Akali?! This is AMAZING! - Arcane Fan K/DA - POP/STARS Music Video League of Legends Reaction!

[@VeggieGamer]

Hi guys! We start off with me covering notes on A New Dawn! If you want to skipp straight to the Reaction, click here! - 14:22

[@redroseibarahime8755]

btw, the K/DA song popstars was the "inbetween" project to keep the animators of Fortiche busy while they were rewriting S1. The idea was born in the inhouse music department of Riot and Christian Linke bought them together since the project Arcane would have lost the animators otherwise. This song also reached platinum last year - that is probably why you might have heard it before. It is very popular and was a big hit. This is set in the alternative K/DA universe and of couse they launched this as it's own skinline which is also very popular in the game. This applies to all virtual music groups of Riot. K/DA stands for "kill/death and assistance" which are your stats in the game. They also released other really good songs with the K/DA format ( I highly recommend "Villian", "More" and "The Baddest"). Part of K/DA are the champions Akali, Evelynn, Kai'Sa and Ahri - for the song "More" Seraphine joins them. Soyeon from G-Idle is consistently thoughout the projects the voice of akali and she is an amazing korean k-pop idol and rapper. All the characters from the virtual music groups are voiced by real professional singing artist. There is also another league group called "True Damage". The members are Yasuo, Akali, Senna, Qiana and Ekko (also at 0:07 we got a hidden Arcane tease in the song "Giants"). If you are a metal fan I recommend checking out "Pentakill" (members: Karthus, Mordekaiser, Olaf, Kayle, Sona, Yorick & Viego) - another music group from league which released their third(!) album in 2021 and had an amazing interactive VR concert (you can find that on the officiial "Riot Games Music" YT channel. Btw, this was actually the first virtual music group Riot made that had the very first music video (Mortal Reminder by Pentakill

[@will1533]

The animation production side of things was done by Fortiche, who also did Arcane. It gets a little mention in the Arcane 'making of' series "Bridging the Rift" on the LoL KZbin channel.

[@SYBEX21]

I thought the series "Arcane" broke my heart, then watching "Bridging the Rift", just tore it out.

[@AriamaAruven]

This song came out for the League of Legends world championship 2018 in Korea. Thats why they have two KPOP Idols as singers in this song, from the group (G)I-DLE. Akali is voiced by Soyeon, which is arguably the best female rapper in the KPOP scene. and Ahri by Miyeon. The other KDA songs mostly feature these two aswell, but not all. One song also features 4 singers from the KPOP group Twice. The other singers are international artists, which also vary from song to song. They are not the voices of the characters ingame.

[@Azh_Tiel]

Also, it seems right to make Akali and Ahri's singers be Korean because Ionia seems to be the "Asia" of Runeterra, giving them american singers would do them wrong.

[@David-id6jw]

Yes, that's Kai'sa. No, this wasn't played in Arcane. Akali's mask while she's rapping is imitating the design of an eastern dragon's mouth. They tend to have moustache-like whiskers. It goes with the giant dragon graffiti she created early on. The swirly smoke clouds on the walls of the subway car during the rap scene are also commonly associated with eastern dragons. Still want you to watch "Welcome Aboard" (Jinx Productions). The Yasuo in that is one of my favorite male characters in the cinematics. But aside from that, the other K/DA music videos are great. (Also, the True Damage - Giants video, for more Akali and Ekko.) I'd skip the voice line videos unless you're really going to speed up reactions.

[@xXTheRedrubyXx]

KDA is basically skin promo so 90% of their content is invalid in the original lore BUT each skinline has its own lore. The exceptions being the whole sentinels/ruined king era which I think is core canon (great videos to check out in the future btw). If you do end up checking more KDA, do check out true damage, it's with Akali and Ekko and both KDA & True Damage have performances during worlds which are with the original voices and characters on stage.

[@purpleberry3564]

Sentinels of Light are kinda confusing I feel like they kinda also fall in the category of the other alternate universes because of how many versions of that storyline we have, how many plot holes and how every character is out of characters.

