#Cait is keeping pace because she remembers this from S1

[roguevector-blog]

AU where post S2 Vi, Cait and Jayce (who all died in the hextech explosion in "S1E1") all wake up in the apartment where their counterparts died in, and so Vi immediately rushes down to the Last Drop to find Powder.

She did it!

[monstress]

arcane s2 thoughts

prayinggg we get a no soundtrack version because while i do like a few of the tracks (yes even Enemy!!!), there are more duds than hits and they take me out each time

also obviously i'm a Jinx Is Alive truther because of the ending scene of cait staring at the air ducts to the hextech tower fiddling with a fragment of her bomb...come on. jinx has said in the start of the season that she wanted to leave piltover/zaun and with isha gone and her sister happy, she can finally do that

i am very invested in jinx and vi's relationship so when jinx without any hesitation chose to let herself go from vi's grasp and destroy warwick (both something that vi could not do) which in one fell swoop legitimizes her agency, protects vi from a monster, saves vander from eternal hell - i'm like yea...[sniffs] that's a redemption arc baby

jinx and vi. piltover and zaun. they'll always be sisters...yea....

i admire the open ending with the airship. but she did say she'll ride one of those things one day. yay.

maybe an unpopular opinion but i liked cait this season. finally some bite and controversy and trauma to her choices. she was way tooooo comfortable in s1. while she's still a cop, at least she's interesting now!

also ok....yelled and hollered when lesbian sex is finally happening. rejoice guys - i thought we will never get it

the writing pace of this show is bonkers and i understand they need to keep it tight because of animation budget but what the helllllll was that viktor machine herald speedrun. it felt like it needed a good one more season to incubate and i was overwhelmed with that + jayce's heel turn + mel's superpower reveal like hold on hold the fuck onnnnnn what does this meannnnnn

gay sex in hextech void deus ex machina goes crazy tho

like oh yeah i am cosmically tied to only one man in this world and he alone can guide me to the error of my ways in any universe

ok!

mel being the most specialest princess in the entire world seems right imo. i can easily be riled up to sycophantic fervor to serve in her army just say the word ma'am 🫡

let's not forget the tragic irony that Mel was exiled by her mother and has tried to carve her own path through diplomacy and peace in defiance but ends up finding herself sitting in her mother's steel ship in her colors with her army with so much power in her veins and now leaves the city she loved that her mother ruined too. mel merdada one of the characters of all time......

and i am a number one sap so!!!!!!! the flashback scenes this season got me hurting real bad. when i thought i was devastated by Remember Me...here comes s2e7 to punch me in the gut

the fact happiness and normalcy was possible for powder...the fact that powder will never use hexcore because of what happened to vi and it made all the difference. vi's death unknowingly protecting her sister (and the world!) from beyond the grave...i am sobbing my eyes out

also as a season one timebomb shipper, thank youuuu arcane writers i didnt expect this at ALLLLLLLLLL???? it was written like everyone knows they were an item except themselves??? i have done nothing to deserve this but thank you

UPDATE: i hv been informed that they are already dating in the alternative universe from background details. even more delicious

i am just happy to be here and prepared to be devastated

vanderco Real. like don't even waste your breath to say they aren't when they look like they are glowing in domestic bliss. what's some light stabbing and drowning between married couples amirite fellas

claggor and mylo!!!! i didn't expect to get emotional seeing them since idrc but seeing them grown up like ohhhh these are vi and jinx's brothers...and they'll never know this life...okay.....

the alternative timeline pretty much put a bandaid to the pain and suffering for the past 2 seasons and as contrast for more suffering. i love it. the writers are so diabolical

heimerdinger sacrificing himself for ekko is ok for me lol idc abt him goodbye cheesepuff

i still need to process the Ambessa vs MelCait fight. im quite sure there's some great parallels there

but Ambessa as a character is sooooo fascinating. while i hv qualms making a prominently Black character be an imperalist warlord (othering her with her accent too), Ambessa i fear is so so very cool and i was slightly rooting for her ngl like i can't hate a cunning ambitious woman it's against my nature!!!!!

