An Extremely Critical Review of Arcane

[@Bricky]

This is a long video, but it's honestly only half of what I wanted to say about the show. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

[@quackingduck7963]

Release the whole thing big brick

[@soupaa]

not long enough

[@knightpaladin9841]

post the other half, Coward

[@jessedelange4518]

[@TheKingsPride]

It’s a good vid, I always feel like you should try to be critical about the things you love

[@hansiboo657]

>"I'm going to rip into it." >"I'm holding nothing back." >"I'll give it a pass." God damnit, Bricky.

[@rosarlone5669]

congrats on almost 3k likes!

[@hansiboo657]

I was gonna have the common decency to not come back and edit a thanks in but it's been done for me it seem lmao

[@ilikepineappleonpizza4257]

@@hansiboo657 LOLLL

[@maxkeyble1092]

Yeah, I was at the edge of my seat like: Oh shit, is this happening? Cause I really hope it is! And then Bricky goes: Yeah really liked lots of cool stuff and 3-4 things that I didnt like overall XD

[@top-notch8277]

Bricky you hack!

[@maciejmierzejewski6607]

Victor finally outrunning the ship has to be the most beautiful scene of the entire show.

[@PuddingXXL]

I didn't even notice the ship in the backround. My mind exploded rn.

[@GrossAnimeTrash]

That’s such a crazy thing I didn’t notice and you just blew my mind a little.

[@bluntlyhonest6803]

It was Magical in a literal and figuretive way.

[@GoBlueHTB]

OHHHHH…. BECAUSE OF THE SHIP HE MADE AS A KID. OMG. This blew my mind.

[@IceBen4444]

Outrunning the ViktorxJayce ship you mean?

[@Taliesin_]

I didn't take Jinx's traumatic episodes to be flashbacks for the audience's sake, I took them to be literal representations of what she's currently seeing in the moment. Not the writers talking down to you, but the writers opening up the window on the character to let you see inside.

[@DerpEpicFace32onXbox]

Should take it more as yeah you did just watch it happen 2 episodes agao, but Jinx also remembers it like it was just as recent trauma

[@j.f.fisher5318]

It's important to know that she cares. She isn't actually a psychopath. My _only_ quibble is that she couldn't see Mylo and Claggor dying. Maybe their bodies in the rubble or something would have been better. Burn rate? What burn rate? The show had a budget and wasn'tjust gifted to us by the Gods of Taruma so they could taste or tears??? But anyway the existence of the flashback itself is totally solid and I'd only _very mildly_ critique the footage used.

[@ennaa2577]

agree, that was quite a stupid comment from him. like we are shown her mental state ( which is still that of a 9-10 years old child ) we are shown that she constantly lives in those emotions and this trauma, there is 0% chance that the authors done it to remind us

[@abstraktfilms]

exactly. If Jinx had completely moved on from it, it wouldn't be there. Everything these writers put on the page has a purpose. The line "nothing really dies" or "no one really dies" or whatever she says near the end just goes to show how much her dead friends/family still haunt her from her POV.

[@Kevin-jb2pv]

It's also important to remember that we can binge the whole season at once, now, but for many other people who watched the show as it went out it would be reasonable to assume that they may not have seen those episodes, in which a lot of shit happens, for over a week. This means that to someone watching this as they aired, they may not have felt like this was an intrusive flashback at all. I watched the show in one sitting and I never felt like those flashbacks were intrusive or condescending to the audience at all because they were very brief and also had the added distortions and scribbles to communicate the emotions that Jynx associates with these memories. It tells us a lot about how her feelings toward Vi are conflicted and extreme; both negatively and positively.

[@ulrik03]

I deeply disagree that the cliffhanger ending is bad. It ends at the precisely correct moment - The council votes for peace, and Jinx ruins everything (again) with her missile. The council (the real villain of Arcane) are finally made to see reason with the combination of the threat of Silco and the empathy of Jayce, but the Undercity (represented by Jinx) is just fed up and flips the table. This wraps ups the arc of the season perfectly. You don't need to see who lives or dies inside the chamber, because you know the most important casualty - peace. The rest is details.

[@Taliesin_]

*Perfectly* said.

[@thewingedone1172]

Peace was already ruined when Silco decided to not give out Jinx, and definitely over when she killed Silco. They voted for treaty offered by Jayce, not just peace. Treaty wouldn't be upheld by Silco, dead or alive

[@ulrik03]

@@thewingedone1172 All true, but the bomb hitting the chamber gives it a "nice" visual!

[@williampearson6299]

I thought they did a good job explaining the Council politics. All they care about is money maintaining their power than what's going on in Zaun but I think you also missing something too by just labeling them as villains. Look at the richest countries vs the poorest countries. Burundi's GDP is the lowest in the world with less than $4 billion. President Jose Mujica of Uruguay was the poorest president yet his country's GDP is 53 billion while USA GDP is 20.94 trillion... and what does the USA do? A lot of corrupt shit. But its the best country in the world so to say

[@ulrik03]

@@williampearson6299 the USA is nowhere close to the best country in the world, and hasn't been for many decades.

[@ankydarkness]

I've had the opposite reaction. For me, Arcane ages like fine wine. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate the incredible animated art and script.

[@16jms]

The plot armor "Champions are not going to die" problem that you mention towards the end is why I think that the show might actually be better if you know nothing about League. I sure as hell didn't, and I enjoyed it a lot.

[@stunseedbackwards1947]

The only character that I know who really had a plot armor in this show is Sevika like she had almost 3 near death situation, first when she pushed Silco away from the blast, second when Cait shoots her (which I think Cait just wants to subdue her) and last when her last fight with Vi, and at the end she's still there having a cigar.

[@Stolanis]

@@stunseedbackwards1947 That isn't plot armour, that's just her surviving due to being lucky / her enemies not wanting to kill her. Plot armour is when a character absolutely *cannot* die because if they did it would ruin the show. Sevika, as cool as she is, is not integral to the overall plot in the same way that all the champion characters are; she could have died in that first explosion and they coulda replaced her with someone else, it wouldn't have absolutely broken the story like, say, Vi or Jinx dying would have. That being said I really hope they're keeping Sevika alive for a reason, i.e. she has an important part to play in S2. I really enjoy her ongoing grudge matches with Vi.

[@nullakjg767]

I thought it was okay. Better than he man but def much worse than castlevania.

[@wingnoot048]

I never played league, but I assumed it was just a Non-Cannon way to have champions meet and duke it out. So they can die in the lore, but won't affect the game.

[@iCloxx]

it's also something inherent to a video game adaptation. the only way around this would be to not have the champions be in the show or for it to not be canon. both solutions would make the show worse imo. It's not really something one can criticize the show for, only the format of a video game adaptation.

[@nugsnotdrugs7717]

My favorite comment I've seen about the Ekko vs Jinx scene where he hesitates: "Ekko was ready to kill Jinx, but he wasn't ready to kill Powder."

[@TheDiabeticGameMaster]

Damn that's good

[@bluntlyhonest6803]

He should just have kept thinking about her gun. "I used to have a crush on you... Until you talked to the gun" - Ekko.

[@MefoWho]

On that scene, at the very beginning of the explosion you can hear a batting sound, like somehow ekko hit the grenade away, like how he does it in game with his W. I think its even the same sound effect

[@manuelcardaba5645]

A detail that I love about that moment is that Jinx's eyes switch to being blue to being grey as Powder's were. It's just crazy

[@EmoElmo007]

One of my favorite quotes I saw in a comment was about Jinx deciding that she was officially Jinx in the finale. As we already know out of sheer desperation and instinct "Powder" comes out and kills Silco to protect Vi. And after his last words she sits down and becomes Jinx. The commenter's take was that "...after Powder kills Silco to protect Vi, Jinx kills Powder for killing Silco".

[@crimsonpotemkin]

The flashbacks during Jinx's manic episodes aren't 1 to 1 scenes that have happened, they're distorted. It's to show that Jinx's trauma is causing her to misremember everything in a much more disturbed way. Basically it's getting worse over time, she's spiralling out of control downwards.

[@Confron7a7ion7]

Yeah, I never saw those scenes as "remember this?" To me those scenes were clearly to illustrate what was happening in her head at that moment.

[@loneoakgrls]

Especially at the tea party in the final episode when Vi is yelling at her to remember everyone and she says “mom, dad!” You see that Jinx can’t remember what they look like. Everyone else had their image with her monster delusions, except her birth parents. It shows how much worse she’s getting and slipping away from everything that used to ground her. As someone who has PTSD and psychotic episodes in the past, I thought it was so well done.

[@heineaugustjensen9819]

@@loneoakgrls i 1up this, cptsd victim here and the jinx flashbacks are fucking amazing, they are horrible but they are accurate and amazing

[@ryan_uwu]

@@Confron7a7ion7 yeah its more like shes constantly bring reminded herself.

[@redpandacooper6169]

this is exactly how PTSD is like, everything is distorted and some parts are missing

[@HolyApplebutter]

A point towards your view on Champions' plot armor: I don't play League. So to me, the fact that they killed off multiple characters that seemed important in the first act gave me the impression that they would kill any character without much thought. Vi and Jinx I knew were safe, but to me, I never felt the plot armor was particularly egregious.

[@calvinjohnson6242]

Very true. Without the knowledge of League, it feels like there is Zero plot armor. I genuinely did not believe milo and clogger would die. I also didn’t think Silco would die.

[@jamon8139]

Have to agree, when they spent 3 episodes building up the characters if Milo, Klagger and Vander I really didn't think they'd just kill the lot of them all at once, I expected maybe Vander would die sure but the other kids dying was completely unexpected considering the direction and tone the show looked to be aiming towards up until then, it really made me feel like no character was safe because I genuinely knew nothing about League at the time. I was in such shock that Milo and Klagger both died so unceremoniously, no time for last words or any heroics, just Powder causing them to immediately die when they were so close to getting out the the situation relatively unharmed, it really makes you think about what could have been.

[@ReaderViaNil]

@@jamon8139 i see what you did there. But also, Grayson dying sets the tone very early. Up to that point there had been no significant deaths other than backstory characters. You can see that a lot of people immediately fear for Vander when he gets hit just a moment after. He turns out fine, but it sets a scary precedent that we think will not be repeated when Vi starts taking out people with her cool metal gloves. And then the episode ends, and you don't know what to believe anymore.

[@Fulldre]

I mean it cheapens the stakes for every single league character.