[@xXTheRedrubyXx]

@@purpleberry3564 yeah I was just as iffy about it but Viego, Senna and the blessed Isles part is def Canon so like idk, maybe semi Canon 🤔

[@zerodawn09]

ok how has no one told him league has a multiverse? the world of runeterra is one, the game is in a weird spot where it is but isnt in its own world, many of the music stuff is in its own world and all the spin off stuff like star guardians are in their own worlds. K D A (yes thats how you say it) is in a world like ours and there is no game so thats why evelynn and kai'sa look so different. and for those who dont know Arcane is in its own world. league lore is different from Arcane lore and they even said they will go out to other areas and people in game can die in arcane. its in a Q&A from late last year but it does have spoilers for the next season of Arcane so go read it if you dont mind.

[@chaedi8457]

For what it's worth, I have never thought Kai'sa looks like Kai'sa in K/DA either. And yes you should absolutely do 'More' by K/DA. 🤣🤣🤣

[@jezzluck]

I dearly recommend the 'Bridging The Rift' 5 episode long series on KZbin which is essentially a really well done Behind the scenes of Arcane and how it came about.

[@David-id6jw]

@3:00 - Ahri panicking as she woke up (in A New Dawn) was her seeing Darius approaching her. They just made it a little dramatic by not showing him directly until Ahri ran into the cliff edge and he charged out of the forest.

[@VeggieGamer]

I am an idiot. Thanks, David! That bit had me a little confused! XD

[@Ghost_R4cc00n]

It seems ironic that I was just listening to this song during my Art Session 😄 also your reaction at the reveal of “Kai’sa” appearance in K/DA is a funny moment. With that said, this video is a promo for skins for each character that is featured in this game. Also I feel like once you react to “Villain”, it might show more story on K/DA Evelynn’s story and describe on who she is.

[@Azh_Tiel]

Yes, more please. 😊 Evelynn - is a demon of lust, she lures people in by lust and then devour them? I actually don't know what she does to them Kaisa - She was dropped into the void when she was a baby, the void has almost taken over her but she was able to take control of it and instead became a half-void and half-human. She uses the power of the void like a suit and to destroy other voidlings, if she looks a bit like an insect, that's why, the design did it right.

[@carlooo3179]

"Should we do more?" Definitely! Do "More - KDA"!

[@carlooo3179]

Or GIANTS by True Damage music video, Ekko and Akali are in it.

[@Agent_Dark]

