‘Arcane’ capitvates audiences: Rushed plot, great visuals | Arts & Entertainment

This review contains spoilers for season 2 of “Arcane.”
As a video game adaptation, it’s groundbreaking. The amount of lore the creators added from the game makes it a satisfying, cohesive story. For “League of Legends” fans who have had the “lore” of the game changed countless times, it’s greatly appreciated to have only one storyline to follow.
It is impossible to write a review on “Arcane” without mentioning the breathtaking animation style. Every detail in this show is immensely beautiful. One highlight for me was the dance scene between Echo and Powder in the alternate reality. The significance of four seconds was important to the plot and choosing to animate it with one frame per four seconds shows the amount of attention to detail that went into this show.
The soundtrack for this show is unmatched. I would go as far as to say that it is the best TV show soundtrack I’ve ever heard. The absolutely gut-wrenching lyrics in some songs, while others are upbeat dance music, adds to the show in such a beautiful way. “Arcane” wouldn’t be the same without it.
“Arcane” has a unique way of telling stories, albeit quite confusing at times. We know there are time skips within the show, but it has a way of not telling us when there is one or explaining later how long the time skip was. This made it hard to follow at times and I don’t believe it would take you out of the story to have an opening shot with the words, “Five years later.” This being said, there are a lot of parallels from season one to two, my favorite being Viktor saying, “There is always a choice,” compared to later in the show after his evolution saying, “Choice is false, it is how we clothe and forgive the baser instincts that spur us to division.” It was a moment proving that Viktor lost himself in pursuit of knowledge.
I would never argue that a show needs to have a happy ending for it to be successful, however, there were so many aspects of the show that we viewers never got closure for. Overall, the pacing felt rushed. While some fans might argue that we don’t truly know what happened to Jinx, whether she escaped the fall with the abilities she got from Shimmer, or if she actually sacrificed herself for the greater good. There is also speculation about whether Jayce and Viktor died during the light hug scene. We know that the arcane has the power to send people to a different universe (though it is never truly explained why) the only semblance of closure we got is Jayce’s mom dropping in a slip of paper for those lost in the war (same as Echo did for Jinx), but neither would have the knowledge to know if they were truly dead.
While “Arcane” has its flaws, it’s undeniable that it is a good show. As a fan, I wish that they gave it more time. In season two, the story was rushed and could’ve done with an additional season, exceeding all expectations and producing a higher quality show. At the end of the day, it’s the studio’s fault for canceling it.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of The Torch.
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