Arcane - Season 1 - TV Review

My work on rewriting Fear the Walking Dead's fourth season has kept me talking about a lot of media that has appeared near the end of this year. Inside Job, Squid Game, The Eternals, My Little Pony: A New Generation, Invincible, and Centaurworld season 2. To name a few. That's not including the stuff I was not able to watch. I fear, with my dedication to create an proper story for The Walking Dead's sister show, I'll be unable to upload on a regular weekly basis. That might be okay though, since I feel that my creative writing energies were starting to drain with all this work and I wasn't able to create full effort pieces. To start 2022 though I absolutely must talk about Netflix's newest hit show that rocked the world at the end of last year. It is a show with outstanding visuals, complex and well written stories and characters, great music, and a creative process that might change the entire TV show industry. I'm talking about Arcane.

Arcane is a prequel series to the Riot Game's multiplayer online battle arena, League of Legends, utilizing characters and story arcs that the game has only hinted at to crafted a detail story of some characters' rise to glory. In this first season we explore the city of Piltover and its undercity. In the pristine top side we explore the story of Jayce (Kevin Alejandro), a brilliant, young inventor who discover how to create "magic" through science. He, along with several other characters, grow closer or further apart as he rises to power while trying to keep the peace with his fellow politicians and people of science. Meanwhile, in the undercity of Zaun, the sisters Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Powder (Mia Sinclair Jenness) survive together. But soon they are torn apart by tragedy and Powder grows up into the infamous Jinx (Ella Purnell), a mentally unstable firearms and explosives genius with a unending hunger for destruction and terrorism. Vi soon learns of this and becomes dedicated to helping Jinx return to the sweet sister of Powder. These characters, along with others, soon begin to interweave with one another in a tale of politics, trauma, loss, and identity.

I have never played League of Legends. I know barely anything about it other than it can have an extremely toxic community and that Riot Games, the developers of League of Legends, have had multiple controversies in recent years. So why makes a TV series based on this property? Well apparently the lore for League of Legends is incredibly complex and interesting, with tons of unique characters, plot lines, and conflicts. After watching Arcane I've started diving into the many cinematics for the characters and their stories and I became more fascinated with the tales of LoL. I'm still never going to play the game because I'm more of casual gamer who prefers coop than PvP, but Arcane, through it's nine +40 minute episodes, has captured my heart in many ways. You don't need to have played League of Legends to understand and enjoy Arcane.

So where do I even begin with Arcane? There are so many positive traits in Arcane it's hard to decide where to start. So let's first begin with something different: The style of release. As stated before, there are nine episodes over 40 minutes long in this first season, which in terms of animation is very new. Invincible did do that this year, but other than that this idea of "hour long" animated shows is very new. But Arcane does something even more different: Instead of releasing an episode a week, they released three episodes a week. With over 40 minutes per episode, having three to watch every week equates to an entire movie per week. This fits perfectly with the storytelling of the show, having three acts for the characters and plot to develop and solidify. The first act revolves around our main characters when they're younger, with Vi and Powder being just children/ teens. Act two is when our characters are grown up and when they begin to connect with one another. Then act three is when all these conflicts come to a head and it gets crazy!

It gets so crazy because of the excellent writing of Arcane because it was a lot better than what many of us expected it to be. While League of Legends is apparently focused on adventure, glory, and fantasy (AKA The usual fantasy tropes), Arcane is more focused on developing the characters and story into something more relatable and grounded. Yes, there is a ton of incredible, chair-gripping action, along with amazing moments of magic and technology, but it is the clear the people behind the show wanted to really flesh out the characters and world of Runterra. These are not just tropes, but fully fleshed out ideas and people we can really get behind. There is no pure good or pure evil, just a whole lot of grey on the spectrum. The politics of Piltover and the undercity are complex, with no pure right or wrong, but very light and dark greys. Characters are continually put in situations where there is no immediate answer, they think about the repercussions to themselves and the others around them. Even some of the nastier people in Arcane are characters with some qualities to them that the audience can understand. Not fully accept, but understand. I'll get into it later, but the main villain of the show I watched like a hawk, thinking they would eventually turn into a stereotypical villain who just wants money and/ or power. But boy was I wrong!

