This article contains spoilers for Arcane: League of Legends. If you have not watched the show yet, I highly recommend for you to click off of this so you may enter the world of Arcane blindly, and thus form your own opinion on it. Thank you.

 

     In November of 2024, the second season of Arcane: League of Legends released, and now, several months later, it maintains a pristine score of 100% on the Tomatometer (reviews by critics) of the acclaimed rating website, Rotten Tomatoes. The quality of the show is undeniable, bringing home twenty-two wins and seventeen nominations in the Annie Awards, immeasurable hype, and a score of 85% on the Popcornmeter (reviews by the public) of Rotten Tomatoes. 

     

     Despite the amazing rating of 85% for the second season of Arcane: League of Legends, this is approximately a 10% decrease from the previous season’s near-perfect rating of 94% on the Popcornmeter. With the hype slowly bleeding away, people are finding more and more issues to be dissatisfied with. For many enjoyers of the show, such distaste is incomprehensible. Thus, this article is meant to give a look into what is so dissatisfying for many individuals, along with my personal opinions regarding each topic. This is not meant to spur hate towards Arcane or its fans in the least; Arcane can be excellent in some aspects and lacking in other aspects. Both truths can exist at once, and to have the most informed perspective on a matter, it’s important to acknowledge the reasoning for both sides of a debate.

 

     The primary reason for dissatisfaction is the show’s failure to deliver on what is believed to be marketed in the first season: a story about class differences. A story about the relationship between a utopian Piltover profiting from the exploitation of an oppressed lower class, Zaun. It is essential to remember that Piltover and Zaun are meant to be one city, only quite literally separated by top and bottom, and after an entire history of oppression, Zaunites possess a  profound desire to be an independent, self-governing nation, separate from Piltover. It is established in the first season that Enforcers, Piltover’s police force, regularly attack and kill unarmed Zaunties discriminately, a reflection of Piltover’s disdain for Zaunites as lesser than Piltovans. Due to the unequal share of resources between Piltover and Zaun, Zaunites are forced to resort to stealing, fighting amongst each other, and trade what would otherwise be illegal in Piltover. This behavior born out of necessity leads to the reinforcement of the stereotype that Zaunites are dangerous, so Piltovans believe that police violence against Zaunites is necessary to keep themselves safe. 

 

     Does this sound familiar? It should. Director Christian Linke states that the condition of Piltover/Zaun relations were made to mirror the state of the United States, and it was not difficult for many viewers to catch onto. In season one of Arcane: League of Legends, commonly shortened to Arcane, the audience gets a glimpse of the inequality between Piltovans and Zaunites (for example, Jayce receiving a trial to defend himself versus Vi, as a child, being thrown into prison indefinitely), so it was established that the show would be a commentary or interpretation of the current state of America, in which, to revisit my aforementioned example, persons of color, most notably Black, individuals are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement, wrongly convicted, and refused fair trials.

 

     There are a million nuances to this, but one that catches my eye the most is the relationship between Vi, a Zaunite, and Caitlyn, the daughter of an influential and wealthy Piltovan family, the Kiraamans. I should preface this by stating that besides the topic I’m about to discuss, I think that their relationship is very well-written. They exist as their own characters and are mainly not interdependent on each other like is seen for many other couples in mainstream media, and of course, is sapphic butch/femme representation. However, many people believe that the power difference between Vi and Caitlyn is far too wide and never once is properly addressed. 

 

