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Thread: Arcane
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2021-11-22, 08:56 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Part of me wants season 2 to have some of the goofier characters like Twitch, Dr. Mundo, and Blitzcrank, but I think that's sadly unlikely
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2021-11-22, 10:24 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Arcane's critical and audience reviews are putting it on par with the all-time greats like ATLA, Breaking Bad and Chernobyl. Looks like Riot and Netflix have a winner. Not bad for a video game property
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2021-11-22, 12:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Thanks to Linklele for my new avatar!
If i had superpowers. I would go to conventions dressed as myself, and see if i got complimented on my authenticity.
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2021-11-22, 12:57 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
I loved this show, but I really don't want them to make a season 2. It can only dilute the message of trauma and war being cyclically self-enforced, starting
Spoilerwith children viewing their parents die in an open war and then ending with one of them restarting the same war.
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2021-11-22, 01:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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2021-11-22, 01:37 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Judging by the voicelines in the teaser, (Cait, Vi, Jinx) we're staying in Piltover and Zaun.
Spoiler
I love the show, and do want a season 2, but I do agree it won't be as thematically juicy.
Like, the central conflict of this season was about Powder/Jinx, and the finale pretty firmly resolves that question. I don't think they can milk another full season out of that Angst without looping the "Vi Tries to reach out to Powder. Jinx does something horrible to show she's beyond redemption" thing a few more times.
If there IS a thematical well to be explored, it would be the future of Zaun itself, as much as that's set in stone by the game lore.
like, one thing that the show is remarkably good at is declaring that the state of Zaun is very much Piltover's responsibility. Heimerdinger and Caitlin both loudly declare that Piltover has Failed the people of the Lanes.
Like, the show's repeated theme is Siblings, literal or otherwise. Silco and Vander, Vi and Power, Jayce and Viktor, and looming over it all we have Piltover and Zaun.
Jinx herself is a manifestation of Zaun, a broken system forged by repeated trauma into something dangerous and self-destructive. The question of "Can Powder be Saved" is mirrored by the question of "Can anybody help the People of the Undercity".
And so one thing they could grapple with is the idea of what do you do once this line has been crossed. The Announcement Teaser is Cait talking about how she's trying to bring in Jinx without one or both of them ending up dead, and how she needs Vi's help for that. Of course, that's just a rehash of the whole "Should Batman kill the Joker" question, but maybe they can still make that work.
More likely, the show has kind of said what it has to say about systemic problems and generational trauma, and will move into a bit more of a standard fantasy action drama realm.
Last edited by BRC; 2021-11-22 at 01:39 PM.
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2021-11-22, 03:02 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Season 2 speculation
SpoilerI'm going to have to strongly disagree that the vein of thematics they wish to mine will be lesser going forward. The sort of attack Jinx did pretty much always causes a massive spiral of misery. Let's take, as an example, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. There are similarities between both the Black Hand and Jinx as well as the Archduke and Jayce.
And the mechanisms in place in the political world drove many, many parties to make logical, bad decisions. And at the same time there were people powerless to stop it.
The Arcane drama to spiral outwards. It's going to get BAD for the common people. And I think these writers can pull it off. I can almost guarantee that that tree gets burned in episode 6-7 next series. Something terrible is going to fill the chem baron power vacuum. Cait and Vi are going to be obsessed with stopping Jinx, which is simply a white whale at this point and will help nothing.Ask me about our low price vacation plans in the Elemental Plane of Puppies and PieSpoiler
Evoker avatar by kpenguin. Evoker Pony by Dirtytabs. Grey Mouser, disciple of cupcakes by me. Any and all commiepuppies by BRC
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2021-11-22, 03:11 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Spoiler: Thematics and broken systems
One interesting thing about the theming of Arcane as regards it's Broken Systems is how it presents the root of the broken system.
