Absolutely agree. Part of what made S1 so great is that the show took time to explore everyone individually. More importantly, it felt ORGANIC. The story wasn't being driven by any one thing, it was just a story we happened to be able to watch unfold. S2 doesn't feel like a story that's unfolding. It feels like the writers have hit fast forward, and then on top of that cut out large sections of the story. It still isn't a bad show. Everything in production is fantastic. Music, visuals, etc. But the pacing is a huge issue. And one last thing. Because I feel the pacing is problematic, those little music video style animations they have before the credits of every episode are really rubbing me the wrong way. We need to be spending that time developing the story more! Those honestly feel very cheap to me. It's filler. And I'm disappointed in the show for that.
I completely agree with you. A lot of it feels VERY rushed. I'm conflicted because I can see things from the perspective of a fan who is emotionally invested in the characters, but I also see them from the perspective of the creators. The show is really expensive to produce, so they've had to cut it short. I'm cautiously optimistic about Act 3.
" very rushed ", lets get real. I can understand thinking its a bit rushed but if we were to compare season 1 to season 2 pacing, season 2 might be like 20% faster. A lot of these things that make you think it rushed like the timeskip, music videos, etc, you can understand, everything is there for you to understand
@ theyre used to fast track important but not overly important plots, such as taking down the the remaining 2 chembarons with the grey, or showing what vi has been doing, or showing how martial law has made zaun form the jinxters group. These music videos don’t show too much, but they show enough to get the plot moving without actually skipping things, or wasting precious screen time.
You were on point bro. Arcane was absolutely peak until S2 ep 8 and 9. Its disappointing with a lack of logic, unanswered questions, unfulfilled build-ups. It's too rushed. It's trying to do too much in 2 episodes.
i think it will take some incredibly masterful writing to resolve everything and bring it together in a good plot for act iii. i haven't been that bothered by the pacing but i get why people are unhappy with it. i think the arcane writers absolutely have the potential to finish the show in a super satisfying way, but i can't say im not a little bit worried too. i trust that everything will get its time (i am ALWAYS surprised how much they can fit into an episode and how well they do it) but we'll have to wait and see. i have a feeling mel might play a really key role in the last act, solidifying her place in this season. great video!
I am unhappy with this vibe of shows not getting the full 12 episode run even if the episodes are hour long. This season could definitely benefit with that extra episode in each act so that we get room to breath instead of hopping into a break neck music video for plot progression. Cait's invasion of Zaun felt like it was just speed runned through just to get to the plot point where they actually find Jinx. Giving that extra episode of them looking for her in Act 1 and expanding on the squad interacting. Giving that extra episode in act 2 where we see Vi, Jinx, and Cait progress to Vi being a pit fighter, Jinx Opening up to Isha, and Cait beginning to doubt Ambessa would have done wonders for the writing and the seeming plot holes between the 3 of them making up. I actually think Jayce was done perfectly every shot we saw him in because it was so rare made him feel like a threat in the series WHICH IS AMAZING as we see all the other characters progress, Jayce is an unknown variable.
@@Oblinski yeah I definitely agree. Your perspective on Jayce is interesting. Ill admit he feels incredibly dangerous and an absolute wild card. Its given me something to chew on a bit. Thanks :)
I'm very much of the opinion that the show needed 3 seasons instead of 2. The 2nd season should've been about Caitlyn and Vi trying to hunt down Jinx, with Vi developing personal relationships with the enforcers, then the sisters fight at the end of the season, and Caitlyn gets appointed dictator. Then the 3rd season would be about the sisters working together to fix Vander, and Caitlyn's dictator arc. The show has great writers but it's very clear they're working with time constraints
I get what you mean, things feeling rushed and a lack of exploration and deep emotional resonance other than exposition for emotional shock value. Hopefully they'll explore everything alright-ly. And then in terms of things seeming contrived for character motives, I feel the same way and hope their motives stay consistent too. Really, I don't feel very optimistic just in terms of like the coherency, pace, and clsrity of characters on a logical level, but I know that by the end of act 3, I'll be balling. In terms of branching out, I implore that -- I watched your other vids and everything seems quite engaging and I feel like you have a debatemate style to you where you rattle off powerful points and defo give me parlamentarian vibes.
