Making Arcane "canon" is a bad idea, and probably not actually possible

[@TBSkyen]

Of course, the moment I try to promote a new channel, KZbin takes it down with an automated removal for "scams and deceptive practises" which... >deep sigh< seems to be some kind of automated system catching a false flag or something. I've appealed the removal, I have no idea if the channel will be restored or if KZbin decides to double down. I'll keep you posted.

[@ladyazalea6131]

@tbskyen I hate to be that person, but I feel that if a large amount of people on this video have dragged themselves down in the comments to point out "they actually DO reference magic, and magic wars in the show? And say that the reason magic is feared is because the government has taken the stance that it is dangerous and exile those who use it"... There is a fundamental flaw in your argument. If anything, the Hextech storyline provides the exact buffer and change in perception needed to TIE magic back into the story- what would make magic users more allowed than magic being used by non magic users for industry and discovering the issue with magic is HOW and by WHOM it is used?

[@Deltastorm384]

What about the rune wars. Himer did say that magic almost destroyed the world at one point. What if because of that event instead of just dimacia removing magic from their cities all cities in Runtara tried to remove mages. and they had to go into hiding becasue of this.

[@MrIljuha2000]

​@@ladyazalea6131nope, still a valid argument. People miss on how actually Runeterra is intertwined with magic in the core universe. From magical artifacts, spells in scrolls, cursed items, to magical beings, gods, spirits, demons, even yordles themselves, all are interconnected, and hextech is a part of it too, it's not viewed in the core as taboo and it was created much earlier in the timeline, and actually it is pivotal to other narratives that will not be explored in Arcane because it will be a mess. Arcane relies on magic being a rare thing, because otherwise Piltover would not stand as it is. Demacia can be magephobic because the whole region is built around that. If anything, Zaun would demolish pilties just on the basis of mages being the same outcasts as other lower class citizens. Arcane relies on existing in a vacuum, until it figures out what works for them and what to introduce from the core universe

[@ladyazalea6131]

@MrIljuha2000 I'm not saying the argument doesn't hold water but it IS a fundamental flaw IN his argument against it being unreconcilable with the lore of the rest of the universe- that is not the case. And the argument that "magic exists so hextech wouldn't have this impact" so if a kingdom of people against magic learned how to harness hextech to simulate magic without needing to be able to use it, would it not open it up to trade lines it wouldn't normally have like it does in the show? Yes, completely. Would it revolutionize how they function as a society? Yes. It's not hard to assume, based on Heimerdinger's own dialogue, that this society has made a distinct effort to suppress ALL magic in their society, essentially cleansing it of any sign of magic and making its people ignorant of it- even those who MAY have the ability. Several generations later, NOBODY WOULD REMEMBER BUT HEIMER.

[@ladyazalea6131]

@MrIljuha2000 it doesn't "rely upon Piltover being in a vacuum" it requires heimerdinger HIDING magic from them- from all indications based on how he's portraited in the show, this is EXACTLY something he would do.

[@WhackedMaki2]

TBSkyren: To make it work you would have to kill Legends of Runeterra Riot: Way ahead of you pal.

[@TBSkyen]

😭

[@duncandisorderly9445]

You beat me to it. Gosh… It’s genuinely heartrending to see LoR die by inches like this.

[@cartoonishidealism582]

You know when they said Arcane would be canon lore I didn’t think they meant it would be the ONLY lore

[@aberrantreptile]

I’ve been a long time LoR pvp player, and it really does hurt

[@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes.]

@@duncandisorderly9445 Well see. It dosent seem theyve truly given p on it, at least not yeat.

[@xabierarana2645]

Riot games: Ok, you are alowed to make use of the universe of runeterra as long as you dont contradict the cannon. Artist: Nice, were can i find the cannon story so i make sure i dont contradict it? Riot games: WOWOWOWOW slow down a bit.

[@bthsr7113]

That's great.

[@jamesfitzpatrick5057]

Can we get an extended cut of you just saying "Mage" over and over again over all of the LoR mage cards? 🔧

[@TheLukeSchnabel]

I second this. We need a 2 minute short of mage. Mage. Mage.

[@leni8861]

I was laughing so hard XDD

[@T2266]

I need that for two hour to listen to while going to sleep.

[@Nuek3163]

Smash or pass but it's just saying mage over and over again o.o

[@nateexists6292]

Agreed

[@lordedge9068]

I thought there’s lines in arcane about how the Piltover people all rallied together because they didn’t like magic, hence why Piltover itself is a low magic setting until hextech is invented. I didn’t think that meant every other setting was now also low magic.

[@zyibesixdouze4863]

The point is more that even if that were true, neither Jayce or Viktor's discoveries would even be important because every other region has it. Ekko does it too later in core canon anyways, while his Arcane self fails to despite being around that age and time.

[@welcometomylives]

I mean, League Demacia 'doesn't like magic' much more than Arcane Piltover did, and mages were a constant threat that needed an entire subsection of the government to track down and imprison. We should, at least, have had some discussion about mages, even if the discussion was as simple as Heimerdinger going 'magic makes people nervous, that's why we don't talk about it an encourage magic users to not use it in public'.

[@lordedge9068]

@@zyibesixdouze4863 I think the idea of regular people being able to use it independently of mages is still an important discovery

[@lordedge9068]

@@welcometomylives what about like, the entire plot point regarding the Ethos and how Jayce was almost exiled for researching magic? Clearly they don’t like it. Instead of prosecuting people they exile them. I do think that this explanation doesn’t account for Zaun but it was in the show. But at the same time, we don’t really know what causes people to be born with magical aptitude, do we?

[@TheJamieellis]

Right but that doesn't plug the plot holes of A) an underground revolutionary crime boss not hiring a personal mage or two B) the corrupt as shit high council also not having a personal mage C) the noxian diplomat arriving with ONLY soldiers and no blood/battle mages D) Jayce choosing to kermit sewer slide instead of trying to contact a mage E) Viktor choosing to dabble in runes and the hexcore, using shimmer etc BEFORE trying to contact an illegal mage in P&Z F) That there wouldn't just be mages hiding out in Zaun anyways. Piltover is the region that hates mages, not Zaun. Why doesn't Zaun have mages? @lordedge9068

[@blameitone2476]

Ekko deadass may be the deciding factor on how this whole canon thing goes.

[@blueberrymk.1091]

​@@janellieroach1900 Ekko Into the Ekkoverse maybe?

[@akurami2201]

Please no I am tired of this stuff

[@cartoonishidealism582]

⁠@@blueberrymk.1091 Ekko goes back in time to try and save his mother but it ends up altering the timeline Perhaps leaving only 52 of the most marketable champions. A New 52 if you will. They can call it EKKOPOINT or something, it’s BRILLIANT

[@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes.]

Yeah, your right.

[@VagineerHuur]

Looks like a job for Zilean

[@rocketrakkor9424]

🔨 I can't remember how it was stated in the show, but was it ever made explicit that magic wasn't available in Runeterra? My impression was that Jayce just managed to harness magic with technology when it wasn't possible before

[@bopqw1055]

you'd be right, heimerdinger brings up the rune wars and how magic is dangerous so they should leave it alone. its not thats it isnt available but its like messing with nuclear power.

[@inhkhanhtoan6210]

One of the council member said that magic is something you born with, not something you can harness so yeah magic is available in Arcane, but it just rare.

[@rocketrakkor9424]

@@bopqw1055 yeah I was under the impression that they’d made Piltover into a mini Demacia in that sense

[@Joi2212]

@rocketrakkor9424 I pretty much thought the same. My impression was, that mages are extremely rare in Piltover and Zaun, so they don't have normal access to magic. Hextech could bring magic to everyone mostly non-mages and the reason Piltover could become a global super-power is because of hexgate-traderoutes. Despite that I still aggree with pretty much everything beeing said. Some elements could be brought over to the main universe, like I prefer Jinx's, Vi's and Caitlyn's dynamic in Arcane and we se some of that in their LoR story. But that would be a really small retcon that is somewhat possible and it beeing good is just my personal preference. The rest of the world like the origins of Piltover a fundamentally different in both canons.

