1 second and stood in front of my punch, what can i possibly do? I guess I'll just attack my partner derp. did this writer never have siblings or what? push the brat away and take the shot. it's nowhere near as tense as the show is pretending it is.
- jinx' personality; hardened cold blooded killer does not go well with traumatized child losing her sanity does not go well with marvel quipping dipshit, also she's a master engineer, master of stealth and master martial artist now. where does she have the resources? I don't know how she even manages to feed herself after sylco died, let alone pull off all the shit that she does with impunity while basically everyone in the world is searching for her.
- Ambessa talks too much, this is a limitation of a liberal writer, they just can't begin to conceive a character that is stoic and ruthlessly efficient, so they tell instead of show. same goes with writing a supposedely wise character like heimerdinger, he became a joke instead.
Your last point was lampshaded in Episode 6 when Vi was handcuffed in Ambessa's tent. Not only did Vi call her a "self-righteous windbag," but told her to "shut the f--- up!" 😂
I do wish they wouldn't have the characters be so on-the-nose with their dialogue, though. Vi would speak in ways that a streetfighter from the slums would never speak, such as, "How long were you sidled up with that self-serving warpig? She oinked poison in your ear and you just ate it!" This was most likely a reference to Hamlet, but having Vi of all people say it was clearly a case of writer's conceit.
It's extra satisfying to see someone so openly call put this show on its bullshit. Writing in this Season sucks and it's pity that many decide to ignore the current show quality.
Can agree upon most of the things you said. And it's refreshing to see some new I haven't noticed before. Like fr writers giving Vi lines that doesn't align with her taught by the streets kind of character feels out of place a bit
I was pretty much arguing with the screen about these exact things. I still don't get how is Jinx able to move faster than what's physically possible even in that universe. I thought they gonna use Jayce messing with the arcane as a catalyst for the characters to gain some special abilities that eventually makes them champions, but that did not happen.
@@solarydays She was revived with Shimmer, remember? Shimmer is what's giving her the powers, it's reminiscent of her passive in League where she'll gain AS and Movement Speed after getting a takedown or taking down a turret.
@@dootnoot867 then why is this never introduced or discussed or even pointed out by any of the other characters ?
My biggest gripe is that they WAY overcommited to Caitlyn and Vi's relationship instead of focusing on actual plot relevant things like Ekko, Jayce, and Mel. Cait and Vi are a toxic couple that should never have gotten back together after everything they went through and its kinda sad to see that the show wants to somehow say that its okay to cheat and abuse your partners. Felt super boring watching Vi and Cait this season, I wanted more Jayce
Cait and Vi barely had any scenes in act 2 and 3,. What are you even talking about
@@danutghidia5820 Aside from a super gross and out of place sex scene in act 3 youre right. But Act one and two were far too slow, beciase they spent too much time on them, and the final act suffered for it
@@brodyestes2376 in act 2 they had only one scene.
There's all this talk of how they needed more episodes, as if that would have solved anything. I don't know. Pacing? I think it's a problem in writing, sure. But it's also a problem of style. Every action scene has so many shots that are that hyper slow-motion, extended countdown, "are they? aren't they???" with EPIC music that drag out the moment... and it's like 3 or 4 of those every episode.
I really like this review. People kept mentioning the pacing but i was like huhhh thats alll???
20:30 What an insult to Silcos character man. What made him and Vander great is that they took care of the girls without their mother deliberatly telling them to do so. These 2 scenes just ruin him, and that letter from Vander to him, my god, what trash writing. Also both his deaths were pivotal and important for the story and they just bring them back like that... I would be less disappointed in this season if it didn't piss all over great characters from season 1.
Caitlyn and Vi getting it on in the dungeon is cringe af, also in this season people just go into max security buildings with completely no effort, even getting the keys, it is just plain dumb. It happens multiple times in one season. How Zaun didn't take over Pilitover by this point in time is beyond me. Every was crapping their pants when they heard Enforcers are coming in season 1, but in the 2nd one they are just a joke.
People getting hit by Warwick and surviving is massive plot armour aswell, when he basically 1 tapped Rictus. Especially when he grabs people.
With Oriana - Singeds daughter I think he later went and collected what is left of Warwick, since he can't die(which makes Jinxs sacrifice even more stupid), and he was already evolved by Victor, combination of Hextech and Shimmer, so that could aid him in his endevaour of treating her.
The only characters that I liked how they ended is Ekko, Jayce and Viktor + Singed.
Why did Viktor leave Ekko untouched though I dunno. It just had to be this way for plot to get where they wanted it to be and there are multiple instances of that in this season.
Also why Viktor just didn't see what Jayce has seen before he shot him. Completely don't get it. It wasn't explained.