To me the characterization has felt like a wikipedi article. I clearly understand the cause and effect of character motivations but there's nothing engaging about it because you don't get to actually experience any of this with the characters. Do I buy that Caitlyn stopped being a dictator? Sure. But she may as well not have been given you could cut her entire dictator subplot, have her just break up with Vi over Jinx, and nothing in the plot changes. It's not as if Piltover wasn't already set to crack down on Zaun. Which makes me ask what the point was in even having that character beat.
@ it was meant to be in the story.. im saying those particular sequences were put into music videos because they weren’t as important and didn’t need dialogue.
@ chembarons (aka bums) taken down, vi pitfighther lifestyle, state of the lanes and how jinx is laying low walking between the warring barons. Showing how martial law lead to the creation of jinxters. These 4 things are all plot points that worked in the music videos and had no business dumping more screen time that they didn’t have into them. I hate how people think these should have been made into full episodes… it’s like you want to watch paint dry
@@BadMike0 yeah, i think all the league fans kinda knew what's gonna happen in the last 3 episodes considering how Ekko has time travel powers through Hextech in the game. And this is a sentence from his lore: "Ekko opened his eyes to see several splintered realities-and several “echo” versions of himself-staring back in sheer panic amid the fractured continua." Considering how we saw this scene with Jayce in it, Ekko, who was with Jayce when this happened and is conveniently missing, will probably get his time travel powers from the Hextech and rewind time until the ending of Season 1 (which started the Season 2)
@@liecolm2429 Generally, Ekko can't go that far back in time. In most iterations he's limited to somewhere around 6 seconds outside of very specific circumstances. Given everything that's happened, I estimate somewhere around 4-6 months have passed since Jinx blew up the council chambers; that's a bit outside of his usual rewind range.
@@liecolm2429 I don't think they'll go for the obvious cop-out of rewinding time that far up the timeline. However, I wouldn't be surprised if timelines and multiple realities came into focus, in a "Sike! This was the bad timeline all along. Okay, let's see how things went in *that* one.". I think the best way to implement Ekko's powers would be this : A huge fight breaks out, many main characters die quickly in a row. All seems lost, but Ekko rewinds time and manages to prevent their deaths, leading to chaos still ensuing, but without casualties - or without *as many* casualties. Throw in an inavoidable death in there to teach him that his powers can't fix everything and that he still needs to be careful, and I think that'd be pretty satisfying.
I really dont like Ekko being shafted like this. This reminds me of Act 1 Arcane where he pretty underutilized, but when I saw that I was assuming he was gonna get a lot of focus in Act 2 yet all he did was get trapped and left for 3 episodes so far. I hope he will have a huge pay off in these 3 episodes.
Anyways, if they do end the Piltover & Zaun (the least interesting region) story in this season, I'll be glad cause we finally get to see the more interesting regions. SHURIMA
Riot sped ran s2 for real I still enjoyed it, but it is a mess when it comes to pacing and storytelling. Every single plot point and storyline was rushed. The only plotline in s2 that was done well was Vi and Jinx's relationship. I'm legit salty they didn't have a whole extra act with Ekko as the main. There was a huge missed opportunity there, Riot dropped the ball bad. Jinx and Ekko are the two fan favorites and there was a really compelling story to be told with Ekko in that timeline. But instead Rioto cooked up time travel and multiverse in less than a 40-minute span 🤣🤣
@@BadMike0 there are detailed posts about it. What I mean is all of her dialogue in act 2, the context of the 3-6 month timeskip with ZERO leads on jinx, her body language, interactions with ambessa , dialogue with ambessa, also the fact that act 3 will resolve it better because considering how act 2 ended it wasn’t the time or place, Caitlyn is smart and less impulsive she’s “ back to normal “ in that sense. The problem is, you think that the timeskip was bad, and you wanted to see characters like caitlyn, vi, jinx develop into what they are in act 2. However, it’s so easy to fill in the gaps of what they were doing over timeskip and why. The writers intentionally time skipped so that these characters are believably where they need to be. This show was never going to be 3 seasons or more. MAYBE, by the end of this season we’ll agree that an extra episode , maybe even 2 extra episodes would have been idea
@ what I’m trying to say is that Caitlyn is set up as a angry, vengeance filled, justice craving general at the end of the first act. In the second we get to see the consequences of that in three minutes in a music video. It feels like what was set up has been pushed aside. Are reintroduction to her, is not the same person we left off with. It’s jarring. We don’t really get to see what led her to this decision and that’s my issue. It feels like we are being told she been a ruthless violent dictator without that plot line being properly explored. Now we see her regret it without being shown why. Showing this would have taken more effort and time on the writers part but we would understand Caitlyn more and why she’s having doubts about her own regime. That’s why it feels rushed because we’ve gone from point A to point C without a proper understanding of what happened at B. At the end of the day it’s my subjective opinion. Hopefully you understand my point.
