Did Arcane Season Two Stick The Landing?

The final three episodes of Arcane dropped on November 23rd, and suffice to say that many people have very mixed opinions on the finale and the season as a whole. Arcane is an animated, adult fantasy TV show set in the League of Legends (2015) universe that started its first season on Netflix in 2021, and concluded in Fall 2024 with its second season. The show focuses on the backstories of multiple characters from two main locations. Some live in Zaun, a poor undercity filled with crime, while others live in Piltover, a prosperous and wealthy city. Although it is loosely based on the League of Legends universe, you don’t need to play the games to understand the show—I barely know anything of the games myself. So, did the second season stick the landing based on everything the show built up in the first season?

 

Spoilers for season one of Arcane below. 

 

As for the other characters, the reasoning behind their actions are clearly shown. For example, Jayce’s determination toward his scientific endeavors leads him to create weapons of war and to be thrust into a leadership position he never wanted. It is understandable why he’s doing this even though it’s hard to watch him destroy himself in the process. Everything in the first season was triggered by each characters’ actions, carefully entwined together to create the story. As for the second season, my thoughts are mostly positive but somewhat mixed in some parts, especially the ending. 

 

There’s going to be some spoilers below, so please read with caution. 

 

Just like the first season, the animation was top tier. Arcane’s animation is highly stylized and detailed with a blend of 2D and 3D animation. Everything down from the vibrant backgrounds to the little details in a characters’ expression is all very deliberate. In terms of the music, I think it adds a lot to the story in the first season. Music videos are sprinkled in sparsely, allowing each to add even more weight to the pre-existing story. The second season tries to copy this by having more music videos, and while some are gorgeous in art and music, they also try too hard to carry the story. The biggest example of this, in my opinion, is episode three’s “Hellfire.” In this music video, it shows Caitlyn (Katie Lueng), Vi, and the other Enforcers invading Zaun. Unfortunately, the music video had the opposite effect it was going for. Instead of showing the brutality of the Enforcers, it actually downplayed the violence going on. What should’ve been a full episode of material was condensed down and packaged into a two minute music video. Because the audience has no time to soak in what was happening, it lessens the seriousness of it happening. Despite this, I think the songs themselves are not the problem, as they were pretty strong. Every aspect of this show, including the music, suffered with a lack of episodes as the creators clearly tried to cram as much as possible in very limited time.

 

 

In terms of writing, I thought most moments were extremely strong. The biggest ones that stand out to me are every scene between Vi and Jinx. You can really see that despite everything they’ve gone through, they still care for each other, even if that love is buried deep beneath the surface. For example, during the finale, the two have each other’s backs, with Jinx and Vi working together to fight off Vander, now turned into a monster by Viktor. Jinx begs for Vi to move when she’s on a deteriorating platform, and when Vander begins going ballistic, Jinx jumps into action and sacrifices herself for Vi while Vi begs for her not to. At its core, that’s what the show’s about—two sisters broken by the system. 

I thought all the character arcs were really well done and, although the conclusion was rushed, it did its best to wrap up all loose ends in a satisfying way. Jayce realizes how horrifying the Hexcore is throughout the season (especially in episode seven, where he’s thrust into a nightmare world destroyed by his own technology) and vows to destroy Hextech, even if it kills his partner, Viktor. Jayce has changed a lot from season one, from being Piltover’s bright-eyed golden boy to being horrified by what he’s created. I was also happy to see more of Ekko (Reed Shannon) and Heimerdinger (Mick Wingert) this season, especially after Heimerdinger took him under his wing. After they get flung into a different timeline where Hextech was never invented, it was interesting to watch them navigate that. Despite his life being more stable in this timeline, he still chooses to go back home and help his friends. This is a huge show of his heroic character and I think he’s truly the MVP of this whole series. 

However, I do have a few issues. For one, I feel like the characters don’t have nearly as much agency as they did in season one. For the most part, Mel (Toks Olagundoye) is strung along this season, a stark difference to her season one character. Previously, she was a strong political figure who was able to easily manipulate the people around her. This season, she gets kidnapped and finds out she’s magical. I loved Mel in season one and I’m a little disappointed that she did not have as much agency this season. Other characters suffered from the fast pacing. For example, Caitlyn becoming the dictator of Piltover and being manipulated by Ambessa (Ellen Thomas) went way too fast for the audience to actually see Caitlyn acting like a dictator. It also wraps up fairly quickly, with Caitlyn teaming up with Vi to take her down. 

 

 

I also have small gripes with the final episode of the show, mostly that the pacing of all of the climaxes was too fast. Vi did not really do a whole lot in the finale either, when previously she was such an active character who set events into motion. I truly think that if the show had an extra season, they could’ve easily expanded on a lot of these plot points, and these things would not be a problem. The main issue was that they did not have enough episodes and so it was a race to the finish line to wrap up every plot point and character arc. 

That being said, these issues are small compared to the amount of positives about this show. This season, although not as much of a masterpiece as season one, is still a remarkable story that was so much fun to follow. I truly believe Arcane is a triumph for TV. The writing is tight, the story is weaved together masterfully, and not to mention the animation is gorgeous. The characters feel very human, they all have their own goals and backstories, and they each have flaws and make mistakes. It was such an enjoyable ride and I really hope to see more out of this world in the future.