[@calvinjohnson6242]

@@Fulldre Actually, there are very high stakes for the league characters, just in a different form. It’s not a question of whether they will die. It’s a question of… Whether Vi and Caitlyn will get together. Whether Victor will turn evil. Whether Jayce will be corrupted. Whether Jinx and Vi will reunite. Whether there will be war or peace. Etc. And remember, side characters dying can be very high stakes. They can be high stakes for our league characters as well, and can hit just as hard. Honestly, Jinx’s reaction to Silco’s death probably affected me more than Jinx’s death ever could.

[@knightoftrousers6407]

Coming back to this over 4 months later, to let y'all in on a fun fact: the team literally redesigned Silco's entire character model after the VA came in and delivered his performance, and they said, "Well fuck, that's way better than what we had in mind!"

[@badconnection4383]

What did he look like originally?

[@aspieanarchist5439]

@@badconnection4383Basically like his creepy blond-haired goon(Not Deckard, the other one!) who licked the newspaper stamp at Marcus`s house but bald and older. Also the facial and eyescars were added later, he did have the mismatched eyes from the start however!

[@C08107.]

The fact that Jason Spisak also voiced Pim makes me laugh every time 😂

[@TheKingsPride]

I have to disagree about the point concerning Jinx’s flashbacks, because I think it’s a narrative device to further illustrate that she’s stuck in that moment forever. She cannot move past what happened to her, so she lives in this infantile state. In my opinion, I think it sets up for Jinx vs. Ekko to show that while she lives in the past, he learned from it. Just my two cents, if you still think the flashbacks are annoying despite that then that’s cool.

[@toucan316]

I agree, the flashbacks just shows how traumatic that was for her and that she will live with that pain forever

[@nullakjg767]

Yea we know shes crazy, thats her whole ething, being crazy.

[@OneQuackyBoi]

I agree. They aren't made to hold the audiences hand and show them why she's going through an episode, they are *the reason why* she's going through the episode, and exactly what she is experiencing and seeing in those moments.

[@manolobrinks]

OH YEAH i mean she also probably is literally SEEING that shit, and like it comes to a really cool scene in the dining table where we see first through her perspective and then from an outside eye her screaming at nothing and pointing a gun to powder dude its so goooooood

[@manolobrinks]

@@nullakjg767 but yk, crazy is a very broad concept, kinda like the joker movie the point is exploring what in her perspective exactly we denote as crazy as an audience yk?

[@HalfTangible]

One of my favorite moments with Mel comes when she's doing the art piece. She's a bit miffed that Jayce left her to wake up alone (understandable) right up until he tells her that he left because Viktor is dying. And almost immediately, Mel's mood shifts, because she realizes just *how big a deal it is* that Viktor is dying. And Jayce tells her he came to her because "nothing feels impossible when I'm with you" which is just... such a sweet little moment. Relationship drama is *there*, it *exists*, but you also get the sense that these two genuinely like and understand each other, and the drama lasts only long enough to clear the issue up.

[@augustuslunasol10thapostle]

Yes Mel understands that Viktor is basically jayce brother and she just understands and that's so nice to see characters that aren't complete train wrecks in relationships or so perfect it makes you sick to the stomach

[@temutemacular]

Meanwhile other people: oMg jAyCE iS cHeaTinG on VicTor hE sUCKs aNd mEl is A hOe

[@harayaalirak4040]

@@augustuslunasol10thapostle yeah. when that scene first started playing i was so worried because i thought they were going to cheapen mel's character into a Bitter Girlfriend who is so self-absorbed that she cant imagine her partner caring about anyone else. but when you see the anger leave her eyes once jayce explains what happened it cements the fact that she is not an unreasonable person. she wouldnt let petty feelings get in the way of her personal or professional life

[@lucyandecember2843]

o.o

[@thomascochran7907]

It’s a cliche for the guy to do something stupid and the girl to get mad what makes it a good use of the cliche is if the characters act how a person would realistically act. Being mad that Jayce bailed is realistic, but getting over it instantly when you realize just how important the reason he bailed is also how a person would really act.

[@cindermoth3421]

I don't quite agree on the part of the flashbacks in regards to jinx. To me it seemed more like they were trying to drive home that these specific events are still deeply traumatic to her. And as such helps distinguish between being thoroughly broken and just extremely traumatised. As that is what Jinx is at least up till the end of act 3. Deeply traumatised rather than just insane like she comes off with her league counterpart. Highlighting that she isn't a Harley Quinn clone. I believe this is the purpose those flashbacks served, rather than to remind us of what happened. Because I agree with you that having flashbacks of what happened last week, or just 2 episodes ago is not even remotely neccesary, especially with how memorable that episode 3 ending part is. That'd be some Dragon Ball tier flashbacks.

[@kodan7879]

Exactly my thoughts. It serves the purpose of showing how jinx feels every time she has one of these episodes. How she is reminded exactly of her trauma and thus we the audience get it showed into us as well.

[@djx7134]

She didn't actually even see any of them die though. That part annoyed me a bit. Arcane's generally pretty creative about that kind of stuff, so I guess they just recycled previous footage to save some time and money.

[@RepstarVixen]

@@djx7134 my running theory is that the magic released interacting with the objects previously owned by the dead people cuased Jinx to have the exact vision of what her mistake caused, meaning not only did it cause her trauma to trigger, it caused it to worsen!

[@emil-ia]

The flashbacks in that case are part of the plot. Later she will say to Silco: "i keep seeing them". The flashbacks are there for tell us that Jinx has PTSD.

[@MynicknameisViolet]

Plus Powder didn't see Milo and Claggor die. Maybe their bodies?

[@carpevinum8645]

I love that when Vi first gets back to the lanes she takes a deep breath in. Everyone else dons Masks and aims for the topside air. Whereas Vi genuinely has a degree of contentment/satifaction/nostalgia/comfort taking a deep breath of home. It is something only really also highlighted in Silco. Vi and Silco, much like Vander and Silco, have as much in common as they do different.

[@lucyandecember2843]

o.o

[@silverswordsmith5424]

You know, I think this show would actually rate a touch higher with people who don't know anything about League of Legends, because us people who never really played the game don't know all these champion characters, so when their lives are threatened, we actually think they might die.

[@vario6492]

Yep

[@monitorlizard9971]

I veged out to league for so many years. A casual noob cannot possibly like this series more than me. But I never thought of that perspective. That is interesting, kinda wish I could have the same perspective only for a moment. But I still enjoy the fact that I end up loving jynx and heimer way much more than I did. Its like the love I had for these characters is outrageous with the knowledge and fun i had in the game, and then learning even more about them and seeing how awesome they are in the series as well. Just draws in so much depth to the characters that people who dont play the game cant understand. Not to mention all the thousands of little easter eggs you find in the series that tie to the game. Like the fact that we know how incredibly awesome warwick is in the game, and knowing that vander is going to be turned into a murderous evil jungler warewolf monster that gets enraged and does more dmg and kills faster ect, who ganks and scares the entire enemy team of a gank always possibly lurking in the shadows. I cant wait until they write this feeling of always being conciously terrified of warwick is going to be put into the series somehow. This is a feeling only an experienced gamer going up against a warwick many times really knows. And I guarantee they will write that feeling into the series. and it will be glorious for the gamers to actually see it in animated glory. Like there are things that the gamers understand and feel that someone who doesnt have years playing cant understand. And the writers of the series clearly have taken ideas directly from the game, like the writers obviously have some greast level of understanding and emotional ties to these characters through a lot of time either playing or developing the game, lore and characters. There are things you catch and can feel in the series that you cant really explaine if you havent played the game for a long time. It also made the moment jynx and caitlyn meet, and essentially square off, so much more epic. That part actually made me fight back a tear it was so epic. Because I cant remember which season of the game, but at one point jynx and caityn were the #1 and #2 picks for being bottom ADC, so for a long time while playing LoL in every single high level or high elo match would be a cait vs jynx fighting each other in bot lane, and they literally took that and somehow wrote it naturally into the series and made a very epic scene where the square off. No one would understand this scene better than a few people who played high elo meta during this season and knew about this jynx vs cait meta. It also reminds me of the final scene in ff7 the original where cloud faces off with sephiroth and it keeps flashing from cloud to sephiroth. so epic.

[@jordinagel1184]

Can confirm. As someone who knew of LoL’s existence, but never bothered to look up ANYTHING about it (even in preparation for watching Arcane), I enjoyed it immensely. I figured Vi and Jinx were safe, but the rest… When Vi was captured and tied down by the table in the last episode, and Jinx came along with a covered tray, I thought for sure that they would reveal Caitlin’s head on it. Probably the most anxiety I experienced in the entire show

[@Mediados]

I absolutely hope that they will at some point cross that threshold like Dota and remove that massive plot armor. The story of Arcane is the closest thing to perfection I've ever seen, but this is the only issue I have with it.

[@celuler22]

I knew jinx because a wallpaper on my pc I had. one of the guys in more dorm said omg that's jinx and where did I get it

[@BPBegha]

I'm so glad we can experience League without the League in so many ways now. There's the lore, the spin-offs, the music, and now shows! What a time to be alive.

[@tmriv3621]

I've been waiting for all of these new things for such a long time, I hate league, I watch t1 but the game is so bad but I love the lore and world so much

[@Pendji]

When I'm done playing my League moba I can take a few rounds of my League autochess before consuming my League animated series. Soon, you'll need only Riot in your gaming life.

[@zerohero5753]

@@Pendji That's just sad

[@ryankelly8428]

Agreed. If new League content continues to come out with this level of work and passion, I think maybe we'll be on the path to finally forgetting about the Toxic mess that is League of Legends.

[@sono1951]

The first proper noun you used is the problem with that sentence.

[@nintendodsman]

I always felt the flashbacks during the Jinx freakouts were because that was HER reliving those moments as her trauma... not just for us but the fact she was reliving those moments.

[@bluntlyhonest6803]

It's both. But was used, (like Bricky said) to make sure we the viewers had understood what had happend an hour prior.

[@AzureRoxe]

That's the "in universe" reason, but the "viewer" reason is simply for you to remember what she went through.

[@joaoffmoraes]

I don't care at all, it's 4 times in the entire show, takes 4-5 seconds most and as you said it's to solidify her state of mind, specially adding the scratch and hand drawn images. To me it's a huge nitpick.

