#ESPECIALLY heimerdinger's. we barely had time to process it

[barrygeuse]

s2 of arcane was a major disappointment to me all things considered. it was gorgeous and i can't deny that; i fully enjoyed watching it, but its plot was overcrowded and it completely abandoned everything that happened in s1. silco and vander's sacrifices, the fight for zaun's independence.. it was all completely undermined by the war. countless lives lost and for what? we got a glimpse of what zaun and piltover could have been, but in our timeline everyone was fighting the arcane and ambessa rather than the oppressive piltover. it wasn't about the undercity and topside anymore. it just felt kind of nothingburger to me which was disappointing considering how much the first season elicited emotion

[ifeelhuman]

and that was arcane episode 9, season one’s finale. this is one of those episodes where it just doesn’t stop. so let’s just get right into it.

we open to the face of the child that Jayce killed. wracked with guilt, (conflicting) advice from multiple sources, and the fact that now *he* participated in the violence that he and council (should) want to neutralize he gives up. he understands the potential cost from war and the destabilization and horrors it could bring. he nearly attacks Vi in order to get the atlas gauntlets back but… i think his mental and emotional state was so taken aback that he let her keep them. i mean, him fighting her is just engaging in further violence, right? going to keep this review character-focused so going forward… Jayce is able to send Silco a message, a parley, trying to broker for peace. and while Silco’s words ring true, that “[he’s] tipping [his] hand” because of fear, that doesn’t change the fact that Jayce cannot undo what has been done and Silco can’t part with the fact that the undercity being independent is all he’s ever wanted (before Jinx came along). this was another action on the young councilor’s part that was unsanctioned and made without any other person’s input. Jayce is a child but a child that wants to do the right thing. every chance he gets we will try, even if he’s led astray. at the next council meeting he bares all again for the first time since they x-ed Heimerdinger from the ruling body, and i guess with his hand in all his colleagues boots and being the proprietor of HexTech they let him speak. they argue for seemingly hours until, at last, Mel—being a well-respected member of the council—openly supports Jayce’s motion and that greatly moves the rest of the members to vote the same. we will never get to see the consequences of said decision because of the cliffhanger but… moving along.

Mel. damn… she is such a different character from who she was in the beginning. or, at the very least, has revealed herself be so much of the fact that is unseen until episode 4 and on. she openly disrespects her mother, talks back to her—in her face !! and defends Jayce, even without him present. i really do think and believe she cares for him AND the city AND her position but for the first time i think it’s in *that* order. her mother (not sure if we’ve gotten a name yet) lets Mel speak and does seem to hear her. but that doesn’t say mom, especially when she reveals her intentions—to use HexTech weaponry to get revenge for her son’s murder and would be willing to start a war just to defend her family (despite the countless other families that would suffer in the process). Mel feels this pain and it sits with her, you can tell. she even sits down for the first time in the scene once she hears this and takes it in. however, i don’t think that has swayed her whatsoever to want HexTech weaponry. just has added onto the complexity of what her actions and inactions can say to others and i think deep down she just wants to be authentic, taken seriously, be seen that she cares, and that she is more than what her mother is. i… i really, desperately hope she survives the attack at the end but considering her seat is the closet to the missiles landing point… unfortunately i seriously doubt that and IF she dies this show WILL be less than because of her absence.

Viktor. Sky 💔. Viktor reads (at least) a portion of the documents and research that Sky had with her (and presumably was going to share with him) when she passed. he is further taken aback when reading that she just wanted to change the world, make it a better place and how she was striving to do that. we don’t hear what exactly she was working on but whatever it was… the fact that her life was a cost in his on lust for saving his own life thru a medium they still don’t understand (magic) is enough to make him want to end it all. he neatly does… until Jayce parallels the narrative and saves Viktor by interrupting his attempt. Viktor, understanding the gravity of the situation, makes Jayce promise to destroy the Hexcore and he does. how exactly he plans on going about that is unclear but the important part is the promise; it was the first thing they’ve agreed on in a while it seems and… to fracture that now would possibly have irreparable damage to their partnership and trust.

the child killed last episode was the child of one of the head crime lords and is present along with Finn, Sevika, and Silco at the factory’s ruins. you can tell the other lords (and Sevika, who has alluded to it) agree that Jinx is a problem, a distraction for Silco as well as (what he views as) his greatest asset. however, still, it was Silco that got Sevika and himself closer to the nation of Zaun when Vander wouldn’t move in ways they wanted him too. as a result, Sevika feigned a swayed allegiance and eliminates Finn in front of the mother-of-the-dead-child lord to show her loyalty to Silco and their cause. she seems rather capable—even more than before—thanks to her upgraded arm and even starts to best Vi in their second fight in this episode. it isn’t enough but i wonder how Jinx v Sevika would go… but !! Sevika gets her fresh arm ripped off in style and as such isn’t there to help or assist Silco when he is taken and subsequently perishes. what role she will have in the next season is up in the air but i know that for certain: Sevika’s loyalty to the cause is strong as ever and that will continue to drive her forward.

Heimerdinger (HD) and Ekko make it back together to the shelter he’s helped cultivate with his recovering community and the awe displaced by the former is amusing but not humorous. he’s surprised someone Ekko’s age (like, 17 or something) has made such a haven and is still so young with the vitality and drive to keep going. HD really has fallen out of the common folk and their customs, their abilities, and their capabilities to overcome, prosper, and make a life for themselves. unfortunately he has proven to be mostly right with magic but idk… he’s really fallen as a character for me still. his ignorance is still on show for display and having a character like that be like that for so long is… grating. Ekko’s leg turns out to be okay for the most part and gets reset—he doesn’t have a Hiccup moment and gets a metal leg like Sevika, which i’m glad to see.