I understand your disappointment and I caught myself aswell pretty excited for season2, wouldn't even cross my mind it could be this trash, when the first one was almost masterfully written. Got burned aswell with this show. It is not all bad, but damn...
Amen
This is what happens when you rush out to have a clickbait review about how a great show sucks you make silly mistakes and arguments that don't make sense.
Hermendinger was there for decades when it was about 1200 days.
You make horrible nitpicky arguments about how Caitlyn is moving acrobatically while you cut to her literally doing nothing of the sort.
You say Ambessa dies for no reason when they literally have been foreshadowing that sacrifice is how to achieve strength (win) and that she would and has sacrificed everything and that you don't lament a warriors death you avenge it so Caitlyn her daughter figure who she preached to about this loses an eye to cut of the runes that are protecting Ambessa from Mel and the Black Rose and Mel loses her mother to finally get vengeance for her brother and meets her mom's approval.
You mention that it is marvel humor that an enforcer doesn't recognize her for a cheap joke while there are a bunch of jinx impersonators everywhere and then you make its seem like it is some failing while in reality this isn't really logical criticism just oh I don't like marvel humor so bad when real interactions like this do happen and the enforcers are not all elite professionals a lot of topsiders have been recruited for it because of the crack down on Zaun and that doesn't lend itself to the most serious and professional recruits especially when this has been happening for months.
How is incompetence a valid criticism of the show they have shown multiple times that there is a lot of incompetence and neglect in the enforcers.
Oh, wow Vander should not be alive because he died in seasons 1 is so dumb right??? The show is fiction just because people die in the real world and don't comeback except Jesus of course does not mean that it can't happen in this universe where people double in size and speed from a drug and time travel and that has a lot of set up from season 1 to that episode.
PS making up scenarios in your head of how things happened is not criticism on the show it is a strawman argument to pad your run time.
Victor and Jayce do not have a rushed disagreement they have a logically consistent character argument were Jayce makes emotional arguments to justify his weaponization of hextech and use of the arcane and Viktor calls him out for not keeping his promise setting up Jayce in the future to keep his promise to future Viktor.
Wow music videos that are supposed to convey time passage and character moments with different lyrics and art styles feel to quote "samey"??? so your solution is exposition about what happened which we all know audiences love to hear about and there is no criticism of you should write a show you'd be a really good showrunner.
To be clear the show has things to criticize but set up is not one of them nor is logic. It is pacing because you actually have to watch the show more than once because it is very full of story and small details that people will miss when they first watch it. Instead of trying to justify your Clickbait title.
so glad u spent the time writing out all my angry thoughts watching this. he talks about how a lot of the scenes "are pointless and mean nothing for the show" like.....did we watch the same thing? are we talking about the same thing right now?
You're not 100% wrong about your critique of his critique 😂 but the pacing and story telling of s2 was definitely a mess. Most characters had terrible development Mel got captured and mind fucked then broke out of it and then just walked back to piltover from noxus or where ever? Jayce literally promised Viktor he would not fail then proceeds to NOT double tap main timeline Viktor when he had the chance to kill him? Ekko cooked up time travel and a multiverse in less than 40 minutes time? 😂 The entirety of s2 was badly paced. This is coming from someone who thinks s1 is a masterpiece and top 3 animation series of all time. Don't get me wrong I still liked s2 but it was not as good I'd say 7-8/10 not on the same level as s1.
you are totally right, this was a great season , it has flaws but it was excellent
@@edgybravo4287 Tbf, Mel's home (which is likely where she was, as it was the same place she was during her childhood flashback) as revealed in Ambessa's lore is very close to Piltover. It's basically right on the shores of Noxus, so her getting back quickly isn't that out of place. Plus the Hexgates were still working when she returned, and those allow essentially teleportation. Ntm she also has her new powers that maybe she could use. My point is, even though they didn't show how she got back, there's enough hints that she definitely realistically could have done so without much issue. Also Ekko didn't do that all in forty minutes, it was clearly a montage of many days passing. The Jayce not finishing off Viktor thing does seem odd tbh and I agree the pacing was pretty out there, but I'd still say the vast majority of the story still makes sense if you pay attention to the small details, or if you know the lore.
