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The music’s one f the best parts!

Meh, I could do with 100% less Imagine Dragons myself.

After finishing it, I'm very hyped for the second season.

The art was amazing. The story was compelling, with plenty of well written characters.

I also like the 3 episodes per week release. Especially the first 3 are like a small self-contained story with a brutal ending. It didn't work quite as well with episodes 4-6, but it gave me enough to watch on a weekend without stretching the content too far with the 1 episode/week releases on Amazon and Disney+ which I hate. A single episode doesn't have to be that good in itself, but if it's the only one I can watch for a whole week? Best example here would be episode 4, which was rather bland for background reasons, but worked well enough when immediately followed by 5 and 6.

 LunarSol wrote:
Meh, I could do with 100% less Imagine Dragons myself.

I mean, there's just the one song by ID. Literally the same amount as Sting songs.

Yes, it's the OP, but still

 Albertorius wrote:

 LunarSol wrote:
Meh, I could do with 100% less Imagine Dragons myself.

I mean, there's just the one song by ID. Literally the same amount as Sting songs.

Yes, it's the OP, but still

They also perform it "live" mid episode to salt the wound.

You will likely not find anything by Riot that doesn't have Imagine Dragons involved in it. They are very in to LoL.

 Dreadwinter wrote:
You will likely not find anything by Riot that doesn't have Imagine Dragons involved in it. They are very in to LoL.

Well, there's K/DA and most of the other music videos.

...I mostly don't know anything else about LoL.

Just finished the last episode and well, damn, but wasn’t that the tour de force?!

The animation is spectacular, the visual design is stunning and gorgeous, great music and a great cast and brilliant, nuanced writing. Every character felt real, with motivations, strengths and weaknesses.

That is one of the best TV shows I think I’ve ever seen, certainly the best animated show and I think we finally have proof that you can make a great computer game spin-off.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and thanks for Albertorius for pointing this out; I would really have missed out.

You're very welcome, I'm happy you liked it

It's been good few years since I got that invested into a show. The visuals were absolutely stunning, the plot was great, and the last ep of the season was just...yeah.

My only issue was with the occasional songs during the show that were as subtle as a brick to the head with setting the mood.

As someone already put it:

"The Arcane writers and artists clearly believe that subtext and subtlety are for cowards"

Oh, I was pleasantly surprised with Silco's treatment through the show, it would've been so easy to just keep him as 2D as what first 2 eps suggested.

Cronch wrote:
Oh, I was pleasantly surprised with Silco's treatment through the show, it would've been so easy to just keep him as 2D as what first 2 eps suggested.

I loved what they did with him, yes. The scene with Vander's statue was fantastic.

But to me he never felt two dimensional, really... the way he completely froze up for a second on EP 3 when Vander throated him felt too much like trauma flashback for that.

3rd ep is when he really got enough spotlight to move him from "disposable villain/prop" into "fleshed out character" category for me, and every ep i was worried they'll do something and slip him back into cliches. I'm really impressed how they managed to keep all the main chars from that despite how easy it'd be.

 Albertorius wrote:

 Dreadwinter wrote:
You will likely not find anything by Riot that doesn't have Imagine Dragons involved in it. They are very in to LoL.

Well, there's K/DA and most of the other music videos.

...I mostly don't know anything else about LoL.

They have a Pro League they run every year with a World Championship. World is divided up in to regions. LEC would be the European region. Spain puts out some really good players. I know it was, don't know if it still is, the largest e-sport. World Championship is like a month long event that travels between cities in the selected region, they used to do a lot of interviews of the players and the casters would do background stories on the players. China just regained the crown, Europe and Korea are pissed. NA is farting in their own bath water.

There are comics and light novels on their website for lore/lore events that occur in the game. There are a LOT of them. I think most champs have at least something and there are over 150 champions now. There is a World Map where you can see where Piltover/Zaun sits in the world. There are other major regions, other characters represent them.

Vibrant, fluid, well composed and choreographed, the animation is the high point of the series. The thoughtful blending of multiple technical approaches, the craft, the care - it was a joy to watch, and the primary reason I'll be watching future seasons.

