When I started Arcane this summer, I instantly regretted not starting it sooner. The writing was genuinely some of the best I have ever seen in a series, and with amazing visuals to boot. Arcane for me truly felt like Breaking Bad but for neurodivergent art kids who spend too much time on social media (No, I'm not projecting, why would you ask that?)
One upside of watching Arcane so late was that Season 2 was right around the corner! I could watch the final season of Arcane with the first season still fresh in my mind, unlike the other suckers who waited 3 whole years to watch it. So I locked in, dodged leaks like Ekko dodged Jinx's bullets in the bridge scene, and waited for season 2.
The first act was pretty great, introducing the aftermath of Jinx's actions in the Season 1 finale and how they affected the different factions of characters. I also enjoyed Act 2, but like others, I wondered how the hell they were gonna resolve all those subplots they just introduced. But I was fully immersed in the hype, and prepared to glaze this series like how Maddie was glazing Cait in episode 4 (still mad about that by the way).
I ignored all the concerns I saw from other fans about the pacing. They would sort it out, right? Arcane's writing was so amazing that they could never mess up such great set-ups, right?
Oh boy, was I wrong.
I want to preface by saying I still love Arcane as a series and still think it's amazing. But with the exception of episode 7 (which I'll get to later), I felt that Act 3 of Season 2 was narratively weak.
For starters, I do think some of the problems are caused by the short episode count. Arcane Season 2 only has 9 ~40-minute episodes, and the series as a whole only has 18. I think most fans can agree that this is not nearly enough to actually resolve all the subplots in a cohesive way. From what I've seen from interviews, the writers were never expecting Arcane to blow up the way it did, and they might never have planned for this when they first signed their deal. Living up to the hype would be a Herculean task. Considering that Christian Linke and Alex Yee are first-time showrunners, it is honestly incredible that Arcane Season 1 was as beautifully written as it was, and I give them mad props.
However, I think a limit on the subplots would have helped an already difficult situation. It feels like Season 2 introduces so many subplots that it cannot resolve the new ones in a satisfying way, and it leaves some of the old subplots in the dust. The most egregious example of this is the Black Rose subplot, a subplot that is not explored with any depth and takes time away from the subplots introduced in season 1 (Jinx/Cait/Vi, Jayce/Viktor etc). I love Mel and Ambessa as much as any gal (I support Black women's rights and wrongs), but it really just felt like a setup for a Noxus spinoff. That's not bad in itself, but as someone who refuses to touch League of Legends with a ten-foot pole, I wasn't invested in that. And it makes me a bit sad that the writing of Arcane was sacrificed for later spin-offs. Nothing wrong with spin-offs, but the story should be able to stand on its own.
Another problem was that the characters didn't get room to breathe this season. In Season 1, the characters were driving the plot, but in Season 2, it felt more like the plot was driving the characters. This is especially seen with Jinx, who it felt the writers didn't know what to do with after she pulled a Luigi on the Piltover Council. She goes from going full Jinx in the Season 1 finale, to being depressed, to finding Isha and denying Jinx, to being suicidal, to fighting against Noxus. All of these parts were well written individually, but when put together don't make the most cohesive arc. She only has a single scene where she acknowledges her new identity as a revolutionary. This should have been pretty important as Jinx could have had a new purpose using her destructive potential to fight for Zaun. Her relationship with Isha was great, but in Act 3 her loss is barely acknowledged, and Isha is not even mentioned by name at this point. The scene where Ekko stops her from killing herself is great, but the next time we see her she's suddenly ready to fight against Noxus? Like I'm sorry, but I've never gotten a makeover that magically cured my suicidality. However, as I discovered after doing further research, the creators have stated they had to cut like an hour out of the finale, and most of it was Ekko and Jinx scenes, which would have provided more context. WE WERE ROBBED!
Speaking of Ekko and Jinx, character writing was the reason Episode 7 is a fan favourite. Even though it seems distant from the high-stakes plot, it actually gives the alternate universe characters time to breathe. We get to see all these characters in the alternate universe interact, and there's not much action but we come to care about them. In the rest of the season, side characters are introduced but barely given time to shine (RIP Loris, whoever you were). We care about alternate universe Powder and get invested in her doomed hetero romance with OG universe Ekko. Even in Jayce's more hellish scenes, we get to see him develop in those harsh conditions. Ekko learns to appreciate the potential of the Undercity and Jinx, and Jayce learns what it is to struggle and becomes a stronger man for it.