     Throughout the first season, privileged, sheltered Caitlyn sees the truth of the issues Zaunites face on a daily basis and overcomes her bias against Zaunites. In the second season, when her mother is killed by a Zaunite, namely Vi’s sister, Jinx, she sheds her character development in the first season completely. Her unconscious bias against Zaunites, in the second season, becomes utter revulsion. When Vi’s parents were killed by Enforcers, when she was locked up unjustly, lived all her life in fear of Piltover’s police force, and was hit by her girlfriend, she never once took it out against innocent people. The most evidence that she was impacted by the oppression of her people at all is in the form of snarky remarks to fuel banter. Yet Caitlyn does a number of disagreeable things as a result of her trauma, such as hitting Vi, being willing to kill a child as collateral damage (I will talk about Isha later), chemical warfare, perpetuating police brutality, etc. The flaw in the writing is not that she committed these things, but the fact that she never faced any consequences from the plot (ie. seeing the negative impacts of what she did and feeling guilty) or other characters (ie. people rightfully holding a grudge for what she did) for her actions or formally apologized. The most Vi, and by extent the people of Zaun, receives as an apology is a brief mention of Maddie (who was clearly only added so viewers could direct hate towards her instead of Caitlyn, as controversial as that belief may be) and then all her horrific actions are never mentioned again. Caitlyn is allowed to act out without receiving repercussions; she is allowed to respond to her trauma in an explosive, realistic manner (i.e. falling back into the biased mindset she’d grown up with to dehumanize Zaunites) and never apologize for it. While Vi, even in the finale, never once acknowledges everything that’s happened to her due to being a member of a marginalized group. The show likes to distance Vi’s trauma from the fact that she’s a Zaunite, but most of the problems in her life was/is caused by the fact that she is a member of an oppressed group—not because of Jinx, not because of Silco, because in the end, it all circles back to the conflict between Piltover and Zaun. The failure to acknowledge this is the fault of the writers. I will expand on this later.

 

     My opinion regarding these political nuances is that if a viewer expected Arcane to delve into those topics, their dissatisfaction would be understandable. Personally, I try not to expect any political commentary from anyone—especially not from creators who are from privileged backgrounds who would only receive controversy, no personal satisfaction, from making a show ‘meant to’ critique the privileged. I think that the writers using police brutality as a plot device for Vi and Caitlyn’s relationship (yes, they stated that in an interview) is laughable and amazingly out-of-touch. The writers stated that the most satisfying endgame relationship is one that was difficult to achieve, like bringing together two individuals from an oppressed group and the oppressing group, but I think that even with that said, the writing for CaitVi (the relationship between Caitlyn and Vi) was poorer than it should’ve been. They skimmed over the most difficult parts of their relationship, like Vi confronting Caitlyn about asking her to join the organization that murdered her parents and has targeted her people for decades (then getting angry at her for refusing; this is never addressed again, by the way), any sort of discussion regarding the fact that Caitlyn is the leader of the Enforcers and Vi justly having trauma surrounding Enforcers, etc.

 

     All I will state is that if you’d like to incorporate two classes hating each other for the sake of tension, then at least do it properly. Show all the sides of an issue—don’t just show the Zaunites suffering and not how the Piltovians are encouraging it. It’s so frustrating that Enforcer brutality was never addressed. Don’t act as if the Council on the verge of  declaring independence for Zaun would actually have any positive effect or justify their decades of complicity. The Council are antagonists, yet the storytelling conveniently avoids shifting responsibility of the state of Zaun onto them and onto Silco instead. The most the audience is shown their greed is when they insist upon using Hextech weapons, but even then they’re given justification for that want or it’s glossed over.

 

     The threat of Mel’s mother coming to…what was it, again? Take over the country to take advantage of some asset, or something? I forgot because it was so obviously another unimportant plot device that I didn’t pay attention. That plot point was only added to have a reason for Zaunites and Piltover to come together for a ‘happy’ ending for the two cities. I think that realistically, in politics, it’s very rare that the wealthier/privileged come to see the poorer/marginalized as equals, so the people demanding that Arcane demonstrate perfect equality with reconciliations and everything in such a short time are fumbling in the dark, but I also hate how Arcane made the ending seem so…placid, as if those problems don’t exist. It feels like they tried to wrap everything up with a pretty bow. Look, they gave a Zaunite a seat at the Council! This is true equality…let’s give ourselves a pat on the back. No. Please, be realistic. For one, something like that can never be attained with the timidness Zaun displayed. Respect for the oppressed can only be achieved when it is taken—when it is fought for. Revolution and change are never peaceful, and even with one Zaunite on the Council, has it been forgotten that the Council makes decisions based on majority votes? The desires and needs of Zaun, when it comes down to it, will never win in a vote. In the end, nothing has changed. Zaun and Piltover are still one nation. Piltover is still profiting off of child labor. Piltovians still believe that Zaunites are lesser. Zaun still has no voice. While I did mention that those who are expecting a perfect representation of equality are fumbling in the dark, it’s clear that Arcane expects us to believe that what they’ve given us is the perfect representation of equality, and that is absolutely absurd. Just thinking about it gives rise to a sour taste in my mouth. So many writers undermine the intelligence of their audience—but what’s worse is that many of Arcane’s fan base consists of young, impressionable individuals who truly do believe that what is displayed at the end of Arcane is equality.

