#what other media is popular rn. arcane?

[gender-is-fake]

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Thank you so much for reading!

[cherrybomb107]

Okay guys, I actually managed to have a civil discussion with someone on Arcane twt who disagreed with me! Everybody cheer😭😂🤭

But fr tho, I admit that I did quote twt that person in bad faith. A friend of mine made a joke about how Caitlyn wouldn’t have missed(iykyk) and this person’s response rubbed me the wrong way. Think something to the effect of “violence is never okay. Shame on you for joking about this.” So, I saw his response to my friend’s tweet and decided to ask him who he thought the “true villain” of Arcane was. I had a feeling what his answer would be.

He said Silco was the main antagonist (fair enough) but then, ofc, he started talking about how, ultimately, “both sides” were at fault for all that’s happening in the show. Now I know that one’s opinions on the media they consume aren’t necessarily a 1 to 1 with their real life politics, but for the sake of the argument, I’ll ask: what’s this obsession that we, as a collective, have with making things more complicated than they should be?

A lot of times, situations really are messy and complicated. But in this instance, I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t think the situation between Piltover and Zaun is complicated at all. I see an oppressor (Piltover) being responsible for the centuries long disenfranchisement of the oppressed (Zaun). Then here comes Jinx, who has been victimized by Piltover for her entire life, becoming radicalized against them, and being violent towards them.

The idea that “violence is bad; full stop” is very dangerous. Violence against an entire group being conflated with violence on an individual level is not good. For example, let’s talk about stealing for a second. Is a poor, starving person stealing from a store that upcharges on necessities “wrong”? In my opinion, no. Is a corporation stealing wages(which is actually the most common form of theft) “wrong”? Absolutely! Now, if you wanna be technical, both examples are “in the wrong”. However, let’s be real here: one of these things is a hell of a whole lot more “wrong” than the other.

But to bring it back to Arcane, why is this idea that “the situation is so complicated, there are no good sides” so popular? There absolutely are! Violence against an oppressor is not a bad thing! I, a marginalized individual, am not anywhere close to being “just as bad” as the mfers responsible for my oppression!!! Why do so many of us feel that way? That doesn’t even make any sense! Stop feeling bad for people who don’t give nary a fuck, nor a shit, nor a good goddamn about you AT BEST! And at worst? They will GLEEFULLY partake in destroying your community!!!

I know the show is ultimately centrist asf(and therein lies the problem) but still!

Anyways, I say all that to say, it’s fine to disagree with people, cause I was able to have a nice discussion with this person, despite vehemently disagreeing with them. But like, I really wanna know WHY these people think the way they do. How could the situation between Piltover and Zaun be thought of as anything but chickens coming home to roost? If you’ve been paying even the slightest little bit of attention to the world we’re living in, and everything that’s going on rn, how could you not apply those same principles to the show?

[tleeaves]

This right here is how you do trailers, just by the way. I know this is only a teaser (ONLY A TEASER) but this is how you do a show and tease it right. I could rant on about the poster art, the "We've got a few surprises of our own" enforcers clip, and finally THIS but so many others have probably touched on it already and said it better than I could ever hope to.

But in a world where new originals are not prominent anymore, where every piece of popular media needs to be milked for profit, and trailers (even book advertisements, but that's another conversation) give away the entire story with an easily predictable ending - Arcane is a gem. With the context of having watched season one, this teaser alone gives us enough of a taste of what is to come, hints of possible character arcs, without telling us how this is all going to end, though of course we have our guesses. We don't even know yet who from the council is alive (if any), who is delivering what lines to who (again, there are guesses though), but we're given the basic plot through a quest of three objectives. Hell, we don't know if the enforcers will even succeed or what other storylines are going on/will continue from season one.

As brought up by Schnee (go check out his YouTube channel under the same name, he has such incredible insight into storytelling, and I absolutely admire his work), Arcane is a tragedy. While certainly many stories exist today that can be classified as a tragedy, or like Arcane are BUILT on structures of ancient Greek tragedy, there is something about the genre that makes it far less predictable compared to your typical action movie or rom-com. A tragedy is not defined by a "bad" ending, or simply by bad things happening to or around characters in a story. I wrote a case study on this a little while ago for a class, but essentially, a tragedy is something that does not have a clear definition because its nature is to be flexible, undefinable. We all know what a tragedy is when we see it, but to limit tragedy with words is not doing it justice.

Tragedies do not all end the same, they do not all have the precise same story arcs and elements, but they certainly have parts in common. You could say every genre is unpredictable to an unseasoned audience that does not know things like tropes, because not every romance is going to end with a happily ever after, an action movie could end with everyone dead, and the horror movie was all a nightmare caused by trauma or experiments. But a romance will always deal with topics of romantic love, an action movie will have fight p*rn, and horror has rules to stay within its genre and create that scary/unnerving horror atmosphere. Tragedy is not like that. Tragedy is not bound by rules, nor is it a genre exclusive to all others, as it often includes elements of other genres but twists them into tragedy. Not by making them end badly, but by way of things being lost and it's painful - either because it could have ended so many other ways but just didn't, or it was always going to end that way and the characters and audience are in denial the whole time because of the little strategic rays of hope in that growing storm. The ending could be bittersweet, it could be satisfying, it could leave you hanging.

Most trailers and teasers these days will either give you not nearly enough context to know what a new season or movie is going to be about, OR they will give the whole thing away and try to invite you in "for the experience", which many could pass because they've seen this story before and there's no demonstration of an interesting take on it. Arcane is a show executed so masterfully, at least in comparison to contemporary film. We're given the gist of things, we're rewarded as an audience for paying attention, we are made promises that historically are delivered and will continue to be by the looks of things. After being left hanging at season one, entirely uncertain of what direction the creators will take for an entire second season, teasers like this give us threads to follow but not clear answers/solutions that can tell us how every hanging plot point ends. There's the League lore, of course, but that too is used to encourage the audience and players to pay attention, dissect, build up hype, all to be eventually rewarded with answers when they watch the show. Not just from trailers.

At the end of the day, we just need to bring mystery back, no matter the genre. Stop telling the audience things. Treat them as intelligent, let them engage instead of passively consuming. A teaser/trailer should give us enough to go off without spoiling everything or even key plotlines/character arcs, and without giving us absolutely nothing but vague vibes.

I've probably explained this terribly but if you've watched that teaser, you likely get what I mean.