Riot (the game developer) is a little unusual for a game company in that they have a fully fledged in-house music production studio, which is why music features so heavily in their products and often feels like the focus point of alot of their videos. There's something of a joke in the League community that Riot is actually a music studio, masquerading as a game company :D Christian Linke, one of the co-creators of Arcane, actually came up through the music production side of Riot so its not surprising that music featured so heavily in Arcane. Christian, before he joined Riot, used to be in a rock band and one of his first things he worked on when joining Riot Music was Pentakill - a heavy metal group that features a number of real life Metal artists that Riot created to sell some skins for various characters (and also because there's apparently a few metalheads at Riot Music who just wanted to make some metal music lol). Riot have actually released 3 full Pentakill albums which have some pretty awesome metal music - the 'lead single' off the 2nd album, Mortal Reminder, has an animated music video too which you should definitely check out :) After Pentakill was so positively received by the fans, Riot set out to do something similar but this time as a K-pop group. Worlds 2018 (the annual League of Legends eSports tournament held at the end of the year where the best teams in the world compete for the Worlds Trophy, basically the "Super Bowl" of League of Legends eSports) was being held in Korea that year, so they wanted a K-pop act for the opening ceremony and thus K/DA was born. K/DA actually performed live at the Worlds 2018 ceremony to debut the song (complete with augmented reality holograms and all), and at some point you should react to some of the Worlds opening ceremonies (particularly the 2018, 2019 and 2021 years) because they are some really cool stage shows. Side note, that poster with 'Rise' on it that you paused on is the poster for the theme song of Worlds 2018 called RISE ft. The Glitch Mob, Mako, and The Word Alive. As for K/DA itself, it features 4 members all of which are champions from the game given skins in a so called 'music' skinline (which is themed around a modern Earth like society that also includes the Pentakill and True Damage groups, though apparently in this alternate universe Earth there exists Vastaya like Ahri). The 'lore' behind K/DA is that Ahri, a former Kpop star who became slightly disillusioned with the industry, decided to branch out independently and create her own her group free from the shackles of the K-pop studios. She teamed up with her old friend Evelynn (an American pop Diva) and recruited Kai'sa (a dancer from South Africa) and Akali (a young rapper from Korea) and released the single POP/STARS. They followed that success up with an EP called ALL/OUT, which has tracks The Baddest, More, Villain, Drum Go Dum and I'll Show You (all have videos on KZbin, though The Baddest only has a lyric video). It's the same characters on all the tracks, though Ahri, Kai'Sa and Evelynn have some different vocalists on some of them while the track MORE has a guest character called Seraphine, who's vocals are sung by Chinese singer Lexie Liu. * Akali - Rapper, vocals by Soyeon from the Kpop group (G)I-DLE. * Ahri - Lead Singer, vocals by Miyeon from the Kpop group (G)I-IDLE. Also sung by the K-pop group TWICE, Bekuh Boom and Annika Wells on the track "I'll Show You". * Kai'Sa - Lead Dancer, vocals by Jaira Burns. Also sung by the artist Wolftyla on "The Baddest" and the artists Aluna Francis, Bekuh Boom and Wolftyla on the track "Drum Go Dum". * Evelynn - Lead Singer, vocals by Madison Beer, as well as the artist Kim Petras on the track "Villain". Evelynn - Agony's Embrace. Evelynn's normal prime universe character is a literal Demon (a specific term for primordial beings who represent the concept of something, in Evelynn's case the concept of Agony). Evelynn stalks her victims, charming them and luring them in with the promise of pleasure only to turn on them at the last second, revealing her true form and murders them by flaying them alive so she can feed off their suffering. Her music universe AU counterpart is a little less extreme lol. Her track on the ALL/OUT EP is called Villain, which actually works as a pretty good feel for her normal prime universe character too.

[@defiantsnow6055]

I feel like you would've heard K/DA in the behind the scenes documentary of Arcane's creation, they touched on K/DA.

[@purpleberry3564]

I'm going to give reasons why Piltover can be the worse place to live in. 1. If your businessperson and you have competition theirs a chance that the competition will try to get rid of you permanently by murder. 2. Angry Zuinites will terrorize Piltover like Jinx and many more. 3. Mutated pests from Zaun will go to Piltover because there right next to each other. (Mutated pest is like a pest but worse) 4. Police brutality. 5. Dangerous Piltovan criminals. (Like Singed) 6. Demon of Addiction running around Piltover. 7. Potential Angry Crystal Creature will attack Piltover for their wrongdoing. 8. Potential Noxian invasion. (They can easily do it if they wanted to) 9. Some Zaunites can potentially destroy the whole Piltover by chemical or explosion. 10. Also, they are very vulnerable to something like a darkin or powerful magics.

[@Trinkbell]

Arhi (you know), Akali(you know), Evelynn(the one with the claws and lashers. She is the primal demon of agony. She tortures men to death) and Kai'sa(who you saw in a few of the other cenamatics) I;m going to suggest you react to necrits videos. He is the lore king of league. he also is fine with people reacting to his stuff. watch these videos in order Story of League of Legends Explained The World of Riot's MMO is Already Done How Powerful Are Champions According to Lore? and here is one cause its funny and help join some lore together Champions Who Canonically B*nged Ok more break down for the video. those are the main four of the group. the add a fT on the song more. they also did this live. i believe it was championship 2019 or 2018. Go watch this other songs.

[@VeggieGamer]

Thanks for the awesome comment, Trinkbell!! I actually have reacted to The World of Riot's MMO is Already Done! I'll be sure to check the others out! :)

[@purpleberry3564]

Not a primal demon just a regular demon. The only primal demons that we have right now about Fiddlesticks, Ashlesh(The demon that is helping Nilah) and 8 other ones unknown to us.

