random-arcane-fan

[random-arcane-fan]

blog housekeeping: tagging everything with #arcane rewatch & relevant episode (SxEE), not character or other categorization.

expect gratuitous dissections of Caitlyn, but I also want to keep a closer eye on Vi, Jinx, and Mel. and also just everything else really I've had blorbo blinders on a little too long now I fear

[guy who is about to give themself so much psychic damage voice] what if I rewatched arcane

[random-arcane-fan]

[guy who is about to give themself so much psychic damage voice] what if I rewatched arcane

[random-arcane-fan]

what lesbian situationship does to mfs

aka

caitvi matching pfps

ref

[random-arcane-fan]

Stromae, Pomme - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Music Video]

[random-arcane-fan]

congrats to fortiche for finally getting to lipsync in french

[random-arcane-fan]

unfiltered musing: pre-s2 thoughts

2025-01-19

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SO FIRST THINGS FIRST I spoiled myself like a motherfucker, recklessly, around… I wanna say between ep5 and 6, that big break. rambled about this in [a] server already but tl;dr I would not be REMOTELY surprised if the pushback from longtime fans is because… they’re longtime fans. fanon-brained. aot 2. anyway

caitlyn in s1 doesn’t really stick out to me but the dictator vengeance arc has me sweating. also the emotional repression. ohhh the Makings of a new blorbo they’re brewing

love vi love her batshit blues but I’LL GET BACK TO THE CHARACTERS. ONE SEC.

thematically!! the show’s doing a lot about cycles and violence and love and it’s great. it’s a little like… it’s like that aot episode where gabi has to learn “oh, my enemies are human people,” right. depending on one’s personal politics the message may or may not land funny. and there’s other Thoughts about this in my brain but mostly they spin in a circle like the laundry machine, pls hold.

anyway now to be a hypocrite and character babble. I LOVE VI. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE ANALYSES OF VI like yes yeah Butch Hot can we also talk about her being the most emotionally open and surprisingly soft motherfucker.. maybe not in the Whole show, a lot of characters speak more with touch than words (that’s visual storytelling baybeeeee), but like. Vi. up there. homegirl gets out of prison has the most wild sequence of days in her life ([well, at least] since the events which originally landed her in prison) and it ain’t DONE yet. let her Rest.

caitlyn. -gestures to discord dump- autism. that is all

jinx? fantastique. i s2g she has all the trope trappings of a Me Character but somehow it hasn’t quite hit, but I like her plenty! feels like I haven’t really gotten a good grip on her motivations and thoughts, but careful rewatches can remedy that. a LOT of the bombastic antics (antix?) are for fun as much as they are for tactics, and I think she’s smarter than people in-universe and also I give her credit for. it’s a matter of dissecting how.

jayce I have been largely ambivalent about, right up until the last few eps. has his big action moment and then OOPS that’s kids you’re killing! I think I can warm up to him on rewatches & with analyses, because he’s got a genuine heart and clearly doesn’t Love playing yes-man—even if he spends an awful lot of screentime playing yes-man. no clue what to make of the beard phase later.

viktor’s in a similar “have not seen enough of you yet” boat. he’s ???neat. more interested in him for the Themes, this terminal evolution body mod eldritch savior god shit, than The Man Himself, but that could change. (actually tbfh, ignoring fan analyses I think my take on everyone can be summed up as “very cool! will probably find you cooler on rewatch! anyway.”) also he’s got some sass, good for him.

mel? great. wish people did not so often begin and end the character thoughts at “queen”; she’s admittedly been tricky for me to get in the head of, but like SURELY that will change with the increased character prominence. seems to be a focal character for the sequel series, good for her! we’re introduced to her as a smooth-talking politician and the narrative distance feels intentional. the dynamic with ambessa is… Hough. oh boy. oh Boy

ekko: like mel, ok guys we get it he’s “perfect” can w. can we dive into that a little more. on the other hand he straight-up doesn’t have a ton of s1 screentime. on the other OTHER hand, this is arcane and you can tell So Much from So Little because it’s all THAT fucking good. jinx fight sequence? like??? you don’t NEED the enemy music video or ANY prior interaction really. that shows you everything.