i am gonna think abt mel holding up ambessa like repin's painting of ivan the terrible for a longggg time

side note: i love that sevika finally got what silco wanted all along - a seat at the (council)table. like that's my wifeeeeeee. lib ending i know i know since the best ending is a free state of zaun but like narrative wise it would notttt make sense at the point of time. but also since they never confirmed anything, i wanna say they'll have a go at dismantling the power structure that is oppressing zaun with sevika keeping an eye on it. not a perfect solution but i'll take it rather than leave it

so will i watch another show on LoL?

mmmm.......anyways guys watch Penelope of Sparta!

[kazuallh]

arcane predictions!!! but mostly kaz's unintelligible rambles

no like now that we're done with act 1 i kinda wanted to get in on the fun of like guessing esp because i KNEW the enforcer act would backfire immediately spoilers duhhhhh

isha or maddie is gonna die bc like. the tropes are right there.

someone said that ambessa is gonna be the final boss villain and idk if thats league lore im missing out on, someone pls enlighten me

loving ambessa btw the reveal that she was behind the 'attack' during the memorial fucking GENIUS

bc it was kind of a breaking point of the dark caitlyn arc!!

vi pitfighting arc next which im sad about bc like wdym i gotta watch my girl going THRU it

i mean this is a stretch but heimerdinger,,, bro defo has a bigger part to play right

yk like all of this has got me thinking abt the ending bc it cant be something like and they band together and live happily ever after!!! its gotta have some major casualty

so im kinda expecting it ... either vi... or jinx...

i love the vi is caitlyns weakness trope - it happened in s1 and remember how ambessa exiled mel bc she weakened her think THAT and cait being ambessas target and cait cutting off vi... would love to see it more in play.

jinx doing smth sacrificial bc girl has zero self preservation skills

SPEAKING OF JINX

i love the shift in perspective bc s1 felt like we were watching it from jinx first person pov and rn it feels like jinx third person and also her saying 'its so quiet now'

her character arc seems to be taking the hero's path which is so cool!!!!!!!!!!

that guy... yk the enforcer guy who left when cait was declared leader... who tf is that guy

ALSO WHO IS WARWICK SORRY I DONT KNOW LEAGUE LORE SOMEONE EXPLAIN BC WHAT IM SEEING IS... WORRYING...

ekko badass moment

i have NO idea whats gonna happen w viktor but jayvik nation i extend my condolences

yk idk how theyre gonna add more lore - if theyre gonna add more lore bc act 1 lays down the foundation, sets the scene, everything else builds up from here na. just fascinated on where its going frfr.

okay yeah i know this is not very predictions but wtv wtv i just wanted to say ik people say the pacing felt off but it felt perfect to me tbh - keeping in mind i finished my s1 rewatch last night - it felt like elements sorta clicking into piece, yk? the cogs of a machine taking their places.

thats all i can think of for now, lmk ur thoughts!!!!!111

[zghostreviews]

The Arcane Review

I have not used this account in a long time but I feel like I need to yap a bit after Season 2.

Season 1, keeping it short and brief cause I don't have any real issues with it or anything. The animation and art style used in Arcane is beautiful and such, love that, very appealing to my eyes. The music used is......well it makes you remember this is based on LoL at least...I liked the intro song used and simply tolerated like 70 to 80% of the other music. I stayed firmly on the side of Zaunites throughout my S1 watch especially and barely cared for the Pilties except for maybe Mel but it was more of in a "why are you with a man who looks like he uses 7 in 1 body wash instead of your secretary who looks like she wants you" and the "your mom genuinely fucking sucks" sorta way. On the topic of Ambessa though, I CAN understand why people think she's hot but like I can't get over the whole warlord and genocider thing but anyways. I liked the first season, the pacing seemed great to me I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it has basically zero rewatchability for me.

