#arcane crit

[kitsu-katsu]

The arcane IS actually just inherently bad and Heimerdinger speaking from past trauma was 100% correct, even moreso when he told a dying man to wait a decade to start using his inventions to help better the lives of those suffering the same conditions he endured as a child

Fearing innovation to a fault and halting progress even when it could save people from needless death and suffering caused by being born as a discriminated population is what was right actually

That is the conclusion of this season

And I kinda hate it

[ratatattouille]

summary of caitlyn kiramman defenders points that i've seen so far:

-cait didn't go as far as ambessa, so her actions are technically benevolent

-cait questioned ambessa and distrusted her, so yeah (like it doesn't still make her complicit)

-cait HAD to invade zaun and use the gas pipes to (poison zaunite air) avoid bloodshed (which makes it less violent hence almost not violent at all anyways)

-cait and vi learned to trust each other which is what zaun and piltover needed to begin healing (gag)

-vi's character resisted change, so for her arc to be complete, she needed to accept powder had changed and let go of her and embrace the life she wanted (in piltover? with sexy cait <3 - and not her zaunite family lmao) this is better than vi learning to accept jinx and herself and both their mistakes so they can realize their dream for zaun because it wasn't ever really about zaun and classism anyways it was about love uwu

-arcane wasn't actually centred around the sisters and it didn't sacrifice anyone's established personality traits in order to diverge from a more political plot (XD)

-jayvik was just as bad as caitvi (jayvik faced consequences like they legit "atoned" by fucking dying)

-caitlyn and jinx's (and vi's) reasons for tweaking are both equally valid <3

-caitlyn willing to shoot an innocent child (something JINX HERSELF has never done - at least sober) has no relevance to her seeing zaunites as lowkey expendable "it's so easy to hate them"

-cait (poor kitty) was manipulated by ambessa to get those cops beating up and gassing zaunite civilians (but jinx being manipulated by silco means she needed to die for their to finally be peace between the two countries bc she was always the one destroying the peace, isn't that right arcane writers?)

-cait betrayed ambessa tho, so that means vi would 100% embrace her bc she didn't shoot her father <3 and let jinx out of the cell <3 (despite the fact that vi already had little to no trust in piltovians, she saw her parents killed by enforcers as a kid, and saw cait load it up and point at an innocent child bc zaunites were that disposable to her)

-caitlyn gave up her seat to sevika (which is not actually cannon and also, many councillors had already died and there was one new seat added that year -jayce's, who was gone)

-vi deserves to be happy (and she would absolutely be happier with a formerly? fascist girlfriend instead of the sister she's wanted to be reunited with since vander died - like she wouldn't feel any guilt AT ALL for what transpired in the vents :D because cait trusted her despite her sister killing her mom after literally joining leading the military in harassing vi's people post-breakup but don't you see? it's because cait realized that zaun was dangerous with jinx still on the loose so that makes it kinda okay :D vi would totally forgive that after hearing of all the police brutality her people had suffered under the kiramman regime during that whole time :D)

-THE SHOW WAS NEVER ABOUT CLASS DIVIDES IT WAS ABOUT LOVVVEEEEEE AND FORGIVENESS WHY ARE YOU MAD??

-NO CHARACTER WAS ALTERED OR CHANGED (vi's thirst for zaun's independence and peace in zaun) IN ORDER TO STEER THE PLOT AWAY FROM THE POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF PILTOVER'S VIOLENCE AGAINST ZAUN HAHAH WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??? THIS WAS ALL PLANNED FROM THE BEGINNING

you know what, i believe you, and that makes it suck even worse

[thegayestdiaz]

just saw someone have the audacity to compare caitlyn to ZUKO.

if you think caitlyn’s flip-flopping lacklustre arc was even close to zuko, the pillar of the modern redemption arc, you’re a fucking joke and that’s embarrassing

[shipofsapphics]

Tbh, im just gonna act like the majority of season 2 is just another splitted timeline created by the Arcane anomaly/Viktor's Runes and that Season 1 is the only canon one.

yknow despite arcane season 2 technically being canon because it came from the official source, due to the significant change in the quality of writing and storytelling I feel very reluctant to actually call it canon. I’m sorry but it does NOT feel canon to me. It feels like fanfiction that happens to be backed by a big budget and a corporation, but not canon.

[bitnopa]

the biggest plot twist in arcane season 2 is that it was a marvel show all along

[juneleaf]

arcane should have had 3 more extra episodes or something lol. these previous ones are so rushed. theyre so crammed with such everythingness it winded me. caitlyn just turns on ambessa just like that? vi forgives her just like that? yeah yeah "just look at frame .69 at vi's nose hair you'll see that da dadadada" shut up. i get it. but why is everything up to the viewers? why are we the one who needs to pause and look and stare at these things through a lens just to fill the gaps? i'd still have liked for these things to develop rather than HAPPEN like someone's just snapping their fingers in front of my face. "just wait for act 3" and after we're still left with questions what then? "just read league lore" and then and then and then?

