By Candice Tran
Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers.
Arcane is a show imagined around League of Legends characters, following the story of two sisters: Vi and Powder. After complicated circumstances, they have both grown apart into very different people and finally meet again in adulthood. Now, they fight for their causes on opposing sides: the rich and wealthy Piltover and the struggling dumps of the Undercity.
With much anticipation, exactly three years later, the second and final season came out with Act I (of III) with the first three episodes after a nine-episode season one of Arcane was initially released in November 2021.
Episode 1: Heavy Is the Crown
The first season ended after Jinx launched a huge rocket towards the Topside council meeting, so the first episode began showing the damage of the attack and the death of three Council members including Caitlyn Kiramman’s mother. Jayce also desperately tries to save a dying Viktor, leaving him to the mercy of the Hexcore.
As Piltover tries to recover from this huge loss in a memorial, the Undercity attacks again, but luckily, Ambessa Medarda and her men come to the rescue and subdue all threats.
In this episode, Caitlyn and Vi’s relationship is really put to the test, and I enjoyed seeing them work through it together although they were both having a hard time.
I also really liked how the show demonstrated how these acts of conflict have affected Jayce’s and Vi’s perspectives. Before, Jayce was against using Hextech for violence, while Vi refused to join the Enforcers because they killed her parents. By the end of the episode, Vi was wearing an Enforcer badge, and Jayce supplied the crew with Hextech weapons. It shows how hardships cause people to go back on their ideals, which is really realistic.
Episode 2: Watch It All Burn
Jinx’s monologue opens the second episode. We see how Silco’s death has affected her, and the Chem-barons, who struggle for power and control.
In this episode, we finally see some companionship between Sevika and Jinx, who bumped heads often in the first season. The two relate to each other with the responsibilities left to them after Silco’s death. It made me relieved to see the two have each other amidst all the conflict because I feel like no matter what any character is going through, they should have someone on their side.
Viktor finally wakes up but thinks he doesn’t deserve to be alive. Ekko and Heimerdinger notice a strange occurrence with their tree and bump into Jayce, trying to find answers. This unlikely trio tries to make sense of the Hexcore.
Caitlyn and her crew track down Jinx and attempt to catch her, but they fail. As Jinx is running away, she is attacked by a Chem-baron, but then saved by Sevika. Viktor shows healing capabilities to citizens of the Undercity.
This episode was packed with so many things happening at once and uncovered so many new ideas and facts. I can’t wait to see how it all unravels in the episodes to come.
Episode 3: Finally Got the Name Right
Some serious information is given to us in this episode. There is obvious tension between the guild merchant Amara and Ambessa Medarda. Ambessa reveals that her son’s death was somehow tied to Amara. After a bit of fighting, Ambessa kills Amara.
A couple of other interesting scenes were sprinkled in: Caitlyn and Vi kissed for the first time; Jayce, Ekko and Heimerdinger saw a Wild Rune for the first time; and Mel was caught in this black thorny substance. All of this is accompanied by a duel between Vi and Jinx. The fight became further complicated as the Hextech weapons became uncontrollable.
What I thought was interesting was at the end of the fight, Jinx yells out “No, this isn’t how it’s supposed to…” and Vi and Caitlyn are blasted out of the cave, while Piltover gets bombarded with explosions of paint. I was confused because it seemed like Jinx wasn’t just a coldhearted girl.
Piltover realizes a change in leadership needs to be made, so Ambessa nominates Caitlyn to lead the charge into the Undercity. The pounding of fists on chests really added to the tension at the end of the episode.
What surprised me was that the show revealed that Ambessa was behind the attack during the memorial. She orchestrated the whole ordeal, leaving us unaware of her loyalties and intentions.
Final thoughts
First of all, I loved that “Enemy” was reused for the intro for each episode because it really brings back that air of nostalgia from season one. The animation was still spot on. Sometimes shows change their art styles between seasons, but Arcane remained consistent and I appreciated that.
This article will be updated with Acts II and III once they are released.