[@thegayprometheus6097]

If my 15 times watching it have told me anything - it seems like Piltover functions in a weirdly similar way to Demacia in Arcane? Not to the same level for sure, but just in the sense that magic is literally Banned. Which is why we haven't really seen it in the show yet (doesn't necessarily explain why we see no mages in Zaun, but still - could be that since up until the very end Zaun is technically still part of Piltover mages either stay away or just generally keep their abilities on the down-low). The very mention of creating magic is enough to get one banished/exiled in Piltover - we hear this during Jayce's trial, and we hear it alluded to again when Heimerdinger sees what they're doing with the hexcore. So with that being the case, I really don't think they would have to completely retcon everything about Runeterra to make Arcane cannon. Magic certainly exists elsewhere - and could even be super common elsewhere! But we wouldn't know because right now we are focusing on characters that haven't really left a place where magic is outright banned. "Piltover was founded as a safe haven to escape the warmongering of mages" - and up until Hextech, a safe-haven it has stayed. It's entirely possible that in season two we'll see the banishment of magic lifted and the city will become (in the amount of mages/magicians within it) more like what it is in the current lore.

[@itsyaboyjames3695]

The day Ekko's "Lullaby" short story is made non-canon is the day I riot 🔨

[@doomdoot6731]

That's why they're called "riot" games, no?

[@uomoafide6539]

Zac original lore enthusiasts: "First time?"

[@MrIljuha2000]

​@@uomoafide6539it's Zeri's now lmao

[@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes.]

You can always just ignore it.

[@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes.]

@@uomoafide6539 New Zac dosent exist.

[@negargeliyerdi3766]

Watching this after the end of season 2 is hilarious. Because you'd think that the arcane writers would try to make their ending fit the lol canon to make things easier right? Nope. They full on said: fuck your canon we're doing our own thing Jayce, Viktor and heimedinger have been sent to the shadow realm, jinx is taking vacation/tour across runterra in her blimp. Vandee and Ambessa are dead. Caitlyn is missing an eye etc I want to know how they're planning on merging tbese two words. Honestly watching them try to build a house on the hole they dug for themselves will be entertaining

[@d4s0n282]

They have said that they have a plan on how to make it fit in their inteview

[@Ellebeeby]

They also said “two seasons was always the plan” and given how hard S2 was bungled, I don’t believe that either

[@4dragons632]

My biggest problem is how to make Camille canon. Piltover and Zaun specifically being very non magical I could just about let slide. But Camile only works if hextech has been around for at least 70 years. What a mess.

[@bradleymoore2797]

Nah. You could easily write a technological revolution with hextech that takes even less time than our irl versions because piltover is so small compared to how our countries are.

[@4dragons632]

@@bradleymoore2797 Thats not the problem, the problem is that Camille is basically the winter soldier, she's had hextech in her for ages and is brought out when the rich families have a problem that needs solving. She has been like she is for a long time, thats the point of her. I've thought about it more, and I think she could start out as an old lady in a wheelchair and get de-aged by hextech but it doesnt capture the original concept the same.

[@drakesacrum8445]

@@4dragons632 I like the idea of the Ferros already having hextech but not reveling it to the public. If something happen that brings suspicion they can just say that Camille was born with magic and is bribing people to shut up about it. Yeah, this idea maybe would bring plot holes but I like it anyway.

[@carnage0685]

@@4dragons632 oh shit yeah you're right, Camille absolutely does NOT fit in with Arcane lore, LOL. it would be funny if they just swept her under the radar or did whatever to her just for their deranged 'vision'. we've only seen them destroy older champions (2013 and older), so it would be interesting if they botched Camille just because of Arcane. kind of sad and scary too, because it would mean even newer champions aren't above being destroyed by Riot.

[@skyfallprime7977]

@@4dragons632 Rather than an old lady in a wheelchair, can't one just make her a capable assassin, as is, and then the hextech "revolution/discovery" happens in her late 50s/early 60s, give another 10 years, and then you replace body parts with hextech?

[@BluTacApostle]

The "Mage" bit is glorious. And the fade out of the bit is really wonderfully editing. Amazing video.

[@GaiusLeafe]

🛠️ As someone who works really hard on creating a fleshed out world for my D&D players, I want you to know that your videos have been immeasurably impactful on my passion for good worldbuilding and iteration on fantasy universes. Thanks for all the work you put into these videos, they have taught me so much!

[@thelastcrow5660]

Not to mention, Arcane is not focusing on world building, but deep character drama. It's by far some of the best character writing Riot ever did and if it becomes completely canon, mostly every story afterwards will pale in comparison.

[@alexmcfly31415]

"If we release something good everyone will view our other stuff as bad in comparison" is not a good reason to not release something good, in my opinion.

[@rayinchrist1]

Definitely but the world building was also very phenomenal in the show. The theme and environment was really highlighted and contrasts the characters.

[@ButterflyScarlet]

@@alexmcfly31415True but that's only if the directors are actually interested in making future works good. There are fantastic writers and artists in RIOT, and studios that could turn ideas into something polished and gorgeous, but are the people at the top actually going to pay these people to work?

[@cartoonishidealism582]

My issue is that part of the reason that Arcane is as good as it is is that the writers shaped the world AROUND the needs of the story. They didn’t slavishly obey the lore of some pre-existing world, they tailored the entire world to suit the story they wanted to tell. The ONE SPECIFIC STORY they wanted to tell. The world of Arcane is specifically tailored to tell the story of Jinx, Vi, Jayce, Viktor, etc. That’s why it’s so good. They didn’t need to concern themselves with making space in the worldbuilding for the brackern, or Camille, or Mundo, or ANYTHING THEY DIDN’T WANT TO INCLUDE But that’s also why asking them to expand this world to force in over a hundred champions that were not originally intended to even exist is DANGEROUS and it could lead to worse overall quality.

[@pweaseadoptme5312]

​@@rayinchrist1its not really good worldbuilding if it ruins the entire worldbuilding of every location thats not the one we are currently seeing

[@lucinatrash3063]

I have a strong desire for the “Mage, mage, mage…” extended cut. 🛠

[@folisk179]

After watching the last act, yeah the lore is beyond saving without another backpeddling of calling it canon.

[@Arander92]

Technically it’s still canon in a multiverse

[@gkarak1996]

​@@Arander92 it is on to be the canon of another universe in the multiverse, not to be the canon of LoL.

[@d4s0n282]

Naw is legit fine, you should watch interiew that happened

[@folisk179]

​@@d4s0n282 I've watched the Necrit interview with Christian, quoting certain champion can still exist and they can't satisfied everybody. I am one not ready for another lore shift for better or worst.

[@kraljdred7614]

So I checked all of the Legend of Runeterra Piltover cards to see is there a single mage character in there outside of the 3 champions you named. And the answer seems to be no, they are all hextech or chempunk. I think the reasons for this is very simple: the identity of Piltover and Zaun is that of the technology faction. It's not that there aren't any mages in those cities, its just that it doesn't fit the image and the stories of the place. In the same way we don't see any person casting fireball in Piltover we don't see anybody else in Runeterra using hextech or any Piltover like tech. Not because its impossible, but because that would muddle the identity of the faction. As for Arcane specifically, I think its just a case of "Gotham existing in the DC universe". Gotham is ruled by crooks, gangsters and a literal clown, and yet right outside Gotham there are giant alien invasions, planet destroying threats, heroes and villains who could clean up Gotham in a matter of hours. But none of those are ever brought up while watching Batman. Why? Because it doesn't serve the gritty and somewhat grounded story that Batman is going for.

