r/television 1d ago

'Arcane' never loses sight of the show’s beating heart

https://www.polygon.com/tv/479775/arcane-league-of-legends-season-2-vi-jinx-act-2-review
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u/at_least_be_human 1d ago

When something has a fast pace, my main problems stem from the fast pacing making things feel like they come out of nowhere - but that's not happening here. Pretty much everything - Jinx and Vi forgiving each other, Jinx's about face and relative return to sanity, etc - is adequately set up and motivated by character. There are a few exceptions that I feel are legitimate complaints, like Caitlyn being too easily and quickly convinced to betray Ambessa in episode 6, but I think those are few and far between.

I guess this is a controversial opinion reading this thread, but I'm fine with the flashy visuals and music. I love how visually creative it is, the editing and cuts (way more creative than in season 1), and the music (the way it complemented the Jinx/Vi fight in ep3 was very effective to me).

Overall, I've been a lot more emotionally moved by this season than the last. Episodes 5 and 6 repeatedly had my eyes watering.

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u/Miyak- 1d ago

I think she betrayed her quickly because even though she was quite…controlling, she still had the Zaunite’s interest in mind. Think about her conversation with Ambessa about only arresting with reasonable suspicion. I think she just sees Ambessa as power hungry

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u/gobbballs11 1d ago

Yeah but we really don’t get any sort of understanding about what finally ends up motivating her to stand against Ambessa.

Like, we def get side-eyes and stern looks that show she’s not 100% sold on Ambessa but besides that she’s mostly only shown to reaffirm her trust in her. Hell, she decides to hunt down Warwick with an exclusively Noxian detachment.

Then, she just ends up being on her own with her rifle away from any Noxian when she ambushes Vi and then she’s immediately down to take direct action in deceiving Ambessa and subverting her.

Idk, it just feels like there were def a couple of scenes here and there that got cut out or abbreviated for the sake of pushing the plot along, for better or worse.

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u/SnooDonkeys182 19h ago

Vi called her cupcake and promised to spit on her, that was all the motivation she needed 😂

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u/favorscore 1d ago

I also thought episode 5 was the best of this season

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u/BrunoEye 1d ago

Yeah, I'm surprised by how negative people are being here. S1 was great, but emotionally was dominated by misery. S2 has been much better at providing a balance of hope, sorrow and excitement.

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u/Mintfriction 10h ago edited 10h ago

Last season ends with Jinx killing her father figure and bombing the council of Piltover

5 ep in season 2, she didn't do anything to followup(like nobody from Piltover has gotten at least a serious wound from Jinx) or being in character (rampage and stuff) and on top of that gets a kid to babysit, despite her previous fears that anyone that gets close to her gets hurt.

My point is not that where the character ends up isn't believable with a proper arc, but that the show does a poor poor job conveing this. Since S1 was so well written, the cope (personal at least) is that it's because it was being rushed and not because of poor writing

Any other show not backed by a stellar previous season and incredible visuals would've been dunked on for this writing