Piltover and Zaun and pretty easily aligned into a classic Upper Class vs Oppressed Laborers dynamic, but we don't see any of the usual signifiers. We don't see massive factories or the oft-discussed Mines. We don't actually get much of a sense of the day to day life of your average Zaunite.
Instead, what they talk about is Pollution. The industries of Piltover poison the air in the lanes. This comes up again and again, it's why Viktor is sick, the Enforcers wear masks when walking around the lanes, Silco reminds the chem-barons of their origins by choking them with bad air.
None of the Piltover councillor's come across as the classic Evil Industrialists. They're short-sighted and greedy, sure, but we don't see any of them personally having much of a hand in the oppression of the Zaunites. Instead, everybody's crime is Willful Ignorance.
And this works very well, because, while the show makes it very clear that the root cause of everything is the broken system between Zaun and Piltover, it doesn't present us with an easy villain for that.
If the problem was "Factories where workers are not paid enough", then you can raise the worker's wages or whatever, and you have the greedy bosses who see their workers suffering and keep squeezing in the name of profit.
But, we don't have that. That sort of cruelty is almost entirely absent. Instead we just get selfishness and ignorance, and there's no easy solution. The system is broken, but the break started long ago, when the fumes first filled the Lanes, and it's not going to go away by punching some villain.
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2021-11-22, 03:27 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
SpoilerThe thing is, none of that sounds fun or like good writing. Arcane was good because it combined a lot of old personal narratives: West Side Story/Romeo and Juliet with Catherine and Vi, Hamlet with Jinx and Silco, repeated sibling conflicts which end in death, betrayal or redemption depending on the pairs. Systemic problems are only enjoyable through personal narrative devices, and most of those threaten to turn into repetitive melodrama if drawn out.
The war between Zaun and Piltover is likely going to be too large and gruesome for good tv. It just becomes massacres and bombings and mutagenic weapons.
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2021-11-22, 03:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Spoiler
There's also the question of what role do our characters play at this point?
Like, Jinx is the center of everything. For Vi, Jinx is her lost sister. For Silco, Jinx is the possibility of weaponizing Hextech. Like, a big point with Vi and Caitlyn is that they have separate missions (Vi is trying to find Powder, Caitlyn is trying to find the Gemstone) that happen to line up perfectly so well that they don't even realize they're after different things until the very end.
And so, the story of Vi trying to save her sister is very much directly tied into the ongoing story of the brewing war between the cities. If Vi Saves Powder, Silco's biggest threat is disarmed.
and this worked very well when the emotional core was about the sisters.
But if season 2 is about an open war between Piltover and Zaun... what role does Jinx play in that? She's not a fanatic, she's just loyal to Silco, and Silco's not giving any more orders. Does stopping Jinx stop the war?
Like, one option is "If Jinx is stopped, the war can be avoided", but that disarms the ending to this season, and is a bit of a rehash of this season's conflict.
I guess some thematic juices can be found in the questions of, like, what is owed to Jinx because she used to be Powder? If it's now a question of STOPPING her rather than SAVING her, do you owe her mercy, even if it makes it that much harder to stop the very real harm she's causing?
Last edited by BRC; 2021-11-22 at 03:40 PM.
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2021-11-22, 03:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
SpoilerExactly. Jinx blew up the peace, it is out of their hands now. Watching them look at piles of dead kids while continuing to look for a terrorist isn't exactly exciting. None of them can stop it now, the agency is gone.
If they time skipped to after the war I think then maybe.
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2021-11-23, 01:31 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Spoiler: Question on the subject of EkkoSo Ekko's fight with Jinx was amazing. But. Was the first bit actually happening, and he rewound time to do it again right (you know, his whole shtick)... or was it all in his head, and he was just planning/remembering until the watch stopped?
Last edited by PoeticallyPsyco; 2021-11-23 at 01:32 AM.
Originally Posted by Darths & DroidsOptimization Trophies
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2021-11-23, 01:53 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Spoiler: Regarding villainsOne thing about Arcane that did genuinely surprise me is that there's no clear hero or villain anywhere, on any side.
