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Arcane

Nerroth

Nerroth

Commodore
Commodore
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Arcane is a nine-part series on Netflix, based on the world and characters of Riot Games' League of Legends franchise. The voice cast includes Hawkeye's Hailee Steinfeld, Star Trek: Prodigy's Ella Purnell, and Lucifer's Kevin Alejandro.

Six episodes have been posted to this point: any thoughts on how this series is shaping up thus far?

For my part, I wasn't familiar with the games or setting before watching this, but there's enough there for me to wonder if/when they might expand upon the world of Runeterra in further animated offerings. (Plus, given how popular they are, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually took a side-step into whichever alternate universe allowed them to focus a story on K/DA...)
 
So far this show has been a masterpiece on animated storytelling. Solid vocal performances all around, strong art style, character animation that's more emotive than even most theatrical animated projects, surprisingly grounded and brutally gritty given the quasi-high fantasy/steampunk setting, yet it never wallows in that aspect, instead remaining vibrant and energetic thorough.

Full disclosure: I've never played League of Legends (tried DOTA once and quickly decided MOBAs aren't my thing) so I went into this totally blind, which honestly feels like the best way to go. There's a major twist in the first few episodes that I feel like any existing fan would have seen coming a mile off, given that this appears to be a prequel for a handful of the established characters.
 
All nine episodes of season 1 are now available.

In addition, it was announced that season 2 is in development:

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Also, I wonder how many vaguely blue-ish "champions" with
serious parenting issues and unauthorized access to dangerously experimental technologies
Ella Purnell can voice before the word "typecast" gets bandied around...
 
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I haven't been on here for a while so I don't know if this should be a thread I don't respond to since of how much time has passed since the last message. Sorry in advance to any mods. I'm responding to it because there's no other discussion about the subject so far.

I just gotta say I absolutely loved Arcane. I wish more people saw it. I don't I had any problems with it but I should probably rewatch to see.

Anyway, the animation was perfect. Story writing, music, voice acting, the characters were all great. The attention to detail and art style was amazing. The world building was great too. It'd be cool for them to expand on it more. I can't wait for season 2.

My favorite character was Vander and Ekko. I wish I could have adopted Powder/Jinx, the poor girl. My favorite song is Our Love and the Ekko and Jinx fight was my favorite fight scene.

I didn't have any prior knowledge to League really except playing it once and then got bored. I was playing a gun slinging pirate, don't remember her name. Oh, and randomly reading some lore 5 years ago before immediately forgeting it.

I looked at a lore comparison video after I watched the series and even read a lot of info about the characters in arcane to get a better sense of it all. So far, I like it a lot (meaning arcane and related lore) and I hope they do more stuff like this in the future besides for season 2. I don't know what the next series would be though if they did.
 
The pirate character you might be thinking of could be Miss Fortune. She's one of the playable Champions in the Riot Forge-published spinoff game Ruined King:

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There are certainly plenty of other places on Runeterra Prime they could turn to if they wanted to broaden the focus of Arcane beyond Piltover and Zaun.

That said, perhaps a second show could take an Into the Spider-Verse approach towards some of League of Legends' alternate realities, such as this one:

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In the longer run, however, I'm hoping that Riot Games might reach the point where they also give the Arcane treatment to their newer VALORANT IP:

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I know the message says I should create a new threads but with it being the final season I'm not sure if that's necessary.

Season 2 started on Netflix today. I watched season 1 the week before season 2 of Star Trek Prodigy came out and im excited for this final season. I read it was a creator decision and not a Netflix decision so we will get an ending to this particular story. I've never played League of Legends but I really did love the world building of the first season.
 
The first two episodes were amazing. The second one was slightly weaker, but that fight between Jinx's crew (Don't remember that characters name with the arm) and Screech was one of the most badass things I've seen this year.

The first episode though was a whole different level though. One would think the premiere would be a little less as good than the finale, but they just picked up where they left off and kept that momentum going, while also revisiting the characters. The attack on the memorial scene to basically the end of the episode was edge of your seat stuff. One of my favorite new songs this year was Linkin's Park's "Heavy is the Crown" and I guess this is where that song came from. The use of it here (And the use of music in general) is so cool, and the modified version of HITC was so well done.

Looking forward to seeing episode 3 tonight, but that was a sensational start to the season. Oh, and Caitlyn at the end of the first episode is a great example of a strong female character with organic development.
 
Thanks for dusting off this thread. Damn time gap between the two seasons puts this in serious thread necromancy territory.

Watched the first three episodes released over the weekend (twice). Watching them all back-to-back-to-back gave it a very cinematic feel, like I was watching the first movie in a trilogy. Animation is AMAZING, the voice cast strong and the story jumps right into where were we last...