@@bluntbangs Oh I know buddy, but the original lore has changed a lot over the years and will continue to change with them wanting Arcane to be canon. That's the thing you basically said the issue "montage" it's such a cheap tactic and honestly overused in this season. They do like 1-2 music videos every episode. That's why it has huge pacing issues. That isn't good story telling it's just a cheap tactic to show us time passing and events occurring. Also, just because you show easter eggs or hints doesn't make it good writing/foreshadowing. A foreshadow can still be shit. Just because I take a shit behind a tree and tell someone then 30 minutes later their mom walks around the three and steps on it doesn't make it "good writing" it's still shit. I don't even think the story is bad tbh it's just undercooked that's the main issue I have with it. It's honestly sad to see so many people saying s2 is a masterpiece cuz it's so far from it. It shows me so many don't realize what made s1 truly incredible. And it actually scares me being a fan of the show and the lore. Because people get so caught up in the hyped moments and the spectacle, they don't see how terrible the pacing and the storytelling is. This will turn into current day MCU so fast with the other regions because of this and that's scary af to see.
season 2 was good.... But it wasn't as good as season 1. Main problems with season 2 - too many plots introduced, too many characters introduced just to be ignored/overlooked than killed for no reason at all. Sevika needed more screen time. The potential of her finding out about Jinx's murder of Silco and confrontation/fight after would've been way more epic.
Big guy with shield needed either more screen time or just not introduced at all. Maddie sucked. So did the other guy.
Isha's sacrifice was rendered completely meaningless in act 3 thus made her sacrifice lose that impact on me.
Warwick got turned into a soulless robo-cat thing by Viktor... CRIMINAL.
Heimerdinger's sacrifice was completely unnecessary. I mean ok. Yordles are technically immortal but still. What a unceremonious, unimpactful way to send off a great character.
Black Rose was unnecessary, in fact, Mel's whole story should've been reserved for later.
Viktor's character was butchered. His drastic change in view was also too forced.
Ekko's story was great. But yeah. Him suddenly being able to turn back time much longer without much explanation of how/why he was able to do it and without any consequences.. was kind of disappointing.
Jinx's sacrifice... most of all, felt really forced.
This show would've been way better if they focussed more on piltover vs Zaun and turned more attention towards Vi and Jinx.
All in all, this show was still amazing to watch. But unlike season 1 of Arcane, season two left a bad taste in my mouth. And a feeling that it could've been more. A masterpiece, even. But they kind of blew that away. Still a great show... not denying that part.
Agreed with most of what you said. Basically I feel like everything was undercooked. Like outside of jinx and vi's relationship development. They finally got to the point of understanding which was nice to see. But outside of that every other plotline and character stories were rushed and a giant mess.
6 years labour of love compared to 6 months of corporate crunch, this is what this feels like.
Tell me what you want, this season was hacked together without passion or any actual plan of how to make sense out of all the plot lines.
Every music montage gives me 'omg this paper is due tomorrow' vibes, with tracks so on the nose they could show a sign: 'feels now!'.
Smells of execs pimping their CV. Bummer.
I feel like you have so many valid criticisms but also some dumb points. Why did you call Sky's notes that Viktor takes "a random book". With the Cait Vi scene sex scene there is literally no one in the area because Caitlyn took away all the security earlier. Your questions related to the crow, the black rose and Mel will most likely all be answered in the next show which will be about Noxus based on the way the show ended. I feel like you could have easily made your opinions have no issues if you took some more time to think about what happened in the show lol.
Also I think that the music videos and Episode 7 are better than you give them credit for.
Why were Vi and Caitlyn making out shortly after Jinx implied that she was going to kill herself to Vi? Seems veeerrry out of character for Vi to prioritize getting laid over saving her sister...
@@Gloomy_Knight-dw5pm I didnt think she was going to kill herself originally perhaps vi also didn't think that
@@Gloomy_Knight-dw5pm She said she was leaving so that Vi could be with Cait and we do not know how long ago that was. I got the impression Vi was in that cell by herself for hours. When a show doesn't explicitly spoon feed you as to why something happened, your job as a viewer isn't to say hey, they didn't spell it out for me so that doesn't make sense. It is for you to figure out how it can make sense, and only if there is no way that it could make sense do you then say, oh that was bad writing.
@teraxe the sad thing is I loved season one but season two felt rushed and left me disappointed. Best why to describe Arcane, season one is a pile of gold with specs of shit and season two is a pile of shit with specs of gold
Arcane fanboys and LOL players like "wah it didn't suck it was just massively flawed and poorly paced with a poorly written story line and plot holes" so just the individual characters and art was good? that means it sucks lmao
I legit saw someone say "The writing's not bad, it's just rushed, a bit muddled and inconsistent at times."
Dude. Yeah. That's why it's bad.
While I disagree with some of your complaints in regards to certain story beats, overall I feel the same. Story went from gripping class conflict to mindless marvel slop. At least they had decency not to include "HUGE BEAM OF LIGHT STRAIGHT TO THE SKY" that superhero movies love so much.
They threw away all conflict besides immediate inter-champion issues and even those became illogical and contrived for the sake of cool actions scenes or cliff hangers.