[@LooKingG00d]

I'm just gonna re-post my recomendation from 2 months ago (whitch was already a re-post) . You're kind of going through it, but just in case you want to speed run it, or as a cheatsheet for the next idea ;) its basically a definitive League compilation. ok, strap in, here goes. As an esports title every year/season league holds a championship called "Worlds" and they release a season opening cinematics: "Legends never die" (2017) "The Climb" (2018) "Rise" (2018) "Awaken" (2019) "Phoenix" (2019) "Warriors" (2020) - has Vi and Cait in it "Take Over" (2020) "Breathe" (2020) "Burn it all down" (2021) "The call" (2022) "Star walkin" (2022) Seasons culminate in a "super bowl" style grand final which has an amazing (half) live opening ceremonies and performances - you should definitely check: - Opening ceremony "Worlds" Finals 2018 - cool CG and live mix - Opening ceremony "Worlds" Finals 2019 - this one is off the charts! - 2020 can be skipped, because of C19 it was so so. - Opening ceremony "Worlds" Finals 2021 - this one was before Arcane release so it takes us to Live arcane world, must watch - Opening ceremony "Worlds" Finals 2022 - latest one Then league of legends have game skins, but they have connecting theme and own lore/universe. For example in one some characters are members of k-pop/j-pop band, so Riot made a whole virtual group K/DA (pronc. key-dee-ey for kills/deaths/assists) and released outstanding music videos, you should checkout: K/DA - Pop/Stars (their debut song) K/DA - The baddest K/DA - More K/DA - Villain K/DA - Drum Go Dum K/DA - I'll show you There's similar skin themes like "Sentinels of light" you can check out or at least "I’ll Find a Way" music cinematic for it. Or "Star Guardian" where characters are in a "sailor moon" situation (jinx has a star guardian skin too), has many cinematics but you can at least check "Light and Shadow ", "Everything Goes On", "Burning Bright" (with jinx as star guardian) And there is also "Wild Rift" which is a mobile version of LoL game that has 25+ own cinematics like "You Really Got Me", "Never stop me", "Almost home", etc. So this is roughly half the cool stuff, there are also: a) "Character trailers" like you saw "Get Jinxed" for Jinx, but there's for many other characters. b) Also location trailers (search keyword "Tales Of Runeterra") there's about 13 or so of them introducing each region including Piltover. c) Game events, like "Ruination", where there's a mini story told over 4-5 cinematics connected with events that were happening in the game. d) As well as just lore based promo (really really cool) cinematics like "A new dawn", "Twist of fate", "Kin of stained blade" etc. All in all there is probably over 200+ of various cinematics similar to the ones you saw :) But you should definitelly check the 30+ I mentioned above, you'll love em'! Let me know if you'll have any questions or want to learn more ;)

[@markwilliams125]

I don't really care when you do bridging the rift as long as you do it. I think it's a pretty damn good documentary.

[@sheridanwolf]

I'm 4 month late Veggie this song was everywhere, I'm pretty sure I have talked about it. Edit:I did your Discord proved it. I did a pixel art of a screenshot from the Music Video using the app dotpict, I probably also mentioned it in one of your old Live Streams probably. But yeah under the veggie media stuff channel, from like December 6, 2018 (I did a Discord search)

[@VeggieGamer]

Ooh, interesting, Sheridan! I really need to check out more of their stuff!

[@turkeryalazman428]

I don't have any clew that it is true or not or even anybody even think that before but. In my head canon Evelyn's glasses in this MV is a Natural Born Killer reference.

[@Shythalia]

Malphite is the mountain monster in that cover photo with Katarina & Tristana. K/DA is not canon but has its own storyline. Most skins are not canon. 22:03 Those real women are just the dancers/choreographers of the characters' dances. They are not the singers. The singers are credited in the title of the music video and they are very popular in the music industry. Btw, there is a comic about K/DA. You learn a bit more about them there.

[@purpleberry3564]

You should react to "Villain" you will get to know both Runeterra and K/DA Evelynn more by just that song.