@@BadMike0 well no, the point of the music video isn’t to show you the consequences of that “ in 3 minutes “. You are right, the timeskip sends you to your destination where cait has already gotten from point a to point b. Rather than have fomo about missing this “ arc “, just watch the show. If the writers wanted to do this, they always planned to do this. I assure you this show was never going to be 3 seasons. It’s also like, why do you need to see Caitlin’s arc, it’s pretty easy to fill in the gaps of what life was like the past 3-6 months.
@@BadMike0 also, it literally is the same person that you’ve known most of the show, she’s a lot more normal at this point. The arc had to happen to give her the experience. It was never about caitlyn dictator being an actual plot point
Absolutely agree. Part of what made S1 so great is that the show took time to explore everyone individually. More importantly, it felt ORGANIC. The story wasn't being driven by any one thing, it was just a story we happened to be able to watch unfold. S2 doesn't feel like a story that's unfolding. It feels like the writers have hit fast forward, and then on top of that cut out large sections of the story.
It still isn't a bad show. Everything in production is fantastic. Music, visuals, etc. But the pacing is a huge issue. And one last thing. Because I feel the pacing is problematic, those little music video style animations they have before the credits of every episode are really rubbing me the wrong way. We need to be spending that time developing the story more! Those honestly feel very cheap to me. It's filler. And I'm disappointed in the show for that.
ANDDDDDD AFTER THE FINAL I can say
THEY REALLY OVERCOOKED I:(((
I completely agree with you. A lot of it feels VERY rushed. I'm conflicted because I can see things from the perspective of a fan who is emotionally invested in the characters, but I also see them from the perspective of the creators. The show is really expensive to produce, so they've had to cut it short. I'm cautiously optimistic about Act 3.
If it can reassure you, the producters said that the episodes in act 3 will be by far the longest they have ever made
@@thelargeEss_ yeah this is how I feel. I have full faith in the creators but I can’t help but feel worried.
" very rushed ", lets get real. I can understand thinking its a bit rushed but if we were to compare season 1 to season 2 pacing, season 2 might be like 20% faster. A lot of these things that make you think it rushed like the timeskip, music videos, etc, you can understand, everything is there for you to understand
@ music videos shouldn’t be the relied on to explain or present established plot points.
@ theyre used to fast track important but not overly important plots, such as taking down the the remaining 2 chembarons with the grey, or showing what vi has been doing, or showing how martial law has made zaun form the jinxters group. These music videos don’t show too much, but they show enough to get the plot moving without actually skipping things, or wasting precious screen time.
You were on point bro. Arcane was absolutely peak until S2 ep 8 and 9. Its disappointing with a lack of logic, unanswered questions, unfulfilled build-ups. It's too rushed. It's trying to do too much in 2 episodes.
they did a game of thrones s7/s8 but not that bad.
i think it will take some incredibly masterful writing to resolve everything and bring it together in a good plot for act iii. i haven't been that bothered by the pacing but i get why people are unhappy with it. i think the arcane writers absolutely have the potential to finish the show in a super satisfying way, but i can't say im not a little bit worried too. i trust that everything will get its time (i am ALWAYS surprised how much they can fit into an episode and how well they do it) but we'll have to wait and see. i have a feeling mel might play a really key role in the last act, solidifying her place in this season. great video!
After watching the final
I think it wasn't the finale we wanted:(
Your fear is reality now.