[@9051team]

@@joaoffmoraes ya I agree, the fact that he took it as hand holding was wierd. I never even thought about that, I thought its the show showing that jinx has ptsd.

[@hoffa9000]

For the part where you stated that the scene with Silco and Marcus's daughter felt like a "hmm evil villain time thing", I think it was more so a way to show the contrast in Silco's character; that he would be willing to kill a child to keep Marcus in line, but would throw away his dream of Zaun in order to keep Jinx safe. It humanises him more and adds an interesting aspect to his character. That's just my 2 cents.

[@augustuslunasol10thapostle]

As the saying goes "even Hitler had people he cared about" or something to that effect

[@joshuajennerdev]

It really shows how much he values loyalty. He only threatens or kills the people he works with when they turn their back on him. Jinx never did that so he wouldn't do the same to her even if it meant throwing everything he worked for away.

[@jonathancasais6491]

@@joshuajennerdev I think it's deeper than that honestly I think he despises himself and how he looks so for jinx to love and have love for him unconditionally it was wild seeing him actually be a father figure to her akin to the way Vander was to Vi.

[@optimisticnihilist3417]

It's to highlight how he's willing to make a monster of himself in pursuit of an independent Zaun. He's the epitome of ends justifying the means.

[@hoffa9000]

@@optimisticnihilist3417 which also makes his decision at the end to forsake his dream in order to keep Jinx safe all the more interesting

[@davidtolentino5629]

The reason why Vi has her hand more down was bc she was using the Peek-a-boo style. The point of keeping your hands lower and more straight forward is to bob and counter, this can be seen especially when fighting Sevika both times.

[@lucyandecember2843]

o.o

[@TheWilldrick]

I saw Jinx's flashbacks as a stroke of genious: It's literally showing you the cyclical thoughts that go through people with PTSD with just a little edit

[@dennisharz689]

I absolutely agree. Jinx is broken, a complete nut job in game. In League she is more wacky-unhinged than in Arcane (see Harley Quinn), but the general direction is the same. This just really underlined the fact that she disconnected from reality. She is stuck in her trauma.

[@TheOvermaster]

​@@dennisharz689 well give her a few years

[@shaderunner8220]

I agree, Viktor is the most interesting part of the whole show. And the scene where he runs on his own feet for the first time is my personal favourite scene from this whole series.

[@CreationsFlare]

My man sold his humanity for the chance to become human. AND MAN, DO I LOVE IT.

[@colboy1fish]

Run Forest, fun vibes

[@AppleBaron]

Idk, I didn't find his story that interesting, mostly because it's very disconnected form everything else in the show. I mean, Viktor interacts with only 5 different characters throughout the whole season. And if you remove him from acts 2 and 3, it would change only 2 things: Sky would still be alive and Heimer would still be on the council. I still enjoyed his character, but for me characters like Jayce and Silco are hundred times more intersting because of their strong connection to the main story and other characters.

[@vintheguy]

@@CreationsFlare You mean to remain alive right?

[@a.e.k8877]

@@vintheguy *WHOLE* human they meant, there ya go

[@kanvish8134]

17:00 As somebody diagnosed with c-ptsd. I strongly disagree, it isn't meant to remind you what happened few episodes prior, but give a glimpse of the traumatic flashbacks, its triggers and violence of these psychotic episodes.

[@cami5173]

ABSOLUTELY

[@c._nda]

exactly

[@MustardGuy161]

@Stinko De mayo What you said would conflict with some other things, though. Jinx still wanted to be Vi's sister, so if she saw her as malicious and judgemental instead of what she is, then people would get confused as to why Jinx still wanted that in the first place. As for the drawings on top of images, I actually love how they look and they even make sense. Jinx still has a part of her childish self, so using the flashbacks with a bunch of drawings really enforces that. Plus, the erratic way they are drawn, reflects her state of mind, too. So overall a good pick by Fortiche. And wdym lol, Jinx definitely saw things in a warped view. Her conflict with Caitlyn wouldn't even start in the first place if not for that.

[@MustardGuy161]

Yeah, I actually thought those flashbacks really helps to better the scenes they're in-not like they're bad without the flashbacks, but yeah.

[@sreka9460]

Jinx having a psychotic episode triggered by the blue spark of the hexgem is great, what (I think) bricky was saying is that they could've showed jinx breaking down without also showing the flashbacks, letting the audience pick up on the obvious cause of the breakdown.

[@Gamemaster13000]

Here's my hot take: Donger deserved to be booted off the council. He's been part of Piltover's history since the beginning and he's done nothing to help Zaun. He constantly preaches about progress but never considers that Piltover's progress comes at the cost of the Zaunites. It's very telling how little he know about Zaun when he questions Ekko about his hover board, saying the blade could be configured better and Ekko has to tell him the blades are configured to work better in Zaun's thicker atmosphere. That's something Donger would have known if he knew about the struggles of living below Piltover. Nothing was going to get done under his leadership and, while nowhere near a solution, is necessary for *actual* progress to be made.

[@LegioXXI]

Agreed. He is like the ignorant and dogmatic Yoda from the prequels. Lots of wisdom yet still being ignorant about so many obvious things and his own flaws.

[@zerakicat]

I would agree with you. It's yet another example of Arcane showcasing very real flaws we would see in others around us. Instead of it feeling fake, it feels true. He was blind to that which was right in front of him. :/

[@shadenym5094]

If being on the council were about helping Zaun, I don’t think any of the council members would qualify to be there, save perhaps Jayce. As far as general criticism for Heim tho, I think you have a decent point

[@jdragodon7113]

"generic" in my opinion is not even a valid reason for criticism anymore since it's very hard to avoid when creating a story. What makes it great by using these tropes is how you execute and play with it.

[@thebettafish3239]

Yeah like HOW do you avoid having a rich character not wanting to be rich in a story about duality including rich vs poor? HOW do you write an evil (or just bad or whatever, I'm not here to discuss how Arcane makes morally ambiguous characters) character without making it mysterious, manipulative etc. etc.? I could go on, but pretty much anything has been done at least partly before. As you just said, what matters is HOW you DO write the rich character who doesn't want to be rich or the typical evil character and still do it WELL. Arcane mastered it. The most obvious example is Jinx. Never in my life have I thought I would ever be able to enjoy watching the manic pixie (dream?) girl character yet here I am. The whole thing about Arcane is the way it does INCREDIBLY well so many overused tropes without making them feel tiring. You can criticize many shows for being too generic with their stories or characters, but not Arcane.

[@Unknown-hb3id]

Exactly. A hero's journey story may be "generic," but it can be extremely well-crafted and well-executed and be great despite the supposed demerit, even without doing any crazy twist in the formula.

[@gred8864]

Originality is dead, authenticity is the way forward to create a great story, and Arcane knocks that out of the park

[@lucyandecember2843]

@@gred8864 o.o

[@mangalores-x_x]

It was never a good reason. "Generic", "tropes" and other devices are not lazy writing, they are the vocabulary of story telling which is based on us the audience being able to tell the story in our heads as it is unfolding, in good story telling down to the dialogue. It is as you say the execution when we notice it and find it bad because the story telling does not work. We then find it generic because what we see is not able to suspend our disbelief and convince us that is how the story should go. In inverse pretty much all suspensions or "surprises" in stories are based on misdirections or red herrings. They actually do not change the generic nature or if they do turn out bad. E.g. Lost and JJ Abrams' mystery box crap.

[@jacobyullman5005]

Okay, firstly I just want to say I love the video and all your content. Doing great Bricky. Now, I want to address something that bugs me every time I hear it. *Just because something is a trope, does not mean it's inherently bad.* Some tropes exist for a reason, and that's because when they're properly executed, THEY WORK, and they work well. I'm so tired of hearing people complain about a trope appearing just because it's a trope.

[@Rawnblade13]

Completely agree. Execution is everything. When a trope is executed well, it's not a bad thing.

[@Kamishi845]

I agree. Arcane is full of tropes but they're done so well who gives a shit. Also, you will be hard pressed to not find a story without *any* tropes. Arcane also does an incredible job at subverting tropes like how Caitlyn is presented as the rich girl and in general fiction, the rich girl is always kind of cocky and unsympathetic until life teaches her a lesson and she softens up to other people's struggles, but Caitlyn is kind-hearted and tries to work against her own ignorance from the get go. She *wants* to be educated. Or Vi being your typical brawns problem-solver, but she's also shown to be incredibly street smart and not at all stupid, or Silco who comes across as your typical mastermind villain originally, but is shown to be a very caring and loving father and has a very direct approach to his own leadership style, not expecting his underlings to handle all his dirty work for him which is otherwise typical for this trope. Arcane takes its tropes as stepping stones but it never feels confined by them, which is why I think the characters work so well. Which I think again makes me wonder if Arcane is heavily inspired by NGE, as I'm reminded of how Shinji is the subverted version of your shonen hero.

[@perenniallachrymosity276]

Yeah, the moment people start criticizing a trope... simply because of it's gall to be a trope, I immediately just go, "What kind of Cinemasins bullshit-"

[@rtyui136]

A story without any tropes at all would probably be nonsensical at best. Most generally relatable human experiences have been classified as "tropes" in stories.

[@Rawnblade13]

@@rtyui136 Indeed! You just wouldn't have a story without "tropes'

[@v.emiltheii-nd.8094]

The fact that I love about this show is that filler moments are nonexistent. Flawless wallpaper engine source with every little shot.

[@v.emiltheii-nd.8094]

Everything has its purpose and nothing unnecessary is in the show.

[@oldladyhater]

i agree with you. but the imagine dragons cameo is filler. i'm just gonna say it. that's filler. that is filler

[@v.emiltheii-nd.8094]

@@oldladyhater A very small tiny filler in an otherwise gigantic masterpiece it does nothing to to take away from it. Such a small complaint/nitpick really when you have Bea Miller, Sting and other singers who made the Arcane music and scenes greater. A non-issue. Basically the equivalent of a tiny, barely noticeable mole on an otherwise perfect face. And professional -personal- opinion alert: The Enemy song kinda grew on me.

[@oldladyhater]

yeah i know, i'm just being a dickhead LMAO

[@ScoutTrooperMan]

@@v.emiltheii-nd.8094 no matter how big it is filler is filler lol

[@rachelhughes8487]

Jinx' flashbacks aren't for the audience as a reminder. They are very raw and realistic depictions of schizophrenic episodes according to both a therapist who reviewed the show and people in the comments who felt extremely seen and understood by Jinx's portrayal.