silco: A+ villain, fantastically humanized, love me an ironic parallel, I knew his death was “jinx somehow (accidentally?) kills him” but was NOT prepared for how it actually happened. fucking ouch. it got me tbfh.

heimerdinger, sevika, vander: Great™. once I saw the thing about sevika embodying Zaun As A Nation it’s like ah, now I understand everything. love that she loves a good fight, feel a bit like she plays into the magic-handwaved-amputation trope but she does feel like a real person anyway. vander, somehow did not anticipate the death flags. reportedly he is “warwick”/a wolf later??? and heimerdinger is… well he’s A Guy, kinda surprised he’s significant enough to be in the intro sequence? wish he like, Explained Shit; he might be one of the only characters I’ve been ~frustrated by, as opposed to minor characters who are clearly meant to be disliked so w/e (marcus, arguably finn) or more significant characters who make bad choices but it’s juicy as fuck so, also and empathetically, w/e (…basically everyone lbr). anyway I combined those last three bullets with the thought they were all so minor I wouldn’t have a lot to say, And Then.

mostly I wanted all this down before I dive into s2 proper, so I can look back later and be like “:)” one way or another. definitely bears mentioning (I think I did in discord already but still) that, rn, caitlyn does not Particularly impress just based on screentime alone, but oh spoilers and analyses Got Me. let’s see if that carries through, and/or if I pick up a surprise different guy. HOO BOY. I’M NOT READY FOR S2, GUYS.

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[3/08 addendum: re:Sevika and the "magic-handwaved-amputation" thought, I can't speak to whether it's #problematique, but I do appreciate that s2 gave her some screentime with no magic-prosthetic.

[Heimerdinger remains the one intro character I Simply Do Not Care For. Caitlyn did indeed Get Me by the throat but in a "favorite (derogatory) (slowly dragging hands down face) (what is wrong with her)" sort of way. Also, I wasn't planning on posting this directly after the favorites sorter, but the notedump-chronology lined up juuust right.

[Wonder if I'll catch up before the artbook ordered way back in December comes in...! :,D]

[random-arcane-fan]

Here's a fun little sorter I put together for Arcane characters! Reblog with your list!

Let the sorting commence!

[random-arcane-fan]

unfiltered musing: magic conspiracizing

2025-01-19, had yet to watch s2:

wait. wait. wait. wait no wait. wait okay. wait no FUCK okay mel survives the blast somehow right. remember that scene where vi’s fighting sevika and the fucking hexgem whatever spawns a bubble. you follow? you fucking follow??? I know mel’s a mage too oh and that this is related somehow to maddie dying (protects cait last second?) like HELLO ARE YOU TELLING ME. THE MAGIC ASSOCIATED WITH LONGEVITY. ALSO WARPS. LIKE POWER. LIKE TITAN SHIT. IT’S TH THE -flailing incoherently at my pepe silvia board- IT’S THE SAME THEME!!! IT’S LITERALLY THE SAME FUCKING THEME!!!!!!! GNAWS SHAKES HEAD GOES CRAZY GOES FERAL oh my god

I will have more to say re:Arcane and Attack on Titan thematic's parallels later. For now, mostly want to stick a pin in the "magic protective bubble" thought; it's all but confirmed outright re:Mel surviving the Council attack, but I don't think it ever gets revisited as a hextech property?

[random-arcane-fan]

And I say I don't care. I say that I'm fine. But you know I can't let it go. I've tried, I've tried, I've tried for so long.