[@fairysduty4649]

🔨 nothing more motivating to continue my lol fanfic than watching one of your videos about canon. truly an inspiration

[@dragonicdoom3772]

One thing I don't think Riot has considered is how Arcane's lore affects League's Champions as marketable characters, which given they're behaviour as a money grubbing company you'd think that's something they would care about. When Arcane does officially become "canon", would the Champion voice lines not need to be updated to fit them? In which case would we not have a situation where Vi is talking about how much she hates being an enforcer, Viktor waxes poetic about the ethics of scientific advancement and Jinx becomes a walking ball of depression, tragedy and insanity (insanity in a sad way, not the lol so random XD kinda way). Jinx is pretty much the face of League, or at the very least the face of Wild Rift, and she got that status by being incredibly marketable. Arcane Jinx is many things but she isn't that kind of mascot, she isn't a wacky, insane person who loves to create elaborate schemes of destruction and spectacle just for the funsies. Arcane's characters are amazing characters within the show they were created for, but they are not ideal characters for a fun MOBA.

[@Jo-sm4do]

I miss Riot Forge already.⚒

[@darkmatter9651]

same, they released such good games and for what☹️

[@IceBen4444]

I still cope about Song of Nunu 2 :_(

[@weeyooRaven]

This aged like wine

[@Kriggleton]

Did warwick so dirty man

[@Uncreative_Username]

@@KriggletonFr more people need to be talking about it, he looks like a Lego

[@Kriggleton]

@@Uncreative_Username So far it’s only talked about on reddit. Genuinely why is nobody talking about how dirty they did his character? Not only that but Arcane is canon. So basically 7+ years of lore and stories for warwick down the drain

[@Uncreative_Username]

@@Kriggleton Really got me thinking that they not only released the season in 3 different acts but had entirely different writing teams for each of the acts. People actually need to stop glazing tf out of this finale. What’s the point of creating a new rule only for it to basically prevent any further development for those existing characters- (Jayce, Ambessa, Viktor, Warwick etc.) This is why I never trust adaptations :( Hopefully season 2 of the fallout show will give NewVegas some justice

[@Kriggleton]

@ Yeah honestly they may have genuinely used different writers for each act. And/or laid off some good writers. Because I refuse to believe the same season 1 writers wrote warwick off like that. Even if you know nothing about him you can tell as a normal viewer that having vander back after 1 and half seasons only for him to die, get resurrected as some dc doomsday thing, only to go kaboom again. What was the point? S2 was always planned so little chance the writing was rushed unless they well changed the writers at some poiky

[@bluechaman9576]

🔨That's exactly what I said to myself when I first watched Arcane. It's hard to think that Ionia or Targon exists in the same universe. When they announced it would be canon I thought they were at least going to change champion bios and expand a bit on the decision but... nothing. And with the recent layouts I doubt the lore changes anytime soon. At this point the MMO is my last hope. Great video as usual !

[@luckas221a]

I think if they were smart about this retcon they would tweak details to make Arcane fit into the narrative. One way I can imagine this happening is: long ago, magic was “sealed”, making the world of Runeterra have limited access to it. The Celestials stopped meddling, Darkin are sealed away, Mordekaiser is banished. Only a few people have access to significant magic, like Ryze and LeBlanc, and others have the potential to develop it, but there’s only so much to “go around”. The creation of hextech and Viktor’s hexcore turning into the voidcore starts to awaken magic. The celestials grow worried and the Void awakens, the Darkin stir… And people start to develop magical powers. Demacia freaks out, etc etc etc

[@squishyazalea9970]

Those already existed in the same universe

[@lolnoob5015]

@@squishyazalea9970 Yeh idk what they mean, Targon existing in the same universe is not weird at all

[@Natoursofcourse]

MMO is cancelled, lead dev was fired. It's sad, but i think runeterra as a universe is in maintenaince mode, essentialy dead already.

[@squishyazalea9970]

@@Natoursofcourse thats not true at all 🤣

[@ArgyleR04D]

🛠 World Building ⚒The only way I can see them retconning something similar to existing Runeterra into the Arcane universe is if they triple down on the concept introduced in Jayce's trial which is to say that they turn Piltover at the time of Arcane into a Demacia style anti-magic state, which somehow has a Yordle as it's leader(?!). They could then relax that for "reasons" during season 2 and allow the other champions who are magic users in Piltover / Zaun to become canon thereafter.

[@segundorama8626]

Maybe they are anti-magic but not racist. Yordles are an extremely magic race, yes, but maybe Heimer hates magic and has proven to the council that he is capable of living a magic-free life and that is why he's allowed to live in the city.

[@wolfofwarframe3807]

Or just make Piltover not knowing much about the rest of the world? There arent any mages born in PnZ, but there surely are in the rest of Runeterra. The Piltover in Arcane is quite a young version of it, it would make sense that they didnt have enough contact with magical beings yet.

[@gallalameblook9911]

​@@wolfofwarframe3807The huge town at the hinge between the known world's two major continent ? One that would heavily rely on trade for food because it doesn't really have much land to feed its population ? "Not knowing much about the rest of the world" works when you're an isolated and self sufficient entity, like Ixtal or the Blessed Isles before they became the Shadow Isles. Not for a major trading hub

[@wolfofwarframe3807]

@@gallalameblook9911 Thats true, I remember about PnZ being a big trade city, but that mostly happened after introduction of Hextech and lets not forget that Jayce actually got Hexgemes from someone. Since they are sources of magic, the whole argument can be easily shut down, because it means that mage resources are accessible, even if magic itself is quite rare for Jayce.

[@johird9990]

I hope that atleast one person with an inkling of power in riot sees this

[@jacky79322]

im sure they do lol, isn't skyen a riot partner? He at least still gets merch from them.

[@Ellebeeby]

“You would have to kill Legends of Runeterra” Womp womp

[@void-creature]

10:32 hey HEY! Silco is not a "serial killer". He's a mass murderer. Those are different.

[@skyboy7244]

🔨 your point about Zeri, Seraphine and Ezreal really stuck in my head. Integrating just those three characters into an “arcane” style universe would already be difficult (not impossible, I can definitely imagine somthing interesting about this trio of natural mage kids in a city dominated by magic-tech ) so trying to adapt the entire universe to fit arcane seems destined to being, at best, massively mismanaged .

[@zwiebelhexe]

I'm not deep in their lore, but I thought Ezreal got his abilities thanks to the gauntlet he discovered (if it's not, that would be a possible way to explain him using magic - by a device). Seraphine's magic could be just unexplored by people thinking she's just an amazing and beautiful singer - like.. people don't expect her to be a spellcaster, just because her music charms people, neither does she. Do you know, what I mean? (Idk anything about Zeri) I think it's possible to combine the universes if certain areas are full of magic and... pilotier/zaun is simply not. The people there don't seem to know the world beyond their home and probably don't know much about magic, while in Ionia it's pretty common and Demacia it's suppressed. You need to change a few things but I don't think it's impossible without retconing everything.

[@Jasonwolf1495]

Honestly those 3 could entirely be not mages and just have a hextech item or for ez he has the magic gauntlet from Shurima. I will admit to not knowing the lore for newer champs, but I totally always got the impression Ez has 0 magic and lucked into a super OP magic item.

[@vanagandrd4877]

@@Jasonwolf1495 If i remember correctly, Ez was born with incredible magical power, but he's doesn't want to practice it and prefer exploring instead. The gauntlet he found let him shape his raw magical energy into tangible form and he basically fight by throwing raw arcane energy at his opponent until they die, no spell required (that's why his skillset ingame is basically Arcane missle, arcane missle, teleport+ arcane missle, BIG arcane missle).

[@drakesacrum8445]

@@vanagandrd4877THIS!! This is why a Ezreal Ryze storyline is needed. Just imagine.