[@J1ntu]

My favorite detail is how every time they switched back to Akali, you saw fewer water droplets on the camera

[@propypper16]

that song is so frickin awesome, i can actually do the rapping part and the signing part in the same language after a LOT of practice

[@therren9981]

For those who are on the side of "Yes you should watch one of the professional games" from 6:20 , should we give him the ultimate NA Fiesta (REN vs DIG, the one where multiple people died to towers and neutral objectives within minutes of each other)? Or maybe one of the most iconic games (The Xpeke, or "Faker what was that")? Or maybe one of the newest games so the updated map and dragon changes are shown off? Thoughts?

[@Drake844221]

K/DA is pretty awesome, and yeah... it has nothing to do with the main League lore, or anything like that. It is just a kick-ass music video that Riot decided to put out to help promote League. You can even buy the skins to use in-game. That's one thing to be careful with, Veggie, some things that they do are lore-related, some are very much part of the world, (though I don't know that any of the cinematics are things that would be considered "canon" to a larger narrative). On the whole, my impression is that just about anything they put out in these videos is more of a vignette than a story beat. That said, one video that I will advocate for you to watch until I'm blue in the face is the League video Phoenix. It is very powerful on an emotional level, and it really hits the whole sense of overcoming adversity and struggles - which I really feel is one of the major strengths of these videos. It has more to do with the players than the characters, but part of what makes it click is that it features some of the players that lost to the team that eventually became the champion the previous year.

[@1191purplecow]

2022 world's final 5 games. We're some of the most hype and exciting games. But maybe a college level games would ease you into some of the basics. Lot of things to see and understand in game.

[@LoLGamer-se1sz]

I have 4 recommendations depending on what you want to do next. KDA KDA = Kills Deaths Assits based on the scoreboard. A 5th person is a guest star in More. - KDA More Lore This 1 might be a bit outdated but, it's still a good extra video, as you have already watched the MMO video. - Story of League of Legends Explained Arcane So in 2021 Corona came out, which meant no live show in a stadium, so Riot mixed Arcane and music performance in their yearly ceremony just before the 2 final teams battle, and a world champion is crowned. It's not a spoiler but just extra scenes. Only Jinx and Vi are there though. - worlds opening ceremony 2021 Sentinels of Light I can't remember, have you watched any of those cinematics? If not here are all in 1 bundle. - League of Legends Sentinels of Light Full Story (all cinematics)

[@thomasbobo9967]

HELL YEAH! Always love your Arcane-ish reactions

[@kevinmalone7167]

I would be down with either K/DA or Bridging the Rift. I'm personally not interested in voice lines, only because they are usually out of context. The best way to do them would be to go to the LoL wiki. At least there they have what the voice line is referring to.

[@AeForAesthetics]

if you're still interested in Arcane, there's a documentary series on KZbin called "Arcane: Bridging the Rift." It's 5 parts behind the scenes that tell nearly every aspect of how they make the show. worth checking out

[@chaedi8457]

I'd probably want to be from Ionia or Ixtal. Both are beautiful lands filled with magic.

[@autumnlinsinbigler9385]

I know I am a little late to this, but with how much you like Evelyn you should for sure check out Villian - K/DA

[@NemosNotes]

Definitely do more KDA and also do Villian by Evelyn. It's so good! And Akali is in another group called True Damage and their song is Giants, includes Echo and Yasuo too!

[@therren9981]

@ 8:10 He is called Cassidy now. I think I remember the Overwatch staff saying that his former moniker was just that, a moniker/title, and his real last name is Cassidy (Cass for short)?

[@TukaihaHithlec]

Having never played it, I heard that he was named after an employee, but that employee was removed for some serious offences, so they changed the character’s name.

[@therren9981]

@@TukaihaHithlec yup, one of the people that "left the company" during the S.H. allegations a few years ago. I don't remember if Blizzard directly implicated the employee, but the name got changed so it was at least pseudo-confirmed

[@AgonizingDemise]

I'd love to live in Bilgewater. Never a day without adventure XD. The characters look very different because these are skins and are part of their own universe. Sometimes skins can look VERY different from the original character but they will always keep features like weapons or cloaks (or tails) that make them more recognisable. Btw. K/DA is a reference to k/d/a (kills/deaths/assists), which are pretty important in the actual game. Obviously you'd want as many kills and assists as possible and as little as possible deaths.

