#Arcane critical

[miscellaneousramblings]

Maybe???

Ig that separating the two seasons feels like a cope but I have trouble reconciling them in my head rn.

Season 1 was fun to watch because its animation is literally mind-boggling and revolutionary, but it also had some genuinely touching, dare I say even thought-provoking moments. Not everything was perfect and fandom actually had fun poking at the holes because the show didn't have the time to say everything, but at the same time all the clues and more importantly the character beats were present. So even if we had to infer some stuff it still rang true I think, because it was actually supported by the text.

In season 2 the text is weak because there is no time at all. We go from personal stakes to cosmic stakes in less than 10 episodes. Even the most skilled writers can't pull this off. So with a few exceptions we are left with scenes that don't feel earned, dialogue that feels marvel-ised and a shitton of stuff that gets straight-up skipped over (as in "oh yes, this happened but we don't have the time to give you dialogue. have one visual cue instead"). It really shows with the "music videos" (too many of them) and the music itself too, which was way better in s1. So fandom will still probably have fun filling the holes but at this point each of us can make up our own version of the show, the relationships, the characters' motivations, etc. because the canon "skeleton" has become paperthin. Also personally I didn't have a lot of fun watching this season, especially Act III.

Those are my two cents anyway.

stating to think there’s an inverse correlation between how good media is and how easily fandomizable it is 😁

[thenationofzaun]

I fucking hate this, what do you MEAN it explains it, did Season 1 not already explain it?? Did Season 1 not make you understand it already?? Did Season 1 not focus on Vander's corpse and the emotions on Silco's face when Powder tells him Vi left her? Did you not get that Silco empathized with her because he knows how it feels to be abandoned by an older sibling? Did he not spend the entire season comparing Vi to Vander and his past to Jinx's? Were there not already multiple scenes depicting Silco and Jinx's bond and how he came to fiercely love her after years of taking care of her?? You stilI needed another hamfisted justification for his love for her?? He needed to be her godfather and friends with her dead mother for you to understand Season 1? I despise takes like this so muchhh

[xthecaptainssaviorx]

I'm actually not really happy with how this show concluded. Maybe I'll make a more detailed post about it but to sum it up: the way they handled the Zaun / Piltover conflict cheapens this show immensely. This whole "power of friendship" bullshit after Piltover oppressed the undercity for who knows how long and in the end nothing really changed, Zaun still isn't free and Piltover acknowledged nothing of the stuff they did, just annoys me. They lost the plot so bad.

Putting Sevika on the council as the only Zaunite, as if she alone could outvote the Pilties and thinking this is a good ending for the undercity is insane. Zaun should've been free. Or at the very least have an equal amount of Zaunites and Piltover people on the council to even it out.

[jjkyaoi]

by the way. people are allowed to complain about this season feeling rushed. i don’t know when it became a thing in this fandom to completely jump people who have valid complaints like YES arcane is a fantastically produced and beautifully animated show and nobody will be able to top it but they did start things with some characters only for it to never go anywhere so it can all be wrapped up in three episodes 😭

[revenge-of-the-shit]

Idk I feel like making Maddie Nolen a traitor loyal to Ambessa does an extreme disservice not just to Maddie's character but also to the potential political message of Arcane. Had Maddie really, truly been earnest and kind and compassionate the whole time, and had she died in the battle, it would have done so much more for her, for Caitlyn, for the show. Here is a gentle character whose life and innocence would've been stripped from her because of war, because of imperialism. Here is a ray of sunshine who followed Caitlyn loyally through thick and thin, who shows Cait price of working with other oppressors.

But also: here is the bubbly character with a smile, the first to eagerly join in to a descent to fascism and martial law. Here is the "good cop", the gentle enforcer, who faithfully joins in a quest that involves gassing innocents of a city. Here is a kind soul, but also a soul who after expressing some doubts about the methods used, continues to work directly with and as the oppressors of innocents. Even the best of the enforcers is a part of the unjust oppression of Zaun.

Instead, she's written off as a spy, a mole, bad all along. Any nuance that her character could have brought is stripped away and she's killed and discarded without a second glance. The enforcers as a whole I feel could've been approached with more nuance, and she would've been a part of it. Instead, she's one-dimensional, a complete turncoat.

[applebuttercringe]

Jayce's speech to Viktor was bad.

IMO

So, the final speech Jayce gave to Viktor about finding beauty in imperfection, and how our flaws make us human, that’s a fine sentiment but the specific examples he used ruined it. He used Viktors disease as an example.

Viktor was dying from a disease caused by Piltover mining in the fissures polluting the air. It was a preventable disease forced onto him by a corrupt system. He was slowly and painfully falling apart. “I can feel myself rotting” type stuff. Was he supposed to have appreciated that?