[@drakesacrum8445]

@@Jasonwolf1495Nop. This 3 are really fucking strong mages. Zeri straight up shoots electricity out of her fingers. In her trailer she causes a blackout in Zaun in accident. Ezreal is a funny case because he was born with super high stats in magic but doesn't give a shit and prefers to explore so he never bother to learn how to use it, the item he has only allows him to use his raw powers in a controlled way, no spell, not even the powers of the gauntlet itself. Seraphine is the most normal of the trio but she can still charm people with her voice without any kind of tech. You'll need to retcon the entire history of this three to make them work with hextech. The only one who even uses hextech is Seraphine and that's for a platform to move around.

[@b-sidecassette]

having Arcane and LoL become one canon would be like having the main continuity Batman comics align with the Lego Batman games, including the toon physics

[@BardockSSJL]

Magic is rare and no one in Piltover knows anything about it, yet the university has a professor that is literally a magic creature with magic abilities.

[@nikoguarro]

who doesn't want to use magick and it's clearly horrifyed at the notion of magic being used.

[@hajnahortobagyi690]

Thats one of the wierdest bits of contradictions arcane brought when they made it canonn, yordels are potraied completly diferently, in game lore they literal sparks of magic, while in arcane they just another race.

[@SetArk]

​@@hajnahortobagyi690 I may be stepping on fandom theories. But i think that there were some story where Yordles that stay away from Bandle City, starts to fit in more with mortals, losing part of their magic, and maybe even their longevity. But i don't remember if this is stated as a lore thing or was a community thing. Would explain certain Yordles that seem to have abandoned their society, and have become more "mundane", like funny enough, Kled roaming the Noxian battlegrounds and Rumble using pure "trash tech" to make his Mech. There could be "Two Castes" of Yordles, those that decided to live in Runeterra, and with time lose their touch of with world magic (which could be a interesting thing to explore, maybe even with a new character that lost their touch to magic and their objective is, as a "Mortal" finding a Bandle City portal to recover their magic after living as a "Mortal" for decades), and those that keep coming back to their special spiritual plane of pure magic and portals, which keeps them filled up with all sorts of magical stuff related to their personality and habits.

[@raidenmakoto7168]

IMO Heimer’s existing attitudes towards Magic in Piltover is the easiest way to reconcile both canons. Make it so he hated Magic so much that he banned it in his city as Piltover’s founder and as a result Piltover became the technology capital of Runeterra through necessity.

[@kitnal4143]

​@inabsolutedarkness13 because he remembers the rune wars and its horrors? Yeah. I wouldn't say magic is super rare, more those that *do* use it have no incentive (or ability) to make it widespread and available to everyone. Magic isn't rare, "magic items" are, especially in P+Z when the entire gig is not relying on magic... until they kinda do. Hextech being used to give magic to the masses seems fine.

[@tazzracine]

tbh, I didn't get the idea that all of the Arcane World was magic free, I simple thought that only B&Z were magic free to show that technology kill magic (insert the Skarner story here) or magic and technologie cannot existe togeter because bad thing will happen (insert void here). BTW, great video, like always.

[@illusionofartYT]

I agree this is what I got from nit as well

[@theashen2019]

Yeah I’m pretty sure they said that the merging of magic and technology hadn’t been done before. As for the mages nothing is stated to say that mages don’t exist but it’s implied they are a rear breed.

[@samumohacsi]

🅱️iltover

[@MrDrewwills]

The issue is Piltover is now an epicenter of trade. They are canonically interacting with Noxus. If mages exist they will be flocking to Piltover to make money.

[@ninjatoriumnova2483]

@@theashen2019 Nothing really implies they're rare. In fact, they say Piltover was founded to escape their warmongering (which is something that wasn't in the core canon), so they're common enough to make a group of people leave their home and build a new city, at least. Just because we don't see a mage in P&Z doesn't mean they don't exist, and if they don't it's an incredibly easy fix. None of the champions in Piltover are full-blown mages, so you can retcon them into banning magic like Demacia, and you can excuse having mages like Zeri in Zaun because Zaun doesn't care about what Piltover thinks.

[@TheJamieellis]

Tbh my other thoughts about making it canon is i don't see Viktor going full GLORIOUS EVOLUTION from here, and if Jayce is the one discovering hex crystals and tech... what about Camille? Or any of the other champs that had things to do with hex-crystals and such?

[@padaro4504]

Hextech as itself isnt dangerous. These wild runes that Was described in Arcane season 2 was the problem, not hextech as itself. The Producers confirmed that hextech still exists after season 2.

[@VaryaTheVillain]

🔨 I am one of said people who was reacting "wait, League of Legends has LORE?". and the years following this channel just made me appreciate the differences between the Runeterra canon and what Arcane brought up as it was airing. I even bought Mageseeker for myself after you played it on 2BSkyen, and finished it TWICE, because it turned out, for me, one of my favourite stories and character interactions within that canon. so to see them abandoning *that* kind of storytelling in a high fantasy world for a steampunk-y low magic Arcane canon? heartbreaking. I still won't play LoL, but damn if you, Skyen, didn't make me at least consider trying it out a couple of times, lmao

[@ButterflyScarlet]

Me too, honestly my only experience with LoL was as "that MOBA game with super toxic players". And now it's "that MOBA game with super toxic characters and also there's LORE??? GOOD LORE?????"

[@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes.]

You should its a beautiful game.

[@Rells2coolpeoplehavebadtastes.]

@@ButterflyScarlet Nah, most of them are fine.

[@underwarboy5065]

To be fair here, you managed to pitch quite a solid idea for a Arcane Demacia story. Imagine Sylas as the protagonist, on a Demacia at the brink of mage extermination, with him being used to wipe out the last handful left.

[@ArgoBargo]

Personally I’m really praying they do a Demacia adaptation I wanna see that so bad

[@anthonymorales9869]

I keep saying it and it doesn't become less true: Riot is repeating the biggest mistakes of Marvel Comics, retconning the rules of their universe to accommodate the growing popularity of the more-accessible side of their franchise.

[@user-tp3pc5st7y9]

Riot also already have a multiverse going on: skinlines ! There are some in the future (Odissey, project) in the future, one where everybody is enyoying a party at the pool, and so many more. Arcane could be side canon like any of those universes, and I personnaly would like to see how they incorporate other runterra regions into arcane like Targon or Ionia. The MMO could use them for events that would be great.

[@isabellamorris7902]

Yes!!!! I follow Magia Record, which is a Madoka Magica spinoff gacha game and, like much gacha stuff, has plenty of non-canon crossover events. Hell, I'm more invested in Star Guardians than the main Runeterra lore and am perfectly happy following that as an AU. Something doesn't need to be the "main canon" for it to be worthwhile or interesting

[@VirGiLMD]

After Arcane S2 they need to tell that Arcane is one of the many stories of the multiverse, if not they are trolling at this point

[@agusstine]

I didn't like Arcane s2, I really hope this is an alternate universe and not the main canon

[@ignacioperez5479]

When have riot recognized a mistake?

[@pippastrelle]

That chair/forest analogy is fantastic

[@vchris8913]

"Way harder than it needs to be for the narrative" is league of legends lore depiction

[@aque9608]

God, has it really been 10 years now? I remember like it was yesterday - the way the LoL roleplaying communities grieved and crumbled when the Summoner retcon was announced.

[@TheRozenKnight]

I really hope this Video blows up....in the positive sense. I saw so many people fail to realise why and how bad the decision to make Arcane Canon. But as always a good video ⚒

[@Trockenmatt]

Well, an easy way to make it blow up is to have people like us share it with our friends who love Arcane, or love League of Legends, but don't want the two to be the same. That's a sizeable audience. Of course, let's wait for the video to publicly release to do that

[@TheRozenKnight]

@@Trockenmatt I will do that...after its out officialy :)

[@DLxxx]

Same! I find it fundamentally unbelievable to think to think this decision to unify the cannon will do anything except cause problems for both Arcane's storytelling quality, and the wider League lore (which is already a mess).