I still love the show because of how insanely good it looks, but story wise I'm not holding my breath. And I also agree with you that writing for popular media has become very weak recently. I come into any series I'm interested in with expectation that it would nosedive later on.
I still really loved this series overall and is one of my favorites, but I tend to prefer more grounded, character driven plots than ones that try to be all epic and including things like time travel and literal Gods. I don't think a season was enough to fully tie in these big plot points. This show is extremely expensive and there is so much expert work that goes into a show like this that I can see why they only made it two seasons. I wish they would save more of the Black Rose plotline for later.
Season 2 does live up more to the "Arcane" title though. They just needed more episodes to flesh it out.
Say it with me. the show was never about class conflict. If it was it wouldn't never have been the ground breaking show it was for riot. It would have been utter filth
@@disconcerningcitizen2224 Out of curiosity, what the conflict between Zaun and Piltover is then? Why do characters always bring up how one city is poor and another is rich? Why does one city looks like slums with beggars and other is all white and gold?
There must be a name for this type of conflict... Hmmm...
@gelatinouscatgirl8369 because it's the setting....look at the season 1s plot none of it ever moved forward by "class conflict." The plot is entirely moved by the characters changing relationships with each other. That's what it means to be a character driven plot. You'd have to ignore the last 6 episodes to think the show was about class conflict.
@@disconcerningcitizen2224 You can't separate characters from the setting. Ep 7 very clearly shows what would happen if poverty and struggle was removed from the setting.
You can't set up the conflict between two cities for the majority of the show, and then handwave it in the last episode because everyone suddenly forgot their differences in the face of common enemy.
I didn’t want to admit but the more I think about it the more is dislike the last 2 episodes. I agree with most of your points
I agree with most of your criticism about the quality of the second season and the many lacks on the plot, but there are some details that I think you just went over just for nitpick sake and I'll gladly give my opinion over those:
5:37 Caitlyn inherits the Kiramman Key and basically her mother's power because it seems like the Kiramman house is a matrialchal family based on the portraits in the office where she later learns about the gray. It may be stupid but at the same time... if the genders were reversed I don't think we would be thinking that, we would be like "yeah, the son inherits the father's power, make sense."
7:48 It's not "random book" it's Sky's notebook, it literally has her signature.
12:11 Jinx told Sevika that she was planning "To finish what's left of her family" She wanted to die along side Vi during the fight and then for the bomb to be triggered so the gray was release into piltover. Until that point is super obvious that Jinx is suicidal so it's not a crazy idea. The plan didn't went exactly how she wanted once it was clear that Vi was going to win the fight but she gave up "I'm glad it's you, it had to be you." but then Isha intervenes and saves her life. She gets upset because she wanted to die, this whole spectacle was her swan song. idk it was obvious for me...
17:20 That would have been super cringe HAHAHA but sure?
22:06 Jayce didn't immediately shut down the hex gates because they were being used to evacuate all the civilians from both Piltover and Zaun.
22:41 That's even more outrageous since Caitlyn's Ult doesn't deal magic damage. (sorry)
24:01 Ekko established the limit himself because when he pushed said limit there was an explosion (we got a lovely scene of Heimerdinger blowing up like a water balloon). He used that same explosion during the fight against Viktor to break free from his automatons. that why there were "no limit" suddendly.
24:47 Oh no, the lore is still a mess, and the second season of Arcane after the Devs saying that Arcane is the new main lore makes it even worse, if you think that the people praising the second season of arcane are league players that are very into the lore you are super mistaken. Also Aatrox and Sweetheart Jinx-Yuumi do not exist in the same universe what are you talking about.
25:47 No it wasn't??? The characters are wayyyy further from their in-game counterparts now more than ever. Please, don't try to sweep Arcane S2's flaws under the "It's the game's fault" rug, Arcane literally did it's own thing ignoring the game's lore, it's it's own mess. Seriously go talk to a any of the main characters mains about what they did to their favorite character in the series and you'll find a lot of opinions...
Anyway, I liked the show, I had a good time but I definitely think that we didn't need this second season. The team behind the show proud themselves about how they knew when to end the story after info about the second season being the finale of the show was made public. Well, I honestly think that the ending of the first season was the perfect moment... we could have lived perfectly fine without anything presented in the second season.
To be honest i kinda enjoyed s2.Even with lots of these flaws i have to say the ideas and concepts they brought were still amazing even though with execution they definitely could have done better especially with "THAT" vi and cait scene which lasted a bit but i can definitely say that it does have its flaws but it is a low A tier or a b tier.