Silco seems like an easy candidate for a sympathetic villain at the start, and he does a lot of things you'd expect from this archetype. But he's unwilling to give up Jinx - a girl who has been nothing but trouble since he picked her up - because she is a daughter to him. And maybe it's a selfish decision, but we can't blame him for it.
The council that seems the epitome of stuck-up upper crust bureaucratic a-holes all vote for peace in the end, despite Silco's terms being ridiculous (at least in their eyes). Like Jayce says, the Undercity would stand no chance in a war, and Piltover knows this. But at this point Zaun isn't a thing; the Undercity are still Piltover's people, just ones they've failed.
Jinx, with her final act, seems the closest to a real villain... but is she really? She's very much insane, and the world she lives in is doing everything in its power to break her. She's as much a victim as anyone.
Vi is trying to save her sister and seems like the gruff and rough sort of 'hero', but she also writes off a dead kid as just one of many. She openly calls for Piltover to war with Silco directly.
Vandren is trying to be a good man, but his actions only enforce the stagnant status quo that is only making problems fester and grow worse.
SpoilerEkko doesn't appear to have his Z-drive yet (big hextech hourglass on his back) so no. It was just a trippy ass sequence. It might be a matter of planning like you suggest.Last edited by HalfTangible; 2021-11-23 at 01:53 AM.
Hate me if you want. But that's your issue to fix, not mine.
Primal ego vos, estis ex nihilo.
When Gods Go To War comes out March 8th
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2021-11-23, 08:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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2021-11-23, 02:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Villain discussion
SpoilerSilco in particular had one of the best scenes in the whole thing. It's solid and I need to go back and count the syllables in his dialog because it comes out downright Shakespearian.
And one thing interesting is that Jinx's last speech before Sting starts singing would, outside of this context, be a very mature observation. And then we go back and rewind a couple of pages in this tread and talk about the tragedy of the inevitable, and it just makes sense for her to lash out at the people who set her up to have to make a choice between killing one of her two living family members.
Meanwhile, the only reason Jayce thinks to take the truly difficult path is because he murdered a child. And this event causes the ripples and butterfly effects that result in the council being introduced to Jinx's good friend Pow PowAsk me about our low price vacation plans in the Elemental Plane of Puppies and PieSpoiler
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2021-11-23, 02:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
SpoilerI read that scene as Jinx replaying her childhood game in her head and flinching when it came to shooting Ekko at the part where he leaves himself open. He then flinches when it comes to cracking her skull open.
SpoilerHe also comes down on "I won't be Vander and sacrifice my family for my community." The ironic ending to his speech to Vander in the third episode.
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2021-11-23, 03:11 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Spoiler: On Villains
I'm curious as to which Silco speech you're referring to. He has a bunch of good ones.
Re: Jinx's Speech, so the curious thing is that Vi hasn't really changed much. She's still aggressive, angry at a world that has wronged her, and deeply protective of those she cares about. There's a pretty straightforward line between kid!Vi and Adult!Vi.
What's changed is the Context. Jinx's definition of Love is kind of...Relentless? "I thought you could love me like you used to", meaning "Despite everything about me, you would still love me and prioritize me over anything else". As much as Jinx very much molded herself/was molded into somebody that Silco would appreciate, he does love her in that absolute, unconditional way, and Jinx can't really comprehend of a form of Love that is anything less than that, because putting her trust in anything less means that she might get Hurt again.
Her standard is "I could kill our entire family, and it wouldn't change how you feel about me"
The whole Dinner Party setup is a test. Jinx is deeply paranoid about being abandoned, and so tries to push her two figures, Vi and Silco, to their absolute limit. Confirm for them every bad thing they might think about her and see if they still love her. In her view everybody has exactly one person that they care about to the absolute exclusion of all else. Caitlyn features so prominently as a threat to Jinx not only because she's a symbol of the enemy Jinx was groomed to fight, she's somebody Vi cares about. The "Change" Jinx speaks of in her final lines is literally just that Vi met somebody she liked who wasn't part of the family.