Can't wait for the second chapter coming this weekend!

Q2
 
I wasn't going to post in this thread if I was just going to talk to myself so I'm glad there was someone else who commented.

I'm starting to lose the plot in episode 3 of the new season. Maybe this is where I'm at a disadvantage by not knowing the LOL lore, but I feel like there is a lot being thrown at me and I don't know what to think. The stuff between Jinx and Vi and Caitlyn is really what I'm tuning in to this show for, but everything else kind of feels like a plot that's getting too much for so little time.
 
I still enjoy this show a lot in season 2: the animation is beautiful, the voice performances are often great, there's some amazing action and I cried at the end of episode 6. But the pacing so fast? I don't remember season 1 being like that. Did they have plans for a third season then have to just cram everyhing into season 2 when they decided to end it here? I have absolutely no idea what is going on with Jayce and Viktor. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention. And as compelling as the Vi/Caitlyn relationship is it feels like it's on speedrun mode too.
 
^ I certainly agree with most of your points, CaptainWacky. It does seem rushed, like they had enough material for more than a single season and decided to cram it all into season 2. As for the story confusion, there are little tidbits and single lines of dialog scattered throughout that provide clues and some clarity. I had to watch the first 6 episodes of season 2 several times to catch them all. They are subtle, but there. Anyways, I'm enjoying the shit out of this season. :techman: :techman:

Q2
 
I finished Arcane last night and I don't think there was another show that has disappointed me a lot in the last year than this one. I watched the first season in July (The week before Prodigy came out) and I thought it was great and looked forward to more. Also, I like Ella Purnell from Prodigy and wanted to see another project she was in (I think I should do a watch of Yellowjackets or whatever other show that she is known for) and I thought her portrayal of Jinx was really good. I wanted to like Season 2 but in the end I really didn't. It was too rushed, they tried to fit 3 seasons into 1 and there wasn't really a cohesive storyline. It's like each of the three parts were just three different parts and they barely related to each other. Maybe I just don't know the League of Legends lore enough to appreciate this show, but watching the last two episodes I just grew really frustrated, even to the point of being annoyed with the animation and the in your face flashing that I applauded this show for before. Also, they made a decision at the end of the finale that they didn't need to make, but I guess if you go back to episode 7 it was inevitable.
 
^ Yeah, I finished the season ( & series) over the weekend too. I know ZERO of the background lore so that probably did not work in my favor. I found the ending a rushed, confusing, muddled mess. In my opinion, they did not stick the landing.
 
I like episode 7 the best out of the final batch as it actually slowed down and told a character story. Then everything went super rushed again! There's so much stuff they could have went into in greater detail, so many character turns that needed more time. The show does great montages but it felt like it was relying on them too much to move things forward. I still like it overally but it went from what could have been a great show to "well, it was worth watching, but..."
 
CaptainWacky said:
I like episode 7 the best out of the final batch as it actually slowed down and told a character story. Then everything went super rushed again! There's so much stuff they could have went into in greater detail, so many character turns that needed more time. The show does great montages but it felt like it was relying on them too much to move things forward. I still like it overally but it went from what could have been a great show to "well, it was worth watching, but..."
Click to expand...

The writers have said that this won't be the end of this universe even though this story is done and I feel like episode 7 could have been a decent wrapping up and then jumping off point to the next show. I feel like if they had kept this show dealing with jinx and Vi and the main storyline, it might have been more satisfying. Episode 7 was my favorite episode of the final batch too.
 
To follow up on my earlier comment(s) .... After letting the final 3 episodes sit with me a week, over the weekend I watched them (the final 3) a second time. Watching them again, I enjoyed them far more the on the first viewing. As others have mentioned too, I found episode 7 to be very strong, no rushing and plenty of perfect character beats. The confusion I was left with after the first viewing was gone, I enjoyed the visuals and story far more. Since the Mrs. wasn't home, I also watched with our surround sound system on; it greatly enhanced the music and the viewing experience.

Overall:
Season 1: 9/10
Season 2: 8/10

Still recommended viewing!
 
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New: Arcane was a critical hit, but not profitable for Riot. Sources say Riot didn't have a robust strategy to recoup Arcane's $250 million cost ahead of launch. Tencent and some employees questioned what it actually added to Riot's core games business.
 
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Riot Games spent $250M to create and market both seasons of 'ARCANE', overall a financial miss Netflix paid $3M to air each episode, and Tencent paid $3M to air each episode in China Payments amounted to less than half the cost
 
That's a damn shame, because it means someone is less likely to create something like this again. But MAN, I feel enriched for having seen this amazing work of art.
 
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