#1. the vi and jinx fight scene with that awesome song

[brionysea]

for the record I'm keeping my #arcane and #arcane critical tags separate because 1) it's rude to go into a show's main tag to complain about it and 2) this way I can still go into the arcane tag on my own blog to enjoy season 1 stuff without being perpetually disappointed by season 2

[randomnessofthehighestorder]

My ranking of Arcane S1 soundtrack

Because why the hell not?

(I don’t know if this counts as spoilers because season one was 3 years ago, but for newer viewers, I’ll put the cut here, just in case)

Snakes - ok, I am a sucker for punk rock, and this song, every time I hear it, makes me headbang and bounce. I always go back to it and loop it, it’s just that good! Also, Vi and Jayce kicked ass against those Chemtanks! It kinda went a bit far when Jayce shot that Chembaron’s kid… 😬

Dynasties and Dystopia - another scene I had on loop because of the song. Such a bop! And that scene in the bridge with Ekko and Jinx, absolute art. He may not have had his Z-Drive back then, but he used time and memory to his advantage. That’s our Boy Saviour!

Misfit Toys - the Firelights get their own anthem and mini MV. The lyrics perfectly layout their vibe and message. And that intro scene! I had that on loop because it was just so cool!

Playground - this song is hauntingly beautiful, and perfect for Act 1 Undercity. A place of mystery, commerce and underlying corruption. Bea Miller did a great job… 👏

Enemy - a synonymous classic. Great for the intro, great for the scene in Ep 5 and great MV. When people think of Arcane, they think of this song.

What Could Have Been - what a way to end the season. Sting knocked it out of the park!

Dirty Little Animals - what a way to reintroduce the Undercity after the death of the Hound of the Underground. Silco really changed everything. On the bright side, this rave music goes hard…

When Everything Went Wrong - a groovy country song to an awesome bar fight between the Undercity’s best fighters? Yes, yes and yes!

Our Love - after season 2, this song hits different. But in Ep 2 of season 1, this was a very groovy Motown song to a very moody ending…

Guns for Hire - the scene with the flare was so full of emotion. I almost cried… Woodkid knows how to tug our heartstrings.

Goodbye - man, I felt Powder’s sadness and anger through that one look. She definitely needed that hug…

Looking back, season 1 had less songs than season 2, which is fair, since it was just a low key greek tragedy style story, so it was focused more on the dialogue and themes, while season 2 was an all visual Shakespearean tragedy style story focused on feelings and spectacle…

Overall, this was a great soundtrack! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[brionysea]

#there were only two things that I actually got hyped for in season 2 (as opposed to The Entirety Of Season 1)#1. the vi and jinx fight scene with that awesome song#2. vander recognising powder#the whole family thing after that made me cry but the circumstances leading up to it were weird. wdym there's no jinx going back to sevika#and isha after losing track of vander. and isha just THROWS herself at her and sevika's like what happened to you and jinx is like I saw#vander. and sevika's like girl vander's dead are you on the crazy pills again but jinx is INSISTENT so sevika's like fine. maybe you should#call your sister. and jinx is like HA! and I'M the crazy one?! and it's a whole thing where you see her decide to reach out and that she's#been keeping tabs on vi because she 'likes keeping an eye on people who have betrayed her' but she just really needs to find vander and#make sure he was real. and despite it all vi is the one she trusts most with this. also sevika should branch off to continue the rebellion#storyline bc that's what she originally betrayed vander for and jinx is probably crazy anyway. *someone* needs#to keep their head on straight and let's face it that's been sevika since day one.

I'm getting invested in this little fix-it/missing scene from my original tags. notice how I keep jinx's tenuous grip on reality and incorporate it into the narrative because that's always been tied to and exacerbated by her sister relationship with vi? it feels as if jinx has been deliberately avoiding vi (who must be back in the undercity), building tension and anticipation for their reunion, and sevika knows but hasn't said anything because it has such potential to send jinx spiralling again but now it looks like she's doing that anyway and vi will be better able to help than sevika is (avoiding the root of the problem just lets it fester)

it makes sense that jinx would be marginally more stable at this point because a lot of her jinxed moments in season 1 were tied to her trauma messing her up because she was fighting it all the time and never processed it, and intentionally jinxing her relationship with vi by blowing up the council was the moment she accepted it. and by some miracle she's still alive so she had to deal with that and now she has a new thing going for her but seeing vander again (was it even him?) brings it all rushing back and what if she regresses? what if she starts ruining things again??? that potential loss of progress must be so terrifying. but fortunately it doesn't matter if jinx ruins everything as long as vi is there because vi can fix anything! she fixed it when her ex girlfriend almost killed jinx and isha! (jinx regressing to the little girl who looked up to her big sister for protection and reassurance in a moment of weakness, not to the little girl who jinxed everything by striking out on her own - because vi earned that trust back and not everything in the past needs to stay there)

how does vi react to jinx asking her for an affirmation of reality? vi's never really gotten the chance to engage with how jinx sees the world before; a little bit when jinx set off the blue flare, then again when they talked about how they've been seeing each other for years at the tea party, but vi didn't understand that everything with mylo and claggor and vander (and even vi herself) would hurt jinx the way silco did. we know they have stuff in common because jinx saw vi in the firelight girl with pink hair and whenever vi is mentally and/or physically compromised she sees powder/jinx too (and vander once, so she's very able to understand the situation - although she's sure to come at it in a typical vi fashion that's typically hardheaded and unhelpful, with the way she treats her own mental health). it would be so cool if jinx was stalking vi all day, trying to build up the courage to talk to her, and vi kept seeing her in the shadows but thought she was just a hallucination, prompting jinx to be like 'damn, sis, that bad?' this positions them as equals the way they never were as children, carrying over something precious from their old life but tailor made to fit the people they are now. jinx doesn't have to protest being treated like a helpless little girl anymore. they can build a new relationship. I want more. I'm intrigued. which is unfortunate since this whole thing only exists in my head

I wrote another tag essay that needs to be part of the main post oops-

#the loss of progress is in fact foreshadowing because I don't think she can escape being a jinx that easily#s1 jinx was a tragedy. she couldn't escape being herself. now she's trying to be vander and just live in peace with her kid#but then her kid is taken away from her and she remembers that she was raised by silco too#and piltover needs to burn#I could make it work okay. it didn't work but I could make it work#vi saving isha vs. piltover's interference in undercity business causing isha's death#this is who vi is. she protects. but who do the people need protection from? who's the threat?#jinx doesn't like threats. they make her trigger happy#there's an angry mob of zaunites just waiting for jinx's word to move against piltover#sevika's been nagging her to do something with them all season#it was there it was literally all there. I could fix it

for the record I'm keeping my #arcane and #arcane critical tags separate because 1) it's rude to go into a show's main tag to complain about it and 2) this way I can still go into the arcane tag on my own blog to enjoy season 1 stuff without being perpetually disappointed by season 2