[random-arcane-fan]

A lot of people point out the visual parallels between Mel and Viktor but not enough people talk about the thematic parallels between them (also excuse the shitty screenshots).

they both grew up with mentors who ended up doing something they couldn't understand (Viktor believing death is better than sacrificing humanity, Mel believing war is bad)

and they remain haunted by that memory as an adult

they later left that mentor, Viktor on his own decision, Mel got cast out. Then they reconnected with that mentor when they are struggling with the same dilemma but their position has shifted. Again Viktor does this on his own accord and Ambessa comes to Mel

After this encounter though they realise their error and shift back to their original position

They stick to the same morals after Jinx's bomb hits but the decision was taken from them, Jayce already sacrificed Viktor's humanity, the council already decided on war

Then for the rest of season two we see them attempt to keep up their original stance but their hand is forced. (It is also interesting that Viktor is already taking away their humanity he just doesn't realize it yet, probably because he is so far from his own humanity he has forgotten what that even means)

They also both have parallels to the one they once defended as a kid

But I'm still having trouble finding what the purpose of all these parallels are. Viktor and Mel aren't very close in the narrative and they're both close to Jayce but I don't feel we see these parallels used in their relationship to him. I think the end point is that it's not Viktor's fault he became a villian in the end. Both him and Mel fought for what they thought was right and they both lost, it was only because of how others used Viktor that he was the reason so many people almost died.

[random-arcane-fan]

ELEKTRA : You never hold me

CLYTEMNESTRA : Don't be the sort of person who needs to be held

[random-arcane-fan]

tags via hazelcallahan:

#i love my blue haired narrative foils #who both love vi #who both lose family opening them up to be manipulated by a pseudo parental figure #who are both good shots #who become symbols for something that was never really theirs to lead #who only begin to heal when they learn the love is worth so much more than the hatred #etc etc etc etc etc etc

Hating you... I've hated myself. I just don't have the energy for it any longer.

[random-arcane-fan]

creator commentary: u/IdleSkribbles (Christian Linke)

2025-01-19; quotes I wanted to save, obligatory commentary on thereof

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How we crammed so many scenes in? We wrote scripts that were too long and then battled in editing to save as many darlings as possible. (Slightly joking, but slightly not.)

https://old.reddit.com/r/arcane/comments/yp9d4b/s1_spoilers_were_christian_linke_and_alex_yee/ivl541i/?context=3 REALLY INTERESTING…. all writers out here with The Scene™ in our heads just trying to bash things together to make it fit fr. and when you cut like this it WORKS

We didn't use one system to track the character arcs, but rather focused on them individually, and then mapped them against the "world plot". In other words, We considered the world around the characters as its own entity with an arc, except it only moved forward based on character choices. That way, it feels like stakes are higher, and it truly feels like their actions have consequences that put an entire city at risk. One thing you'll notice is that nearly all episodes have a flashback in the beginning of the episode. This marks the character who "owns" the episode, and will make a significant step forward in their story.

STARES REALLY HARD. https://old.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/r7l1xz/any_scripts_for_arcane_on_netflix_its_one_of_the/hqak7c7/?context=3

(stares also really hard at the caitlyn sharpshooter flashback episode being 5 (personal favorite lmao), everybody wants to be my enemy. much to think about....)

https://old.reddit.com/r/arcane/comments/yp9d4b/s1_spoilers_were_christian_linke_and_alex_yee/ivla95d/?context=3 "everyone's chip on their shoulder"… nice. --thinks about sevika having a bit of a shoulder/cape motif and also fucking ambessa. Huh

Whenever powerful people lose control, things tend not to come apart softly. They snap with a lot of tension and violence, hurting people and destroying things in the process.

