Au Influenced By Backrooms

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More Posts from E-thil101 and Others

e-thil101

5 years ago

Bakugou uwu

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my art my hero academia fanart anime doodlies ditigal art bakogou

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e-thil101

10 months ago

I am electing to pass away, it was nice knowing you all

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e-thil101

5 months ago

So, Arcane season 2 is a wrap. I'm gonna jump straight into review mode because I have Thoughts and need to get them off my chest.

I first want to make it clear that I have immense admiration for the show's creators and everything they have accomplished. They made a true masterpiece with season 1 - arguably the greatest animated series ever made, and one of the greatest pieces of fiction of our time. Having to follow up on it would have been a tall order in the best of circumstances. Even the most talented artists in the world can't usually churn out banger after banger. But then you add the fact that they only had one season to pay off everything season 1 had set up... and I'm sorry, I know the showrunners said it was their choice to end it at 2 seasons but I just don't believe it. There was no adequate way to resolve all the conflicts set up in season 1, complete all the character arcs, answer all the questions, within just one season, and they must have known it. So either they didn't give a damn and just called it quits like the GoT bros (clearly not the case here - these are deeply passionate artists, not mediocre hacks) or Riot Games forced their hands. My money is on the latter. And to be extra conspiratorial, I wouldn't be surprised if Riot also mandated some bits and pieces of character arcs for the purpose of merchandising. Given that despite its popularity, Arcane actually was a huge money pit, it's no surprise they're trying to recoup their losses somehow. The real problem, in our world much like in Piltover, is capitalism.

Anyway, all this was to say that I do not blame Christian Linke, Amanda Overton, or Studio Fortiche in the slightest. They were put in a no-win scenario and still managed to deliver a stunningly beautiful show with a lot of deeply compelling aspects to it. If season 1 had been of similar quality, I still probably would have enjoyed the whole show just fine. But enough sugarcoating it. Regardless of whose fault it is, this season just didn't live up to its predecessor, and at its worst points comes off as disappointingly mid. Mild vibe spoilers after this point (though I'm going to avoid describing plot points to focus on critical analysis).

Now, it still has a lot of stand-out moments. All the extended animation sequences are gorgeous (starting to run out of synonyms to describe the visual elements of this show but what else can you expect with Arcane) and work really well at conveying an emotional message in a deeply intuitive way. A lot of character moments hit me right in the feels (I teared up at the flashbacks in episodes 5 and 6 and I'm sure I will again when I rewatch it). I've gushing over these moments throughout my previous episode recaps and I still think they worked really well. Unfortunately, these moments don't really... add up. The whole is less than the sum of its parts. One of the things that set season 1 apart to me is how every plot thread connected to each other, not just mechanically but thematically. Even two characters who never interacted still felt like they were in a conversation with each other, because their actions implicitly commented on the other's in some way. This sense is, unfortunately, largely lost in season 2. Characters make major decisions that impact each other's lives in dramatic ways (like say, Jayce in episode 6) but that doesn't really mean anything beyond its role in the plot. Sure, their motivations still makes sense (I never got a sense that a character did something just to move the plot forward) but they were often surface-level or underdeveloped.

The pacing didn't help, of course. That's the most obvious issue with this season I've seen many people bring up, and the most predictable one given the time constraint, but I don't think it was necessarily the main problem. Arcane has always been fast-paced, and I was willing to accept that we were going to be hit with a lot of very fast developments over the course of the series. For example, I really liked Caitlyn's character arc in act 1. Does it feel a bit jarring for her to change so radically in such a short time? Sure, but I'm happy to roll with it because the idea is interesting and because I can buy it as a logical progression for her character. But then it just kinda... fizzles out in act 2 and is all but forgotten in act 3. It ends up feeling inconsequential. And you could say the same for a lot of key moments throughout the season. The sense of cause and effect, so tragically overpowering throughout season 1, was completely lost here.

The final episode is unfortunately the one that suffers most. God forbid me for saying this, but there were moments where it felt like a Marvel movie (one of the better ones, to be fair, but still). A show as serious about the roots of social conflict deserved better than an Epic Final Battle as its climax. Especially when that battle is with a late-arrival antagonist who's external to the main conflict, and is used as an excuse to paper over the divide between Piltover and Zaun. It really feels like halfway through the season this went from the core of the show to an afterthought. It's really baffling. And once again it's frustrating because Zaun getting a seat at the Council (ideally it wouldn't be just one seat of course, and the Council should be replaced with an elected body, but whatever) in the form of Sevika was a really cool idea! With the right buildup it would have been really satisfying. But alas.

So yeah, in summary, I get the sense that with the constraints they were working under, the authors could realistically have done justice to one out of three story elements: 1. Spectacle 2. Characters or 3. Themes. In the end, because they're masters of their craft, they went all in on 1, and even still ended up doing a decent job with 2. Themes unfortunately went out the window. This is a perfectly valid choice - and indeed, given that the most revolutionary aspect of Arcane is its art style, it was probably the "right" choice as far as the show's legacy goes. But it's not the choice I would wanted them to make, and I have to admit it hurts a bit. Oh well. We'll always have season 1 no matter what.

I'm gonna give it a 7/10, where season 1 was an easy 10 (or rather is completely outside the scale because it wasn't really built for masterpieces of that caliber). I'd still recommend everyone who loved season 1 to watch it and can appreciate the beautiful closure we got with most of the characters. Just don't get your hopes up too much as far as its overall cohesiveness.

Okay, before I end, I have to discuss something that is both a major spoiler and involves a serious content warning. So read on only if you've seen episode 9 AND are comfortable reading discussion of the stuff that happens in it.

So. Let's talk about Jinx' fate. That one hurt a bit, not gonna lie.

I don't have a problem with killing off major characters, even the protagonist if need be, but if you're going to do it, you really have to get it right. This death, unfortunately, gets it pretty badly wrong. First off, the fact that Jinx attempts suicide from the start of the episode creates some pretty Unfortunate Implications. If you're gonna make a character struggle with suicidal thoughts, I feel like you have to commit to it: either let them live and learn to love life again; or kill them and portray it as the unmitigated tragedy it is. This does neither and instead feels like the showrunners (or, more likely, the corporate suits at Riot) trying to have their cake and eat it too. The fact that Vi conveniently ends up in a situation where Jinx can die to rescue her (and it was kind of Vi's fault too! so good job heaping a little more trauma on that poor girl's shoulders), and that otherwise the day is saved and Jinx ends up as an unfortunate but unavoidable casualty, really feels like a cop-out. She gets to die like she wanted to, but now she has a good reason for it, and we can't be too sad because she saved the day. Oh, and it makes Isha's sacrifice in act 2 kinda funny in retrospect, like Jinx went "cool, my turn now!". Again, the frustrating thing is that I like all these elements in isolation! Jinx being suicidal, and Jinx sacrificing herself for Vi, are both great ideas in their own right, but you can't have both without undermining both.

Anyway, although this was an ill-advised choice, I know it wasn't a malicious one. I really did like the final scene of Vi and Caitlyn and I'm glad we actually got a happy ending for them. I do like how they resolved Jayce and Viktor's conflict, though, even though the rest of the arc fell pretty flat for me this season. As I've already said, there's a lot to like here. I'm just forever going to ponder what could have been (and maybe channel that into my own writing? perchance).

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e-thil101

5 years ago