#arcane season 2 minor spoilers

[from-ib-to-asshai]

just finished the first arc of arcane season 2 and can i just say how refreshing it is to see a mainstream piece of sci-fi/fantasy media that deals with themes of war, power struggles, conspiracy and politics revolve almost entirely around women? the entire first arc centers almost only on it's female characters, with them being the ones to seize power, have complexity in their actions and be calling the shots instead of how we usually see it in media, with shows like these usually revolving around powerful men making decisions and women just kinda sometimes being there to either seduce or be seduced.

my only real criticism of the male/female balance of the cast is that so far the plot related to science and the arcane are only male characters. the only woman involved in science and discovery was a extremely minor character that died in s1. that's a little disappointing, but considering how women-led the season is so far, i'll take it.

[soularsss]

the dirt under your fingernails

[anxietyinducedpisces]

Damn…

Zaunites sure like manspreading.

[hyrulehobbit]

I'm having SO many S2Act2 thoughts so I'm going to focus on something that wasn't on my bingo card even remotely:

The fact that Cait having rebound sex with Maddie is like... the lesbian equivalent of some shitty tortured dudebro detective screwing his younger assistant who idolises him. It's such a typical masculine action movie character trait but they gave it to HER.

...wrow

[himbirch]

[juliettenotjuliet]

Heavy is the crown...

[artyapplebee]

I AM SO UNWELL

[rainysofsunshineao3]

Ok ok,

I'm getting what they're doing here...Season 1 everyone knows Jinx is Silco's. Everyone references that he's her father, she's his daughter. It's a fact everyone understands. We get only small snippets of Vander being a father figure to Jinx when she was young, the only two I can name off my head is him giving her the juice in the cup and him saying to Vi "Take care of Powder".

Season 2 rolls around and the writers make a hell of an effort to say "Look, Vander is her dad too!" with Jinx herself saying "dad" twice, her sniffing Vander's jacket and not Silco's (which tbh I'm a little pissed abt, but moving on) and the whole "he's your dad too". This time, they really really put the other father figure in the subtext, barely giving him mention at ALL except for in drawings from the Art of Arcane book and some subtle cues in the show (like, she write DADA or FAMILY all over most of the art pieces with Silco), as well as Young Silco's hair being pretty much Jinx's iconic hairstyle and the whole heartbreaking water burial scene we get.

By the end of the series, we know she loved them both very much and they loved her very much in turn, regardless if it was healthy or not. They just switched which dynamic was in the subtext.

I must say, though, WHY COULDN'T SHE CALL SILCO DAD, WHY WAS THAT NOT THERE I NEEDED MORE FLASHBACK OF YOUNG JINX AND SILCO.

On that note, I also need those 60 seconds of Timebomb we were robbed of, Riot better make a directors cut or SOMETHING

[that-boleyn-boy]

What a pretty Piltie 💙🩵

[donateliamitsuki]

I need both names and people who take x reader requests for them this damn instant

[srslylini]

I loved how in season 1, after Sky's death, we see Viktor through her glasses on the ground.

Isn't there this saying that basically means that love makes us see someone as better than they maybe are? Well the audience got to see Viktor through it all and the way we see Sky act it makes you think "maybe she sees something different, rose-tinted glasses"

but then we actually get to know how she sees him through her glasses, and it's the Viktor we always saw as well, it isn't a rose-colored fantasy. Nothing different, just him. To her death she loved him as he was. And isn't that the most beautiful thing? She saw Viktor's good and bad and to the end loved it all.

So when she said that he inspired her, she meant it whole heartedly. Everything about him.

and now her glasses aren't on her anymore. She isn't herself and Viktor can't be seen as he was through her anymore.

[shadowhearthallowleaf]

[inky-here]

caitlyn defenders 🤝 jayce defenders

[spiegelgestalt]

Timebomb feelings because of the Arcane trailer for season 2

So I just saw the arcane trailer for season 2. It's great. I'm so excited. (so sad that Victor and Jayce died in the explosion quite an apprupt ending for them i guess... /s)

but what i really want to talk about is these two pictures:

Because it got me thinking. One of the interesting aspects of the Jinx/Ekko relationship is that they are able to communicate through other means than direct words. And that they are able to create a different image for each other.

Long and rambly explanation under the cut, which got away from me and can be summarized with: Jinx makes Ekko more violent and Ekko makes Jinx more heroic and they love each other your honor and i want to see a team up in season 2:

Song:

Jinx has a few songs (Guns for hire, goodbye, What could have been) but they are usually solos. They are usually melodic rock. And they usually concentrate on how much Jinx was wronged.