[@birdknight6616]

As someone trying to figure out how to write her own mania and schizoid feelings, I do think there is a hard balance between writing out honest and genuine depictions of mental illness stacked against writing a compelling narrative. It's REALLY tough.

[@scarecrow2621]

Yeah, so weird that anyone would think that it wasn't a direct choice. He was so insulted when he thought the show was treating him like a dummy, he kind of proved he was being a dummy in that moment.

[@reesummerlover]

Was about to coment this. Most manic episodes are more or so like that

[@LuluTheCorgi]

Ye I know a few schizophrenic people they all say arcane is great for that portrayel

[@nullakjg767]

lol schizophrenia is something that mostly effects men. Guess they never did their research.

[@randomname8616]

Gotta disagree on Marcus' death. I found it a genius twist. Most people expected that we will either see him redeem himself and die a heroic death standing up against Silco defending Cait and Vi, or that he'd go full corruption mode and try to kill them so they don't tell on him (which he'd obviously fail at since champion plot armor and then would die as a corrupt cop) but either way people expected a closing to his character with his death as a final result. However, right as he gets to that point where he has to make a choice where he gets to make that choice he suddenly gets killed leading to us never knowing if he was gonna redeem himself or not. That's a curveball right there if you ask me.

[@PKanji5]

*picks the laziest way to kill a somewhat built up character* you: OMG SO GENIUS!

[@thomaz3235]

@@PKanji5 Damn man, you completely destroyed that guy argument with a Meme, such a genius

[@JodiMcClure]

I think it was very pointed...just like his dying words, his redemption was cut short. I love how he was portrayed, he really was tragedy personified. :/

[@williampearson6299]

@@JodiMcClure Tragedy? Marcus? Don't make me laugh. He's typical corrupt police. They always do this with these characters. They give him a daughter and that makes him empathetic? Nah. I thought you people were better than this

[@anikassa]

@@williampearson6299 he is not a typical corrupt police. He disagreed with grayson when he was younger because he was hotheaded and prejudiced against the undercity population. Then when she died he understood why she worked with Vander to keep the peace, it wasn't corruption, it was peace. So after he was made sheriff he saw that the way to keep things peaceful between the cities was to work with Silco as she worked with Vander. He didn't like working for Silco obviously, but he had to do it. The daughter was not to make him empathetic, but to force his hand in the "doing what Silco wants" when he was finally getting fed up and trying to solce things another way, If you look at the show, a big theme is the fatherly love and what it drives these men to do what they do. In Silco's case, he judges that love and how it hinders you until he is standing in that exact situation and finally understands. Marcus having a daughter makes him a representative of another kind of father daughter relationship in the show.

[@maltesers1239]

As someone who hasn’t played league (thank god) I can at least say that the tension issues around characters not dying wasn’t as bad for me. I knew jinx would be fine because I knew she existed thanks to her song (also very cute that she listens to her own song), but I genuinely thought Ekko and Caitlyn were going to die. In fact, I was really surprised when Vander died because I assumed he was a champion. Same with Mel. So for what it’s worth, the biggest problem with arcane (as you rightly put it) definitely goes away when you know nothing about league

[@mruniverse9500]

I don't know anything about lol, if it wasn't for collap thingy they did in pubg I wouldn't even know their names. The tension was at its fullest.

[@totetoresano]

I play league, but I don't really see the "plot armor" as a big problem considering this is essentially an origin story, we know how the champions are going to end up, but it's about the journey.

[@screamingopossum7809]

@@totetoresano Exactly. It's not plot armor if it's an origin story. This is how the characters started out to get where they are now. It's even debated if the Arcane lore is in line with LOL lore becuase of how much they change characters around. We still don't know how Vi becomes an enforcer. Viktor is STARTING the downward spiral into "Evolution" with his last 3 episodes with Singed. Ekko's entire thing is time, and yet he doesn't have his signature gadget with diet time travel. Singed hasn't made Orianna yet IF he's going to at all. Jayce, Heimerdinger, and Caitlyn are basically they're league counterparts.

[@michaelrichards5340]

You saying thank god to not ever playing league of legends is.. Is actually sad

[@chickensoldier9790]

Are we sure Vander died? I am sure Singed found a way to turn the "Hound of the undercity" to a real one and thats what that werewolf looking thing was in his lab. Or maybe its a bad guess idk, never played LoL only know characters from Arcane.

[@nexnax8337]

When you watch closely you can see allot of hidden duality scenes in Arcane: eg. Enfocers shoots an civilian laying on the bridge in the opening, and later in episode 7 Jinx shooting an Enforcer laying on the bridge after her butterfly bomb attack.

[@DirtPoorWargamer]

I actually feel bad for Marcus and don’t think he was as “dirty” as many people think. My read on him is he quickly realized Greyson had been right to work with Vander in the way that she did, and now with Silco running things, he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. He doesn’t want to be in Silco’s pocket, but he honestly believes it’s the best course of action for everyone, especially since he has a family to protect.

[@jcaps3846]

Marcus having a kid to protect and Silco using that as leverage to keep him in line was shitty but Marcus has very little redeeming qualities in the show. He was hot-headed as a young cop and obviously held nothing but contempt for the underground whereas Grayson was still compassionate (as shown in the courtroom scene where she was advising the council not to push things too far to avoid war) Don't forget that he pulled his gun out on a bunch of fleeing kids. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place because he dug himself into that situation. He has a moral compass but the things he chooses to do seem to actively fight against it.

[@YorkJonhson]

Yeah, it's sad because you can tell that even though young Marcus was a dumb glory hound, he made a mistake that resulted in the death of someone he sincerely respected. Which he immediately regretted and wanted to make up for. He tried to save Vi by keeping her survival a secret, and he tried to carry on Grayson's peace treaty with the Undercity. But by that time the damage was already done. So the closest thing he could do to emulating what Grayson was doing was keep up the ceasefire with the crime lord he inadvertently put into power. And once he realized that people were getting killed either way, his daughter's life was put on the line on top of everything else to keep him compliant. Marcus was far from perfect, but I liked his character arc in trying to weigh his personal and moral responsibilities alongside the greater good, but ultimately failing to escape the grave that he had already dug for himself all those years ago.

[@henhen33]

Marcus too deeply in Silco's circle

[@thrawncaedusl717]

He was a really interesting look at how corruption started to me. I had never considered that using one criminal’s information to help arrest other criminals was a gateway to corruption (road to hell paved with good intentions and all of that).

[@GigaLigma]

I definitely felt like I was seeing a more grown-up Marcus in the later parts of the show. He seemed less angry, less prejudiced, liked he was suffering a hard lesson for the way he acted in the past. At first he seemed like just a dick, but after the timeskip his personality changes a lot, and for understandable reasons.

[@RobotScarlet]

Can definitely say one thing against this video: Viktor is not underrated. He's by far one of the most beloved characters in whole of Arcane. I don't know where this is coming from lol

[@wantsomecandy9531]

Twitter

[@RobotScarlet]

@@wantsomecandy9531 I've seen nothing but praise and adoration for Viktor exactly on twitter.

[@enterfromthesky]

@@wantsomecandy9531 nope

[@alphanoodle1877]

you only proved bricky's point at the very beginning of the episode

[@clearlynotchloe]

@@wantsomecandy9531 i (unfortunately) am a twitter user, by far viktor is the most beloved character i've seen, maybe perhaps second to silco actually

[@xXEndermanManXx]

The flashbacks are to show jinx’s trauma and ptsd not to remind the audience of what happened

[@antediluvial]

Ya.. I feel like they incorporated it well without making it feel like they were bashing the audience over the head

[@Theguynextdoor10]

I took the whole Caitlyn saying “what about us” thing a totally different way. They went through a lot together in a short amount of time and are clearly attracted to each other. I just think Cait was expressing a muddle of mixed feelings and had no idea where they stood considering she’s starting to care quite a lot about vi. Not so much that they were already dating

[@rudelwolf1591]

same. i also don't see the criticism of " they only met the day" Yes, it was only a very short time, but in that short time, they risked their lives together, saved each other, fought for each other, and also opened up with each other a lot, seeing that they have a lot in common and actually really like the other one. I would find it weird if they suddenly married, but you can start to catch feelings pretty quick, and it is understandable that if you thought you found something with each other and the other walks away to ask " what are we right now?"

[@nannetteralphs9042]

gotta also say as a lesbian, the courtship process is on point... die for each other, kill for each other, and break up before you get together within 48 hours. Standard procedure.

[@lynallott3404]

@@nannetteralphs9042 This is more or less how my girlfriend and I ended up together, started hanging out at like 2pm, and 12 hours later we're cuddling on my sofa having both talked about our innermost traumas.

[@biazacha]

You picked the flashbacks during Jinx the wrong way - it isn’t to remember us, but to showcase exactly how PTSD works, she CAN’T move on, she relives it again and again and again.

[@DRB30240]

17:18 I don’t think they were trying to remind us of why she’s crazy. It’s meant to represent how the memories of that day come back to haunt her when she experiences a similar event. We’re just seeing what’s going through her head in that moment.

[@tevenpowell8023]

I think if we didn't see them then alot of Jinx's decisions wouldn't make alot of sense. Because an audience can't be expected to resonably guess what an INSANE person is thinking, so they have to show us.

[@gravelor78]

I thought it was pretty obvious how did he miss that shit

[@normalguy5583]

@@gravelor78 alot thought the monkey bomb scence is it explode 4 time so ...

[@cyrillesu]

23:18 Vi shoving that dude and then flipping him off like she's drunk is low key the funniest thing in the whole show.

[@ninjakame1553]

34:22 I totally agree with the points you made at this scene, but also add on to why it's such a good scene, Silco savagely remarks "I'd have your son killed for this but looks like we are ahead of schedule on that" and I don't think there was a bigger burn in the whole show.

[@IlyaKokoev]

He also then asked Savika if she hesitated, which is a good thing to clear immediately while they are still in the situation.

[@Scytale82]

when you are traumatised you do not get to choose when you relive past events. Those scenes with Jinx are not to remind YOU of past events. They are to show Jinx’s suffering because of these events. They are very important to understanding her as a character.

[@goliathtigerfishes]

I felt like the flashbacks that Jinx were having is a very real look at what it is like to relive a traumatic event. It was even relatable to how I have my own flashbacks and made me sympathize with Jinx more.