 

     If the creators did not openly come out to announce that they’d referenced the state of America for the conflict between Piltover and Zaun, I wouldn’t feel as conflicted as I am right now. The moment you mention that you are making a show incorporating the corruption of a contemporary issue, you take on a level of responsibility for making a statement about the issue. You cannot take a neutral stance once you’ve already made an entire show about it. Yet that’s what Arcane tries to do; something pleasing for the left and right. Yes, there is a butch-and-femme sapphic couple, but look right in front of you—what Arcane does is water down revolution into ‘a cycle of violence’ (that concept is nuanced; many times it’s applicable, but I feel that in this scenario, in which we never see Piltover suffer before Zaun swiftly comes to their rescue, either forcibly or out of some damned friendship-is-magic plot). Moreover,  the ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’ argument is not applicable when your people have been exploited and oppressed for the entire history of your city’s existence. It treats reconciliation as something that can be solved when the Piltovan and Zaunite come together despite their differences (which reminds me of the recent American-popularized phrase, ‘can’t we still be friends despite our differing political beliefs?’). Arcane is, in the end, a show written by writers too scared to offer a purposeful message regarding politics, which was such a massive promise in both marketing and the first season. 

But what else was promised in the first season that the second season failed to deliver on? Ah, yes. The relationship between Jinx and Vi.

I’ll talk about Jinx individually first, and we cannot talk about Jinx’s character without bringing up Isha. She is adorable, absolutely, but you’re kidding yourself if you think she was anything other than a plot device to drive Jinx’s character development. I personally hate when writers use disposable characters; it feels lazy, so lazy, but with such little time I do understand the reasoning behind it. I get exasperated when I hear people say, ‘Why did Isha have to die?! The writers hate us!’ Wrong, the writers had eight episodes to give a mentally-ill girl a character arc and decided to use Isha to do it. The moment she tumbled onto the screen, she was in a casket waving a death flag; we must stop pretending that anything else was possible with her character. As for Jinx, her entire character became flat in the second season. She was a realistic and compelling example of what can happen to children who never resolve their trauma properly and grow up with horrible influences. My problem is that her mental health healed in a timeframe entirely unreal for its effects on the plot, and in such an anti-climatic manner. People tend to forget just how betrayed she felt when Vi chose Caitlyn over her, and the impact it had on her health. The fact that she so quickly became ‘sane’, willing to forgive Vi for choosing a Piltovan over her own sister, and overcome her mania just from a child is a disservice to how meticulously she was written in the first season. 

On a more niche note, some people argue that it was good for Jinx to realize how Vi felt when they were children, and to personally feel that protectiveness leading her to bar Isha from making dangerous decisions. I agree, but… Jinx never specifically bars her from doing anything, and unlike Jinx and Vi’s relationship, they never have any real tension. I’m just going to say it now—Isha was the flattest character in the show. Tell me, what were her motivations? Her flaws? Her fears? Literally, tell me anything about her that doesn’t relate to Jinx. She was made for Jinx and died for Jinx. These kinds of characters are very common in stories, so I’ve more or less grown indifferent to them, but for a character as one-note as this in the one and only Arcane? Seriously? I know I’m writing an article about the flaws in Arcane, but the reason why I’m doing it in the first place is because it’s so strong in other aspects, like writing well-rounded characters. Isha sticks out like a sore thumb and reeks of lazy writing.

With all that said and done, I do appreciate Arcane. It’s been a favorite show of mine since season one, all the way back in 2021. There’s definitely no show quite like it. There will always be complaints for every work of art, and with great hype comes great criticism. I also appreciate how Arcane is stimulating people to at least begin thinking about the class difference in the West, as well as opening peoples’ minds to well-written diverse characters.

Thank you for reading, and may I state that my opinion on season two may change with a few more brainstorming sessions; I’ve written this article to open up peoples’ minds to others’ perspectives and reasoning behind it, so of course I’m not against hearing others’ opinions either! I’m always open to productive conversations regarding this topic.