BTW:how much time did arcane s1 take compared to s2 i just wanna know
Including intro and credits, both seasons are the same length at 370 minutes each, or 6 hours and 10 minutes.
Breaking it down further:
All episodes in season 1 are between 40-44 minutes.
All episode in season 2 are between 39-42 minutes, except episode 9 which is 50 minutes.
So slightly less time for each episode in season 2 except the finale.
My favorite part of the "alternate universe" episode with Ekko was that it confirmed a very basic premise that I pulled out of season 1. That premise is: The entire thing is all Vi's fault. She is the big action hero of Arcane, and is also the undeniable cause of the entire calamity. Season 1 was largely about character themes. Powder's theme was.. she implements pretty good ideas very badly. And Vi's theme was.. she implements very bad ideas pretty well.
There was a comment made on Twitter by one of the writers of season 1 of Arcane about a specific scene that puts the success of season 1 into perspective. She mentioned that "all I put on the page was" and a very simple description of what occurred, then remarked at how marvelous the final scene was, with so much ADDED by the visual interpretation by Fortiche.
So, here is what I think happened. In season 1, Riot dropped off the script, and someone.. some GENIUS at Fortiche sat down and read the whole thing front to back and thought about it.. and thought... and thought.. and thought. They came up with their own implications about every single detail of every single scene, pulling out extra layers of meaning.. layers upon layers upon layers, and brought every bit of that fantastic interwoven perfection to the screen with visual cues.
One of my favorite scenes in season 1 is when Powder is sitting on her bed drawing on her toy and Vi comes in to cheer her up. It's actually maybe too deep of a scene, because everyone I saw react to it got the incorrect impression. Everyone thought it was sweet, and remarked at how Vi cheered up her her little sister... but that is NOT what happens in that scene. Vi's words don't encourage Powder in that scene, they make it worse. Powder finishes the scene with a completely dejected slump of her shoulders. If you sit and watch that scene and really think about what is visually portrayed, and think about WHY it was (obviously intentionally) animated that way... it is nothing short of phenomenally brilliant storytelling. There is so much nuance in that scene.. so much inter-connected glory to other aspects of S1 Act1.. it's just.. perfection.
NONE of that is present in Season 2. It's like Riot dropped off the script and Fortiche just said.. OK, put what is written on the screen.
4:26 All this music part are literally timeskips, and they are very important to the plot. If season 2 has writing problem, I can’t imagine show what have good writing when
This season was a disaster. The first season was such a rare gem. And that's exactly why this season hurts so much.
The glazing over this mediocre season is baffling.
"What could have been"
You forgot to mention that a child fixed Jinx's mental state somehow.
Isha was an unsatisfying plot device but not specifically nonsense, so I opted not to mention her. This video could easily have been 60 or even 90 minutes long with how much nonsense there is, but unlike Arcane season 2, I actually value pacing.
Yeah that's just what I'm talking about! How the fuck did Jinx end up fixing all her insecurities and mental problems when they were so severe?! I absolutely hate that "ehh, but she met Isha and she helped her overcome her ploblems" argument. I mean those kind of problems Jinx has can't be fixed with just one child popping out of nowhere and somehow miraculously heal everything.
Healing Jinx wounds should take years, if it is even possible to fix her anyhow at all. But no, somehow one child fixes everything: her PTSD, the fear of abandonment, paranoia, all her guilt, hatred and insecurities, and her tough upbringing. Geez folks if everyone with some sort of mental illness could be helped by just simply adopting a child to support them why would we even need to have psychologists? Just adopt a child or a dog and all your problems will vanish dum-dum, is it that difficult?
upd: I'm not even bringing up she's basically filled with shimmer after the surgery, and like have yall seen what shimmer does to mfs? Even VANDER started to lose his shit just after he took it. Jinx wasn't an exception too, since after shimmer injection she went absolutely ballistic in the 9th episode and managed to kidnapp her sister GF, Silco and older sis in a span of a day. Not even mentioning that this surgery severed her paranoia as we see in the scene with Silco.
I'll NEVER get over this one. They ruined Jinx’s redemption arc and the sisters’ reunion, since without Isha, they'd still be enemies,. But since I cannot buy anything related to isha, the sisters reunion doesnt work either. Those two elements were what I cared about most-they were the heart of the show for me. That’s why I’m choosing to pretend Season 2 didn’t happen.
@@Arcana17 So true fr. They made those characters dirty in this season. It's really a waste(land there nothing can grow) lol
@@aaltuxov Yup. Jinx went from being an unhinged serial killing terrorist with severe PTSD, trauma, paranoia, abandonment issues, and an extreme hatred for Enforcers to the point she would kill many of them even when unprompted by Silco to just chilling in her room alone playing with Isha all day, which was somehow enough to cure her 10+ years of childhood trauma/PTSD in a heartbeat. It's as if the very people who wrote her understand her less than we do which is insane to think about.
