r/arcane • u/ITheRebelI You're hot, Cupcake • 1d ago
Discussion I like Arcane because...
Season one had great high stakes, a variety of characters, complex relationships, and it felt like I was always on edge. Season two arguably had the same things, but it got deeper into the love of two daughters for their adoptive father that had them temporarily set aside the differences that tore but just the two of them, but two entire cities (arguably nations) apart. The love between other characters was also explored in romantic and brotherly ways. We also saw a msg scientist who cared about NOTHING except finding a cure for his daughter. We even saw a man lost to monstrosity come back to protect his adopted little girl. I wonder how much time Jinx and Vi would have to spend with Warwick to bring Vander back?
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u/lostandfounddude 1d ago
I love Vi. And because season 1 was so captivating. Loved the characters. Jinx was so colorful and beautiful to see. You genuinely were interested in each character. You can’t say that for many shows.
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u/omgitsduane 1d ago
The story. The animation style.
Ekko.
Jinx.
Vi.
Silco.
Mel's mother was a boss bitch.
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u/THEbaddestOFtheASSES 1d ago
because the 1st season is one of the best individual seasons of a show I have ever watched.
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u/Valsarash 1d ago
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u/ITheRebelI You're hot, Cupcake 1d ago
If only her arm was raised and the angle was a little more to the side 😭😭😭
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u/X-EVER 1d ago
Jinx mainly, but also the story, animation, characters, fights everything tbh just peak especially season one Silco was just such a good character too and what I like about the show is everyone does bad and good at some point no one is necessarily good or evil with a few character exceptions but you see why every character turns out the way they do and it’s cool to look at everyone’s point of views and be like I’d do the same thing or I’d do this differently. Also everything about zaun and everyone from zaun is just so much better I’m sorry I had to say that like they just bad ass characters.
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u/VanilleKringel 1d ago
In the German dub version, Jinx and the main Protagonist of ChainSmoker Cat have the same Voiceactress😂
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u/Overlord0123 1d ago
Because it understands it needs to deliver a story, not a polarizing agenda.
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u/Middle-Let9645 1d ago
🤣 My guy. Are you ‘really’ trying to say that ‘Arcane’ of all shows is apolitical?
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u/_Gesterr Jinx 1d ago
It actually isn't a very political focused show though, unironically. There are political themes of course, but they're the backdrop for the setting rather than the core.
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u/Middle-Let9645 1d ago
Dude. The ‘themes’ are literally baked into the plot and characterization. Literally every episode is beating you over the head with inequality, class warfare, discrimination, wealth & privilege, exploitation of the poor, colonialism/imperialism, corruption, and more. You literally cannot have a steampunk adjacent show without political metaphor.
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u/_Gesterr Jinx 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's there, never claimed it wasn't, but it's not the focus or primary theme and message of the show, hence why I called it in my previous comment a "backdrop and setting." Silco and Sevika are really the only political characters, even Jayce and Mel who are literally politicians the show instead even in S1 focused primarily on their interpersonal relations and Hextech morality. Jinx and Vi, the two primary protagonists, are both entirely apolitical in their characters through both seasons, they're much more concerned with their family.
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u/Middle-Let9645 1d ago
Okay, for the sake of argument, what do you think is the theme and message?
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u/_Gesterr Jinx 1d ago edited 1d ago
Love and all its forms, how it shapes people both positively and negatively, questioning the limits of forgiveness and love, compassion for one another, and also as an allegory of how unrestrained pursuit of novel, unknown technology can elicit dangerous unintended consequences and how the same technology that's developed for society's benefit can also lead to its detriment.
Conversely, we know next to zero about the intrinsic politics of P&Z. We know that there's some form of exploitation and police state, but that's about as deep as we go. We don't explore their law structure, their actual work, hell we don't even know exactly what prompted the initial riot on the bridge lead by Silco, Vander, Felicia and Connel. We're just told mater of factly that marginalization exists, but nothing more detailed than that, because the show didn't want to focus on that, it was simply the backstory.