I need to talk about a small spoiler real quick to really emphasize the writing for the show. After episode three, Vi goes missing for a period of time. When she returns to the undercity and beats up the villain's "right hand" person they come back to their boss and tell them that Vi is back. The villain then says, "She's back from the dead?!" Normally, in any other show, the bad guy would just say, "She's back?!" But here we learn that he thought she was dead. This isn't just, "Oh no, this thorn in my side is back," it's more, "Oh no, this thorn in my side is back and I told her sister, who is loyal to me, that Vi abandoned her. If she finds out that her sister is back she's going to be very, very angry with me because she'll think I've been lying to her this whole time." A few extra words and it changes the whole meaning of that moment!

Alright let's really get into the characters now starting with Jayce, the character in this show having to make the most number of difficult decisions. A charming genius with some recklessness in him and revolutionary ideas in technology, he is often put in situations about whether making decisions that have immediate benefits or long-term benefits and it's hard. So often he has to temper his choices for what is best for the whole city, making decisions that might be unpopular like not immediately unveiling new ideas that could bring more harm than good if not tested more. This doesn't deteriorate his character, but builds him up more, polishing him to be better and better like the machines he works with. While he's clearly thinking with his heart for the best of the city, his rise to fame affects his relationships with people close to him and his lack of experience does harm.

Meanwhile, down in the undercity, there is Vi. This here is what people have been asking for finally coming true: A complex female character not defined by her gender or beauty that's able to kick ass while having noticeable flaws that flesh them out into a believable person with goals and struggles. Trained in boxing, we see her muscles continually put to work beating the shit out of anybody that stands between her and her sister. Yet as the show progresses we see her get the same type of punishment back at times, really see her just beaten to a pulp at times. Men and women should be treated equally on the battlefield and Arcane clearly shows that. Vi is a character many people can look up to regardless of gender because her character, as well as her sister, isn't defined by her gender.

Along with Vi there is her sister Powder/ Jinx. She is probably one of the most well-known characters from League of Legends due to her personality, skills, and her official music video, Get Jinxed (which has over 110 million views on Youtube). But instead of the basic Harley Quinn like gun-nut from the game, Arcane presents Jinx as a tragic character with damaged psyche desiring a place in the universe. Bad luck always follows her and her decisions to try and do right seem to always end in failure and pain for others around her. Despite eventually becoming a incredibly dangerous terrorist, I was always so sad for Jinx because it's like the world is against her and her only figure to count on is a crime lord obsessed with revenge upon the people in the city above.

This leads us to the main villain of the show, Silco (Jason Spisak). This is one of the best villains of recent television because at first he seems like a normal villain who wants all power and all those elements you'd expect from a silly villain. But Silco is a lot deeper than be appears. His desire to take on the Piltover is because he wants the undercity to become independent as the nation of Zaun and be free of the feeling of him and his people being abused by the system Piltover has placed on them. A bunch of rich, pompous people looking down on a city full of dirty works is something he doesn't want his fellow undercity citizens to have to endure. The methods he makes to get that though are really infamous, spreading dangerous drugs to pacify anybody against him, along with controlling the trade system that keeps the undercity stocked. More than that though, he develops as the story progresses until we truly have gotten into his mind on why he wants to accomplish his ultimate goal. By the end of the season I was really invested in Silco's story as his goal begins to conflict with some of inner thoughts on who he is doing all this for.

I could go on and on about the characters of Arcane because there is not a single weak link in them. All of them bring something to the table that enhances and grows the story of Piltover and Zaun. There is so much diversity in characters, people of all walks of life coming together in different ways in this incredibly intricate and compelling story. Our "heroes" can be deeply irrational, cruel, and overly violent while the "villains" can appear to be selfless, kind, and ready to offer a hand to people in need. There is no pure good or evil, just a fantastic blend of grey mixed with character motivation. That to me is perfection! I just cannot find the words to full describe how much in awe I was over Arcane's characters and storytelling.