I was with you on the premise of this but ironically a lot of your complaints focus on the stuff that actually does "make sense" if you think about it for a minute, e.g. Vi sending the rest of the enforcers away after Cait showed her ruthlessness, because Vi has some control over cait but no control over the rest of the enforcers. But you're mostly right about them "cleaning up" before the fight, which i honestly think is fine. And jinx saying "this wasn't how this is supposed to go" is her admitting she was trying to kill herself. "Finishing what's left of my familiy" wasn't in relation to Vi, she was talking about herself. Isha stopping her is what is what made her connect with her.
I guess threading the line of what you can expect your audience to put together on their own is really difficult, what some consider not enough is what other's would consider bloat or overexplaining.
All of this just comes back around to "pacing". Honestly if you read between the lines in interviews it's pretty clear they were aware to some degree but I imagine they had a mandate to setup follow-up shows which combined with contractual/financial reasons to not extend the season just way overstuffed it. They needed like 1 or 2 more episodes, I think much more would've been detrimental.
Take the Noxian storyline out of season 1 and you'll have a better season 2.
Adding Ambessa in Season 1 was a stupid mistake then, that they tried to fix here. All the "rushed" problems in season 2 were the fruits of those convoluted plotlines in season 1.
To say that season 1 was perfect is absolute bullshit.
But it was still better than this slop.
I understand your reasoning, but are you saying we shouldn't enjoy this the second season or?
I have huge issues with how S2 was written. S1 was something that transcended genres, S2 was firmly refusing to do that. Although I enjoyed it very much I can't stop feeling disappointed.
When it comes to plot holes I don't think our opinions align but I still want to fill in some that I don't think are actual/serious plot issues
Viktor leaving Jayce - That's Sky's notebook. He also sees the blueprints for Cait's hextech-upgraded gun. In s2e5, he tells Jayce he was clouded by emotions when he decided to leave, so it's likely he was too overwhelmed by guilt to think about anything else. Jayce does plead a little, but he also knows he broke a promise. But I too think the scene could use a bit more dialogue.
Also, Viktor has had the purple hex leg for a while now, so it's probably not that dangerous. No one else questions it because, like Huck, they could've assumed it was just the typical chemtech body replacements, if they could even see it underneath the blanket.
The ghost could just be a manifestation of his guilty conscience, leading him to the worst parts of Zaun to help those in need the most. But that's my interpretation.
Jinx's plan - from "finish what's left of my family" in s2e2 and "Jinx is dead" in s2e4 I assume her plan was to die before the traps go off, making her a martyr and unifying Zaun. It somewhat fulfills Silco's wishes and gives closure to Vi.
Vander returns as warwick - I don't think Silco secretly disappeared Vander and his family, nor was it necessary for his plan. Finn knows about Silco killing Vander, the people were already fed up with Vander's leadership, and the madame at the pleasure house mentioned he threatened or bought out any remaining loyalists/competitors. Since Silco funded Singed's shimmer experiments it's not that far fetched to allow Singed to take some shimmered corpses for research especially when a lot of it was presumably destroyed in the explosion. In s2e5 you can see Deckard's head in a jar in Singed's lab. you have to remember those were the first human test subjects so there's a lot of valuable knowledge to be gained if he wants to create refined variants of shimmer. I was surprised Vander died from a fall but Deckard survived a hex crystal explosion, so I don't think he was fully dead. We know shimmer has healing properties so it could have kept his body "warm" until Singed scavenged it.
Vander's flashback - my take is that Felicia was a representation of their community, not that they were particularly that close. Vander adopted other orphans too. Felicia takes the name suggestion because she couldn't think of anything, like at all. We see remnants of the house her family used to live in next to Viktor's commune, and we know the commune is on the fringes of the fissures, as said by Lest in s2e4. We don't know if she lived in the central part of the Lanes before the family expansion, but the fringes seem like the other side of the district. It would make sense if she and Connol moved out before or shortly after Vi was born, and their visits to the Lanes became less frequent. Since Vander pours the drinks, he would be the one familiar with the neighborhood kids. Silco works mostly out of sight, and this is evident when he shows up in the alt universe once and it was for an event. but even in the prime universe he runs the bar from upstairs, and anyone wanting to see him gets redirected to Sevika, as pointed out by Finn.