Jayce wants him to have appreciated the simple beauty of dying a slow painful death while your best friend is too busy being a councilman to be with you and your mentor is roadblocking your only possible cure. That was the imperfection that he was misguided to want to solve? The show is really saying Viktor was misguided, or not appreciative enough of being human, to not want to die young. He was giving up his humanity when he fought to live.

Viktor should not have just accepted it, that isn’t just part of being human. It isn’t a beautiful flaw you learn to love. He did nothing wrong by taking his life into his own hands and taking every possible chance to live. Even when no one believed in him.

I’m sure there are more charitable interpretations but that line really rubbed me the wrong way.

[stanlunter]

Also I REALLY hate that the writers decided to use the most lazy trope possible, the trope I hate with my whole heart

When we have a big war between two sides that was becoming worse and worse for so many years

And instead of actually resolving it, the writers just add another, BIG ONE enemy to unite those two sides

And now they don't need to think about how to resolve SUCH COMPLICATED conflict that was lasting for decades. No, now they suddenly have a peace bc "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". THAT'S SO FUCKING LAZY

I wanted to see how Zaun and Piltover resolve their conflict so bad and all I've seen was a fight against Ambessa and Viktor?? Seriously?? That's a such disappointment

Also the same thing happened in spop and I really hoped Arcane isn't gonna do it...and they did...

Like imagine if in ATLA instead of Aang stopping the fire nation, all 4 nations just united against spirits

That's actually insane

[needanaccount2readarcaneposts]

They did Sevika so, so, so dirty this act. SHE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A FUCKING SPEAKING LINE PAST EPISODE 4. But I want everyone to know that this magnificent bitch turned up to negotiate for independence (or whatever the fuck that stupid montage scene was) wearing Silco's colours, with an eye motif on her serape.

[toaverse]

The fact that Jayce used Viktor's disease as an example of an imperfection he should appreciate is fucking insulting.

[purgeindeath]

it’s kind of amazing how vi had absolutely no character arc this season. like i don’t know if that even counts a character at all. feels like ai tried writing her. she became a cop, cried, served cunt, got an ugly haircut, cried and then fucked caitlyn. 10/10 writing 😍😍😍 so complex and thought provoking and definitely addresses all the interesting aspects about her identity and violence in s1

[thenationofzaun]

Arcane writers: So then Jinx apologetically tells Caitlyn that she didn't know Caitlyn's mother was in the Council room :'(((( because Jinx is good now so that means she feels bad about killing Councilors!!! And she also suddenly has empathy for Caitlyn for reasons!! Then she gives a blatantly suicidal speech to Vi because she's depressed about Isha's death and leaves to obviously go off herself. Vi, who doesn't care about Isha's death at all, somehow interprets this as Jinx being an untrustworthy snake and regrets ever trusting her😡 how dare she refuse to help Piltover right?? So Vi tells her cop girlfriend how right she was about her psycho lying bitch of a sister, then she and Caitlyn start fucking in the same jail cell her sister was just contemplating suicide in. Oh and Caitlyn, who doesn't care that Jinx has escaped prison, reveals she was sleeping with someone else for months while Vi was having an alcoholic mental breakdown. But Vi like a good little trencher with no self respect doesn't mind and is just all about Caitlyn😍😜 Then they have fun playful sex with a spicy pop song playing while Jinx is fucking killing herself lol!!!

Me:

[bicth-and-in-that-order]

Not sure how to word this but people pushing back against arcane s2 criticism with “mEdiA LiTeRaCy” when said media literacy amounts to microanalyzing a character’s facial expression screams a disconnect in storytelling. I shouldn’t have to pause the screen and look at Cait’s eye crust to know that “akushally she never trusted Ambessa🤓☝️” when we should’ve naturally been led to that conclusion.

In s1, we know that Powder is desperate to prove herself and we know why she decided to go to Silco’s liar despite being told to stay put. Imagine if they cut out all those scenes of Mylo teasing/berating her, the moments where she screwed up on the mission, her feeling like a failure only for Vi to encourage, and inadvertently, enable her—imagine if they got rid of that and instead had a few scenes of her looking sad bc her gadgets broke and then deciding to go to Silco’s liar bc ??? like should we analyze the symbolic meaning of Powder’s shoes and Mylo’s eyebrows to understand why she did what she did? Is that good storytelling to yall? Idk

There’s a reason why s2 is getting a lot more pushback than s1 and it’s not because people just “don’t get it”.

[calicoscurse]

was the alternate universe Ekko ended up in meant to feel disturbing and like everyone was an artificial husk of themselves? the whole time I was waiting for it to be a Arcane induced hallucination trick. none of that made me go "aww look at how it could have been" it made me go "oh this is WRONG. there is a trick here"

[a-heart-of-kyber]

"You always wanted to cure what you thought were weaknesses."

Bitch, he was DYING. He had a Terminal. Illness.

[the-glorious-evolution-fanart]

Really Riot?

Really? We're losing og Viktor just for him to be replaced with this?

[sandraharissa]

I can't believe they character assassinated silco posthumously