[@inceptiongamer1163]

Bricky when he realised that an warhamemr author wrote the script for arcane: I NEED TO MAKE A VID ABOUT THE 2 THINGS I LOVE!

[@chris.replay]

Which writer?!?!?! 😮

[@BEESKIT800]

wait WHAT!!! i was not privy to this information. thank you sir!

[@Robotron56]

@@chris.replay I believe it was mentioned in one of the adeptus ridiculous podcast episodes. I'm pretty sure i know which one, but i refuse to send someone who doesnt know about it to that topic. That should be enough to go off of. (If you check their recent episodes.)

[@bonogiamboni4830]

@@Robotron56 at first i thought "why wouldn't you just tell us the episode" but yeah, i get it, and you're absolutely right.

[@notoffensivenpc8400]

@@chris.replay i however trenton wish to see the world burn. the writer is the same as the one who wrote about the daemonculaba. which kinda shows that the mind of that guy can delve to some VERY dark and fucked up places. something that arcane can use, considering stuff like the void can be involved. if a show about the fall of icathia is ever made, not having him involved will be a sin.

[@alfredorivera5764]

Bricky: "I'm going to be super harsh" Also Bricky: *mainly praise it*

[@spikeslab5922]

I do not think with the Jinx Flashabacks, itts "reminding" the audience that Jinx went through somthing tragic, but rather reinforcing her character, so she herself is experiencing her trauma over and over and over and over, thinking that all of that was her fault and fighting on accepting and or not accepting that she caused it. It may seem a bit anoying re-showing the same obvious event, but I personally think it adds alot to her character build up for the final event in ep9.

[@Aliceisnutty]

Powder’s crying fit, you perfectly hit it on the head there. It’s amazing. I have a developmental disorder and the scene is how my fits were when they were really bad. Everything. It was stunning.

[@Dom380]

I think what's so impressive about Arcane, aside from the visuals, is how you understand and sympathize with every character and their decisions, even when they're making the worst possible choices.

[@MB-ux9me]

I mean I literally thought „wtf are you doing, you can’t be serious rn“ at almost every major decision jayce made but I still really like him as a character because I feel like he’s not doing any bad things on purpose. He is doing what he thinks right. And is also being heavily manipulated and corrupted by everyone and everything around him

[@julio1148]

Not a masterpiece? I know taste is subjective but this show is such a milestone, everything in it is a great showcase of masterful use of basic concepts in storytelling, animation (acting and visuals). Sincerely, to me, this one season of Arcane is the best animated show I have ever seen.

[@thatepicwizardguy]

the fact that the ratings are so OVERWHELMING positive from all sorts of people and professionals from all sorts of fields from movie making, music, therapists, etc are all praising and appreciating a fuckton of aspects of it is enough to warrant calling season 1 a masterpiece. You can personally have your gripes and issues and it's not perfect, but nothing is... you basically have to acknowledge it as the absolute standout that it is, and because the themes are timeless it's going to ALWAYS have value. All of these things absolutely put it in with other things we consider artistic masterpieces from across history.

[@julio1148]

@@thatepicwizardguy exactly, there is no such thing as perfection with something that is subjective. There are strengths that some value more than others, and weaknesses that some are bothered by more than others. When something is perfect for me, then it is extremely likely that is perfect only to me and some small group of people. A masterpiece is not saying something it's perfect, but instead saying something is at a top level of excellence. I am extremely confident that this first season is going to be studied by animation students, writers, and people interested in production (because if you're familiar with the production at all, you'll learn that the collaboration is something to learn from as well, letting all parties showcase their talent to their fullest).

[@urbanfrog]

the show in my opinion was really boring at some time, and didn't feel like it went anywhere... like characters kept on fighting and then surviving the fights over and over that fights became pretty boring to me. also jinx felt like a joke for most of the show, like her first fight they presented her as a dangerous menace, only for her to lose horribly in every single fight she does. she didn't feel like any kind of threat and it was just kinda sad to see

[@Shaolinstout]

It is a masterpiece I agree

[@julio1148]

@@urbanfrog thats okay

[@lockekappa500]

You can tell that a show is incredible, when a guy says he's gonna rip into it, and 95% of a 40min video is still praise. Funny thing is, I actually probably had more issues with specific aspects of the show than you did, and I'd still probably give it a 9.5/10. It just does TOO much well, and it does those things so incredibly well, that you just really can't focus on it's minor flaws.

[@williampearson6299]

Or it was clickbait, Dude.

[@SkyTowerKurogane]

I don't think being generic is a valid criticism. To me it sounds like "these things have been done before", when everything has been done before. I have small disagreements here and there, but largely, great review and great content. As usual.

[@tevenpowell8023]

Yeah, you have to say why it was done POORLY. Not just that its been done before, right?

[@SkyTowerKurogane]

@@tevenpowell8023 I believe so. The reason "generic" stories exist, and "cliches" are a thing is because those are the stories and emotions that resonate with the human experience. In my opinion something being unoriginal isn't a flaw, as long as it's well done.

[@tevenpowell8023]

@@SkyTowerKurogane I mean yeah, if you had seen Arcane first, then those other characters would have been "generic" but you wouldn't have said it about Cait because you didn't have noticed a pattern yet. Kinda reminds me of people who use "Predictable" as a negative. Like being able to tell what's going to happen isn't just "bad" because you recognize a pattern or something.

[@SkyTowerKurogane]

@@tevenpowell8023 I agree.

[@fruitcakeunicorn2234]

Even if that's what he wants to use as a criticism, I'm curious to here what stories he thinks have not been done before. "done before" is pretty broad and if making a story about "have and have nots" is inherently generic idk what original is.

[@gameaholic2k]

I always thought the scene with Marcus's daughter and Silco showed that he's capable of being good with kids, and the way he raised Jinx was by choice rather than being incapable of acting more like a traditional father.

[@MALICEM12]

Yes, it also kind shows us how Silco might have been with Powder to a degree, but obviously not threatening her. It shows that he can actually be good with kids, but also isn't afraid to weaponize it. But also it shows that because he too is a father he knows how much that would hurt. Pre time skip we never see him threaten people's kids, in such a way. After he adopts powder we see him threat two people's kids, because now he knows what it's like.

[@Mantraxy]

I understand character plots to be clichés. However, I find it VERY heavy when you call it generics. What makes something generic or not is the writing and the details and this show has so much detail and is SO WELL written that I find it really heavy to call it generic. In my view, it's not a problem for the show to use clichés, when they're so well written.

[@timothymartin4759]

Kinda like saying "nothing new under the sun", discredits the good work done with the stereotypes

[@blueglass8076]

Even though the character relationships have been done before , no scratch that. Everything has been done before now its just matter of combining two different things and creating a new variation, even though it has been done before no show has done it as well as this one did.

[@spicedpickle4691]

I actually agreed with the generic point. Also, I have to disagree with you on the cliches point. Just because everything else is so well done doesn't mean you can point out the flaws. Okay, lets start. In my opinion, the show has so many common tropes with the characters. While the character arcs are well executed, the character's personalities sometimes fall flat and are almost surface-level. Jayce is a genuine, copy-paste paragon - he's incredibly predictable and the stereotype of a heroic persona. I'm never really caught off guard by his decisions or responses because I know he's just going to say some general hero line. Vander is the father figure and serves the story as the mentor figure trope to Vi (and like all mentors predictably ends up dying). Even Heimerdinger is a trope. He is characterized as an eccentric, funny little creature science dude, but he doesn't feel original because he reminds me of every other quirky but not-so-secretly wise character in other forms of media. Let's move onto the setting. Zaun and Piltover in the show have very cookie-cutter roles. Like Bricky said, Zaun is the lesser class, Piltover is the higher one. The interactions between the two are interesting, contrasting, and informative, but they aren't surprising or original, really. It isn't a new concept. And like Bricky also said, the whole 'upper/lower class clash' is emphasized heavily, and I personally don't like it either because it just doesn't feel original enough to be worth that much emphasis. And I agree with his point that Caitlyn and Ekko are kind of used as mouthpieces for this emphasis instead of being themselves. Yes, this class shaped them and made them who they are, but sometimes I feel like their personalities are overshadowed a bit by the class debate. There are more examples I can list, like some generic plot twists that are used, but I don't want to go on forever. Now, I like everything else about Arcane. Animation, art, style, ATTENTION TO DETAIL (seriously this show leaves no plot holes. None. It's amazing), and the character arcs are spot on. The only thing lacking are the characters at times and overall originality of the plot. It plays too closely to tropes for me. Maybe I'm being too harsh. I genuinely do want to love it. But because of the generic feel to most of the characters and key plot points, I'm not fully invested in the show as I feel like I should. Sorry for the essay, I've been wanting to say this about Arcane for a while.

[@ReaderViaNil]

@@spicedpickle4691 I'm going to introduce a concept to you, which may be hard to grasp at first but, trust me, you will be better for it. It's called "spacing". What it means is, the space you introduce to different elements in order to not vomit words into the screen in a single block of agressively solid text. Go learn what makes a paragraph a paragraph, and give each one you write it's own damn personal space. There, I just gave you powerful knowledge to make all your comment-essays more bearable.

[@spicedpickle4691]

​@@ReaderViaNil I don't even know if I should apologize for my "block of aggressively solid text" because I already did. You know, when I said "sorry for the essay"? You really don't need to be so patronizing. Anyways, how I format my paragraphs is besides the point. Do you want to have an actual discussion? Or would you rather point out something unrelated to what I said because you have nothing else to add?

[@lazerhosen]

Having been to quite a few dive bars in my day, the "bro-tender" trope isn't really a trope, it's like... 100% reality, especially when it comes to biker bars where MCs hang out, which is definitely the vibe the show is going for.

[@mastermassie1578]

At 14:30 the scene with Powder crying in Silco’s arms seems to draw inspiration from Fallen Angel by Alexander Cabanel which is a beautiful painting and I thought it was really cool that they did that

[@zac5596]

I think what separates powder’s crying from most crying kids is instead of just going ‘waaaaaah’, it seems like her soul is being rended from her body

[@ajbolt7]

On Viktor, I absolutely love how they revealed it was him. Like the simple namedrop, saying "it's Viktor" when Jayce asked who he was, just so impactful for anyone who knows the name for the champion. And at the same time, it doesn't spoil anything for people who've never touched League of Legends. Just one of the great ways they made the show more widely appealing beyond the game's audience without neglecting it.

