#Finally Got the Name Right

[polymathart]

The most important revelation of all:

Jinx is NOT homophobic!

[weirdprophetess]

Cassandra built infrastructure specifically so Zaunites could breathe the air down there??? I didn't know you were chill like that Mrs. Kiramman

[annabeth-katniss-granger]

I cackled HARD

[azertyrobaz]

You summon storms and play with nature Now watch it hurt you

[q8qwertyuiop8p]

Season 2 concepts

[vandersprodigy18]

You know, personally, i hate the bitch but i do have to give credit to Ambessa, she really thought of everything.

I mean, wow, she commissioned Cait’s gay little Cape perfectly tailored to her measurements. She got her design team on crunch mode to squeeze out a sexy new logo that combined the Kiramman and Medarda crests. She got giant posters of that shit printed and hung all over the city.

Man I bet they had spreadsheets and planning docs. I bet there were event coordinators with earpieces hiding backstage with The Cape waiting for their cue. I bet they ran rehearsals to get the timing right.

Bessie’s really got her PR team on lock!

[melmooart]

Finally got the name right... sister

[girl4music]

Just finished watching episode 3 of Act 1 of Season 2 of ‘Arcane: League Of Legends’. Jinx and Vi finally face off in a fight that genuinely is in the effort to end the other. Jinx expresses her need to die and is comforted by the fact it’s her sister that will be the end of her but Vi calls off the shot on her because a child is in the crossfire. Caitlyn, who was about to take the shot, didn’t seem to care about that. She wasn’t going to let Jinx get away.

After the interaction where Vi pleads for Caitlyn not to let the violence change her the way it has done for and with everybody else in her life and they have what seemingly is their first kiss (may just be on screen) and Caitlyn promises her that she won’t, it seems to be too little too late now that vengeance is all that stokes her and their love might not be able to withstand the fire.

Lots of thematic resonance here as Act 1 comes to a close. We don’t know what happened to Mel - is she dead? Been taken hostage? What’s happened there? All we know is that she never got any closure on the item utilising the shimmer and uncovered her own mother’s treachery. Speaking of, Ambessa is elected General - by unanimous vote it seems - and makes Caitlyn the sole commander of an initiative that will certainly create a lot of conflict between CaitVi and prove to Vi that she’s changed for the worst if Caitlyn chooses to lead an attack on Zaun - repeating the cycle all over again.

I don’t know what they’re going to do to solve these problems for the main characters and wrap up all their narratives but it’s got to be something pretty damn clever to be successful storytelling where they have satisfying or at least logically sound conclusions for all.

Short form factor TV shows usually struggle with the endgame. Let’s see how Riot Games and Fortiche fair.

[ohboi]

ok so, please tell me i am not the only one who immediately thought of this when episode 3 was wrapping up:

right? no? just me? i'll see myself out...

[juiceboxerr]

ARCANE SEASON 2 SPOILERS!!

i have to admit that i laughed a bit at this exact part because why are they fighting like me and my brother when we were younger 😭 jinx's knee kick and then vi shoving her away but not to the point where she falls over? like that's a sibling fight

[sapphiresaphics]

“To Ashes and Blood” by Woodkid itches my ADHD brain like no other song I’ve ever encountered.

From the weird wooden ticking that sounds like a crank being clicked, to the underwater muffled sounds of a drum, to the deep deep voice singing about the line you were never meant to cross, to the choir chanting in a weird foreign Runeterra language…

…there so much going on and it all just feels like an acoustic fidget toy in my brain.

[polymathart]

If you see this, please donate to my therapy. Thank you.

[weirdprophetess]

Everybody who pointed out that Vi dropping the gauntlets after Caitlyn kissed her was quite literally Caitlyn disarming her how does it feel to have the most massive galaxy brain in existence

[dandelionjack]

why has nobody gifsetted the scene in e3 inside the hex vault dome when jayce touches the floating fractal incomprehensible monstrosity orb and it all goes acid haywire yet? i need it pleasepleaseplease or i’ll have to do it myself

[jbk405]

Hmmmmm, "Finally Got the Name Right" started really strong, but fell apart pointlessly at the end.

The music video of the Enforcer Team was absolutely amazing at the opening, both the music itself and the animation. It also perfectly summed up what was actually going on with "The Grey", when it hadn't really been made clear last episode.

The Enforcer team was noticeably panicky and untrained in their actions, which lead back to my criticisms of the end of the first episode of the season, but then Vi pointed that out to Caitlyn and they sent them home. It makes including them at all kinda pointless, since they're introduced at the end of episode 1, skipped over in episode 2, and then dismissed in the opening to episode 3, but at least they didn't keep them around and talk about how they're an Elite Force while they're shivering and whimpering on-screen. So I was willing to call this a win and move on.

