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Notes -
So I finally ended up watching Arcane after seeing many glowing reviews. I kept putting it off because "League of Legends spinoff" didn't sound particularly appealing on a cursory-level inspection, and the fact that Imagine Dragons was used for the opening credits track turned me off even further. And some of the talk surrounding this show made me worry quite a bit about it being woke.
I'm glad to say, though, that it's really good. I spent most of Act 1 smugly thinking I had the show pinned down, only to have my expectations brutally upended in Episode 3. And this is a rare example of subversion of expectations done properly, where everything is subtly set up and foreshadowed beforehand, and as a result it doesn't feel like a massive "fuck you, eat shit" to the audience. Watching Powder's lovable-underdog-that-proves-herself character arc be excruciatingly turned upside down in Act 1 felt less like having the rug unceremoniously pulled from underneath me and more like watching a trainwreck in slow motion - I had suspicions of where the writers might bring it once she came up with her plan to help her family, but didn't think they would take it to such a dark place.
As for the characters, they're well done and subtly written, and very morally gray. Many of the characters are pursuing their own aims derived from their own sense of "greater good", and are often willing to throw away some principles in the service of their vision (some, more than others). It doesn't particularly seem to push a specific moral viewpoint on the viewer, too - the characters' motivations for doing things are very simply and impartially presented, and whether their actions are justified or not is left up to the audience to decide. Speaking of subversion done properly, there's a character (Silco) who's introduced early on in Act 1 as the clear villain of the show, who has a fucking pet Dunkleosteus and regurgitates lines about how "power comes to those who will do anything to get it". The show drip-feeds you his motivations and slowly reveals his humanity over the next two acts, and it's finessed so well that it doesn't feel cheap, it feels earned. I ended up thinking some characters were utterly irredeemable, but still came away immensely sympathising with them and their perspective anyway.
The animation and voice acting is also incredibly effective in bringing the characters to life. Everything from Powder's breakdowns and Jinx's psychotic episodes to Vi's increasingly desperate attempts to appeal to her sister are just so well conveyed. Admittedly there is a slight bit of a Tumblr aesthetic to some of the character designs, but it is a League of Legends spinoff so I can't really fault them too much on this.
I do have some critiques. Firstly, while this is clearly a matter of personal aesthetic preference I still contend that the usage of music in the show leaves much to be desired. As nitpicky as this sounds, this might be my biggest issue with the show - music plays a huge role in setting tone. While the ambient soundtrack works very well, the actual songs featured in the show utilise a lot of very trendy and overproduced pop vocal performances (which I have no love for). They don't sound as if they fit into the world of the show well, and they really broke me out of my immersion sometimes. Probably the most egregiously awful usage of music in the show is an absolutely laughable scene with an Imagine Dragons cameo which I really think should've been cut. There are a few exceptions, for example the song "Our Love" is used in the end of Episode 2 to great effect, and despite being made for the show it's such a nice pastiche of '70s motown that if it weren't for the crystal clear production and sound quality you could definitely trick me into thinking it was of that time. It's a good song in and of itself too, I just wish I could say the same for most of the other songs utilised in the show.
There's also a bit of an issue with the season being a bit frontloaded, in the sense that you get surprised in the first act and a lot of the rest of the season is seeing the characters trying to deal with the downstream consequences of the events of Act 1. The rest of the season is fantastic as well, don't get me wrong, and the season finale delivers a particularly effective piece of writing, but I never got a gut punch nearly as strong as what was delivered in the first three episodes.
Regardless of these criticisms, though, Arcane is a very strong showing of writing and characterisation, and I'm definitely in for a Season 2.
Sounds like you would have liked it less if you actually knew League a little - everyone knows Jinx as a crazy murderhobo, so there was no subversion since you would expect some traumatic event to create her.
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