#ekko gets good times and fun things and jayce gets the narrative consequences of his actions

[brionysea]

haven't finished act 3 yet for Reasons but the hard cut from ekko and powder having a fun dancey time in the "good things for everyone except vi" universe to jayce in the absolute TRENCHES was the funniest thing I've ever seen

[thewistlingbadger]

Not sure if any of these are *hot takes* per se but:

Vander being brought back was tacky, boring and made me less interested in the show (I don't care about Warwick lore or whatever, bringing him back when his death had so many consequences for Vi and Jinx's arcs actively cheapens their stories so much);

I struggled to care about Isha since the show put little to no effort into making me invested in her beyond "cute kid". It felt like she was more of a plot device to get Jinx to just be a quippy antihero rather than her far more nuanced and interesting S1 characterization. Also, I don't know why the writers thought her being a suicide bomber was a good idea.

Zaundads (Vander/Silco) isn't a good ship, I get the appeal but the Vander-Silco dynamic seems genuinely more interesting without the tired cliche of them being lovers who had a violent falling out.

Timebomb (Jinx/Ekko) was fun when it was potential subtext in S1 but just like everything else with Jinx and Ekko, the interesting parts died after the S1 finale.

On a similar note, it was a missed opportunity not to have Ekko confront Heimerdinger over his role in perpetuating Piltover's oppression of Zaun. Like the guy was in power for like 300 years let's examine that.

Ekko, Mel, Heimerdinger, and (to an extent) Jayce all being basically sidelined for huge parts of S2 made the world feel so small and static, especially after Mel and Ekko were set up to be much bigger players during the tail end of S1.

I liked JayceVik and CaitVi in S1 but I absolutely don't think either ship should've taken over the show like they both did. As a queer person, I'm seeing way too many people justify their poor writing as "oh well it's queer rep." Okay, we deserve WELL-WRITTEN queer ships as well.

A lot of the side characters in S1 felt like they had at least some kind of idea behind them. I didn't even know Loris had a NAME until I googled it. The writers in S2 basically just forgot to give these guys any sort of consistency or reason for the audience to be interested in them.

S2 misinterpreted "making things nuanced" as "making everything ludicrously overexplained and overconnected". The wizard being Viktor is dumb and unnecessary, Silco and Vander having known Vi and Jinx's mom makes their relationships and story arcs less interesting, I liked Singed in S1 but I didn't need anymore backstory or presence from him other than what was already there, and everything we got made me like him less, etc.

I know there's a lot here but I had a lot of opinions lol

WOW lots to unpack!! I'm gonna go one by one i think.

Agree. Vander was vital to act 1 s1 and he was needed to start the story. However by the time we get to season two, so much time has passed. In the show AND in real life. Vander had absolutely ZERO business in being brought back into the story as an actual character. I could understand including him had it been under some flashbacks that actually furthered the plot (not like the blisters and bedrock flashback) but otherwise he needed to stay dead. If we can bring back Vander who died at the start of the show, then who's to say anyone is really dead? If we can have Vander why not bring back Silco yk? Once you start bringing people back from the dead the threat of death is less heavy. While I understand that Vander makes a good fit for Warwick I truly believe that Warwick had no place in this story. He should have not been a character at play and I hate how much time he ended up taking. The only reason why Warwick exists in arcane is for the purpose of getting the sisters to reconcile without actually resolving their conflict. And that is incredibly frustrating. I also feel like if they were gonna go down this road it should have been harder. Warwick almost immediately reverts back to Vander and stays Vander for the rest of act 2.

Isha isn't a character in season two, she's just a plot device that's used to further Jinx's narrative. She has no real personality or desires outside of Jinx. I've heard people compare her to having a pet and unfortunately I have to agree. I never liked Isha because of this and also because to me it was so obvious she was going to die, even BEFORE act one aired. When they released the music video for Isha's song I was like "oh there's no way they both survive" and so I didn't get invested or attached to Isha at all. I think she's cute and her relationship with Jinx is cute, but I also hate it bc Isha's function in the story is to get Jinx to revert back to Powder, and I can't stand that shit. To this DAY I'm still trying to connect the dots on her death like I STILL don't understand why she "sacrificed herself" Jinx literally wasn't in danger??