I honestly did not think we'd actually get a kiss between Vi and Caitlyn this early, I thought they'd continue to slowplay it for the whole rest of the season. But I'm ecstatic to get it now, so we can build from here for the rest of the show. I'm not sure if I think this was their first kiss or not: There was hesitancy there on both parts, and several small movements forward with pauses to reassess, but there was also no apparent surprise afterwards. Either way, the way Vi dropped her gauntlets really emphasized how big this is for her.

The Vi/Jinx and Caitlyn/Sevika fight was fascinating. Beautiful animation (as always) and complicated by the wonkiness of the magic. The complementary surrealism of Jayce, Ekko, and Heimerdinger in the base of the hex-whatever just emphasized how everything was spinning out of control.

Jinx essentially being ready to die is tragic, but also reaches back to what I've said before about the show really emphasizing that she is a sick young woman. She is evil, and she does need to be stopped, but that doesn't change the fact that she's so hurt that she's hoping her sister is going to kill her.

But it started to all fall apart when Caitlyn turned on Vi when Vi tried to prevent her from taking the shot when that kid was in the way. I just don't believe this conflict, and it doesn't make sense. This is what they're fighting over? I would have accepted Vi realizing that she can't let Jinx die yet and stopping Caitlyn for that reason, and Caitlyn being furious at that betrayal after the death of her mother. I would have accepted Vi getting so overwhelmed that she was ready to kill this innocent kid and Cait trying to stop her, since we saw last season that Vi can get over-focused and ignore collateral damage when the she's striking back at the people that harmed her. But for it to play out this way and for Caitlyn to fall onto the (obviously racially-coded) 'you're one of them' remarks was just out of place and awkward after Vi stepped in to protect somebody else. I can't accept that this is what is leading to the breakdown of their relationship.

Then that big sequence where Ambessa is manipulating all of the Piltover nobles also doesn't make sense. I don't buy that Caitlyn can't see this. Her entire character in the first season was that she saw things. She pieced together the clues and figured out the truth on her own. And I don't mean that she should instantly deduce all of Ambessa's plans, because there's a whole lot of details that she has never seen, but it should be obvious to her that she's being manipulated. And even if you say "Sure she can tell, but she doesn't care because she's so grief stricken that she doesn't care" it's still not well-portrayed.

And during this moment where Caitlyn is getting the cheers from the crowd of people as she is essentially appointed dictator of the city, there's all these reaction shots of the three Enforcers to show how they're taking it. One is happy, and the other is kinda neutral, and there's one long, slow shot as one of them turns away in apparent shame....except we literally still do not know this guy's name. No background info, no history, nothing. Is he from the Undercity like Vi and joined in the hopes that by being a Good One he could protect the rest, and he now realizes that he was mistaken as he sees these people planning all-out war against the Undercity? Is he from Noxus and he fled to Piltover to escape their militant violence, only to see history repeating right here? WHY SHOULD WE CARE THAT HE ISN'T HAPPY HERE?

The episode was great until 30 minutes in, the just fell apart.

[beastimusprojects]

The Aforementioned Violyn Fanfic:

*After the events of Finally Got The Name Right*

Vi is sitting by the window of the council chamber, when Caitlyn comes in.

"I thought you said you wouldn't change. They got you in the cape and everything."

"I thought you said you could do it."

Vi turns away towards the open hole. "I thought I could. I'm sorry."

"It could have been over by now." "If you'd just let me take the shot."

"I said I'm sorry." "I should have done it when I had the chance, but I stand behind protecting that girl."

"How many more have to lose their lives before its worth one?" "More people will go home without mothers tonight."

"..." "You know what I saw?"

"What?"

"My sister." "Not Jinx. That little girl, you don't know how much she looked just like Powder used to."

""

"Would you have taken the shot if it was your mother standing beside her?"

"It wasn't her."

"I'm sorry, I guess I'm not strong enough."

""

"I just," she picks up a piece of rubble "this isn't something I know how to do. I can hit stuff, I can take em." "Powder's still hitting me right in the feels though. Its like she's dead, but still dying all the time, and there's nothing I can do to save her." "You're stronger I guess. In the end."

"More ruthless maybe."

"What's the difference?" "You'd think I'd've figured it out. Where I grew up, sentiment got you killed."

"But its loyalty that kept you alive. You're not weak Vi."

"I feel like it." She crushes the rubble.

"For the days ahead we're going to need all of it. I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"What's going to happen next?"

"For now, I don't know that I want to think about that." "Everything's been happening so fast. I just want to take a moment. With you."

... All the smarmy fanfic stuff, ending in a kiss that is very distinctly going towards activities that require an age rating bump, and thus the camera cuts away to protect the innocent.

Note that I never said it would be high effort.

I got to read some now, but I'll do that tomorrow.