[@DarKraf]

they might have a much broader roadmap on how they want to explore and introduce Runeterra by dialing up the pace and balance of magic in Arcane. Season 1 to me came off as an attempt to build a foundation of a very human, real and grounded story with a sprinkle of magic that will get denser and denser with sequential releases

[@maykechi7752]

Fun fact: before Arcane Viktor and Jayce were basically Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer.

[@JSBreezy918]

I am fully expecting and PRAYING, that you make a followup video to this bragging about how much you were correct. Love arcane but I hope Riot goes, actually guys. Arcane specifically? Not cannon.

[@bulletcola7890]

Man so many people tried to shut him down when he initally said this. As per usual. And now look what happened.

[@dnkmnk]

🪚The point of "placing shaky lore on a related acclaimed story won't make said lore solid just by being part of something well received" is genius Always great to hear your takes Skyen, hope things get better

[@lolopez8319]

you tried warning us...... and riot didn't listen.........

[@wakkawakkagaming3710]

What's truly mind-boggling is the work it would take to fix this is fairly inexpensive and unobtrusive. Like you could hire a few writers and a comp tech and say "your job is to fix the Universe website, go." These updates could be quiet, easily implemented and do a lot for their public image. It really makes you wonder what the financial bottom line in a project like this, and why Riot has been so resistant to it.

[@user-qq3hv6hu3y]

they could just make piltover into a mage-free city like Demacia after the rune-wars. Heimer kinda alludes to it in the first season and would explain why you don't see any mages in Piltover

[@Lin_Nascimento]

Yeah, but like skyen said, we don't see mages anywhere in arcane, when they are a centerpiece of the world, even in demacia, there is mages, that's the whole point of the civil war there, anyone can be born with magic

[@user-qq3hv6hu3y]

@@Lin_Nascimentoye but we also dont really see anything from anywhere else except Mels backstory. Like we won't see mages in Demacia if they haven't shown Demacia

[@crazydragy4233]

That still doesn't address the fact that it makes Jayce and Viktor a thousand times worse though.

[@Unlyricallyrics]

i think they should make demacia and other mage places a storyline that happened in the past in relation to arcane

[@user-qq3hv6hu3y]

@@Unlyricallyrics yea a show about the rune-wars would be sick and the creation of demacia.

[@thefanguy639]

You thought we weren't gonna notice that smooth ass transition at 22:19 didn't ya Skyen?

[@Celecial]

🔨I had a thought about a possible solution for the lack of mages in Piltover. What if they add to the lore that something is wrong with the magical energy around Piltover that makes all mages hate being there, so they refuse to go there. This wouldn't effect Hextech as the people using wouldn't be able to tell and would explain why mages functionally don't exist in the region around Piltover. it could also be used as a reason why Piltover was founded in that location specifically. sorry if this makes no sense, i don't really interact with league of legends content outside of this channel and Arcane.

[@Diego_Covre]

This is a pretty good fix

[@TokenOracle]

a pedantic would then question why 1) this area isn't Demacia, given how they have literal forests with magic-absorbing wood and that even there mages are central to their storyline, and 2) still doesn't explain mages like Zeri and Seraphine and magic item users like Ezreal.

[@wilsoncamiloherreramalagon7313]

​@@TokenOracleEzreal isn't supposed to be an explorer? Hell, even in main Cannon he has a hero persona in Demacia. Using the same thing for Piltover would work just fine Zeri for all we know could be a mutant/experiment from Singed Or just as magic is not common IN Piltover, natural mages were not familiarized how to use it? Seraphine doesn't even have coherence in main cannon about her abilities, so it doesn't really matter

[@xolotltolox7626]

@@wilsoncamiloherreramalagon7313 or we can get rid of Zeri entirely and not really lose anything

[@TokenOracle]

​@@wilsoncamiloherreramalagon7313 I don't understand why making Zeri an experiment would work. Singed, at least in Universe, is focused purely on biological experimentations, doing things with flesh and bone rather than hextech, explicitly leaving the universities of Piltover to explore this passion when they got too focused on Hextech. There's no reason he'd explore anything to do with magic when he'd rather fuse a smart person and a strong person to see if they could become one entity (Thinker/Breaker experiments in the Universe story The Host). Also, thematically, Zeri is meant to be a sort of echo of Ekko, just doing what they can to protect average people because it's right, because she's in a community that needs her help. Making her related to Singed is unneeded and doesn't improve her story IMO. It turns her from "I'm an average person with a skill and I use it to help people" into "I use my powers gifted to me through unnatural means to help people because that way it might undo the evil that brought me into this world". And considering Zeri is inspired by Filipino culture, saying that "the person in Runeterra that represents how Filipino people are just like anyone else is actually a monster brought into this world through horrific means" doesn't look good. It's OOC for Singed and doesn't enhance Zeri's current narrative, fictional and real. Seraphine, in all her various Runeterra incarnations, has magical empathy. Her power is hearing things, thoughts, emotions, fears. In Universe, she hears the conflict between Piltover and Zaun, and when they listen to her, for a moment, that noise is quiet. She could even (when this was canon) hear the Brakern, even if it's a consiousness she can't fully understand. In LoR, while the design and voicelines mostly focus on the singer side, she is able to hear the voices in Varus, able to understand the conflict there and talk about it. There may not be coherance in how powerful she is, but she is a mage. Ezreal's bio on universe says "A dashing adventurer, *unknowingly gifted in the magical arts*, Ezreal raids long-lost catacombs, tangles with ancient curses, and overcomes seemingly impossible odds with ease." If Ezreal is proof that mages can exist without them knowing, there's bound to be mages that know they're mages.

[@jakobmoiirers_jmoii]

⛏️ great and very important take on it, as usual. when I first heared about RITO wanting to make an Arcanon I immediatly thought about how much I prefer how, physicly, the two cities of Zaun and Piltover are located on Runeterra, rather than in ARCANE. Zaun literally being the underground city beneath Piltover does SOOOO much for the story these two cities are telling. the bridge works fine in ARCANE ... but the Runeterra version just adds so much to it.

[@Jasonwolf1495]

TBH I'm slightly hoping the whole collapse that puts Zaun lower is gonna happen in S2.

[@jakobmoiirers_jmoii]

@@Jasonwolf1495 okay now that would be awesome ofc.

[@aaronsound]

What an interesting video, i really love this style and format over the shorts, thank you!

[@Senyuno]

This should be a team meeting presentation at Riot 😂

[@TBSkyen]

I honestly doubt that I'm saying anything here that hasn't been raised by someone internally

[@Senyuno]

@@TBSkyen of course! But your prose makes a difference. Sometimes it's not what's said but how it's said. Both in form and delivery... Of course there are forces at work internally that probably wasn't too squash every dollar related to League lore. But! If it's a problem of motivation, this kind of presentation is exactly the kind that you need to hear when you feel like everything you do is pointless. So if you have even one Rioter the energy to renew their passion for the day, you are greatly appreciated! ❤️

[@joaocavalcanti8186]

Why do i feel i was waiting for this video for months? Keep up the great work

[@mrbusinesss1]

Rewatching this after Arcane s2. I swear to god it wouldn't surprise me one bit if the season felt as rushed as it did and why they never concluded or even continued with the Zaun vs Piltover story about classism and oppression is because Riot saw the success of s1 and instead of letting the writers and artists continue their story and letting it conclude naturally, they wanted it to end on a "Ahhh it's not over yet!" note like they have done with most of their lore up to this point so they can keep it as open-ended and vague as possible to tell more stories in it. Plus the fact that they wanted a Noxus, Demacia and Ionia show as well and probably wanted to get to that as soon as possible, so they might have pulled the plug on any more Arcane seasons so they could get to their future billion dollar extented League of Legends Cinematic Universe(tm). This is speculation, of course, but man would it not surprise me. This has happened to so many other shows that "technically" didn't get cancelled but basically got cancelled. Where there's smoke, there's fire

[@zwiebeldogs]

🔨 The LoR part...Brb, crying a bit THE RIOT FORGE PART...my heart

[@annoyingfandragon]

I think multiverse shenanigans is probably the most likely path here, which can either go really well or really bad depending on how they do it but i feel like if anyone could do it well it would be the arcane team. I think continuing ekko’s story with him interacting with a more magical universe could be interesting, or maybe victor, jayce, and the fluff ball got sent to a more magical universe when they got absorbed by the arcane. Actually that one would be better. What ekko and jayce saw in s2 where timelines that diverged from the main arcane universe relatively recently, but jayce and victor especially getting absorbed by the arcane could be a great reason to send them to a more remote universe that diverged from the nonmagical universe further back and ended up with more magic. Or maybe something about the magical universe specifically draws magic towards it which is why it has more and why jayce and victor were sent there.

