I really enjoyed the show as a whole, and it is one of the most visually stinking shows around. Buttttt…season 2 had a lot of issues. Short list:
spoiler
I think they had a real issue with the “We should work together to beat this bigger enemy” when they did not resolve the existing class disparity issue. To me, Echo had the best storyline, but the others were lacking/unexamined. Vi working for Piltover could have been a cool season unto itself, but it was just “Watch us gas Zaun to find Jinx.” Ending with a single person from Zaun on the council and calling it good is the most naive “Let’s all just get along” shit I have seen in a long time. Piltover was never swayed away from fascism, so is Zaun just part of it now?
Overall it felt like some cool ideas they decided not to explore or did not have time to, and it just came out as “We can work inside the system to fix it” which literally never works.
Neoliberal art cannot answer these questions. Arcane is great and at times even better than great but it is a platform to advertise League of Legends. They can’t properly resolve Piltover/Zaun for the same reason newscasters can’t say out loud “Luigi Mangione is based as shit”. That fundamental truth about our society is like yellow cake uranium broken up into fine powder and lying on the ground to the media and artists working on corporate IP.
For the same reason I was struck in season 1 by how amazingly well done the characters are and how it doesn’t matter because like the protagonists of a Marvel movies, their character arcs bend inexorably toward them becoming video game superheroes. As if caught zipping around a black hole at the speed of light as they dance toward the event horizon, there is no path that leads to peace for any of them because their characters have to be in position to become League of Legends champions who battle it out in toxic gamer Valhalla forever.
Arcane is so much better than Riot Games deserves and its because its a Riot Games property that held it back from saying the things it clearly was thinking about (Jace and Victor, Piltover should be fucking dissolved, Caitlyn should necessarily do jail time). I hope Arcane inspires people to always be critically examining their favorite stories for the untold stories still inside them because that’s what made the show great for me. But it was only as earnest as it could be given the circumstances.
For the same reason I was struck in season 1 by how amazingly well done the characters are and how it doesn’t matter because like the protagonists of a Marvel movies, their character arcs bend inexorably toward them becoming video game superheroes
That right there is a huge part of why season 2 felt lacking. It felt much more like fan service without any real character development
I really enjoyed the show as a whole, and it is one of the most visually stinking shows around. Buttttt…season 2 had a lot of issues. Short list:
spoiler
I think they had a real issue with the “We should work together to beat this bigger enemy” when they did not resolve the existing class disparity issue. To me, Echo had the best storyline, but the others were lacking/unexamined. Vi working for Piltover could have been a cool season unto itself, but it was just “Watch us gas Zaun to find Jinx.” Ending with a single person from Zaun on the council and calling it good is the most naive “Let’s all just get along” shit I have seen in a long time. Piltover was never swayed away from fascism, so is Zaun just part of it now?
Overall it felt like some cool ideas they decided not to explore or did not have time to, and it just came out as “We can work inside the system to fix it” which literally never works.
Neoliberal art cannot answer these questions. Arcane is great and at times even better than great but it is a platform to advertise League of Legends. They can’t properly resolve Piltover/Zaun for the same reason newscasters can’t say out loud “Luigi Mangione is based as shit”. That fundamental truth about our society is like yellow cake uranium broken up into fine powder and lying on the ground to the media and artists working on corporate IP.
For the same reason I was struck in season 1 by how amazingly well done the characters are and how it doesn’t matter because like the protagonists of a Marvel movies, their character arcs bend inexorably toward them becoming video game superheroes. As if caught zipping around a black hole at the speed of light as they dance toward the event horizon, there is no path that leads to peace for any of them because their characters have to be in position to become League of Legends champions who battle it out in toxic gamer Valhalla forever.
Arcane is so much better than Riot Games deserves and its because its a Riot Games property that held it back from saying the things it clearly was thinking about (Jace and Victor, Piltover should be fucking dissolved, Caitlyn should necessarily do jail time). I hope Arcane inspires people to always be critically examining their favorite stories for the untold stories still inside them because that’s what made the show great for me. But it was only as earnest as it could be given the circumstances.
That right there is a huge part of why season 2 felt lacking. It felt much more like fan service without any real character development