All ships are valid so long as they're safe, but I think you were trying to say that you personally don't like Zaundads. Which is fair, I don't ship them either, though I do see the appeal. I think your reasoning is also very interesting I haven't thought about it like that.

This is an interesting perspective. I hope I'm interpreting your words correctly. I don't think I agree per say. I don't ship timebomb. I personally don't see the hype. However, I think the theoretical concept of two childhood friends finding themselves on opposing sides as they grow older is compelling and I think this is the base for timebomb. However they were literally never explored in the whole show. They never have a single conversation with each other. The only moments we get between them are the bridge fight and the attempt. The fact that we got a whole episode dedicated to a fake relationship between him and an AU version of jinx is maddening. So I think they could have been interesting but the show literally never commits to them.

Season two has a theme of just forgetting what happened in s1 and forgiving Zaun's oppressors. It would make sense for Ekko to criticize heimerdinger's inaction when he was a councilor. However when Ekko meets Heimerdinger for the first time he actually speaks with a sense of awe and admiration. It's important to remember that Ekko isn't an anarchist or a revolutionary. He's a teenager who is against any forces who harm the people of zaun. He's not necessarily anti-council (anti-piltover's government), he's not anti-statehood (we never get to see if he believes in Zaunite independence), he's anti-oppression. So do I think he should have criticized him? Yes. Did I want him to? Yes. Do I understand why he did not on a character level? Also yes.

Yes agreed writing off characters and then randomly bringing them back was a MAJOR flaw in S2. I wrote a post about how season two speed runs all the interesting concepts and then is forced to spend tons of time on shit that is boring and doesn't matter. Mel, Viktor, Ekko, Jayce, are all characters that we wanted to see more of but instead they got shoved aside to focus on...what exactly? Bc jinx reverts back to powder, we get no development from vi, and one day Caitlyn hates zaun and the next she's back with Vi. This is why I hate Warwick, because act 2 spends loads of time on Warwick when it could have been focusing on literally any of the missing characters. In Mel's case her story feels so isolated and disconnected from the main story of the season. For Jayce and Ekko they're reintroduced so late in the game there's no time to explore what happened. Episode seven tries to make up time but it ruins the whole pacing of act 3. Viktor is just a goddamn mess he is literally different EVERYTIME we see him. He's supposed to be a big bad but he doesn't start acting like an antagonist until EPISODE 8. It's all a fucking mess.

This one is interesting to me. I didn't really ship either caitvi or Jayvik in S1. Didn't see Jayvik at all and Caitvi just didn't do anything for me. I think it's important to remember that of the two only caitvi is canon. JayVik doesn't count as queer rep bc they weren't intended to be so (so in this context the "queer rep excuses bad writing" argument cannot apply to them). "Taking over the show" is interesting and I can see where you're coming from. ESPECIALLY JayVik they really did steal the show lol (but tbh I'm not upset at this bc they were what I enjoyed the most in S2). CaitVi definitely had some moments and it did feel like things were being ignored for the sake of the ship.

Yes. Every single thing in s1 had a reason. Why does Finn exist? To show that Silco has adversaries and that he's losing favor. To give Sevika some brief depth. Why does Ren exist? To provide Marcus with a motivation and to highlight how fucked up Silco is. Why does Therim exist? To show that even the most base level employees of Silco are afraid of Jinx. These aren't all the examples but they're probably the most obscure and they ALL served a purpose. Season two doesn't care about their side characters. They're just playthings to either further the story (Isha, Warwick) or to invoke an audience reaction (Maddie, gert, Loris).

Singed's backstory was interesting but not needed. Introducing it so late to the game felt wasteful. Even though the additional information we received on Vander and Silco and Vi's mom was unnecessary, I do like that we got it and I think it adds to the story of Silco and vander's falling out (I have a separate post explaining why on my blog). Viktor being the mage is not something that bothers me I liked the reveal in the moment, although I do recognize if you think too hard about it it falls apart lol. S2 relies on spectacle too much. S2 doesn't feel as complex or as nuanced as s1 because it is not. I can see where you would obtain the perspective of S2 feeling too connected and too explained (I think this is why you referenced blisters and bedrock and mage!Viktor). However to me there's so many things S2 didn't explain (why does Viktor act different. Why does mel suddenly have powers. What is the black rose. What was wrong with the tree. Was the anomaly a wild rune. Etc) and I feel like the story is too disconnected (bc of all the missing characters).