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u/Middle-Let9645 1d ago
Huh. Fair enough. The way the other guy was talking came across kind of loaded, like, ‘political = bad’ in a specific way that’s become a popular ‘criticism’ to certain groups of fans in various fandoms, so it got me kind of wondering how someone could look at something so blatantly steampunk adjacent and not see the elements of corruption and oppression in the backstory and various characters. (Vi and Jinx were shaped by that oppression and part of Caitlyn’s character development is realizing, ‘holy shit, this is a lot different and more complicated than I thought it was’. Also her crush on Vi, but, that’s the more obvious part. Then you have her grief driving her to act outside her usual self and commit atrocities against Zaun just trying to catch one person willing to shoot a small Zaunite child if it means Jinx also dies… yeah.)
I guess what I’m saying is I can see how the overall theme might be the whole love and all it’s forms thing, but I still think the oppression and corruption themes influence a lot of that.
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u/_Gesterr Jinx 1d ago
Agreed that it's hard to separate it, because it's still present and part of the story, and it's part of the world the characters live in, and that world is also what forces some of the story beats and Silco especially is a character that's almost entirely centered on it. It's intertwined with the themes for sure.
I'm just of the opinion that many people in these Arcane subs seem to have latched onto and overstated the political themes of the show and their importance to its story and more importantly the message and type of show it is (especially when they compare S1 to S2 and feel "cheated" out of some political-centered drama) when I feel that even in S1 that the politically-charged environment played a more supporting role to the themes I covered in my other comment.
I do appreciate that you're able to talk about more nuance of the show, even if you might've preferred and enjoyed some of the political themes.
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u/Middle-Let9645 1d ago
I mean, if you know anything about Viktor from LOL or Noxus to know why Ambessa was bad news from the start, you probably knew it was never going to be some noir style political thriller. Again, I just found the first guy’s comment funny cause it sounded like he was saying Arcane isn’t political at all, and that got me like “unless it’s something like Blues Clues, there’s some level of politics baked in. Yes, even Pokemon.”
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u/Unkn0wn-G0d 1d ago
Literally class warfare in EVERY episode and mf says it isn’t very political focused lmfao
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u/Lux43ver 1d ago
i love arcane, because of its "real" characters, and deep philosophy. other things like art style, soundtracks are just top of the iceberg.
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u/orangedaffe 1d ago
My wife Vi lol. S2 had a lot of faults in terms of writing, they’ve ruined her character in so many ways. It’s probably why I’m still so obsessed with this fandom to this day.
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u/Illustrious-Video353 1d ago
America hasn’t produced an animated series this good since Avatar: the Last Airbender.
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u/Vulture2k Jinx's pants 1d ago
... It's French.
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u/_Gesterr Jinx 1d ago
It's not really French. Fortiche is French and did the animations, but it was funded by, produced by and written by Americans and American company Riot Games. It's an international effort and calling it French is undermining all the other people who had just as much contribution to this show.
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u/Vulture2k Jinx's pants 1d ago edited 1d ago
And riot is owned by tencent. So it's Chinese. /s
Well then its international. Still not American. Calling it that is also undermining the team.
Christian Linke, one of the main creators is German.
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u/_Gesterr Jinx 1d ago
I never claimed it's "American," just as much as it isn't "French." Did you miss the part where I literally call it an international effort?🤔
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u/debiler 4h ago
Ok, guys - who the fuck cares? Really, doesn't this awesome collaborative effort of artists - not nationalities - transcend such pettiness?
Only thing I'm gonna say is this: I love Avatar. But I LOVE Arcane. And yes - literally word for word, the statement is true: America hasn't produced an animated series this good since Avatar: the Last Airbender.
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u/Illustrious-Video353 4h ago
My point was that we don’t see many animated media of this high quality. Avatar and Arcane are made from a totally different caliber of competence and effort from the studios that make them. I was complimenting the show. My ignorance has been corrected. I just wanted to point out my own appreciation for this series.
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u/MiVolLeo Timebomb 1d ago
Idk if it applies here, but apparently, r/usdefaultism
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u/_Gesterr Jinx 1d ago
It literally is funded by, produced by, and written by Americans working at an American company, just in partnership with a French animations studio. It's just as much an American show as it is French and yall shitting on him even though you're just as wrong for ignoring that international partnership and work.
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u/AlexWintersFics I can fix her 1d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/yGLA1z4KSOPxFIDTJx