Of course, the irony here is that while Jinx doesn't quite live up to her own standards as far as Love goes. She loves both Silco and Vi, even as she suspects both of them of plotting to betray her. She shoots Silco on instinct when he threatens Vi, even if she regrets it seconds later.
Last edited by BRC; 2021-11-23 at 03:21 PM.
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2021-11-23, 04:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Spoiler
You have to give it to the scene at the statue for the comparison "There is nothing so unbecoming of a man than a daughter".
Odd bit about Vi is that she likely would have taken the same or similar actions if she didn't have any character growth she has been growing and her motivations are different. She looked after the others because she had to, because she would get yelled at for not. She lied to herself the same way Silco did about how much Powder meant to her. She wanted to save Powder from becoming Jinx out of a messed up sense of obligation mixed with it being the only thing to keep her sane.
At the end, she's trying to do things based off of moral imperative. She relapses leading to the foundry scene, then has the hate beaten out of her and then understands Vander. At the same time Silco does, leading to the tea party.
And part of why I think this story with this character focus still has places to go is that the two (three, actually. Ekko must have a big part to play) seem currently doomed to pass their traumas on to others just as Silco and Vander did to them.
But absent all this context, Jinx's last monolog is essentially Thomas Wolfe's "you can't go home again" made brief.Ask me about our low price vacation plans in the Elemental Plane of Puppies and PieSpoiler
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2021-11-23, 05:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Spoiler
Point of order, the line is "Is there anything so undoing as a daughter".
"Undoing" rather than "Unbecoming". Silco defines himself by his resolve. Vander was weak, unwilling to pay the price of Zaun's freedom from the Topsiders. Silco always thought of himself as stronger, willing to do anything to achieve his goals.
And yet, when offered the culmination of his goals in exchange for Jinx, he can't do it.
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2021-11-23, 05:37 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Hate me if you want. But that's your issue to fix, not mine.
Primal ego vos, estis ex nihilo.
When Gods Go To War comes out March 8th
Discord: HalfTangible
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2021-11-23, 09:16 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Ask me about our low price vacation plans in the Elemental Plane of Puppies and PieSpoiler
Evoker avatar by kpenguin. Evoker Pony by Dirtytabs. Grey Mouser, disciple of cupcakes by me. Any and all commiepuppies by BRC
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2021-11-24, 12:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Spoiler: weaponsYeah.
"Hey Fishbones, should we blow something up? 'You might inconvenience people and hurt their feelings.' You're the worst weapon ever!"
"Fishbones, you know what we oughta' do? 'Do the laundry, wash dishes and pay some bills.' Stupid dumb rocket launcher."
"Hey Fishbones, think we can wreak havoc forever? 'No, you should buy a home and save for retirement.' You know I can replace you, right?"
"Maybe we should settle down and live peaceful lives. 'Really? I always hoped one day you'd---' Haha, nope! You're a death machine for life!"Hate me if you want. But that's your issue to fix, not mine.
Primal ego vos, estis ex nihilo.
When Gods Go To War comes out March 8th
Discord: HalfTangible
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2021-12-20, 04:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Wait, hold up, is Arcane the first mainstream application of Chem-punk in a high-budget series?
I'm not just talking aesthetics. We're talking themes stretching from use of [thing] resulting in strong hierarchies to explorations of identity. Chem-punk generally brings themes of addiction and pacification which we see in the lanes and with Viktor.Ask me about our low price vacation plans in the Elemental Plane of Puppies and PieSpoiler
Evoker avatar by kpenguin. Evoker Pony by Dirtytabs. Grey Mouser, disciple of cupcakes by me. Any and all commiepuppies by BRC
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2021-12-20, 04:28 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Hrmm, maybe?
