“Vi used to say I could fix everything…before I broke everything,” Jinx says in the stillness of the water. We are in the first act of Arcane Season 2, and if you haven’t watched it yet, then be warned: this piece will contain spoilers.
We follow our characters in the aftermath of Jinx’s rocket attack. As the dust clears, act 1 lays out the elaborate butterfly effect that will ripple through the rest of the season, filling the episodes with angst, action, and chaos that we have come to expect from the series. Let’s go through the High Five reasons that makes the first three episodes of Arcane Season 2 a must-watch.
An Epic Sound
Music and sound design can make or break a series—one wrong needledrop can result in an unintentionally dissonant scene, or can even break a viewer’s suspension of disbelief. In this case, music definitely added a lot to the narrative of Arcane, with original songs created to match each episode’s ups and downs.
Episode one featured “Heavy is the Crown” as council members met their demise, showing the burden they have faced in their rule. Episode two featured “Renegade” as we see Jinx personify the song when she let go of her past ties and decided to finish off what’s left of her family. Episode three featured “Hellfire” at the beginning, when we see Vi officially turning blue belly and by raining figurative hellfire in the form of gray haze to the undercity.
The deliberate choice to have specific songs reflect significant turning points really underscore the importance of each moment, making for an epic viewing experience.
Distinct Art Style
From the opening titles down to the nitty gritty of each episode, you can see the care put into the animation by French animation studio Fortiche. Minute details like sweat or blood, and character reactions like an eye twitch or a slight grimace, were all impressively animated.
Arcane Season 2 continued utilizing the series’ ingenious mix of 2D and 3D art—with models being painted in a 2D style for a comic book-y look, while retaining the benefits of 3D articulation. This portion is immediately apparent during the opening credits, showing the characters’ dynamic movement while retaining their signature looks.
Good Things Come in Pairs
Caitlyn’s Strike Team | Still from Netflix
With so many events and characters in the series, sometimes viewers can have a hard time catching up with each story thread. Thankfully, Season 2 improves on this by streamlining each point of view into pairs of characters—Cait and Vi, Jayce and Viktor, Ambessa and Mel, and Jinx and Ekko.
The first three episodes made sure to show viewers the dynamics of each pair, leading to communication breakdown for each of them. Act 2 gives us reconciliation, and Act 3 is utter pandemonium, but gives a definite end or a new beginning for each of them.
All of them have parallels to each other, but at the end of the day, family is the theme that rings through. Each character has a certain connection that they only have with each other, and it’s amazing to follow it on screen.
Voice Acting Shines Through
“Arcane” Season 2 voice actors attend the Netflix Arcane LA Premiere | Photo from Getty Images
While we don’t get to see them for the duration of the series, the voice actors behind Arcane are powerhouses in their own right, reprising their roles and giving life to each character. Hailee Steinfeld (Kate Bishop from Hawkeye) voices Vi, Ella Purnell (Lucy MacLean from Fallout) voices Jinx, Katie Leung (Cho Chang from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) voices Caitlyn, Alexander Alejandro (Dan Espinoza from Lucifer) voices Jayce, Harry Lloyd (Bernard Marx from Brave New World) voices Viktor, and Reed Lorenzo Shannon (Scotty Simms from The Wilds) voices Ekko.
A Story of Action and Reaction
Vi and Jinx’s emotional fight | Still from Netflix
Newton’s third law of thermodynamics is something we all learn in school, but it’s definitely something of a thematic hinge that Arcane operates on. “Every action sparks a reaction,” as Heimerdinger says in episode 2. Emotions like grief and loss result in hate and anger, and each of these characters deal with these emotions in different ways, leading to more consequences and bigger emotions. This is what Arcane is about—the human relationship with power, how people wield it, and how they deal with the fallout.
SEA Wave gives 4 out of 5 waves to episodes one to three of Arcane Season 2 for how it deals in the complexities of intricate storytelling and layered characters, all the while simplifying its approach to storytelling. We still have acts 2 and 3 to check out so stay tuned to SEA Wave Pop Culture Magazine for more Arcane Season 2 reviews!