An Unexpectedly Strong Punch

Arcane: A League of Legends story (A spoiler free-ish review)

If I made a list of all the games I am remotely interested in, it would likely take me several hours before I even considered putting League of Legends on the list. I write that without malice. As a formerly young man, I still cringe thinking about the business practices of micro transactions in gaming and League has been and likely continues to dominate that space. I know I sound like an old man on his porch screaming at the clouds but this serves to illustrate my point. This show came out of nowhere for me and has made me rethink my relationship with video games troubled past in tv/cinema, the nature of narrative & my interest in League of Legends in general!

Let me explain. This show came out of nowhere for me. I scrolled past any trailers that dotted my feeds without hesitation and when my cousin mentioned the show in the family group chat, I figured I would watch the first episode so that I could have an opinion. Quick aside: I hate that I feel I have to have an opinion on things but I am working to be closer with some important folks in my life.

I’m working to write complex thoughts in fewer words and I am going to do my best to exercise that atrophied muscle now. I want to highlight a few things that make this show truly special and a few things that missed the mark.

First things first, the theme song slaps. I know, I know. It is an Imagine Dragons joint. I feel the same way you feel right now. A cringe self-loathing that only happens when you realize your musical taste has slipped ever closer into the mediocre as you bob your head to the latest Twenty-One Pilots track. It is what it is and this song is a bop.

I fully expected this show to be a commercial for the League of Legends product. Introduce characters that are ‘cool’ and transgressive enough to capture the imagination of 14 year olds so they will get their parent’s credit cards and get to spending! This might be true but the series is so well crafted that I failed to notice.

The show succeeds on many levels but chiefly among them is character. The characters feel real. They have sensible, if misguided, motivations. Lets take Jayce for example. Upon initial discovery, he seems to be the most milktoast protagonist imaginable. Insert best friend, love interest, etc. You can safely assume friction will develop as he gets closer to love interest and betrays best friend. Nope! The writers carefully navigate around these tropes. Instead, Jayce succeeds in making room for romance, invention & trying to help his best friend. You know, like a person would. The audible sigh of relief I had must have been heard by my next door neighbor as I realized there would not be a melodramatic show down where Jayce would choose between his friend Viktor & his political mentor and companion Mel.

I could go on and on about how Arcane subverts traditional character models but I don’t have time to write a 10k word article. I do want to highlight my favorite character in the series before following up with a few characters that may have been slightly mishandled.

Every great series has a great antagonist. A well-done villain is among my favorite spectacles. When the ‘bad guy’ is earned, there is nothing like it. And Silco earns his place. His aesthetic is exactly what you expect: diminutive stature, facial scarring, one eyeball is replaced with an unfeeling black orb. Arcane takes this mundane clay and molds it into a person.

Don’t get me wrong, he is bad guy, but I believe him when his motivations are revealed. He wants to lead the cities lower class into the light. (Of course this show takes place in a city divided by its rich, upper class folks & its poor living under the city.) He is a brilliant tactician who will sacrifice whatever it takes to climb out of the dirt. This includes selling drugs, having henchmen commit horrible acts to demand respect from Zaun (the poor people city section) & Piltover (rich people city section). Of course, his plans are thrown into chaos many times over and he becomes the surrogate father for one of Arcane’s central figures: Jinx. He is often one step ahead of the show’s protagonists but his struggles are depicted beautifully. At his heart, Silco knows he alone is not enough. He must maintain the trust of his fellows while also trying to push them to be their best. Can he trust the others he shares power with? Can he trust Jinx? Can he trust himself to set aside his feelings to seize control? Each of these questions is answered in an unforced crescendo.

There are many other characters that I think are handled well enough but I do want to highlight a few character swings that did not connect for me. Ironically, the two characters I identified with the least are the two main characters: Jinx & Vi.

Arcane’s titular character: Powder/Jinx. Although a bit contrived, I didn’t mind the coming-of-age beginning to this story that much. A bit dramatic for my taste but mostly serving to set up the larger picture. Group of kids is up to no good and getting into hijinks. Trying to find their place in the world they are always getting into trouble. Fast forward to the incident that raises the stakes and ripples through the psyche of Arcane’s characters for the entire season. I bring this up because there is a horrible accident, people die and it affects Jinx in a profound way.

She is scarred by the incident, that is largely her fault, and develops severe mental disorders to cope with this. Unfortunately, Arcane’s depiction of mental illness follows well tread ground. She is often talking to herself, shouting at people to shut up when no one is talking, violent mood swings, etc. There is a lot of character work done for her throughout the series but it was difficult to see as you often had to look past the tropes of mental illness to see them. She is adopted by Silco, becomes a critical part of his criminal enterprise & is separated from her adopted sister Vi.

Every coming-of-age story needs a group of kids and every group of kids needs a leader. Enter: Vi. Thrust into a leadership role and doing her best. It would be unfair to say her character doesn’t evolve throughout Arcane but she does feel a bit one note by the final credits. She is hardened by the loss in her life and sees one way forward, punching. For most of the show she is distrusting of most, except for the understated Caitlyn who fans have taken to ‘shipping’ pretty hard. She has a single-minded drive to save blah blah blah from blah blah blah. Not to be derivative but that is her focus. It drives the show but it doesn’t do a whole lot for me character wise.

The reunion of Jinx & Vi in the latter half of the season is largely handled well enough but I couldn’t help thinking in the back of my head, ‘they can’t let them end on a good note, because they want to make more seasons of this thing.’

Let’s talk about the art. Wow is this thing good looking. It has all the flourish of big budget cinema and then some. The fighting encounters are incredible but I do have issues with some of the character designs. Many of them feel too ‘sexy’ for my taste. Not in a distracting way but more-so in a way that feels targeted towards a young teen demographic. You’ll see what I mean.

These fight scenes are some of the best I’ve ever seen, period. If you don’t want to dive deep into the characters of this show, you should at least show up for the fights. Every blow packs a punch. This show does to fight scenes what John Wick did for gunplay. Every hit packs a punch. (forgive that last sentence but I couldn’t bring myself to delete it.) My words will fail describing these scenes but if I remember correctly, every episode features some fisticuffs. The first that comes to mind is in Arcane’s first episode. Our protagonist group of kids goes toe-to-toe with some bad teens. This rumble, as many of Arcane’s are, is handled with startling physicality. When one of our heroes takes a punch to the face, the slow motion captures every bit of the strike. This makes every defeat a wince inducing exhalation and every victory an earned ovation. If you are only here for the high fidelity fighting, you will be well served.

I try not to put to much onus on demographic targeting when I try to enjoy media but I could not ignore the fourteen year old in me. I want to ask the folks who made the show why so many of its characters are so scantily clad, but I already know the answer and so do you. It’s the same reason why all the characters in Overwatch have perfect asses: sex sells. I wouldn’t say it is blatant but it is certainly hard to ignore.

Despite my gripes, Arcane is definitely a success. A complex story that respects its characters enough to let them change and evolve. Well-earned drama leading into earned peaks. Although the final scene of the show is a bit contrived, and largely stolen from a Batman comic (maybe it is an homage?), the story lines pay off satisfyingly. The season 1 cliffhanger is strong enough to keep me wanting more.

Until season 2 comes out, I guess I will go download League and Ruined King… Damnit, they got me!