@@AiAngelsAlpha yup, just planning out some stuff to talk about it
trust the process.
I am unhappy with this vibe of shows not getting the full 12 episode run even if the episodes are hour long. This season could definitely benefit with that extra episode in each act so that we get room to breath instead of hopping into a break neck music video for plot progression. Cait's invasion of Zaun felt like it was just speed runned through just to get to the plot point where they actually find Jinx. Giving that extra episode of them looking for her in Act 1 and expanding on the squad interacting. Giving that extra episode in act 2 where we see Vi, Jinx, and Cait progress to Vi being a pit fighter, Jinx Opening up to Isha, and Cait beginning to doubt Ambessa would have done wonders for the writing and the seeming plot holes between the 3 of them making up. I actually think Jayce was done perfectly every shot we saw him in because it was so rare made him feel like a threat in the series WHICH IS AMAZING as we see all the other characters progress, Jayce is an unknown variable.
@@Oblinski yeah I definitely agree.
Your perspective on Jayce is interesting. Ill admit he feels incredibly dangerous and an absolute wild card. Its given me something to chew on a bit. Thanks :)
the music videos barely explore much story lmao
I'm very much of the opinion that the show needed 3 seasons instead of 2. The 2nd season should've been about Caitlyn and Vi trying to hunt down Jinx, with Vi developing personal relationships with the enforcers, then the sisters fight at the end of the season, and Caitlyn gets appointed dictator. Then the 3rd season would be about the sisters working together to fix Vander, and Caitlyn's dictator arc.
The show has great writers but it's very clear they're working with time constraints
I get what you mean, things feeling rushed and a lack of exploration and deep emotional resonance other than exposition for emotional shock value. Hopefully they'll explore everything alright-ly. And then in terms of things seeming contrived for character motives, I feel the same way and hope their motives stay consistent too. Really, I don't feel very optimistic just in terms of like the coherency, pace, and clsrity of characters on a logical level, but I know that by the end of act 3, I'll be balling. In terms of branching out, I implore that -- I watched your other vids and everything seems quite engaging and I feel like you have a debatemate style to you where you rattle off powerful points and defo give me parlamentarian vibes.
@@kolipoli4952 I’d be the worst politician ever. England should worry if I ever take up that career path.
To me the characterization has felt like a wikipedi article. I clearly understand the cause and effect of character motivations but there's nothing engaging about it because you don't get to actually experience any of this with the characters.
Do I buy that Caitlyn stopped being a dictator? Sure. But she may as well not have been given you could cut her entire dictator subplot, have her just break up with Vi over Jinx, and nothing in the plot changes. It's not as if Piltover wasn't already set to crack down on Zaun. Which makes me ask what the point was in even having that character beat.
no, cait's dictator arc is skipped purposefully.
Yeah I think the Wikipedia analogy sums it up perfectly.
@@AidanDonnelly-x9i Why do you think they even had it in the story if it was meant to be skipped?
@ it was meant to be in the story.. im saying those particular sequences were put into music videos because they weren’t as important and didn’t need dialogue.
@ chembarons (aka bums) taken down, vi pitfighther lifestyle, state of the lanes and how jinx is laying low walking between the warring barons. Showing how martial law lead to the creation of jinxters. These 4 things are all plot points that worked in the music videos and had no business dumping more screen time that they didn’t have into them. I hate how people think these should have been made into full episodes… it’s like you want to watch paint dry
I think bro doesn't know what is Ekko powers in the game. (Hint: it involves time)
@@liecolm2429 yeah I don’t play the game
@@BadMike0 yeah, i think all the league fans kinda knew what's gonna happen in the last 3 episodes considering how Ekko has time travel powers through Hextech in the game.
And this is a sentence from his lore:
"Ekko opened his eyes to see several splintered realities-and several “echo” versions of himself-staring back in sheer panic amid the fractured continua."
Considering how we saw this scene with Jayce in it, Ekko, who was with Jayce when this happened and is conveniently missing, will probably get his time travel powers from the Hextech and rewind time until the ending of Season 1 (which started the Season 2)
@@liecolm2429 Generally, Ekko can't go that far back in time. In most iterations he's limited to somewhere around 6 seconds outside of very specific circumstances. Given everything that's happened, I estimate somewhere around 4-6 months have passed since Jinx blew up the council chambers; that's a bit outside of his usual rewind range.