Now Season 2, I actually have a lot to say about it since its fresher on my brain.

Dawg........Season 2 was kinda shit.....it makes sense why Fallout won over Arcane(even tho I think that it was a very missed opportunity NOT to have Maybe play when the bombs started dropping in Fallout the show) this time at the game awards(aside from S2 of Arcane JUST wrapping up close to the end of November) The pacing and writing felt off and everything felt incredibely rushed and I don't get it? They're making another Arcane series anyways so I dont get why they could have had three seasons instead of trying to mesh together two acts in one 8 episode season? Whoever made it standard that seasons for shows should be 13 episodes or less instead of at least 20, your mom's a hoe‼️

I'm gonna be real for a moment and say I was purely here for more Sevika content that was promised and they FUCKING LIED!! My wife don't even say a singular word in Act 3 aside from "GRAAHHH" LIKE WHAT. Like we still know basically absolutely nothing about her even though she was Silco's right hand and had to take care of Jinx and Isha.

And then the stuff with Cait??? Is just not really addressed???? Cause she went full on dictator and shit after her mom's funeral. That was all her own choice and I don't know why people keep saying "it's because of Ambessa" even though Ambessa literally hadn't even spoken to her yet during her initial crash out, the scuffed shit she was doing to Zaun citizens and pointing a gun at a literal child??? Cait made those decisions literally on her own dude.

Another thing bothering me that was just never addressed is how Ambessa literally had hired those Zaun people with the full intention of no one stopping them from assassinating Mel, HER DAUGHTER. Unless that was something her right hand staged without her knowing???? We don't know because that shit was never addressed afterwards and we can only assume that Mel learn that her mom or her mom's right hand was about to get her killed to make it seem like all of Zaun was evil either.

And the thing with Viktor was...something...he turned into Jesus and started going a bit crazy with power. My main thing with him is that...he is from Zaun, right? So wouldn't he know who Vander and/or Silco are in some way even if he only spent his childhood there?

And then there's the lesbian sex scene which I feel was just..........terribly placed.....? And the writing surrounding what leads up to it is weird too....? Throughout the entirety of Season 2, Cait....I literally like her less than I did in S1 cause she literally called Vi "one of the good ones" in S2 and that was fucking crazy. But Cait has had like zero sympathy of any kind for Jinx, even when Jinx was like super clearly wracked from trauma and grief from seeing, Isha, a child, a child that was in her care, die in front of her. Like I'm pretty sure Vi and Cait also witnessed that too....and the aftermath so you'd think she'd be at least a little bit sympathetic but no???? Unless I missed something????

Then afterwards when Vi arrives and does try to talk to Jinx about what happened, clearly it's still a fresh wound and she does NOT wanna talk about it due to how painful it is so she lashes out and locks Vi in the cell, and very clearly eludes that she's gonna go off and kill herself and no one is gonna stop her. And then sometime after that, Cait comes by and unlocks the cell and Vi is like "she really hasn't changed..." and its like huh?????? You JUST basically heard her say she'd gonna go off herself and THAT was your conclusion??? Even after the time you got to spend with her prior to the event inadvertently caused by Jayce??? Then Cait just kinda shit talks about Jinx to Vi and trying to reaffirm that "yeah girl! She hasnt changed and I told you so!" in between the comfort and then they start kissing and fucking in the jail cell Jinx had spent days starving herself and wallowing in her own grief and sorrows in.

I'm sorry but was that supposed to get my clit perking up????? Cause it didnt.

And then there's the Black Rose plot, which was just confusing and proves that Act 2 and 3 should've been their own seasons cause it just made everything even more messy and kind of hard to keep up with. Like...???? Question marks was all that was really cause it just provided more questions than there already were.