And than there is Dynasties and Dystopia. On first watch i thought it was an Ekko song. It's after all in his style (both in animation as in genre) but some words don't quite fit:

"I might just might kick your butt Go run amok then paint my nails Never learned to raise my hand Was too busy raising hell Everything I know I am You should go and save yourself Thought you had my number, huh Congratulations, you played yourself"

this just screams jinx to me. Ekko has yet to run amok. Jinx does it all the time. I don't even know what Ekko's nails look like, but we have several distinct shots of Jinxs' blue and pink nails; Ekko doesn't raise hell, if he's raising something it's paradise. And the line "you should go and save yourself" is a good continuation/rejection of the one thing Jinx says in this fight: Look who it is - the boy savior -> go save yourself! And it forshadows the way jinx will be able to get just a loss instead of a total defeat (look she was defeated- in the aftermath Ekko had a hurt leg, while Jinx needed to be revived with terrible magic drugs there is a clear winner here). Ekko thinks he has jinx figured out but he hasn't and thats why he will hesitate in the end.

But i would also argue that not all of the song is jinx:

Ooh, yeah, he mad I'm racking up white diamonds Throw me in the sky You would swear the sun shining Ooh, yeah, he mad I'm racking up white diamonds Throw me in the sky You would swear the sun shining

this verse is both of them: Basically they are saying: Look how great i'm doing (lie) Aren't you mad about it? (They will never beat the allegation that they are bitter exes.)

And I'd argue that this is Ekkos verse:

In this gothic underground city We all sin If I bring a couple rounds with me Then we all win I came back and brought the crown with me The king's den Break your nexus and your neck 'cause Everybody's on your head

and interestingly enough it's an offer. This makes sense with the visual. Encouraged through Vi who insists that Powder is still in there somewhere Ekko conjures a situation wich is similar to their old games. And it works: It's the only time Powder appears as her young self on screen. And so Ekko makes an offer he probably made before: Trust me, back down, i can help:

He starts with: We all make mistakes - one of the things that bind Powder to the Jinx personality is her guilt over having killed her entire family. But Ekko doesn't blame Jinx he blames their circumstances (something he also does in his Zaun-duet misfit toys)

If i bring a couple rounds with me, then we all win -> this foreshadows his timetravel ability. And even if he doesn't has it at this point this whole scene breaks down time itself so it still works in my head. Ekko brings the crown with him (the hextech-crystal) and he warns Jinx that everyone is going after her.

And the second refrain which I'd argue both sing once again:

Hold still while I bag that, uh Talk bad 'til I snap back, uh This ain't brown, this that dark black This that pitch black, jet black Snap yo' ex watch me give him flashbacks

Meaning: keep still, i've got this, just trust me dude!

This song shows that Ekkos and Jinx's disagreement is far more similar to the disagreement between Vander and Silco than to the disagreement between Vi and Jinx. Vi and Jinx' disagreement is personal. Vi rejects everything jinx has become and just wants her "sweet" little sister back - Ekkos and Jinx's disagreement is political. They disagree about the question what is best for Zaun. AND I'd also argue the Ekko is far less surprised by the jinx personality. He knew Powder was a bit of a shithead. He's just pissed that she's working for Silco.

Well let's finally get to these two pictures:

We see Ekko and we see Jinx drawn as hero of the resistance in Ekkos style* (compare the mural to the video of misfit toys) We know that Jinx gave Ekko a definition that didn't suit him by creating the firefly bombs and recasting him as a terrorist. And know we see Ekko who maybe drew this picture of jinx recreating her from a terrorist into a hero of Zaun.

(see me get proven wrong in the first episode of arcane season 2...)

[xxcherrycherixx]

That ending was kind of shit...

[tiecladartist]

Thoughts on the Arcane Season 2 ending under the cut

Is anyone else kinda annoyed at how most of the arcane character arcs were either left open-ended, or with the character straight up dead without even a chance to have the rest of the characters react to it? Like... I know the series is going to be continuing in other regions, but I feel like the end of the Piltover/Zaun arc should've had even a small sense of closure for anyone aside from Singed. Maybe I'm just difficult to please and I really wish I could praise the ending as much as some of y'all (I still love the show, I promise), but it didn't feel like an ending to anything despite it being the "end" of Arcane. Not even with Jinx/Vi's story, which is what they specifically described this to be the end of. It kinda just felt like things happened and the credits rolled without any chance to even say goodbye.

Idk, I think I'm just tired of folks dismissing my frustration with a "but there's going to be more". I know there's going to be more, but if you describe something as the end of an arc, it should feel like an end, right? Like... Something should end? (Narratively or thematically, I mean. Not just the lives of half your cast). But so much has been left up in the air that I just kinda feel like I've been stopped mid-jump and want to put at least 1 foot back on the ground. I don't need everything explained in a neat little bow, but at least address the personal effects killing your character's had on the ones still alive. Burning a paper doesn't really do much for that, cool as it looks.

(and don't even get me started on how they handled The Arcane Gerald)