[funnyscienceman]

pouring one out for jayce and viktor fr they shouldve been allowed to fuck up by themselves, not entangled in whatever tf magic mind control brainwashing bullshit is going on rn

[melmedarda]

The bullshit friendship is magic narrative that the Arcane writers are shoving down our throats should not be addling the fandom's critical thinking like it is.

[mofsblog]

For all the arcane crit people

Bonus:

[spottedspeck]

The more I think about it, the more mad I get that we didn't get more of Mel and Ambessa playing political chess in S2. The Black Rose subplot honestly feels like a copout -- and a poorly executed one at that too. Even their abduction of Mel had bad narrative timing. What was the point of keeping Mel from presenting her evidence against Salo when Ambessa was going to outmaneuver her anyways by nominating Caitlyn?!

[shipofsapphics]

Arcane Twt is HELLFIRE

Where i got the meme from!

[maeo-png]

crazy to me that i was instantly pulled out of Arcanes story after knowing Christian Linke is centrist as shit. like no fucking wonder the entire narrative is ‘forgive and forget <3’

[kitsu-katsu]

I just finished watching arcane season 2 and just... WHAT HAPPENED???

Dude

Where did the themes go???

I spent the last 3 chapters just going "hey, remember when this was about a struggle against oppression and class divides and discrimination?" It all just... Vanished and like 3 new forms of magic took its place

What happened with Mel? What was her plot even ABOUT theme-wise this season?? What was that ending with Ambessa????

What was that mess with Caitlin's character? She was ping-ponging between going fascist and actually she's just Caitlin same as ever and is immediately forgiven

Everyone forgives each other too quick

The avenger's level threat at the end to force Piltover and Zaun together without really resolving the political and social tensions that drove this whole thing was... A choice. A bad one if you ask me

Viktor held true to his character of "I'm using hex-tech to help people and especially help those who need it in the undercity" with an off-putting undertone for a WHILE and was good, up until Jayce basically killed him and then he's all for erasing humanity?? Just like that? "I just spent days putting all my energy into saving the beast-man, and asked Singed to leave, but actually, now that the commune was destroyed in one blow by Jayce, to hell with humanity, let's go doctor! To make the hive mind!"

It felt... Wrong

Jayce's character was also handled... Confusingly

And the time loop of Viktor making Jayce magic-obsessed so that they can work together and then he can almost die and become one with the hex-core and save humanity and Jayce becomes doomed so he can change the trajectory of his life again so that Jayce comes back to almost kill him to kickstart the sharp descend and only talk once almost everyone's dead to... Undoom himself?????? Teach himself a lesson that going down the path he himself set up though Jayce was wrong??? It makes zero fucking sense

The whole break up and make up of Cait and Vi is so rushed in every angle. Vi barely found out about Cait having another girlfriend. They split paths and Vi was immediately emo mode. Then they forgave each other immediately

Same with Vi and Jinx, their whole thing was rushed as hell too

How did Zaun even reach that perfect peace in the alternate universe? They're making the case that without hextech, the discrimination would've just... Dissipated and even Silco would've turned over a new leaf and just... How so? The political and social issues between the Lanes and Piltover was much older and much bigger than hextech. Maybe if they'd CONTINUED EXPLORING THAT PLOTLINE it could make some modicum of sense

Everyone flipped like a pancake from one second to the next

And the fact that almost everyone with a suicidal ideation just... Sacrificed themselves by the end is... Also a choice.

[thanatika]

i'm all caught up with arcane now... there was this whole drama like a week ago where an article came out mentioning that the show was originally greenlit for 5 seasons, and then some of the creators immediately put out a statement being like "no no that was just an inside joke that the reporter didn't understand, it was meant to be two seasons the whole time!"

and like. i kind of have a conspiracy theory that it really WAS originally meant to be more than 2 seasons, and they backtracked to keep netflix happy because they're hoping to get more spinoff shows, and they knew fans would be angry at netflix or whoever if they knew the show had been cut short. because that was so rushed.

like, that ending COULD have been really cool and climactic, if it had literally half of the buildup it needed for it to hit whatsoever. on a positive note, i DID really enjoy jinx and ekko and mel's character development throughout the season at least, especially after feeling like they went underdeveloped in s1.

[thegayestdiaz]

the thing that’s really pissing me off to no fucking end is some people’s insistence that “actions are more meaningful than words” and “you people just want things spoonfed you” is that the actions that are supposed to showcase a character’s growth and development are so small and barely perceptible unless you pause and zoom in on a hidden frame that’s 0.002 seconds long and turn your head at a 45 degree angle and squint.

i don’t think it’s great to make important plot details into throw away lines or put them in the background of a scene.

[sleepy-timaeus]

breaks my heart when good or great series get rushed last seasons/endings. the concepts and conflicts always end up too big for what's possible to satisfyingly conclude or address.

but hey, fandom would die off quick if we didnt have shit like this to write fix-it fics about and thinkpieces over