:-)c https://old.reddit.com/r/arcane/comments/1duysp1/s1_spoilers_guns_for_hire_meant_to_centre_silco/lbn1rdt/?context=3

[random-arcane-fan]

unfiltered musing: 1x09 rewatch

2025-01-19; had yet to watch s2

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bullets are original watch-along commentary; added screenshots & some retroactive notes [in brackets]

vi's "he [the kid who Jayce kills]… knew what he was signing up for" girl WHAT. definitely hesitant, betcha any money she's saying that to herself about jinx

jayce doesn't say it's horrifying because Children Dying Bad (that goes without saying), he says "I'm a part of this now." vi's right to call him on it but MAN it's revealing

jayce being the one to step down… it's a good beat. it's a good beat brent. vi was absolutely ready to just fight and potentially die right there huh.

silco framed by the broken shimmer glass… is that a direct mirror of jinx and the stained glass. like yeah in framing but I think the jagged fucking outline does it too, or inverts it or smthn godDAMN

[3/08: for the record...

...it's not the same exact shape by a long shot, but broken glass is broken glass! Silco gets the additional circle of the shimmer tank, like a loosely-fractured halo; Jinx is never quite framed within the arcade the same way.]

jayce-silco convo… man. intense. good fucking scene. makes me think about like… "oh x only interacted with two people" yes, because in a show like this, every character interaction is also a conversation between what those characters stand for. it's not a jamjar "make everyone talk to each other just to see what happens" scenario; it's telling A Story with A Meaning and A Purpose. now do I have deeper thoughts on this scene at this point in time, not necessaaaaarily, but like. idk it just reminded me of that complaint and I had to counter-complain

looks at the brief scene of heimerdinger and ekko, ekko's leg being patched up. he doesn't have to say a whole lot, make this big argument for his people and how they do things; it SHOWS, when ear-guy [Scar] calls the firelights. that's community. and yeah it's in contrast to caitlyn's scene [with the leg injury] because of course it is. the more I chew on it the more those moments the fanbase likes to hold up as like, behold, cop has morals… are y. are you sure lmao ohhhh man anyway ekko's great, it's not enough to survive you gotta live. great moral, GREAT line from character whose Thing (nowadays, at least) is saving people from addiction. hell "saving" might not be doing it justice; that's a straight-up savior narrative, and it's what he probably tried with powder. wonder how much reflecting on that brought him here instead.

like silco's undercity is green but it's the wrong green, a desaturated, murky green. there's "growth" but the spotlight's really on that shimmer. ekko, meanwhile? firelights got it MADE.

noticed this yesterday but obsessed with jinx hiding in plain sight in the first shot of the vander statue. [Her trademark hair silhouette is right over his shoulder!] also, silco pouring his drink near clearly-readable graffiti of ekko. in light of the theme we just talked about, what an interesting juxtaposition; he had everything on paper, but to live? silco needs his daughter.

also realizing 1) yeah, jinx misinterprets this [Silco monologue] entirely, but in all fairness. "what do I lose but problems" it's dry but like at face value, rude 2) where the fuck is caitlyn

sevika at the last drop. the way I first thought it was jinx walking in, blue glow and all. wonder if jinx saw the whole fight; wouldn't be unlikely. "bravo, sis."

JUST NOTICED "CHUCK" SINKING BEHIND THE BAR DFKSGJSKFS

ohhhh, the purple thing vi throws is the guards' mask(s)…. also fucking. the glitch thing before she takes a swig; that sequence (and apparently her hallucinating caitlyn later [in s2]?? hell she imagines vander here too, but I think that's voluntary) makes me wonder if like… I don't wanna diagnose anything, but the Visions. dissociation, blanking/zoning out--and this is before she takes a drink. girl are you concussed? it runs in the family, is what I'm wondering

"she still needs you," and the cut to sevika. violence needs an opponent to continue, smthn like that; also vi generally ~representing, being closer affiliated with, piltover. also, the gauntlet doing the little bubble guard thing? yeah that surprises vi, huh; idr if it does that during the factory fight but I think not. she doesn't Make it do that. they're both caught in wonder for a moment there.