[@TheSonicShoe]

honestly, watching this confirmed my suspicion that not knowing anything about league makes the show better. I literally didn't know that Ekko, Viktor, or Heimerdinger were even champions on my first viewing, and I wasn't sure if Vander or Silco were. I knew who Jinx Jayce and Vi were (or at least, that they existed) just through cultural osmosis, and hearing youtubers talk about League in unrelated videos, but I genuinely wasn't sure who was important in the games and who weren't. the two points that I sort of disagree with are 1) I think Ekko being preachy makes perfect sense for his character since he's the youngest out of all of them (iirc, he's either implied or outright stated to be younger than Powder), and I personally assumed he was somewhere in the 13-14 year old range, so for me it made sense that he'd act like a preachy ideological teen because like.... he is. so for me that worked, and felt like a logical part of his character. 2) I just don't care about the show using tropes, so the "it's generic" thing isn't a problem for me. Star Wars is one of my favorite pieces of media, and George Lucas has openly admitted that he pretty much just used "the heroes journey" in place of an actual script, and WWII footage + Kurosawa films instead of story boards, and I still love it anyways, so Arcane gets a pass from me for using familiar character archetypes, especially with how creatively it transforms them into something new and so expertly crafted in all regards. fun video btw!

[@niks3632]

Imagine how stupid that would be, because some story-beats have been used in the past you are now no longer allowed to use them? Now they are supposed to be bad? EVERYTHING has been done before, EVERYTHING is technically a trope, people are just not aware of it because there is way more fiction than any person can ever consume. It is all about execution of the idea. So I always get very annoyed when people criticise tropes, not for being badly executed but for sinply existing.

[@Ritsuemaru]

Ekko is younger than jinx but not by much. Say if jinx is somewhere around 19ish (which is what I personally think) ekko would be around 17 or 18 but yeah still young enough to be a preachy ideological teen from the gutter

[@suppmydiff3257]

@@niks3632 wait til they take an English course find out we've basic just been retelling the same stories over and over for nearly all of human history

[@DemMedHornene]

@@niks3632 exactly. I think the reason why people think tropes are bad, is because a lot of stories don't manage to tell a good story. But yeah, dissect any of the series or movies that are world renowned and you'll see it isn't their story arc that's special, but their execution

[@eadbert1935]

starting new tropes is pretty hard as it is with all sorts of work these days music? well, there are limited way to arrange notes behind each other, so unless you somehow make the notes sound differently (like with new instruments), it's going to be hard to make new music (that is also good) pictures? maybe some new ways to edit will help you make it look differently, but especially with photography and photoshop existing for years now the possibilities have been expanded on in such an insane way that there's not much left. in science at least you have some ideas where things haven't been expanded on. tropes are only an issue if used badly. (blue) avatar was pocahontas, but instead of a new continent it was about a new planet. there are tons of these stories out there, some of them are actually good. starcraft 1 was about living in australia. still people loved that story. and now with this one the orgininal characters were tropes. because the idea was that they were simple enough to understand in half a page. ofc they got expanded upon later, when riot started to care more about lore, but initially, they were very simple characters and all you had to understand initially was the general vibe they give off. This show has had the issue of working with characters that were intended to be as generic and simple as possible, telling a story of these characters most people knew how it was going to end, all of that with the prospect of people hating it because it's by riot. So yeah, getting too complex was gonna be hard. And still it was great

[@AzureRoxe]

The question of "where do you go from here?" is easy to answer. ANYWHERE. They have tons of champs to make stories for, tons of locations, tons of events that they can easily add into the series. They have so much they can easily do.

[@Rawnblade13]

Hell, THIS story isn't even fully finished.

[@Nixahma]

STAR GUARDIAN ANIMATED

[@LecherousLizard]

Problem is: They did this whole retcon thing years ago, because "IoW hindered (their) creative freedom" and then proceeded to spawn bajillion of alternate universes like Star Guardian and Arcane disregarding both the pre and post-retcon lore anyway. So the answer is: nowhere. What they'll go from here is nowhere. Sure, they'll make the next season of Arcane, but that's not going to anyhow tie in to the canon _(since they made a looooot of stories while making Arcane and Arcane isn't anyhow relevant to any of them, not even to Caitlyn lore she got A WEEK BEFORE ARCANE RELEASED)_ and that's the end. This alternate universe will be concluded and dead for the foreseeable future, most likely forever. The truth is that despite getting rid of the "hindrance" of the Institute of War _(which didn't need to be retconned, it could've been destroyed in-lore, but that'd require THINKING)_ they have absolutely no idea what to do with most of the champions and locations. For example Syndra is a champion that's been released in the limbo before Riot discontinued IoW lore, but before they officially announced it some 2 years later. She has two stories, one of which is her bio, basically a longer version of the one she got when she was released all those years ago and another story that's 80% not even about her and the two stories contradict each other at several points. That's been 4 years ago. That's everything Syndra got after 6 years since IoW was unofficially axed and everything since she was released.

[@Landmassorussia]

God, his face when he says "The warcrimes" is perfection

[@BrotherHood-xh9sg]

What else do you expect from a Warhammer player xD

[@allcopsarebastards1478]

Specifically in reference to your point about jinx’s constant flashbacks- personally that just made her all the more real. She is still mentally stuck in the moment that she lost everyone she loved. To constantly re-experience your trauma is something that is a very real experience to people with ptsd. It’s not just something to remind us that it happened, it’s something that drives her actions, all of which directly impact the story. Through the flashbacks we get an understanding of Jinx’s growing instability and ultimately, her constant struggle with her trauma is what catalyzes the climactic events of the finale.

[@jacksondavies3595]

I've seen like 5 comments in a row saying this exact thing.

[@tritran7565]

1 thing about Cait tho,I think the "hug" scene as an addict sould hit so much harder , I literally cried into my bong watching that sht. jokes asides, it worth a mentioned , it's one of the only moment in the show that show us her "feeling", not just being a robot .

[@GreyscaleFady]

I was 100% ready to continue being bored by Caitlyn until she hugged the addict, I don't know, it made her less of just a rich girl who wants to experience 'the real world' and more someone with actual compassion that you wouldn't see in most real human beings.

[@Mike20we]

You totally misunderstood why the show flashes back to the traumatic event with jinx. It ain't for the audience to remember, but to be in the shoes of Jinx while she is going thought the manic episodes of hers. It's a realistic depiction and is supposed to bring back painful memories in both you as the audience and jinx herself, which makes each of those scenes even more ponyant. I don't know how you could miss such an obvious thing when it is used extremely often in animated shows where it's easy to stylize and make it fit more than live action, everything else you said seems to be good for now though.

[@kaiser1877]

They might have plot armor but goddamn my heart jump out of my body and skyrocketed toward mars when Jinx said 'I made her a treat' while placing down a silver platter in front of Vi.

[@evaldi4652]

Personally, I think Vi and Caitlyn worked kinda well. It’s never stated they have a relationship but there are moments and hints of attraction. But they never just like go here they are suddenly in love. For me that works but I still totally get the criticism.

[@ZaLewdWarudo]

It never gets stated cause riot are owned by Tencent and we know how daddy China feels about Lesbians.

[@danutghidia5820]

@@TheTsuyuki Vi didnt get any new lines since her release. do you know how many years ago was that? Caitlyn however just got new ones and they reflect better on their relationship

[@danutghidia5820]

@@TheTsuyuki i`m not trying to prove you right or wrong. you can feel however you want, but Riot always changes or adds more lore to characters and their relationships of all kinds, friends, enemies, lovers, etc. Vi and Caitlyn becoming partners was not explored at all and while there were a few small hints of romance, it wasnt fully embraced until this year

[@danutghidia5820]

@@TheTsuyuki you have a point, but i usually ignore the people who mention China when its clear there are lesbians in the show. The reason why i responded to you is cuz it seemed you were ignoring the rate at which Riot does voice lines changes in the game. They don't do it for every piece of lore change every character gets.

[@00Kalypso]

but don't mel and jayce have literally the same issue but worse considering they fuck in the span of the 3 scenes together? people just NEED gay relationships to be overstated but they take anything straight as a given and give it a pass. I really don't understand this point

[@LuciShadows]

17:14 actually it's to remind HER of what she did, because she does things that she doesn't feel remorse for (like killing the police guys early) and geting away with it, but when she sees that magic she reminded herself that that kind of thing hurted HER and the ones she tried to save, reminder her of 1. the danger 2. the regret that she feels 3. the fear of this happening again, and that is still scared of that magic and for what she has done. At least thats how i see it :]

[@Katriicat]

I LOVE the drama in this show. The mental breakdowns of Jinx are just outstanding. The loss of friends, victors illness, … damn, I gotta admit that I cried some tears at some point.

[@Katriicat]

Oh, and I also love how almost every action and decision made by the characters is understandable and not stupid like we often see in other shows and movies.

[@caosonnguyen3336]

Last part. It's pretty admirable when we know the champions won't die, but they managed to suspend it enough to make us feel the tension is there, and if we invest in it, it's really enjoyable

[@helloneighbour2408]

The moment they decided to make a show about League characters is the moment we knew they wouldnt die. Its the ''prequel'' problem. You know they cant die because they appear in future events

[@thewingedone1172]

@@helloneighbour2408 their canon storylines are already ruined. Singed, Warwick-Vander and Jinx get a pass, Jayce and Viktor with a stretch, but Heimer was clusterfuck even before show and Vi&Cait definitely ruined their backstory

[@williampearson6299]

@@thewingedone1172 What about newcomers who don't know the game?

[@Morec0]

The Cait Snack bit was tense as hell and I legit felt it. It was excellent and horrifying.

[@Denuhm]

I only have one thing that I feel is something that you may have missed; There are some things that is easy to miss for people who haven’t experienced it. I have CPSTD and let me tell you this show has given representation that you cannot even understand. Jinx having flashbacks during her manic episodes isn’t for you to remember. It’s PTSD. She’s reliving it and you are forced to sit there with her. Keep track and see how this changes overtime. How the flashbacks develop. How she develops. I’d really like to see how far they take it.

[@robertwhite9621]

Sorry for the dumb question but google failed me; what's the difference between CPTSD and PTSD?