[@emilomatosis]

always love your analysis, Skyen 🛠️

[@chitisright1337]

🔨IMO it's futile to try to make any sort of unified canon for anything that spans multiple types of media, because different art forms have different story requirements. I think Riot should really do their best to discard any ideas of "canon" tbh, it's not a very helpful concept

[@jakobmoiirers_jmoii]

George Lucas did that quite succesfully for decades afaik; then disney sent it all to hell.

[@antares3030]

Theyre making an mmo, it will be the unified canon lore source

[@codebracker]

Well that did seem to be the original plan based on the multiverse explanation in the arcane crossover event

[@peanutgallery4]

No it's not that it spans different art forms that's the problem, it's LoL specifically

[@doomdoot6731]

Honestly, that's what 40k did. EVERYTHING in 40k is canon. The codices (rule books per edition) include canon lore bits. The novels and short stories are all canon. The games are all canon (even Boltgun). And a lot of it contradicts itself. Because the narrator themselves is never unbiased. In one book the narrator may take a stance FOR the Imperium - having space marines stomp all over aeldari. And then the next book can turn around and do the exact opposite, because this time around it's a story told by the aeldari. I don't know why this isn't more common in these types of multi media franchises. Different stories have different requirements and different foci of who should be the main character and how. Hell, different media even allow for different forms and types of power scaling - kind of hard to have a Daemon be able to punch a hole through a planet, but barely able to touch a guard regiment in the same story.

[@arcaneseason1]

🛠️ i’m watching this after the arcane finale and ohhhhh boy. the worldbuilding, tone, themes, plot and characters they established in season 1… it all feels like a wholly different entity with how much the writing went off the rails and distanced itself from it in season 2 to accomodate to this piss poor executive decision. riot making arcane canon pretty much doomed arcane itself 😭 it should’ve absolutely stayed as its own isolated thing, the way it was initially conceptualized. this is such a deeply unsatisfying turn of events with problems on so many levels.

[@Arander92]

Clearly this confirms it IS its own isolated thing? Considering the amount of characters that die or change drastically from their LoL counterparts??

[@padaro4504]

Complete bs. The Story from season 2 Was from the Plan from the start thats why of the end of seaon 1 it ended with an Cliffhanger and unfinished. The Story of season 2 makes completley sense, season 1 was for building the characters and the World and season 2 just Used that and continiued. The Exekution was not even remoutley poor idk what you were watching. The only thing somone can criticise is that it was a bit rushed but thats it.

[@rileyduncan3927]

@@padaro4504Dude it’s just their opinion.

[@padaro4504]

@@rileyduncan3927 Dude its just my opinion

[@katelynkaboom]

Making everything canon is such a horribly bad idea with so many points to prove such, I CANT IMAGINE how this got greenlit. Actually baffling to me.

[@v6valkyrie]

Why though? The show doesn’t explicitly deny magic exists. Arcane will streamline the universe and make it less of a MESS. Why is this possibility being knocked down so hard even we’ve SEEN the quality of work these guys are capable of

[@katelynkaboom]

@@v6valkyrie no one is denying the quality of work creatives at riot do, but usually that quality work gets put through a corporate system that dumbs it down. So you get these shining moments like arcane when the creatives are left to do their great work, but now 1) the creatives at arcane do not have as much freedom 2) there is so much work to do on the game, lore, etc that riot as a whole historically has not been able to execute.

[@katelynkaboom]

@@v6valkyrie also yes, LoL is kinda a mess…and there are many other ways to try and clean that up. I think adding everything under the sun to the lore only adds more of a spiderweb mess to clean up, not streamline the provess

[@Macaulyn_97]

I think LoR is already sorta soft canon considering how many times it contradicted lore. The only difference is that they seem to ignore parts of it only when it's convenient. Gálio gets a bunch of petricite golems, Cithria exists whenever she wants in the timeline... sure, Tyari showed up in an universe story, but who knows how many parts of the game will get that much attention. I don't think the Star Wars canon thing would work well, because if another company makes the next Ahsoka Tano of the franchise, you know the community will pester Riot to include them and how will Riot work with that? Like, the character belongs to another company, but it's Riot's IP, it could be a mess. I think they will probably just show P&Z as a region that doesn't really have that many mages and because of that and their huge investment in technology, the few mages present wouldn't feel the need to learn magic and increase their powers. Yes, that's still weird going with Hextech, but one can argue that Hextech is seen as nothing more than a great fuel. Ezreal starts using more of his magic because he is always exploring dangerous places and the gauntlet amplifies the power he already had and Seraphine has to control her power because she kinda can't ignore it. It's not perfect and I agree wholeheartedly that it's gonna be a mess to tie Arcane to the universe, but it's very much doable.

[@Chris-rn2dm]

i just dont buy the idea that magic being more common in canon breaks the universe, I think the idea that piltover is running around with sniper rifles while noxus and demacia are using sword and shield is more universe breaking. None of these differences feel significant enough and i think wide canons in general will always have questions involving them. Why do all the other avengers disappear whenever one of them has to have a solo movie.

[@MoebiusChungus]

Yeah Season 2 ending basically proved everything bad about canonizing Arcane true. Riot couldn’t help ruining lore and convoluting this already underdeveloped lore.

[@Ekami-chan]

I watched all of Arcane as long as it has been made and remembered one part of me starting it was so I could listen to your videos about it. 😂

[@chonkyjonky]

Here after Season 2 Act 2 of Arcane... can safely say I am entirely scared on how they are going to wrap up Arcane now without negatively affecting the League lore or the lore within Arcane itself. I know Arcane was announced as the same canon, so I don't really see how they will end up as their league counterparts without some sort of sacrifice from the show? And if characters in League do die or disappear, where does that leave League? Does that make League of Legends itself not canon anymore for favor of Arcane? Will all their original designs disappear? I'm so beyond confused and a little scared for both medias

[@537zun4]

Every 40k Fan: *insert "first time?" meme here*

[@OccuredJakub12]

I already disagree with the first point. Hextech isn't supposed to be special because magic is rare in Runeterra. It's special because it allows non-mage people to harness it into tools and weapons! While Arcane presents a story with almost no mages, there also isn't any evidence that mages are rare or non-existent. The reason Heimerdinger is afraid of Hextech is because it's connected to probably The World Runes or The Void and not because it's just magic, although that probably would also make him unwilling to let the guys do research on it.

[@eli-matxha]

were talking about league of legend universe, not just arcane - and how arcane could kill lol lore. And Heimerdinger isnt that 'afraid' of Hextech - he's overly cautious of it. Also there wasnt any mention of World Runes or void in arcane. And magic isn't rare in runeterra - it's literally everywhere. Ionia's ground is literally made up of magic.