[@babette5918]

If you have watched "Bridging the rift" then you heard a bit of this song during that.

[@poortrainer1128]

Riot is releasing a game based on Sylas within the year (2023) that would definitely be worth checking out! I believe there is already a trailer released for it.

[@Shythalia]

SPEAKING OF SYLAS, THERE'S GOING TO BE A GAME ABOUT HIM!!! IT'S CALLED THE MAGESEEKER!! THERE ARE 2 TRAILERS OUT RIGHT NOW AND WILL BE RELEASED SOON! :D Edit: Ekko will also get his own game called Convergence.

[@defiantsnow6055]

As far as your question on favorite character, Evelynn is one of my fav to play, one of my top fav in lore, and fav of K/DA.

[@lexajewel]

veggie reacting to kpop!!! i guess i shouldn't be too surprised since it's league related 😅

[@colt1903]

There's another group called True Damage. Echo is in it. Echo? Ekko?? I never remember how to spell his name.

[@xXTheRedrubyXx]

Ekko

[@derekmarshman6154]

Whatever you decide to do, I'm down for it! KDA rocks, but I will admit that I really want to see you react to Tales of Runeterra.

[@happypepper9326]

Tales of Runeterra. They are short and canon.

[@MansonShelly]

you need to check KDA Evelynn video. (girl here with glasses and claws)

[@ThatOneGremlinCreature]

Indeed, that is Kaisa

[@keyronkathrynekathrynkeyron]

Dont ever compare skin line story in the core universe This kda chick is just a normal people story like ours... But in core universe yes kaisa is like insect body... But kda lore and core lore story is different 🥰🥰🥰🥰 but well all kaisa story line for me is muwahhh she is my queen 🥰🥰🥰🥰

[@mierin802]

You think Darius is funnier than DRAAAVEN? XD. This is going to make me go through your other vids to figure out where you got this idea.

[@VeggieGamer]

Oh snap!! Sorry, Mierin, I must have misspoke! I meant DRAVEN seems like a bit of a comedy character, DEFINITELY not Darius (going on the one video I have seen with him in). I hope you see this reply before going through my other videos. And if you don't - I hope you enjoy them all the same! XD

[@rodri3.d]

👁............................ . . . . . . . . . .. . . .

[@defiantsnow6055]

Oh and I forgot to ask you to do all of K/DA, or at least do Villain.

[@barrymoreblue]

Do them all! Lol

[@rodri3.d]

👁................. . . . . .. . . . . . . .

[@TukaihaHithlec]

Curious why you thought K/DA was not pronounced K D A ? Don’t know why anyone said Lux is the face of League. Katarina was at launch, Jinx is arguably the most recognized, but I’d say Ahri is the face now. Nothing against Lux, I like the character and think she’d be a perfect addition to Arcane, but I only ever saw her face plastered on Warriors.

[@VeggieGamer]

Hi Tukaiha! Thanks so much for all the comments!! As I remember, I got a lot of suggestions from League fans and a lot of them specified the right pronunciation (though I think I still get it wrong every now and then XD)

[@TukaihaHithlec]

@@VeggieGamer Hey, did you delete my comment about an autistic character I thought you might like? Why is my comment gone?

[@VeggieGamer]

@@TukaihaHithlec Hi Tukaiha! I haven't deleted any of your comments. Did it contain a link? That can often get it auto-deleted.

[@TukaihaHithlec]

@@VeggieGamer It did not. I just wanted to recommend a show I thought you might like because of the titular character, Violet Evergarden. She and the show share certain similarities to Powder and Arcane, which I know you liked, so it sounded like you might enjoy it.

[@xheralt]

OMFG 14m of blather before getting to the actual subject?

[@VeggieGamer]

Hi Gary! Sorry about that, I really waffle on in these videos! There should be a link pinned in the comments for those who want to skip right to the reaction! My bad!