[@Denuhm]

@@robertwhite9621 complex ptsd is ptsd that occurs due to long term abuse and trauma as opposed to a single traumatic event. In terms of experience it just means that your flashbacks are not always the same and treatment is significantly more difficult

[@zomberkay]

Bricky is based you are cope

[@adamdoe2603]

I love everything else about league besides the actual game

[@Meuduso1]

Also the community

[@bobbobson9952]

@@Meuduso1 It's a tie with the dream fanbase for worst community.

[@Meuduso1]

@@bobbobson9952 Honestly, no need to make that spot being taken up by only one group. Making one worse than the other suggest you'd want to interact with one over the other lmao

[@iderpyplaygamesbruh9893]

Ah. Personally I like playing the game. But I understand most players there are very toxic. It's too bad, though. To each his own ig

[@kawaiidesu8864]

I just want to say that little Donger in a coat is one of the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life

[@Neversad95]

A thing I liked a lot, were all the little details and "easter eggs" throughout the show. Most of them I didn't even notice the first time watching it. Some examples: - Ekkos first lines of dialogue being "give me a few seconds" hinting at his teaser from LoL - Viktor outrunning ships after he struggled to keep up with his toy-ship when he was a kid - Vi literally flipping a table on Sevika and almost punching one of the chemtech-bruisers through the roof, like in her theme-song - Vander having the scar from Silko and therefore the leather bracer on his right arm, which will become his mechanical arm (if he turns into Warwick) - The one council member still having the little puzzle from Mel in arc 2 suggesting, after years he still wasn't able to solve this "toy for children"

[@jstinlee]

i think for the Ekko vs Jinx scene on 29:00, the beauty of it is that you feel the feels without it being setup because of how well they constructed that scene. Done on purpose I think. Setup and execution all happening in a matter of seconds

[@TheSonicShoe]

yeah, it's pretty amazing. you could take that fight and remove it from the show, and it would still work as a quick one off short that instantly conveys everything you need to know about both these characters and the conflict between them.

[@moimoi3978]

I agree, personally they didn’t need any more set up than that. We already knew that they knew each other from the brief interactions in act 1 which I would’ve loved to see a few more interactions (the music video for enemy showed that bit more which would’ve been great to see in the show as well). I love Ekko’s more mature self taking about classism as well because his friends and Benzo were taken from him. The only one left was Powder but he saw her change, he saw Jinx with Silco, the man who killed Benzo. That hatred and spite he has while fighting Jinx shows in his serious face. I love how he hesitates because of he sees Powder still there. It hurts him emotionally, and with that moment everything left explodes because he let that happen by stopping. I’m sure this is a way to further develop Ekko and a call back to his line about not wasting a single second.

[@Vin50000]

nah, I like it but its actually pretty confusing on first watch. Mostly because it has to do the setup and payoff at the same time. Ekko pulls watch we've never seen before and the rewind in the middle of the fight even though they were already cutting between adult and kid versions made it confusing on first view.

[@jstinlee]

@@Vin50000 he’s been using the watch several times before in previous episodes like in episode 4 when he uses it to time the crystallizations. I definitely get how it can be confusing though - i keep catching more n more details the more times i watch arcane

[@helloneighbour2408]

@@jstinlee yeah Ekko has been shown to time things

[@manolobrinks]

I agree with the "its generic but it isn't always a bad thing" its about how well you enact those FUNDAMENTALS of storytelling yk? And i have to agree that cait is rly weak as a character, basically being a foil turned prop up for VI but cmon ekko having his crew and planting a tree to counteract zaun's atmosphere naturally without using that chem baron tech and all those subtle things about the firelights is SO GOOD, also he's a revolutionary force fighting both of the upper classes in story and idk, maybe his overt lines are kinda forced even then his character is COOL AS SHIT

[@Oglino859]

based

[@robertcunningham1695]

This is what made Demon Slayer such a hit too. Read through the whole manga already, nothing I haven't seen before but it was executed so well that it doesn't matter, it makes for a great story.

[@theultimaterage675]

@@robertcunningham1695 I feel like the anime has more to do with its popularity. The manga is just a generic shounen. Its good but nothing new. But thats where ufotable came in and made such an amazing adaptation. Same with jujutsu kaisen. The manga is good and all, but the anime is just so much better. Its a weird thing thats been happening lately, where before most people would say just to read the manga, but now people are recommending the anime over the manga in the last few years.

[@Vasharan]

I agree that 'generic' is an unfair criticism to throw at Arcane. If anything, 'generic' is a poor term to throw at Arcane. It executes its themes and story beats so well that it transcends 'genericism', and becomes 'iconic'. Many modern (and classical) masterpieces are themselves made of generic elements (Hitchcock, Star Wars, The Iliad). Heck, many of Shakespeare's most successful plays are adaptations of other playwrights' works. But they were executed so well that they have become classics, and I think Arcane will at the very least serve as a landmark (perhaps even a high water mark) for Western animation as a storytelling medium.

[@jordank2300]

I knew champions weren’t gonna die but even then that “I made her a snack” scene had me thinking like “damn, she might’ve”

[@thedragonknight3600]

Everyone has the same issue with the Jinx Ekko fight scene, that he shouldn't have hesitated and should've just outright killed her. But Honestly I don't see why. It feels like the most appropriate time for that to happen. Because if you think about it this would be the only time he would've ever gotten that close to her since the night of the explosion. He thinks she's dead, and then when she shows back up she might as well be. Then He's on top of her, beating the crap out of her, and for that half second he see Powder. He sees the little girl he had a crush on all those years ago and he's beating the shit out of her. Wouldn't you hesitate? Wouldn't you stop, even for a second?

[@apersonwhodraws]

like he went to the past and was remembering their fights as kids. That allowed for him to remember her movement and allowed for him to beat her. He then hesitates because he went to the past, he saw the girl he was imagining at the beginning of the fight. I makes total sense for him to hesitate

[@gambit5667]

One thing i like about th finale is when the rocket hits the glass, it ripples like water, then shatters

[@termochila4985]

I really liked the parallels when Jayce was gonna jump and Viktor saved him, and later Viktor almost jumping and Jayce saving him with the same phrase, and they don't even mention it.

[@johnsmith-de2py]

I think Jinx's flashbacks to the end of act 1 (and alot of the other flashbacks characters have) aren't meant to make the audience rember what happened but rather to show how that character is constantly reliving that moment. I think it works really well to make the audience fully understand and sympathize with the characters by forcing them to rember those uncomfortable and sad scenes the same way the characters have too.

[@LecherousLizard]

It's really funny considering Vi has amnesia in canon.

[@zyncra3965]

The scene of Vi punching and the following impact frame literally made me cry because it looked so fucking awesome

[@MrErikWilliams]

Good review - my only thought is Bricky, you de realize development of a character takes time... so caitlyn and Ekko aren't developed characters because the first 3 chapters weren't about them, they are allowed to be tropes. Much like Ahsoka in Clone wars first season was a trope. It takes more focus to develop their characters. I am 100% sure as Vi and Jinx take a back seat, ekko and caitlyn will be much more developed passed their main problem with the world.

[@gometal12]

I completely appreciate his honest annoyance at the Jinx flashback scenes. It really illustrates how difficult it is for someone who doesn't have a specific mental disorder to empathize with something so alien to them. And this isn't talking down on my man either; it's realistic and honest and I love him for it (this and w40k of course hehe).

[@Morec0]

Sometimes empathy is only going to cause problems, sometimes a hard line is needed. -an autist who despises the way autism is coming to be viewed and accepted.

[@Andyatl2002]

@@Morec0, what I’m just confused by this statement isn’t empathy good, like the people that treat me with no empathy is disgusting I hate seeing comments where autism is treated as a insult. Not to mention the history of people that had autism being shipped off to mental hospitals and possibly tortured (which still happens today)

[@Morec0]

@@Andyatl2002 and it's better that way. My autism has caused me nothing but pain and trouble, and after spending a year working with kids with even more severe autism, I can saf err ly say it is one of the greatest blights on the human genome. To hell with all the people who want to normalize it, it's not a superpower it's a curse, and the people who claim it's the next stage of human evolution can go to hell. It is devolution, plain and simple, its is humanity in it's more primitive mind.

[@Andyatl2002]

@@Morec0, it not a superpower and it’s not a curse it just is a part of us, I have only ever known life like this and I don’t think people should be treating us differently and less then because of it.

[@Morec0]

@@Andyatl2002 it is a mental cancer that eats away at us. It is no more a part of us than any other cancer is. It is limiting and hampering. Do not give into it, do not accept it, realize where it causes you deficiency and fight against it by seeking to improve in those areas. Defiance is the only way to treat it.

[@crazykirsch]

I'm actually happy that Silco died despite being probably my favorite character. It preserves the character/performance and barring some kind of Singed fuckery means he can't be run into the ground/ruined in subsequent seasons.

[@nutzor9594]

The best villains usually have to die eventually, yeah. If they never die but also never accomplish their goals, they lose the respect of the audience. Silco actually managed both - he did accomplish his goal, but ultimately refused it due to the price being too high, THEN died. Another great example is Nox from Wakfu.

[@nikolastojkeG]

For Ekko, I don't think he was done badly, think about it, he was left alone for years, be built his own resistance and had new friends, friends that fought by his side, that died by his side. He has every right to be "heavy handed" and angry at the world. You can tell he's trying his best and it's not always enough.

[@nyx7694]

You said it better than I did.

[@fallingsplat4431]

He has the right to do it and the right to be it, doesn't change what Bricky said. It's a normal trope that's honestly kinda generic and boring, I think they did Ekko dirty. I would way rather see him as the funny leader that only gets super serious in dire situations, feels like it would fit him more. Now he feels like the rest of bottom-dwellers in arcane, dark and broody mood kill. I liked him more when he was fighting Jinx, he had the humorous aura in that moment.

[@nikolastojkeG]

@@fallingsplat4431 And I will say it again, he's a hormonal teen that had everyone close to him die and he can't do a thing about it! I'm not saying that he's not "generic" and I hate to use that word cause it's being thrown around like hot potatoes, I'm saying that circumstances and environment have a great impact on how a person developes. He can't possibly be anything else than what he is now. If he was Cheery, laidback, funny, it would all be a mask that he doesn't want to wear. We also don't really know how he usually is, we only see him when he's around his "enemies" or people he can't completely trust, always on guard cause he can't afford to let it down. He's like that with Vi cause he didn't see her in years, he's like that with Cait cause top side didn't show a single reason for why they should trust them. Jinx is also the reason why a lot of his new friends died, so yeah. It kinda feels that everybody wants to be his enemy :P The main thing that I want to say is that the world he's in shaped him into who he is today and even though you wish he was more fun and laiback, he can't be cause of all the loss, betrayal, and burden of leadership.