[@MomoDh-e9w]

​@@eli-matxhabro you clearly didnt watch the show the world runes are everywhere,and also they piltover has no mages cause they said they hate magic

[@apollinarian]

It's... *bizarre* that League of Legends, the game which makes all its money through alternate universes where artists/writers are given free reign to reimagine League's champions in fun and compelling new adventures (AKA skins), has been shot in the foot by Riot themselves because they're desperate to follow the entertainment media trend of a strict cinematic universe after Arcane's success. I'm sure Riot's creatives realize that's not where the IP's power lies and that League lore functions wonderfully as source material, but it seems their execs have no fucking idea. Man...

[@DLxxx]

It's incredibly frustrating to watch. You'd think SOMEOME among the hire ups must've considered something like this, but they went forward with this problematic decision anyway.

[@brockmckelvey7327]

All I want now is an explanation for that Giant Cosmos Dragon in the Arcane universe 🔨🛠 AND THE MUMMY GUY!!! How is Riot gonna retcon the adorable Mummy guy that just wants a friend!?!

[@bthsr7113]

What about the scientific abomination of walking slime from the twin cities? Or the girl who was turned into a clockwork ballerina who can still exercise independent though?

[@kylon1235]

Okay so here is my understanding. Piltover is specifically THE region with no magic. The backstory of Piltover we got in Arcane set it up as a place that USED to have a lot of magic but the mages abused their power and destroyed each other. Heimerdinger warns against the arcane power BECAUSE it used to be common and he saw the destruction that it brought to Piltover. I am not an expert on the lore but I thought they set it up pretty well. As far as I can tell, Arcane never said magic was uncommon, it simply said it was frowned upon in Piltover because of the region's history.

[@halloween_BoI]

lets meet here in 5 years when something more suceesful comes out and they retcon everything again

[@rileyduncan3927]

Here’s my headcanon, the origins of the Piltover and Zaun Champions from season 1 are canon, but the rest of season 2 isn’t as it’s pretty much it’s own thing, Arcane is supposed to be a video game adaptation and video game adaptations are usually a different continuity, the like Sonic the Hedgehog movies for example.

[@scrafy3160]

Something that really surprised me about Arcane was that the "Champions" are only at the (presumable) peak we summon them in at only a very short time during the show. (Spoilers) Jayce and Viktor destroy hextech, which in LoL lore has not only been around for a really long time, but is also crucial to MANY of the characters. Hell, we don't even get to see the Explorer's Guild where Ezreal resides, nor do we get to see other champions that really hinge on hextech/chemtech being a thing? LoL lore has always been shaky at best but there's basically no way Arcane can be canon to the games, right?

[@rileyduncan3927]

Actually Hextech still exists, it’s just not being used as much as it used to be in Arcane anymore.

[@YesterdayAt1200]

🔨 Your videos inspire me immensely. Thank you for that!

[@GrayVBoat]

🔨Good stuff as always. Some thoughts (sorry for the essay): I thought the idea was that Piltover had isolated itself from magic? I don't feel like there was anything to suggest that other parts of the world didn't use magic, only that the City of Progress was founded (at least in part) as a haven free of it. Ambessa wants hextech, but I doubt it's because there are no Noxian mages; rather, I'd guess it's because magic is a complex and unwieldy skill, and they want stable, mass-produced weapons (similar to crossbows or guns in the real world). Jayce also says he wants to put magic into the hands of commoners, but again, that sounds more like a matter of convenience in Piltover specifically rather than a comment on all of Runeterra. But if mages _are_ common elsewhere, why is the hexgate revolutionary? Why haven't mages been using teleportation for trade all this time? Again, probably because of how difficult the spells are to safely use, not to mention the amount of energy you'd need to travel long-distance with literal tons of goods. If you want smuggled magic, look no further than the hex crystals, whose pre-hextech rarity should tell you just how vigilant Piltover's ruthless law enforcement is. And of course the question of the council is answered pretty directly by several of its members - yes, they all obey that rule, because they fear magic's risks more than they desire its benefits. It's only when Jayce shows them how safe it is that they turn around, and once that happens, everyone but Heimerdinger turns on a _dime_ (not to mention how that whole turn of events is pushed by Mel, the one councilor who _isn't_ afraid). There might be other details that I'm missing, but I feel like the ones you mentioned here are reasonably explainable. I will say you make some other good points; for instance, while I think most characters simply have yet to turn into their LoL counterparts, I agree that Vi and Jinx are just completely counter to their in-game versions. I'm also not sure that I trust Riot to smoothly create a "cinematic universe" type of canon, but I think we'll just have to see Arcane season 2 and beyond to judge that. The expanded universe idea is nice, and considering the disconnect between LoL and its spinoffs (which is _way_ bigger than the one between it and Arcane), it seems like a smart choice. Anyway, appreciate the commentary. Have a good one!

[@Simon-et4hu]

🪚I really love Arcane and the music and your videos (your essays and stories) It’s the only places where I interact with League of Legends at all. And I would read all the stories everywhere if there was cohesion. The stuff taken individually is really good!

[@thejestor9378]

Could be that the wizards are keeping their existance hidden as best they can within the cities of Piltover and Zaun as magic was quite literally banned. Also, just cause mages exist, doesn’t mean a regular person can use magic on their own, hextech gives a normal person or soldier a quick, easy, and accessible form of magic combined with the familiar of technology. Like we haven’t seen all of runeterra in Arcane, we have literally only seen Piltover and Zaun. And it is entirely possible for a pair of cities, which have banned magic, to have next to zero mage presence, and what presence it does have keeping the truth of their existence secret is possible.

[@ALBUS00]

That's true

[@tigrafidun]

🔨 Ornn made this hammer. It was so good he named it Hammer.

[@user-df3kp9nn7b]

🔨 Can't Arcane just be in a different time in history, before Runeterran magic prevalence? And Season 2 might bridge that gap. You left out Mel's teased Solari-esque armor at the end of S1 ;) I'd say a big display of life-saving magic against Jinx's rocket would be exactly the thing to convince Piltover Council that magic = good - counter to Heimerdinger's fear of it. Especially with the rocket effectively escalating Pilt-Zaun tension to outright war, maybe this is what makes Piltover embrace magic, as a necessary tool for defense. Dunno how that gets us to most of the population being a mage, but it's a start. They've got a lot of seasons (hopefully!) to get us there.

[@alicepbg2042]

nope. because that is long before arcane happens. you can't just set it some years in the past, you would need basically an apocaliptic event to happen to justify the changes required.

[@prunejuice9032]

Runeterra has had magic like that for literal ages tho. Current runeterra is LESS magic than older runeterra since people dont use the world runes. Also, the characters in arcane are not from some different age, jinx vi cait viktor jayce are all currently on runeterra.

[@user-df3kp9nn7b]

Ohhh, snap. Thanks for the info! League newbie here :P

[@user-df3kp9nn7b]

This aged... 🤔😂

[@sirval6159]

🔨 as always great analysis and interesting reflections, keep up the good work ❤

[@drdoctor223]

I really do hope the team they put together to handle this is given as much support as the Arcane team did. I think as long as Riot nurtures the incredible talent they hire, they've shown they can make a great product in the end. Great video, it makes me care more about the future of lore!

[@HiddenReaper]

Was told to bring a tool but all I got is my undying love for TB Skyen videos.

[@gravity_of_light]

⚒! an excellent analysis as always; keep up the good work :tblove:

[@user-vy2ui8cp7q]

If I remembered right there’s a no magic rule in arcane and hex tech is a new important discovery because hex tech isn’t just a common mage item it’s act like a power source that can be use both manually and automatically via mechanical stuff while also still being accessible for everyone even if the person using isn’t a mage and can’t use magic at all

[@Diego_Covre]

I don't really think that it would be a big problem, afterall we see the show trough the perspective of characters that grew up in the region and may not be used to magic, and the characters that come from outside the region show big interest/fear in hextech, because they know how powerful magic is, and how dangerous it could be to give magic to literally everyone

[@alicereid3308]

The absolute dread I felt when TB Skyen was explaining a possible solution which included things like Riot Forge and getting all these talented artists to help when there was recently the massive layoff of 10% of their workforce.