Another massive positive of Arcane is the tone of the show. The show is expertly set with a tone that is serious in just the right ways. It's a dark show, but not too dark and has moments where we call get to breath and relax every now and them. Now don't take this next part wrong, but this show is excellent at showing children in distressed. The first act of this season, as mentioned before, has some of our characters as young teens and the show doesn't shy away from having them face danger and be utterly wrecked physically and emotionally. So many shows with kids and teens as main characters never really show them struggling that much. Or at least nothing really gritty. Arcane throws those safety rules out the window into a fire though, these kids have the world against them and it shows. Yet the tone, while dark at times, never goes into grotesque levels of suffering. It all just matches the tone the show has set.

Okay, time for the big moment to talk about: The animation. It would be a crime to not talk about the animation and art style of Arcane. Fortiche went above and beyond with the animations in the show, taking their work from previous League of Legends media such as their music videos (I love the KDA POP/STARS one) and cinematics and refining it down into a true artstyle. Everything looks hand-painted, like a living painting. A majority of the show is 2D, with all the backgrounds, special effects, and props being 2D, all of which look fantastic. But even the 3D art of the show looks incredible with the characters looking spectacular! They can express so much emotion and movement, feeling amazingly alive! Now that can be said about a lot of animation of late, but here it seems to be beyond what we expect because even some of the slightest changes in expressions could change entirely what a character is trying to convey. Also, the action can get intense. There are a lot of fights and moments of action throughout the show, from escape to fighting groups of pumped up enemies. So many of the blows and impacts have power to them where we, the audience, can see the weight of the strikes really deal damage. This is especially with Vi as her boxer origins get her into a lot of melee fights. Blood, broken bones, knocked-out teeth, plenty of stab wounds, and explosions are prevalent throughout the battles in this first season.

I only have one problem with Arcane. Just one. It's a small problem and I feel it might be more personal for me, but it's one I feel might affect the next season of the show. Piltover and its citizens are not developed much or touched upon. The undercity is much more looked at and fleshed out than it's overcity cousin. We get to know all about the undercity and its people, culture, troubles, food, and relationships. But most of our experience with Piltover is with the government and high council, we never get to know the average Piltover citizen except for a few seconds during a fair. But that's it. There is going to be a massive conflict between these two cities and we only really know one of them. Are the people of Piltover snobby like most of the council? Are they ignorant or aware of the troubles of the undercity? What do most of them do for a living? Are the Piltover enforcers any trouble? There's just no development of a huge portion of Arcane's shown world. Maybe the common people of Piltover aren't important right now, but they definitely will be in the next season.

Arcane is a new classic. It is a masterpiece of animation, storytelling, character, and tone. It took six years for this first season to be made. Six. Years. In a period of time in which technology races ahead us and keeps accelerating, six years is basically forever for us. Six years ago, Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out in theaters. Insane. But this perfection could only have happened with time, patience, and understanding what you're making. And for that, despite never feeling so hyped for another season of a show in all my life, I would like Riot Games and Fortiche to once again take their time in making the next season of Arcane. At least three years. Maybe two? I'm just so excited for more Arcane! It is up there with top tier work like Avatar the Last Airbender and Breaking Bad. I know I haven't gone too in depth with the story and plot, but it's just so impressive and engaging I couldn't spoil it for you guys. You just have to see it for yourselves. It will not disappoint you. Arcane is, like a source material, the stuff of legends.

Tentative Score: 10/10

So with Arcane showing it's possible to make an epic TV show based on video games, Valve needs to finally stop sitting on their asses and fucking make that Team Fortress 2 show we were promised years ago for Adult Swim. Get on with it guys, do something other than milking Steam for all its worth! This success could also open up other video game TV shows. The Last of Us and Halo are getting their own shows in the near future, but those are live action, not animated.

Also, if the show is going to go beyond Piltover and Zaun/ the undercity, there are two characters that I want to see more fleshed out: Braun and Fiddlesticks. I'm not a major League of Legends players, but these two are the most fascinating characters I've learned of since watching Arcane. The first is the living definition of gentle giant, somebody who is unbelievably strong while also being incredibly kind to even the nastiest person. The latter though is the living definition of fear, only able to say the last words of its victims or the deepest fears of anybody it means. Both of them also have very memorable voices, especially Fiddlesticks, who always speaks with a voice that seems out of breath, but also full of terrifying emotion. It also has an insane body to it and I'd love to see how it's animated.