[@zenzenitha]

@@fallingsplat4431 his playfulness still shows in the way he do his job. Why else his team operate in a hoverboard when as heimerdinger said "there is another safer method of transportation" , why else did firelight made colorful murals as tribute, the back of his "work" coat is full of neon doodles as adornment. It's all a cool things teen would've do and shown perfectly in the time allocated for him in the show. On contrary I don't think I'd take him seriously if he is more jokey than he is now, unless he have more screentime to balance it out

[@ijornhribrudkrvir]

Yeah i also think it's worth noting that he isn't done his journey. This kid has a huge amount of responsibility on his shoulders, sand he can't afford to mess up. Once he gets his Z-drive, I imagine he will gain a certain amount of playfulness and cocky attitude, being able to play with outcomes. I'm real excited to see ekko mess with time next season

[@xande5345]

I love how there were so many stereotypes that were just BROKEN, it could have easily been a generic show with generic characters. Jayce being the goody guy, Jinx the insane one, Vi the edgy avenger and Meddarda the Le'Blanc of it etc, but INSTEAD, every character's different, nuanced, with many sides that I honestly did NOT expect, especially being a League/>>>>NETFLIX

[@ScoutTrooperMan]

every character.... except caitlyn and vi they be blanc af

[@xande5345]

@@ScoutTrooperMan Don't care didn't ask

[@ScoutTrooperMan]

@@xande5345 "don't care" proceeds to respond bruh... thats mighty sus

[@xande5345]

@@ScoutTrooperMan still don't care, still didn't ask

[@ScoutTrooperMan]

@@xande5345 you care apperently lol

[@Kira11259]

Fight scenes in this show are stellar. One thing someone pointed out to me about the chemtank fight, it was the same as in the game, it gave them the speed boost but it ran out that is why they became slower. Also your remarks about Vi's fighting style were on point, but the show acknowledges it, Ekko tells Vi that she still blocks with her face and in Sevika's fight Vander tells her that she should work on her guard, so it is done on purpose. Small details are everywhere, fantastic.

[@MsElementalMaster]

I really loved Silco and the female enforcer at the start of the series (the one who died with a deep voice, can't remember the name). I agree they both died to soon. But for me is one of the best series I ever saw. The music, animation, facial expression, VA. One of the few series that really kept me glued to the monitor. P. s:I would love see more of Viktor and finally see Camille.

[@rambo4916]

This feels so incredibly nitpicky and close minded. Arcane is nuanced and most of those issues can be explained by just trying to dig a little deeper to find meaning. Ekko hesitated because he deeply cared about Powder, Silco evil scene further set up his "family above anything" mantra, Jinx flashback showed us she is still stuck in the past and haves regular ptsd of the event, Cait classist dialogue and general cluelessness makes sense for someone who has never seen how things work outside topside. It's definitely not so black and white as described here imo.

[@nexnax8337]

Both not dieing, espacially ekko after the explosion showed that CHampions are immortal. That was a led down. Also Ekko punshing a little girl was heartbreaking.

[@helloneighbour2408]

@@nexnax8337 ekko kicked the grenade. There was a sound before the explosion + only his leg was injured. How do you think that happened?

[@carjack1195]

the thing i tell myself whenever i see characters that are attached to each other even though they have faced no development together (vi, cait) is that death and tragedy usually brings people closer together

[@zerakicat]

Yeah, I didn't even tackle that one. I was thinking it was similar to how we develop friendships when we work alongside one another. Vi also does this Cupcake thing whilst kinda tellin' Cait she doesn't know much and it's so vexing for Cait, I think. That's how people get brought together, those two things XD

[@CrysPhoenix]

The reason why in Jinx' episodes flashbacks happen is because ofher trauma playing into the psychosis. She's remembering things over and over again gradually driving her to the brink.

[@Maxisamo1]

33:33 I love how Bricky interrupts himself just to congratulate Jayce on being a power bottom

[@ziforyu]

i agree with you on Cait. i get that Cait didnt shine here, a little more on the secondary support role, but i think she will on the second season and they give her that proper shining arc as she gets that Sheriff position. i like that they didnt rush any story arcs, some finished, some are propped for season 2-- some may say it's a season 2 bait, but i think it's really well done that i'd rather have that than the story plots being rushed to end

[@nathee3719]

Viktor is my favorite character too. His character will only become better when he becomes THEE Viktor

[@Baseguy100]

Bricky: "I'm gonna absolutely rip into this fucking show" also Bricky: has maybe 1 piece of criticism per episode worth mentioning truly based

[@randomname191]

Ikr I was scared and then he had so many good things to say and barely any bad ones

[@Orapac4142]

I think its because over all there just want anything bad. Yeah some characters could probably have used getting expanded upon, but they probably saved that for S2. The story is to safe when it comes to champions living? Sure but that only applies to people who are familiar with league, and not all the people who know nothing about it. Hell im familiar with it and even I got WHATS IN THE BOOOOOOOOOX!? vibes from the dinner scene, even though I knew that they wouldnt kill cait. I THINK I heard they were considering killing champions off in future seasons though but dont quote me on that.

[@randomname191]

@@Orapac4142 I’m sure they will kill them off. There’s no way they haven’t thought ahead about there being a stakes and plot armor issue. I bet at least one champion will die in season two, but I’d guess two, one closer to the start and one at the end.

[@Birthday888]

@@Orapac4142 Also, like. Arcane has changed a bunch of the established lore already. They have a lot of creative freedom as to where the characters could go. And the fact that the Champions are alive in League doesn't really mean anything? The League is not an in-universe location.

[@zomberkay]

@@Birthday888 they confirmed it’s not cannon thank god

[@pallorka]

"If you don't like when someone doesn't like what you like - get therapy" - ok, bye. And not because I'm offended when someone disagrees, but because yeah most of humans enjoy it when they find "common ground" with others and their opinions in general match. So feeling unhappy when someone dislikes what you like is actually normal. Unlike recommending therapy to anyone who may disagree with you.

[@VVopal]

I also thought a big bonus to the enforcer masks was the anonymity, I get the feeling that someone like Jinx or Silco would go about finding the families of pretty much everyone like they did with Marcus and bribe the shit out of them. The masks provide a layer of protection beyond the physical it reminded me a lot of half life 2 actually

[@slanderman92]

I actually grinned from ear to ear when you said Ekko and Jinx’s fight had no setup. I couldn’t agree more with what you said. With how little Ekko gets fleshed out as a kid, it really did feel like we were missing a scene specifically with this setup. One where we establish an actual connection between Jinx and Ekko and we learn a bit more about his background.

[@sorenkair]

true but you do see them together in the music video.

[@jacksondavies3595]

@@sorenkair No person should have to watch a MUSIC VIDEO to understand a show.

[@akisatsuki8444]

Yeah, I had to literally look up what the heck happened on the bridge and what the deal was with that weird sequence with the animation change and music. I loved it when I found out what it was, but some scenes of Powder and Ekko playing the game in Act 1 would have been nice.

[@pandaman_5607]

I feel that this review/analysis really shows the difference between watching Arcane equipped with LoL knowledge, and watching without LoL knowledge. When I watched Arcane, the only characters I knew from LoL were Vi and Jinx (and later on in the show I figured Kaitlin was to). This (probably) increased my enjoyment of the show because I didn't know which characters had plot armor. This is also why I found Vi and Jinx more enjoyable than Viktor. I had no expectation on what Viktor would become, and thus wasn't curious how game lore matches with Arcane lore. This may be why I found Arcane to be the show of 2021 for me. On top of all of the great qualities Arcane has (animation, worldbuilding, music, etc.) the characters were all new to me. Though we all can agree it was an AMAZING show, and way better then it has any right to be.

[@randomname191]

I’m gonna have to jump on board with everyone else talking about the flashbacks and say that yeah, they’re just flashbacks. They’re not for the audience to remember, they’re for the audience to see in jinx’s mind and she’s getting these flashbacks. If you take them out of the scenes they’re in, they wouldn’t make as much sense. Like the hextech would fail and jinx would say it was an accident and we would be confused about why she is overreacting to this little mistake. That’s why we get all the scratches and stuff, it’s from jinx’s perspective.

[@randomname191]

Also I loved the fact that the Ekko vs jinx fight wasn’t set up. It made it so interesting and unpredictable. If it was set up, we would’ve already known half the things the scene tells us. It would really detract from its impact instead of add to it imo

[@randomname191]

Also I watched the show knowing almost nothing about league, so plot armor wasn’t an issue for me. I really thought cait’s head might be on that platter. As much as I love these characters I hope they kill at least one of them off so that now that I know who the champions are and a bit about where they’re supposed to end up the stakes can come back in full force.

[@Bee23447]

In my bubble opinion, there is no villain character in arcane, the true villain is the struggle for power in Piltover that pushes everyone to extremes.

[@alexanderplatypus3664]

I think Singed and Ambessa are "villains" But yes, it's more about themes and ideas

[@noahruiz9532]

The flashbacks dont happen to remind you, its because how ptsd works, youre transported right back to the moment and with the emotions and fear from that time. And it happens a lot because she gets triggered a lot when she is reminded of it. Its meant to show how much she's affected by it and how shes still stuck in that single moment years ago

[@KuroiRenge]

Jinx being Jinx and not developing is the LITERAL POINT of Jinx. She's stuck as a child in a teenager/young adult body. She and Vi are mirrors of one another, in that they are both stuck in time, but for very different reasons, and handle that in two very different ways. Also the ending was not a cliffhanger, because the result of the missile isn't who gets killed, but that the missile was even launched in the first place. It doesn't matter if everyone survived it, peace is gone. Plot armor is a pretty poor use of the term, here. Everyone gets their ass kicked two ways to Sunday, except Jayce, and this is only if we take the physical damage into account. Psychologically and emotionally, everyone loses here, which is, again, the point of the story. That's hardly plot armor. No one gets the sun here. And what does 'generic' really mean here? Every story is 'generic' in that they all need tropes to fill it. It's what you do with them that makes it unique. And Arcane does a very good job of flipping them or subverting them or even piling so many that they catch you by surprise. Overall, good critique and video, just left me scratching my head on some of your points.