[@cartoonishidealism582]

Easiest way to make Arcane canon is to stop all other lore I guess

[@mazrekaj123]

They need to do just making multiversity Canon and will be fine .

[@Bionickpunk]

Multiverse was already canon thanks to Convergence, Ekko and Zilean, the problem is Arcane was supposed to be an alternate universe, not shoehorned into the established main canon.

[@glasspaper3]

🔨 THANK YOU for saying this. After hearing about Arcane becoming canon I've been feeling so mucky about it but couldn't clarify WHY I felt that way and this video helped me crystalize my thoughts and feelings so well. Hats off to you always love your work Mr Skyen, been watching for like over half a decade

[@spectacularspider-man4886]

They just changed my boy Viktor who had charm of his own instead of just giving him a legendary/ultimate arcane skin. Oh and Creator Viktor just lost all his aura after they turned him into a twink.

[@mikezigma]

i hate it bro im with ya. hes the machine herald, not hex tech jesus

[@d4s0n282]

IMO is way better and interesting, totally said to you, but you can't say it's not a interesting or not well done idea just cus you dont agree with it

[@AnnieBee43]

⚒Thanks for your continued work being the best and most smooth voiced person on the platform!

[@asytippyy352]

I'm not so sure the arguments you outlined are something to lose hope over. It was stated in dialogue as early as the first act of Season 1 that Piltover was founded on the premise of escaping warmongering mages. The people before hextech perceived Piltover as a safe haven from magic, especially given Heimerdinger's role as a founding member. Arcane doesn't retcon Runeterra; it retcons Piltover at most. It doesn't even necessarily need to go fully that way either. There's a simple reconciliation: the magic of Piltover and Zaun could emerge during and after the events of Arcane (as Season 2 has suggested after two acts). My interpretation is that the show does not depict a world without magic, merely a city failing at hiding from it. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence after all. Ionia, Noxus, Shurima, Freljord et al all have wildly different approaches to this component of fantasy, and expanding into them shouldn't contradict Arcane (and may even reinforce it once we get to see what magic can really do).

[@Takerofbootyeaterofcoochie]

Beat me to it. I really wondered if he watched it.

[@Bionickpunk]

Arcane Retcons Runterra, it's worldbuilding and magic system too much to only be an isolated incident of Piltover & Zaun.

[@DJenius]

This was a wonderful and interesting video. It's always a good day when you upload 🔨

[@jokerpandroidc9807]

TTHHAAAAAANNNKK YYYYOOOOOOOO,its such a unpopular opinion, it goes with my favourite game too Lor, its such unacery "celebration"(punishment) that hurts the freedom of creativity that would've otherwise respect the core by heart unless its it *knows* it's gonna better 100% ,and they've *SHOWED* they're good at it and knows what they're doing 20:28 they WERE doing this with lor and forge,until they said "too much caos for new funs"

[@qltacc5716]

I love your videos so much. Never played lol before in my life, despite beign aware of it since 2014. But because of your lore videos, I picked up LoR and have been having a blast with it. Thank you so much for your videos

[@FiendTheWhacked]

🔨 Gonna say that personally I feel you're over stating the case as to why the canon of the show & the game are incompatible. I think that there *are* challenges; Camille's story needs a complete retcon with hextech being an entirely new invention rather than a centuries old technology that Jayce & Victor are the latest revolutionaries in, but like other commentors have said, the impression I got from Arcane wasn't that magic was virtually non existent in the world, but that it was specifically taboo in Piltover & Zaun. I think there's plenty of room for Zeri to be an X-men type sorcerer with natural powers in this setting, for instance, and the status quo in Piltover need have no bearing on Iona, Demacia, or the Freljord. Even Noxus with what little we see of it in the show doesn't need to be too affected; "why does Mel's mom need hextech if she already has access to mages? Well, she's up against (probably) Swain & he has more mages, hextech would be an equializer to arm her non-mage soldiers with." That works, that's fine, that makes sense. Why doesn't Viktor seek help from a mage about his problem? Well, Victor is irresponsible & jumps into things too quickly, I'd argue that's an established part of his character and we can say that even with the hexgates bringing in trade & scholars from distant lands as Hiemerdinger says, actual mages are still giving Piltover a wide berth; they might not like Hextech for the same reason Singed doesn't in the main cannon, Piltover might still be unwelcoming to them because "we do things our way until we get it right" is the Piltover mindset in the show, they don't need outside help & will refuse it, because they're obviously smarter & more clever than any of these wizards who've been doing this for centuries. After all, they haven't destroyed a single civilization(yet). Why doesn't Silco hire a wizard to help? I'd argue he kinda did; Singed is a mad scientist, yes, but shimmer is clearly supernatural in someway, you yourself consistently compared shimmer imagery to the Void in your commentaries of the show. Shimmer provides the same benefit that Hextech does; it takes this supernatural element & puts it in a form that common people without magic can use, and it's in a form that Silco can convince himself he can control through distribution where as just hiring mages to act as his supersoldiers raises the problem of "what happens when they decide they don't need me?" Which isn't *not* a problem with shimmer & Singed, but it's one Silco can rationalize away better than he could if he had Sylas as his attack dog, for example. Again, I'm not saying that there aren't *issues* to resolve. There clearly are. But I don't see it as being as insurmountable as you make it out to be. Assuming new seasons of Arcane shine wider lights on the world - I suspect we're going to get a lot more of Noxus in season 2 & through Noxus, expand into either Ionia and/or Demacia in season 3 if the show goes that far - I'm sure fans will ask questions of "okay so if magic's so common over here why did Jayce & Viktor need to do anything?" and they'll brush those questions aside & move on as long as the quality of the show stays high. Each of those properties you mentioned - Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Warhammer - they all, individually, have hundreds(and that's being conservative) of incidents of the expansion of their properties contracting previous canon or raising questions of 'well if this has always been here, why haven't we heard about it', and they just chugged along regardless.

[@maithax6962]

I just got into league's lore like four months ago. If they start changing it while i'm still learning or if they make my favourite champions' lore not canon anymore, i will be so upset and i will 100% reject it in my own canon. I will say, though, you've been the main source of my knowledge for the lore (especially for characters i'm not immediately hyperfixated on) and you've been single handedly fueling my league hyperfixation these last few months and i do so very much appreciate your work

[@Daemonworks]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. The catch is that Riot doesn't care about canon, lore, telling stories, or even characters. It never has. All the lore, wotldbuilding, etc... that's just marketing. Advertisement. They've never been interested in creating a world, they were interested in giving a vague sense that there is a world. The vaguer the better so that they could just keep throwing random bullshit into it. Old stuff is old. Pay no attention to it. Shiny new stuff exists, buy it.

[@menyf7s]

Considering how popular teemo talon and twitch are there really is no excuse for ignoring them

[@mikezigma]

after seeing viktor in season 2 arcane i knew LoL viktor was doomed. the machine herald was cool af i dont want hex tech jesus lol.

[@Aphelia.]

🪛 13:10 "In order to make Arcane canon, you would have to kill Legends of Runeterra." I am so incredibly upset that they actually went through with it. As someone who literally experienced all five stages of grief after the infamous announcement, I doubt I will ever forgive Riot. LoR was my initial gateway into the Runeterra universe (especially since, as you mentioned in the video, LoL had been excessively toxic).The game had an elegant and effective way of narrating stories- I'm still amazed by the level of detail it added to the worldbuilding. It hurts so much to realize that all the passion and creativity poured into this game simply won't matter anymore.

[@BurningKat17]

wasn't there a necrit video a while back when a ton of people got fired that mentioned who some of the people were? didn't it include that one of the big Writers was among the ones let go? i'm sure this can only go well q.q