Caitlyn. she has involved herself in the all of the undercity and its problems (presumably because she cares) and has been smart up until episode 5 in figuring out the source of most of the crime. she’s come a long way. however, because of this and the very specific individuals that are key players, Cait is kidnapped, tied to a chair, and gets uppercutted by a machine gun—all in a day or less. (i kind of believe that Jinx at least *thought* about putting Cait’s head on a platter or otherwise kill her and present it like she did the cupcake. but it doesn’t really matter). Vi can’t make the decision to kill Cait to get “Powder” back (and she’s never been much of a killer, however i think Jinx was disappointed ALSO because one of the ways that Vi has changed has been that she likely would’ve killed any enforcer to get her sister back. this time is different) and Cait gets threatened AGAIN with a gun to her face. i’m glad she was witness to all this tho, there needed to be another party that was keen to this situation. also thankfully Caitlyn isn’t dead but with that missile headed right for the council, i can’t say her mother will be awarded the same fate—who to say, if anyone, survives that attack is a mystery. at least she and Caitlyn were able to speak to each other before all this.

the man, the industrialist, the eyeball needle dude, Silco. finally gets propositioned by Jayce and thus the council for Zaun’s independence. his ultimate goal, really. this is at the cost of Shimmer (which he doesn’t seem to mind lol), the gemstone’s return but Jinx in custody and given over to council as well. that final point, the most crucial, Silco just canny reconcile with as such understands the bridge Vander stood on and how he couldn’t move on his constitution because of his children—Silco’s world highway revolves around Jinx. he really sincerely loves her and i think what’s most sad about his manipulations in their relationship is that he really believes a lot of things he tells her. again, he didn’t initially lie about Vi being alive—Marcus said she was dead and he had good reason to believe it. him being reborn and passing onto Jinx how that changed him into a stronger man was personal and yet he shared with her this knowledge. he did this not out of ego or attention but for Jinx’s benefit. Silco saw himself in her and saw how unique and wonderful this little girl was while also deeply troubled. he did try to protect her up until the very end. if this is the last we see of him that’s to be expected but his presence will be missed. we never did get a clear explanation on that habitual procedure he did with his dead eye but i guess that’s alright.

and miss Vi. i think she’s starting to spiral herself. interesting, as prison for years didn’t break her or who she was but being in the outside work for a few days (???) (and a lotttt of shit taking place in such little time) and sees what’s different and what’s the same is getting to her. she, in brief, got to speak with the council, the people with the highest status and relevance around, and they seemingly only care enough to deal with the undercity now that it’s a big problem. her family is either death or splintered off into their own groups. the streets are the same but the vibe and designs are different. this incongruence is getting to her and because Jayce gave up on their method of doing things she goes back to The Last Drop for the first time in years and bests Sevika again in their second brawl—tho lost a tooth in the process. Vi’s wailing at the end of the sequence told me that she’s tired and angry and frustrated that things are different now. if she didn’t get knocked out i don’t think it would’ve mattered since she was looking for her sister anyway but it doesn’t matter. during the climactic scene of this episode Vi opens up to Jinx as much as she can (while being tied up) and really does try to deescalate and then get Jinx to remember all the key people from her past that she’s lost Jinx is so far from Vi’s help now. she even tried to calm her down after gunning down Silco but it’s not okay. and i bet comes across as a lie or at least stings to hear Vi say that when it’s *not okay.* i imagine she and Cait grab the gauntlets of the table and make it back to Piltover at the turn of next season because it would not be good for Jinx to have them. at least Vi will be there with Caitlyn to comfort her if she needs. neither of them are alone.

unlike Jinx. the three act structure was well-intended and thus executed in this show revolving around Jinx, her actions, and where she and the other characters are at the end of each act. at the end of all three acts Jinx is left alone… and thus ends up… worse. it’s really sad. it’s depressing, actually. i’m someone with a little to pretty much no support system and to see Jinx not have one much either… it’s heartbreaking. i’ll say it again, she’s deceptively capable despite her condition. her + shimmer = capable of much anything. she kidnapped a councilor’s daughter, her sister (arguably the strongest fighter in the undercity at least), and the kingpin of the undercity because she felt like it lol. and it’s like watching someone crash their car over and over again, that last scene. just getting worse and worse and you can tell Jinx isn’t doing it on purpose but !! she’s so angry, so troubled, so ready to believe she’s less than the truth that she self-destructs situations to working against her. how could she not give into that state of being when you feel so useless and weak and left behind? she operates on extremes for her actions to receive the right attention and now that attention is any. but to lose Silco in the mess of all this she looks at Vi and… “sees” that she’s already lost her too. to cement that feeling she powers up and fires what i think we’re to believe is the weapon that Jinx and Silco alluded to a couple of times. and unlike when she was a kid and things went drastically wrong, this goes dramatically perfect in execution. Mel at the end seems to almost sense the middle right before it hits (her). am i to read into that because i already am lol

i cried more on my 2nd and 3rd rewatch. i don’t usually need to rewatch for my reviews but here i felt it as a necessity. looking forward to the second half of arcane, season 2 very soon.