So hypothetically, the events could happen in a way that results in Silco not fully recognizing Violet or Violet being Felicia's kid. But I would still prefer they don't do the snape thing
Jayce almost blasting the kid - we've been shown that Viktor's followers have their fear response suppressed, they still get startled when Vander goes mad but there's no bodily injury the herald can't fix. Jayce being taken to Viktor makes enough sense to me, he was stumbling around in pain, he's got a leg brace, he looks like he just crawled out of a pit, helping people is their priority. I'll admit it's quite ambiguous at this point but I still think he has not yet imposed his will on his followers, he only speaks with them telepathically but it's not all the time.
Jayce rallying the people - Zaun is in danger too, Jayce tells them to flee if they didn't want to fight, you see Sevika and the bat guy leave in disapproval. There were only a handful of zaunites who are willing to fight as enforcers, they showed up at the bridge fortification in s2e8. One of them being a jinxer that had second thoughts while boarding the train during the montage then died in front of Vi which had her shooked - she didn't think any zaunite would be willing to do this. Most of them didn't and only showed up with Jinx's balloon.
The hex gates were still being used to evacuate people and.. launch shipping containers? but my issue is why didn't Jayce bring people to help him pull the cores faster?
Wizard fucking with Jayce - You liked ep7 because Ekko gets to be happy, I liked ep7 because Jayce is miserable. We are not the same. but seriously it would make more sense for his character if he made the promise before being tested. When asked why he was so persistent it was because of his promise, so what pushed him through all the other stuff before it? He was never even shown to be a particularly persistent person. I get that thematically it's supposed to mirror Viktor's struggles but it's not worth making Jayce's character weaker. anyways my headcannon is that the wizard was rolling the dice until he gets a Jayce that could pass his test, like he just leaves and tries another timeline when the hammer smashes the arm or the skull
Mel vs Ambessa vs black rose - The show is lacking at explaining Noxian culture and lore but it is just that, code of honor. Mel was using Ambessa as bait, not to kill black rose but to see who black rose is. She sacrificed her mom so she could start hunting down the black rose to avenge her mom and her brother, this earns her mom's approval.
Ekko's z-drive - Z drive can rewind beyond 4 seconds but the first time he tried that it made Heimer explode.
Singed's daughter - she is not the same type of robot person, or maybe she's a heavily modified one. Either way she's just there for the league players
24:10 That's Orianna. She's my main in league and I was really hoping for her to have a bigger role since her story is perfect for Arcane. But no. It's really disappointing. :(
Personally, I think the main problem was that there were too many cooks in the kitchen, too many people, giving different wild ideas and that took the place of a more coherent and in line with the lore story that could have been told.
If i could change some things, I would:
1. ERASE THE ANOMALY SUB PLOT, IT SUCKS!!!. First off, it completely destroyed everything we know about how magic works in runeterra, second of it didn't not completely change Jayce's lore, for the worst, but the series will be way better without it. I will elaborate on the next part.
2. SEND AMBESSA ASS BACK TO NOXUS! She not only took the focus of the series away from the sisters but also her alliance with Singed and Viktor, and his entire lore, for that matter, would have been 100% better with Renata in her place as the big bad, she could just step in after Silco's death, it would be nice I she was prestableched in the chembaron counsel in season 1. She could finance Viktor research into becoming robo Jesus, without the anomaly stuff, his limbs could just rot off at some point, and he switched his focus to replacing them. She also could do the same to Singed, promising him Orianna through Viktor research and making him make warwick as a bio weapon instead of that ugly metal werewolf from chapter 3.
With that, she could also get influence in Piltover by making Viktor help people around, like giving Salo robot legs, and also the likes of an certain noble from Piltover which with some minor rewrites would be more than happy to take the leads of piltover police force from Caitlyn hands just like ambessa did, Camille.
25:48 No the show didnt even try to get the characters to a point they resembled their main canon counterparts. Viktor and Warwick visually look nothing like their canon counterparts by the end of the show. Warwick doesnt even have the iconic wolf head and chemtech on him, he is now some glassy manwolf. Same with Viktor, he is no longer a cyborg with clear steampunk inspirations, but rather this organic mutant with magic around him. He looks more like something out of the Void, or an elaborate cosmic entity. Also Caitlyn still has both of her eyes in the main canon, she aint Solid Snake.
This might be up to the fact that arcane is meant to be a rewrite of the LOL canon, but Jinx and Vi still manage to resemble them, so who knows
@MarcIrisEdition No they don't, not even from a visual stand point. Not even counting the characterizations and background of each character from Arcane, as they haven't matched main canon since S1. But that was fine since back then Riot treated it as its own separate continuity. By forcing Arcane into an established canon, anything it doesn't adhere to should be criticized.
The whole Vander thing.
Silco wanted Vander to disappear.
Singed, who worked for Silco, offers to make him disappear.
Singed wants to experiment with Vander's body, as it is a mutation.