The art direction was more of a mixed bag, with some very interesting uses of colour and composition, but the design of the world felt like a rehash of old ideas, likely because it is in fact an adaptation of old ideas we've all seen many, many times. Not really the show's fault, but people who compared it to Dishonored's excellent art direction were pretty off base.

The writing is fit for purpose, and I mean that as a compliment. They knew their target audience and they wrote for them. That I found much of the script compressed, the characters uninteresting and the core themes underdeveloped simply means I'm not in the target. Some of the issues I have do feel like they stem from writing for Chinese approval boards, but that might be an overtly cynical take on my part.

Really, the only thing I truly disliked was the music. I suppose all the money went into animation, so they had to root around in the bargain bin for the score, because both the original music and track choice were some of the blandest pulp I've heard in a while. There were also multiple times the score felt tonally off.

Overall, if you enjoy animation as an art form, you should absolutely watch Arcane. If that's not something you care about, it will be an okay time waster, provided you can tolerate the young adult writing.

I mean... I watched this at the same time I was watching Foundation, and the writing is levels above than that one ^^. I feel like saying that it's OK if "you can tolerate the young adult writing" is doing it a disservice, all in all, particularly compared with most other stuff made from videogames or boardgames.

Then again, I have multiple problems with Foundation >_>

 Albertorius wrote:
I feel like saying that it's OK if "you can tolerate the young adult writing" is doing it a disservice, all in all, particularly compared with most other stuff made from videogames or boardgames.

I don't think calling the writing for what it is can ever qualify as a disservice. Trying to sell the show as something it isn't would.

I did watch Arcane right after going through Midnight Mass, a show full of excellent writing that appealed to my sensibilities, so I suppose we just sit on the opposite sides of the looking glass.

 His Master's Voice wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:
I feel like saying that it's OK if "you can tolerate the young adult writing" is doing it a disservice, all in all, particularly compared with most other stuff made from videogames or boardgames.

I don't think calling the writing for what it is can ever qualify as a disservice. Trying to sell the show as something it isn't would.

I did watch Arcane right after going through Midnight Mass, a show full of excellent writing that appealed to my sensibilities, so I suppose we just sit on the opposite sides of the looking glass.

Dunno man, it doesn't really feel very much young adult, or I don't know what you mean by that. Then again, according to wikipedia the YA themes are:

"Many young adult novels feature coming-of-age stories. These feature adolescents beginning to transform into adults, working through personal problems, and learning to take responsibility for their actions. YA serves many literary purposes. It provides a pleasurable reading experience for young people, emphasizing real-life experiences and problems in easier-to-grasp ways, and depicts societal functions.

An analysis of YA novels between 1980 and 2000 found seventeen expansive literary themes. The most common of these were friendship, getting into trouble, romantic and sexual interest, and family life. Other common thematic elements revolve around the coming-of-age nature of the texts. This includes narratives about self-identity, life and death, and individuality"

So... I... guess? That's so broad as to be almost unusable, other than "focusing in teens to young adult characters", which, yeah, I guess other than Silco and Vander they all are. Well, and the little science guy xD.

But yeah, it seems we're coming from opposite sides there, as I haven't watched Midnight Mass (not very much into "horror" stories) and Foundation being... a horrid mess that seems to have either missed completely the points of the novels or disregarded them as unimportant, with a single decent story which is the one they invented almost wholesale >_>.

Perhaps it would be more fair to say that Arcane is a YA story, but veers away from many of the tropes found in the genre.

I know there are many adult that won't care for it just because it's not live action. Some goes for if it's a YA story, no matter how far they try and avoid the old stereotypes.

Surprisingly excellent all around.

I never played LoL, know barely anything about it (never even played a MOBA game), but first Mechs vs Minions and now this show... I mean, Riot's track record, outside of LoL, is excellent so far, as far as I'm concerned.

Thumbs up.

This surprised me.

I haven't played LoL in years, but back when I did I thought that game had some pretty good lore and many of the characters had great and intriguing backstories. When I was playing then, the relationship between Vi and Jinx was just something that was subtly hinted but never confirmed, even though it was basically written on the wall. I'm not shocked they picked these two characters for a first in series. There's a lot of others who could make for great TV, but Vi and Jinx are maybe the least cliche of the lot and the easiest to get across to an audience unfamiliar with the game. It's really cool seeing the story play out and play out so well.

