Review of Arcane Season 2

I still remember the fond old days of middle school when I used to play League of Legends. I always used to play Jinx, Vi, Caitlyn, or Riven, despite people making fun of me for picking one of the girlier characters. Even back then, I always wanted to pick being a woman in a video game, as I was aware there were few opportunities to do that.

The first season of Arcane came out when we were still in a pandemic, but it took me a while to watch it. Back then I didn’t have this blog, and I think I’ll get around to writing an updated review for that first season. I procrastinated so hard when it came to watching that though, and it took almost a year for me to get around to it.

But now I’m actively working on this blog, and when the second season of Arcane slowly dropped its episodes, three times a week for three weeks, I was on top of that. I’m in a period, when writing this, that I dubbed funemployment. I was supposed to go abroad and had that opportunity promised to me, but life is funny and it didn’t work out.

So I’m enjoying this while it lasts. Life isn’t meant to fully be wasted in a 9-5. I used to work as a film and television critic, so I’m transitioning more into working for myself.

I’m slowly but surely catching up on my backlog for this blog, where I review television shows, movies, and books, and it’s becoming a pretty solid passive income source. I also get to watch shows like Arcane as they come out! It’s basically my old job, right?

Let’s get into the review. I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction.

New and old threats emerge throughout the course of season two, and we’re going to see some major conflict.

In this season, we pick right off where we left our characters in the last season: Jinx has just bombed the council, and there are some major deaths right in front of us. Jayce spots Viktor in the rubble and rushes him off to the Hexcore, which he uses to save him.

That’s going to lead to some major consequences later in the season, as this plot point goes down a wild rabbit hole where Viktor leads a cult with his newfound powers. We also will get another weird plot point involving said powers, and the story seems to run away with itself in terms of scope after that point.

Caitlyn’s mother was also killed in the attack, and council member Salo is left crippled. The remaining members of the council are out for blood and want to destroy Zaun and implement martial law, with Mel being the only dissenting opinion still there.

Vi declines an offer to join the enforcers from Caitlyn, but that’s not long going to last long. She does end up joining, creating even more problems with Jinx, who wants her dead. Joining the enforcers is only the cherry on top of that cake for Jinx, who has no reason to see Vi as someone she cares about anymore.

On the Jinx side of things, she recruits a little orphan named Isha. And when I say recruit, I mean Isha basically follows her around until Jinx allows her to stick around. The enforcers are very much looking for her, but she manages to evade them with her slippery movements and bomb skills.

Heimerdinger, Jayce, and Ekko managed to get trapped by a wild rune at one point and end up in alternate universes. Mel gets kidnapped pretty early on, and we learn a bit more about her dark family history.

Speaking of dark family history, Mel’s mother is up to something throughout this season as well. We don’t want to go too deep into spoiler territory with this review, but she’s going to tip the balance of this universe even more than it will.

Lots of side plots in this one—this season I would honestly describe as chaotic. I found the characters’ motives at times messy, especially when they seem to go through several emotional arcs quickly. Two of the episodes are also just explaining why certain characters appeared and then disappear for three episodes while we glance away from the main fights.

Season one has more clear beats and themes than this one, but I will say the fights in season two were a step up from the first one. They were pretty bloody, and, if we’re going to somewhat spoil, there were a lot of ugly deaths. There are also some ugly betrayals, which was wild to see. This show truly has no mercy in this season.

Overall Thoughts

This was a fast paced season, and although I’m calling it messy, it flew by. By the time the three weeks were up, it felt like it had only been a day or two in terms of actually watching the show straight through.

I would prefer season one to this season, but I still enjoyed it because of what I mentioned before. It felt like whiplash at certain points of time, which is fine with me, but makes it seem less coherent. Especially when there’s so much going on, and I read this season was going to end Vi and Jinx’s story.

I also thought the development of Caitlyn’s and Vi’s romantic relationship was a bit odd. There’s a sex scene that had me confused, as it felt bizarrely placed in the grand scheme of things. Not going to go into detail, but if you know you know. It felt like it could’ve been anywhere else but there.

The best episode though was the Ekko in the alternate universe one for me. That was a solid episode, and a bit of peace between all the panic and violence happening.

Go watch this if you’re interested; if not, maybe watch for the animation. I’d say it’s worth watching, but with a bit less of a critical lens if you want to enjoy it.

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