also like. vi just re-engaging that fight down a whole gauntlet, then (once again! not for the first time!!) THROWING a whole-ass woman (not a small woman!!!), through SEVERAL walls/tables. vi what the fuck

jayce turning to mel as the council throws a fit over the peace proposal, mel looks at her ring. surface analysis: wouldn't that fix the noxus issue… well not FIX but like, it'd make an alliance FAR less necessary if piltover+zaun are acting as a united front. [idr if I'd known, at the time, about people from the undercity actually coming up to help out in s2.] between that and mel in general, no wonder she's first to vote in favor. kinda interesting cutting from that to the non-explosive.. whatever that thing is. [The thing with the sparklers, that Jinx presents to Vi.] as a side note this completely went over my head on first watch, but the implication is that that thing blows up when the fuses hit zero, isn't it

god I love vi but it is SO frustrating (in a narratively fantastic way) that she does not once call her sister "jinx," not here not (as far as I remember) any point before. that's gotta give in s2, right?

"I paid your girlfriend a visit this morning" ok so it's <24 hours. ALL THIS HAPPENS WITHIN 24 HOURS?????

side note, vi being the ONLY one at this table without a muzzle. jinx has already decided (and correctly determined) that silco lied to her, and deliberately cultivated the jinx persona. she doesn't need to hear from him, and he has nothing to say. not yet.

GOD SHE REALLY DOES FIRE TO PROTECT VI. IT'S SO SPLIT-SECOND BUT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT'S SHOWN. GOD!!!!

[...Y'know what, fuck it, here's every shot:

[^not a duplicate, it cuts to the gun again for like two frames--]

[--because the screen flashes and it disappears.]

[^continuous shot, panning out with the focus shifting from Silco to the gun barrel]

[^This is COMPLETELY seamless, btw. I'm just now realizing they set it up so you see the bullet pierce the right-hand side of Vi's chair, then cut to a chair being littered with holes right-to-left...

...only to cut away to those goddamn death birds, who fly away, cawing, and silence falls.

[Honestly I think I missed a cut or two of Jinx grabbing the gun; I cannot stress enough how goddamn fast this all happens. It's like 1 or 2 frames tops for many of these cuts. GODDDDD.]

the tilt of his head echoing her first look at the crow GOODBYE

[I would hesitate to call ^this a parallel, in the way that more obvious framing echoes like the 1x01/2x09 sisterly hand-grab are parallels.... Mainly, it has Jinx's head tilting to the viewer's left, face unobscured.]

also in general? the face holding??? UGH. bye. i'm a coherent analyst

god. [the entire ending, but especially the final scenes with the song?] still such a gorgeous fucking sequence. still leaves me absolutely speechless

[random-arcane-fan]

tag highlights:

#i emphasize 'supposedly' here bc it absolutely was not just grief. that was rage. she wanted to hurt someone as vengeance #and bc of the position of privilege she occupies... look who was conveniently right there. who nobody would care if she hurt #vis tendency to completely ignore her own wants and needs in favour of others and how even the fandom applauds that #meanwhile canon is bashing us over the head trying desperately to explain how bad that is for a person #(i really want to make a full post abt this but i fear people would eat me alive!) #caitlyns attempts to shove all her emotions down and pretend she doesnt feel them after her mom dies #and how thats so connected to the kind of expectations her background put on her AND the hurt she inflicts on those around her #(and the gendered expectations here hoo boy. usually you only get to see men in media acting like this. v refreshing imo) #and neither of them are perfect. caitlyn can be so cold and vi can be so spineless and that could be (and was!) such a bad combination #and despite it all they are going to try again and theyre going to try to be better together. wherever that takes them

one of the only messages we know cassandra left behind is a warning of the consequences of the actions caitlyn took, supposedly, out of grief for her

do you think she ever goes back and listens to that recording of cassandra talking about the grey just to hear her mom's voice one last time. do you think she can stand to hear it at all

[random-arcane-fan]

AUGH

[random-arcane-fan]

related: "Art Nouveau and Art Deco in Arcane"