Like, the main "Chem" is Shimmer, which starts as your bog-standard generic Hulk Juice with a side-effect of being a Narcotic. We get the idea of "Hold on, if this Juice can turn people into The Hulk, it must have other uses", and we get more than a few instances of Shimmer being used for other purposes that don't move too far from the original. Sevika uses it as a strength booster, we get a couple of medical applications, ect.
That said, I don't think the series focuses enough on Shimmer to really qualify as far as worldbuilding elements go. Silco is a pretty standard kingpin/industrialist, and they don't really get enough into the nitty-gritty of his operation to flesh out how he uses Shimmer to control the streets.
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2021-12-20, 06:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
I've never heard of "chem-punk" before this thread so no idea. Any non-League examples?
Plague Doctor by Crimmy
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2021-12-21, 02:38 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Hate me if you want. But that's your issue to fix, not mine.
Primal ego vos, estis ex nihilo.
When Gods Go To War comes out March 8th
Discord: HalfTangible
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2022-01-04, 11:47 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane
Sort of. Play the MOBA for free in easy mode to get an idea of what's going on. Jinx was introduced a year or so after I started playing; found her a bit tricky to run as an AC-carry and preferred Corky and Siver myself. I stopped playing a few years back, and when I check back in I don't find the GUI to be familiar. I'd need to have a weekend to myself to mess around with it again before I even considered playing again. (My son played it competitively for years, but he's lost the interest to do more than dabble now).
When they changed Gangplank to use the barrels I began to dislike LoL; and as they keep introducing new alts/heroes I found the barrier to entry and interest to be a pain.
Nice summary. I wonder of Nautilis will show up during the show. I liked playing him.
Heimerdinger
Blitzcrank: Big clunky Zaunite robot with rocket extend-o arms
Dr. Mundo: The Incredible Hulk if he was purple, insane, dumb as a rock, and plays doctor with meat cleavers. Comic relief, sometimes horror.
And if they bring Temo into the series, ,
Watched the first two episodes ~ decent job (though why they didn't go back and get the bag dropped into the water puzzled me) and I'll watch other eps whenever the wife is not around.
EDIT: finally watched the whole series. Some good bits, some bad bits, overall not a bad effort.
A curious ending, with Jinx shooting the shark rather than jumping it. I wonder if season 2 will happen or not.Last edited by KorvinStarmast; 2022-01-20 at 03:12 PM.
Avatar by linklele. How Teleport Worksa. Malifice (paraphrased):
Rulings are not 'House Rules.' Rulings are a DM doing what DMs are supposed to do.
b. greenstone (paraphrased):
Agency means that they {players} control their character's actions; you control the world's reactions to the character's actions.
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2022-01-26, 07:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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Arcane anyone? (Season 1)
Hi all!!
I'm not a League of Legends player, but I'm loving this series and I don't know anyone who does.
For me, I love how they present the characters in a way that they express their feelings and encourage me to do so as well. I identify so much with "Powder" and it's been helping me feel good about myself.
Anyways, is there a League of Legends player here that I already watched it? So far I've read that you don't have to be a player to understand the series but sometimes I do feel that I would get more references and thus understand more the series, is that true?
Please let me know!!!
-Cody
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2022-01-26, 10:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane anyone? (Season 1)
Yeah we had a thread about it. Not much left to say now that it's over but it's still within the necro limit if you wanted to reply to any of the posts there and have something to add.
Personally I'm glad the show took off like it did, every little bit of juice for Riot's Runeterra MMO helps imo.Plague Doctor by Crimmy
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2022-01-26, 11:05 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Arcane anyone? (Season 1)
It’s very good.
As someone who once played LoL and am glad to never go back to that wretched hive of scum and villainy I’d say this.
Yeah, there are references to the game that are in Arcane. But it really won’t effect your viewing. And perfectly honest, Arcane and the game have some differences in the lore, and in every way that matters Arcane is better. “Powder” in the game is a pretty dull “lol I’m so random” Harley Quinn expy. The fact they turned her of all characters into someone I was invested in is a feat in itself.