Summary
Arcane Season 2 gets off to a remarkable start in Act 1, proving that this is by far Netflix’s best animated series and that, by the end, it might even eclipse the superb first season.
There’s a “y’all must have forgot” quality to Act 1 of Arcane’s second season. Riot Games and Netflix have already confirmed that these nine episodes – divided into three acts – will be the end of the story, giving them a lot to do in terms of character development, worldbuilding, and conflict resolution. But Episodes 1-3, titled “Heavy is the Crown”, “Watch It All Burn”, and “Finally Got the Name Right”, are mostly a reminder – this is still, easily, the best animated series on Netflix, and one of the best video game adaptations ever by a country mile.
The only downside is that three years have elapsed since the Season 1 finale and Season 2 picks up as though it happened yesterday. You might need to do a bit of homework – or, perhaps, a full rewatch – to get the most out of this first arc, which cycles through multiple points of view in several interconnected subplots. You’re not going to be eased in here. There’s too much to do.
But you’ll still be reassured by the quality of the animation, the music, the voice acting, and the action, not to mention the wider worldbuilding that somehow makes one of gaming’s most impenetrable universes accessible and deeply human. In fact, Act 1 is defined almost entirely by its human stakes; the outgrowths of grief and trauma stemming from Jinx’s slide to terroristic psychopathy, the death of Cassandra Kirraman, and the roiling politics created by the resultant power vacuum and social unrest.
Episodes 1-3 of Arcane Season 2 don’t provide enough time to devote significant amounts of time to each character in turn, so there’s a lot of ping-ponging to and fro between viewpoints. Caitlyn’s experiencing something of a radicalization, and is pushing Vi, who is still grieving the loss of her little sister’s innocence, if not her life, to join Piltover’s enforcers in an effort to bring Zaun to heel.
But Zaun is a mess. Jinx is trying to remain low-key but her reputation precedes her, and the squabbling gangs and syndicates fighting for power in Silco’s absence are creating chaos in the undercity. A different version of that chaos defines the politicking around Piltover’s council, with Ambessa pushing Mel to the side in order to seize power for herself, leaving her daughter at the mercy of a dark magic subplot that builds into a beautiful-looking but nonetheless horrifying cliffhanger in Episode 3.
A still of Jinx from Arcane Season 2 Act 1 | Image via Netflix
If there’s a theme here it’s probably grief, or at least loss. Silco and Cassandra’s deaths have profound impacts on everyone, whether they’re personal, political, or social. Act 1 serves as an example of the gaping wounds left behind by losses but also as a reminder that filling them is not an easy or simple task and that morality is relative.
Episode 2, “Watch It All Burn”, is especially good in this regard, spending more time with Jinx and humanizing her further through her unlikely relationship with Isha, a young mute girl who quickly comes to regard her as a big sister of a kind, leading to an emotional payoff in Episode 3, “Finally Got the Name Right”, when she intervenes in a gorgeous-looking fight between Jinx and Vi. As ever, the action and emotion are both underscored by a ridiculously good soundtrack, which featured my girlfriend sticking her head around the office door and asking “What is this banger?” on two different occasions.
Arcane Season 2, like the first outing, has no interest in binary morality, right and wrong, and good guys and bad guys. You can draw a line from the worst actions in this show right to the specific traumas that led to them, and even minor details, like Vi’s joining the enforcers and succumbing to officialdom that she has always rejected, are complicated. Her relationship with Caitlyn benefits from them being on the same page, but it quickly becomes obvious that they’re not on the same page, at least when it comes to how far they’re willing to go to stop Jinx and Zaun. As Vi has become more willing to become part of an organized effort, Cait gets more and more individually rebellious. I can’t imagine this relationship ending well.
Having said that I can’t imagine much ending well. Arcane Season 2, Act 1 isn’t positive in any respect, really, and these first three episodes feel like they’re setting up a tragedy of epic proportions to come in Acts 2 and 3. This is the beginning of the end, as we know, and there are so many character arcs to complete and subplots to explore and dramatic payoffs to provide that there’s a feeling of breathlessness to it all. But it’s expertly done on every level, and based on this opening, may even eclipse the wonderful first season in terms of sheer quality.
Wouldn’t that be something?