Singed realizes that Vander is still alive and decides to keep him hidden to continue experimenting with things that might help his daughter "revive."
It's not that hard to understand.
This is a bunch of hippy dippy baloney, episode 7 was about character, not about plot. You really missed the point of that ep for sure. I do agree that Season 2 was not as good as Season 1, but 2x7 was legit my favorite episode in the show…
Sadly I tapped out at the 5:42 mark as soon as he started talking about house kiramman as if season 1 didn't point out that Caitlyn was suppose to be the next matriarch of house kiramman to begin with. But episode 7 was pure gold.
ep7 was the best episode. S2 felt like a rushed mess at times. Peak moments were still peak. But pacing and storytelling a big mess.
@@maiharuka432 yeah also he says that they needed to be more explicit about Caitlyn's father mental health lol c'mon just look at the man. I feel like so many criticism of this series come from people that just didn't see what the authors put in front of them without explicitly explaining
@@sifaohd8854 Honestly, grief is grief and they handled it very well if the authors needed to push or keep coming back to why Caitlyn had inherited everything, then we need to sit back and look back at royal successions, because at times if the King died the Queen could only be in charge if the Prince wasn't of age. Can't say I agree with peoples negative opinions on the show, they're entitled to those opinions but if we're being honest, he had 13 mins of content which is called "the dumb, bad, and nonsense" which he might've made a valid rant? But again whatever arguments that are made fell short IMHO as soon as he went into that Kiramman rant, when it was explained in season 1.
Imagine dragons hate is so forced
Now, it's warranted. The intro song was undoubtedly the worst part of season 1. The fact that this is no longer the case for season 2 doesn't change that it's kind of a shitty song.
Naw so many people in these comments who don't know what good storytelling is. You LIKING the show is not the same as the show being good. Arcane season 1 was a masterpiece. This season technically is terrible. It's like a 3/10. Absolutely terrible. Episode 7 was complete garbage waist of time. Only 2 maaaybe 3 things that we actually needed from that episode. If you like it, I think that's awesome. But if you like stuff that's good and havnt watched it yet, don't. Just never watch it. But when they originally planned for 5 seasons and 4 of the 5 main writers left after season 1, it's no wonder it's a dumpster fire.
Geez wait wait, did the original writers actually left?? Oh darn that explains many things then. It's really a pity, if they had stayed and the Season had more time to develop... *what could've been*
PREACH IT!!! This season is honestly just appeasing the audience, smushing cool, dramatic moments, random, shocking plot twists, and fanservice into one messy pile. It’s written like it’s concerned with getting reactions and being entertaining, which I think is why people enjoy it and ignore all the glaring flaws
@@aaltuxov the writing team was downsized to just 3 ppl, which was an awful idea to follow such a successful first season
Arcane has a big list of writers. As I said in the video, 4 of them are credited as having worked on season 1 but not 2. This includes one of the writers for Toy Story 2. Is this the reason season 2 is bad? Were all/some of those writers the real brains behind the project, or was there a particular chemistry that required those writers? Don't know, but it's a possibility.
So sick of seeing all these "Well *I* liked it!" reactions to bad fiction. Okay? All that tells me is that you have terrible taste. You liking it is sompletely worthless information.
Season 2 has many good moments, great even, but it fails to tie them together into a satisfying whole and somehow ends up feeling less than the sum of its parts.
I'm still going to recommend it to all my friends who liked season 1. I want them to see it for themselves and make their own judgements. Maybe they can appreciate some things I couldn't.
Arcane is a 1 season show, season 2 does not exist.
@@AmmiO Oh not this bs again
Guess I wasted my time watching a 29 min video about nothing then...
tl;dr "It sucked because it was rushed"
Yeah I finished the show underwhelmed tbh. Was wondering surely im not the only person that thinks so.
I thought arcane s2 had problems but I don’t really agree with you that these were the problems 😭 sure I didn’t like the direction they went a lot of the time but it wasn’t the worst writing I’ve ever seen.
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I was completely enamored with season 1 of Arcane and felt starved of content until season 2.And I think that craving blinded me to a lot of issues that you pointed out in the video (some of which I picked up on and others I missed entirely). I know for a fact that by the time I finished the last episode, I felt hollow; nowhere near how emotional the first season left me.
So many great points 👏 . Watching this season had me saying why would they do that so many times.
You need to keep cooking up videos like these. This is GOATED.
They called me a mad man when I said I didn't like Arcane season 2
The thing I most believe is Vander being preserved by shimmer and Singed being able to keep him alive, but I think the result would have been very different, to the point where he would have few memories or traces of who he was, essentially his corpse becoming a scaffold for the creation of Warwick