The animation definitely deserves credit too. I'm not usually a fan of CGI. I can tolerate it, but often it feels cheap and lazy. Here though they turn it into such a distinct style that it really feels like art rather than a mere cost-cutting measure.

You can always tell when people love their work. It shows in the final product and the people making this series really love their work.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
Perhaps it would be more fair to say that Arcane is a YA story, but veers away from many of the tropes found in the genre.

I know there are many adult that won't care for it just because it's not live action. Some goes for if it's a YA story, no matter how far they try and avoid the old stereotypes.

I feel like a lot of the time, calling something YA is just another way of saying it's about people under the age of 30 who have problems other than paying bills and isn't actually much of a criticism

I do agree though that the story avoids many of the cliches typical of similar tales thus far. I've finished the first four episodes and it's been sticking to the part where the story is strongest; Vi and Jinx and how they became the characters in the game. So far, watching Powder's descent into a madwoman and how hard Vi tries only to fail is exactly the tragic story the game had suggested since the characters released.

As someone who knew nothing about the game but really enjoyed the show, it's cool to read your post LordofHats.

Apparently this is one of the few animation projects given an ample budget and time to work (upwards of 6 years I saw mentioned) and it really shows in the final product.

Hoping my boy Amumu gets his own origin story show on Netflix. There is a LOT of stuff they could do in Shurima.

A series focused on the war between Noxus and Ionia would be a good series. That story is pretty good and it would involve some very popular and interesting characters; Riven, Yasuo, Irelia, and LeBlanc among them.

The main characters could be Riven and Yasuo, who when I was playing were both on par with Jinx, Vi, and Caitlyn in terms of fandom popularity, and their stories would better lead into the conflict between Noxus and Demacia which is a bit too cliche'd to be a lead, but could do well if the investment of setting it up is done right.

Noxus would bring us Draven and Darius, also Swain, who I assume the lady from Noxus was talking about when she said they messed with somebody too strong.

Demacia would bring us Garen, Lux, and Jarvan. As well as a crazy slew of characters.

Big dick move imo is going with Bilgewater. Crazy amount of fun to be had there with Miss Fortune, Twisted Fate, Graves, Fizz.

 Dreadwinter wrote:
Noxus would bring us Draven and Darius, also Swain, who I assume the lady from Noxus was talking about when she said they messed with somebody too strong.

I'm guessing Mel's mom is part of LeBlanc's cabal, which would make sense with her talk of installing Mel as a puppet queen, and would fit Swain being the "we screwed with the wrong person" canonically, given he had said cabal executed (including LeBlanc).

Big dick move imo is going with Bilgewater. Crazy amount of fun to be had there with Miss Fortune, Twisted Fate, Graves, Fizz.

They've basically covered this already with Ruined King, although the champion choice is definitely not all Bilgewater natives (Yasuo and Braum being in there, along with MF, Illaoi, and Pyke).

I agree with that. Since the Swain rewrite, he was always hinted as the big bad in Noxus now. Even more so than Mordekaiser who is once again aligned with Noxus? idk, his lore changes too much to be reliable. Did LeBlanc actually get executed? I assume it would just be a double, since she is hinted at being wildly more powerful in the Lore than in the game. But I never read any of the newer lore stories on the site.

They kind of covered the story of TF and Graves at one point, also Miss Fortune and Gangplank. I think they could do a better job than the events with this format though.

Riot changes the lore of League of Legends with some frequency to be fair.

In the time I'd played, Sivir's backstory was rewritten twice and Warwick's was rewritten like three times? It got changed, changed back, and then changed again. They broke Soraka's origin story in the process not sure if they ever fixed that. I have no idea what it looks like now. Usually it's mostly just the tent poles and most popular characters who remain consistent.

EDIT: Another story that would be very good I think is the tragedy of Leona and Diana. When I played, they were a bit like Jinx and Vi except the story seemed to imply that they were lovers who got torn apart and pitted against one another by powers beyond their control. I'd watch some of that drama especially if they handled it like they did Jinx and Vi.

I'm pretty sure it is now canon they were lovers.