In the rest of the show, while it feels like there are lots of good set-ups for character development, it feels like it often doesn't follow through. For example, Act 1 had a good set-up for Cait to lean into authoritarianism and to show how vulnerable people can get sucked in by fascist ideologies. Still, it feels like the show backtracks on this, afraid to make the characters do things that would be too morally grey in fear of alienating people. In Act 3, she only gives a passing acknowledgement of how gassing Zaunites and subjecting them to martial law is bad. And then suddenly all is forgiven? I'm not saying Cait needed to have a full redemption arc, but the show should have at least given the time to acknowledge the consequences of her actions. Vi is also a victim of this, as she's low-key kinda the series punching bag. We only get one montage of her being emo and not much insight into how she's feeling. It feels like the only time she gets to assert much agency this season is when she has sesbian lex with Cait in a jail cell (good for her though). They barely have a scene together where they really talk about their feelings in Act 3 at all. She doesn't even get the choice of letting Jinx go as that choice is made for her too! She honestly feels like a side character, even though she had a lot more focus in Season 1.
Other times, the development of characters is skipped over, as seen with Jinx, and with Viktor's progression from an altruist to a weird mechanical cult leader. If it were up to me, I would have just scrapped his alliance with Ambessa and would have focused on him trying to help Zaunites in the wrong way through his “GLORIOUS EVOLUTION”, as that feels much more in character. It would also show how different characters have different ways of trying to fix Zaun, not all of which are constructive.
But my main critique of Arcane Season 2 is how it almost completely abandoned the premise of the first Season. The Arcane I was introduced to was a gritty steampunk world that focused heavily on class struggle and its effects on individuals as they grow up. Yes, the arcane and HexTech were always a part, but they were used to show the greater class and political dynamics of the world, as well as the relationships between characters. Viktor and Jayce's opinions on the usage of HexTech were driven by the differences in their upbringings; whether to use HexTech to help the people or to use it for weaponry. Ambessa is invested in HexTech because she wants to war profiteer and use it to defeat the Black Rose, in turn protecting Mel, her last living child. Jinx using HexTech to blow the council up could be considered her using the tools of the oppressor against them as a form of rebellion. After all, the terrible upbringing that radicalized her was the result of Piltover's oppression of Zaun in the first place.
But in Season 2, the stakes were heightened to the point that these characters went from fighting enforcers to fighting god in 9 episodes! Season 1 felt like a greek tragedy, whereas Season 2 didn't feel like it had the same amount of thematic weight to it. While some parts of the arcane subplot were done well, a lot of it felt very Marvel-esque and overwhelming, especially with the robots in episodes 8 and 9. It was very different from the intimate and more grounded vibe that Season 1 gave off.
The Piltover vs Zaun subplot is completely dropped. The whole Caitlyn dictator arc? The arc of Jinx having to choose whether to lead Zaun to freedom? Viktor Trying to help the Undercity? No time, because Noxus is on that colonizer grindset. This culminates in Jayce trying to recruit the Zaunites to help against Noxus. Pardon my French, but if I were a Zaunite there'd be no way in HELL I'd help Piltover fight against Noxus when they were the ones that let Noxus make them their bitch in the first place. Piltover fucked around and found out. At first, it seemed Sevika agreed with me--until she returned in episode 9 to fight anyway. Do we know why? Nope, she had no lines in the ENTIRETY of Act 3. In the end, instead of Zaun getting independence for all they've done (they should have gotten it for Ekko's contribution alone), Sevika gets to be the new council's DEI hire. I'm sure THAT will fix all the class issues! (#JusticeforSevika)
The problem is most fans didn't come to Arcane for high-stakes magic shenanigans. Most got into the series because of the grounded depictions of nuanced characters, the political drama/class dynamics, and the beautiful setting of Piltover and Zaun. I'd argue that the first ⅔ of season 2 tried to achieve this, but most of these elements were all but abandoned in Act 3. Maybe if they'd had an extra season to transition to these higher stakes, it could have worked. But as a fan, the switch felt jarring.
All in all, there were still a lot of things I liked about Act 3. Timebomb was a surprise, but a welcome one. I genuinely did love Jayce and Viktor's reconciliation and thought it was beautiful (and it lowkey made me ship them too--like come on, in ALL timelines and ALL possibilities?) The fight between Mel, Ambessa and Cait was amazing. I loved seeing Maddie shoot herself in the head. Ekko in general as a character was really well done throughout. The visuals were stunning and the music was great (I legit started practicing French again after listening to Ma Meillure Amie). So while Arcane didn't quite stick the landing as well as I'd hoped, I'm still immensely grateful that I got to watch such an amazing series. The worst of Arcane is still better than most shows out there, and I do want to see the showrunners improve with other installments.
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