@@liecolm2429 I don't think they'll go for the obvious cop-out of rewinding time that far up the timeline. However, I wouldn't be surprised if timelines and multiple realities came into focus, in a "Sike! This was the bad timeline all along. Okay, let's see how things went in *that* one.". I think the best way to implement Ekko's powers would be this : A huge fight breaks out, many main characters die quickly in a row. All seems lost, but Ekko rewinds time and manages to prevent their deaths, leading to chaos still ensuing, but without casualties - or without *as many* casualties. Throw in an inavoidable death in there to teach him that his powers can't fix everything and that he still needs to be careful, and I think that'd be pretty satisfying.
I really dont like Ekko being shafted like this. This reminds me of Act 1 Arcane where he pretty underutilized, but when I saw that I was assuming he was gonna get a lot of focus in Act 2 yet all he did was get trapped and left for 3 episodes so far. I hope he will have a huge pay off in these 3 episodes.
@@MEBOLOR yeah, he was a surprise for me too.
Anyways, if they do end the Piltover & Zaun (the least interesting region) story in this season, I'll be glad cause we finally get to see the more interesting regions. SHURIMA
Riot sped ran s2 for real I still enjoyed it, but it is a mess when it comes to pacing and storytelling. Every single plot point and storyline was rushed. The only plotline in s2 that was done well was Vi and Jinx's relationship. I'm legit salty they didn't have a whole extra act with Ekko as the main. There was a huge missed opportunity there, Riot dropped the ball bad. Jinx and Ekko are the two fan favorites and there was a really compelling story to be told with Ekko in that timeline. But instead Rioto cooked up time travel and multiverse in less than a 40-minute span 🤣🤣
All the hints for caitlyn's turn are there, its not the writers fualt you didnt catch them
@@AidanDonnelly-x9i please could you elaborate on that thought?
@@BadMike0 there are detailed posts about it. What I mean is all of her dialogue in act 2, the context of the 3-6 month timeskip with ZERO leads on jinx, her body language, interactions with ambessa , dialogue with ambessa, also the fact that act 3 will resolve it better because considering how act 2 ended it wasn’t the time or place, Caitlyn is smart and less impulsive she’s “ back to normal “ in that sense. The problem is, you think that the timeskip was bad, and you wanted to see characters like caitlyn, vi, jinx develop into what they are in act 2. However, it’s so easy to fill in the gaps of what they were doing over timeskip and why. The writers intentionally time skipped so that these characters are believably where they need to be. This show was never going to be 3 seasons or more. MAYBE, by the end of this season we’ll agree that an extra episode , maybe even 2 extra episodes would have been idea
@ what I’m trying to say is that Caitlyn is set up as a angry, vengeance filled, justice craving general at the end of the first act. In the second we get to see the consequences of that in three minutes in a music video. It feels like what was set up has been pushed aside. Are reintroduction to her, is not the same person we left off with. It’s jarring. We don’t really get to see what led her to this decision and that’s my issue. It feels like we are being told she been a ruthless violent dictator without that plot line being properly explored. Now we see her regret it without being shown why. Showing this would have taken more effort and time on the writers part but we would understand Caitlyn more and why she’s having doubts about her own regime.
That’s why it feels rushed because we’ve gone from point A to point C without a proper understanding of what happened at B. At the end of the day it’s my subjective opinion. Hopefully you understand my point.
@@BadMike0 well no, the point of the music video isn’t to show you the consequences of that “ in 3 minutes “. You are right, the timeskip sends you to your destination where cait has already gotten from point a to point b. Rather than have fomo about missing this “ arc “, just watch the show. If the writers wanted to do this, they always planned to do this. I assure you this show was never going to be 3 seasons. It’s also like, why do you need to see Caitlin’s arc, it’s pretty easy to fill in the gaps of what life was like the past 3-6 months.
@@BadMike0 also, it literally is the same person that you’ve known most of the show, she’s a lot more normal at this point. The arc had to happen to give her the experience. It was never about caitlyn dictator being an actual plot point