I thought the fish guy would be of importance cause of how many shots he was getting, the whole thing with Maddie, and that guy Vi was hanging out with that was giving Vander vibes, hell I even thought that one Jinxer would've been important in some way cause she got a few shots too. But nah, all of them just die with little to no fanfare except fish guy whose name was Stev or something, I dunno.

And then the montages were....also annoying to say the least? It seemed like more of an excuse to make a mini music video really.

Did I watch Season 2 all the way through? Yeah. At times it felt like a chore to actually get through it, but yeah.

But did I walk out of it perplexed? Also yes!

I rate season 2 like a 7.5/10

S1 gets like a 9/10

[kalendraashtar]

Thoughts on S05E01

Missed my recaps? Don’t answer that. This first episode is making my head spin hard and fast with thoughts, so let’s roll! If you wish to stay solely in “the greenest of grass” towards this episode, consider ignoring the following musings, because I’m bringing my lawn mower.

- Look, I might have to give back my OL fandom badge (I’ll be, however, taking my fanfic with me), but I didn’t really enjoy the leading up or the wedding itself. Most of it felt forced and soapy, and let me tell you why - the show didn’t bother to establish these relationships enough last season to make those moments meaningful. Jamie and Bree’s relationship was so strained by the end of S4 and the healing never really took place on camera, so the scenes between them felt unearned and gratuitous. His “wee girl” never really became his girl, did she? SHOW👏🏻DON’T👏🏻TELL can’t be ignored sometimes.

- Claire’s hairdo for the wedding is the worst, while her wigs are fluffy and beautiful for the rest of the episode. I get it, it’s classic wedding family album disaster, but yikes. Bree’s dress is incredible, and I don’t really watch this show for prime historical accuracy anyway, so yay!

- The throwback to JC’s S1 wedding vows seemed lazy and too much fan bad service to me. It’s like IN YOUR FACE FANDOM, while Sam and Cait don’t really need that visual aid, because they sell the memories with their faces alone. 

- Fersali remain the cutest to ever cute. I mean, Lauren Lyle has the kind of spark I wish Sophie had at times. 

- They are really going for a Roger’s Extreme Makeover The Ridge Edition, but I’m Arya Starking all over it and assuring you the fandom remembers. Jamie is our collective opinion when he reminds Claire that Roger doubted his love himself, which might as well be one of his lesser sins. I’ll serve it on a pie, if need be.

- THAT MONTAGE OF EVIL. I cannot stress enough how much it didn’t work for me. The song playing over it and the editing took away any meaning for the three couples. It was cartoonish and bizarre. “Here kids, take some fine pointers on the art of sexing on your wedding night from your parents and could-be-grandparents”, OH MY GOD NO. I fell on my back about just as hard as the Bear Grylls of Carolina next to LJG.

- Lizzie, your weirdness and vagina-teeth are showing.😂 After the Montage of Doom, I’m starting to warm up to impending twins-hochmagandy. 

- Look, I’m about as surprised as you are as I write these words, but the Regulators storyline and Fiery Cross were probably my favourite parts of the episode. And the unspoken kilt scene between Jamie and Claire my highlight of the hour; they felt so complicit, so connected, hard as diamonds. Everything I missed in them for the majority of S4. A BIG, BIG, YAY.

- I can see the ways in which they tried to bring back the feel of Season 1. Some of it worked - more humour and lightness, Scottish traditions and vibe, slower pacing. But the cinematography just isn’t as stunning as it used to be back then, the camera work, the image colours, the shots. I appreciate the effort put into bringing the writing quality up and hope to see more of that throughout the season. There’s still work to be done.

Did I love this episode? No, I didn’t. It was the kind of meal that keeps me from starving, I don’t wince when I chew every bite (EXCEPT FOR THE SEX TO END ALL SEX IN A BAD WAY), but I wouldn’t want to see it on my table for my last supper. 

Did it make me more hopeful for good things this season? Yes, for a good part of it. JC and the fantastic acting of Sam and Cait still have me believing.

Here’s to hoping!!