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rootsandbranches86 · 17 days ago

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Duality and the bridge

Arcane is a show about duality.

It's present in everything. There's duality within characters, showing different sides to themselves; and between characters, with different matched pairs. Duality is referenced in the big monologues: Silco talking about drowing as a story of opposites, and everyone having a monstrous side; and Viktor explicitly talking about the duality of humanity. It's present in the the themes of order vs. chaos and science vs. magic. And in the structure of the show, two seasons with dramatic reversals between them. And of course, duality is reflected in the setting, the relationship between Piltover and Zaun.

What I really love about Arcane is that it really does justice to this theme, there's real depth to it. It's not just that everything is two-sided, it's that the two sides are deeply interconnected and interdependent. They're insprable, they come from the same source, one side cannot exist without the other, they condition each other and can transform into each other. And, as I mentioned, the theme exists at all levels of the story.

One thing that encapsulates this really well is the symbolism of the bridge, and how it's used. (The making-of documentary of season 1 is even called "bridging the rift", so we know that the concept of the bridge is important.)

Duality is a contradiction. It does not mean either total unity or total division, it means both at the same time, the unity of two things that are opposite from one another. And that's what a bridge is, it connects things that are apart from each other. A lesser show would have used the bridge as simply a symbol of connection, but Arcane uses it in a more complex way.

In a story about duality, the first image we get is not of two separate things. The first image *is* the bridge.

The scene is one of the worst conflicts between the cities. It's incredibly violent. The next image (after several more shots of the bridge) is an enforcer firing their gun, and then approaching the camera, with the monster-face scribbles.

So right away, this site of connection is also a site of deep division. And of course it is, where else is conflict going to take place, if not in the spot where two forces meet? The only way to avoid conflict is to avoid connection.

At the same time, the first lines we hear, in a scene that's otherwise without dialogue, are the lyrics of "Dear friend across the river".

Dear friend across the river My hands are cold and bare Dear friend across the river I'll take what you can spare I ask of you a penny My fortune, it will be I ask you without envy We raise no mighty towers Our homes are built of stone So come across the river And find [Powder is cut off, but the rest of the lyric is: "the world below"]

The lyrics establish the relationship between Piltover and Zaun, the haves and have-nots. But the song is not just asking help, it's also an invitation. It's addressed to a friend, to come across the river, to enter their world. The invitation is cut off by the violence around the characters. But the fact that the song includes an invitation implies not just the possibility for connection between the two cities, but the desireablity of it.

So right off the bat, the narrative already has this great contradiction to it. Because duality *is* a contradiction.

And then the scene ends with this shot of Vander carrying the kids, walking along the bridge.

They're small against this backdrop. This bigger problem that's located on the bridge, the problem of the bridge. And Vander is walking away from it. He's refusing to deal with it, and he's exiting screen left, he's retreating.

More under the cut:

It's not long before we see the bridge again. In the next scene, the kids escape across it, and it opens up.

This is the only time that we see the drawbridge raise. And I think it's significant that it happens at this point, after the time-skip. We're seeing what's happened since the time of the failed uprising. The drawbridge raising turns the bridge from a point of connection into an obstacle to connection. The implication being that Piltover and Zaun are farther apart than ever.

The fact that the bridge can act as a symbol of division just as much as symbol of connection, again, shows what a good grasp the creators have of this theme. For a bridge to exist there needs to be division in the first place. You can't have connection without division.

The bridge as a symbol of division is emphasized explicitly in episode 2, when Vander takes Vi there to talk with her.

He tells Vi, "I led us across this bridge, thinking things could change," with the implication that he now believes that change is impossible. He wants her to abide by the rule that "topside is off-limits". The bridge is there, but it's not for crossing. It's a borderline. Vander wants to avoid conflict, and he's talking about not provoking topside. But his approach also means preempting any possibility of connection. He's trying to eliminate the contradiction of duality by separating off the two sides.

Throughout the first season, the bridge continues to be a site of division and conflict, moreso than it's a site of connection.

It's the spot where Piltover cuts Zaun off, it's where there's resistance, and where there's violence.

Like Vander, Jayce tries to prevent conflict by enforcing a strict division, with his blockade. And as with Vander, the method doesn't work.

The bridge is used to signify similar themes with relationships as well.

It's where Jayce and Viktor have their falling out, where Jinx and Ekko fight. I'm also including Vander and Silco in this, because I think it's clearly deliberate that their final scenes take place on a catwalk, on a kind of bridge. (Also, I love how the suspension cables are used to direct the eye in these shots).

These sets of characters are all dualities in themselves. They share fundamental characteristics or experiences (Silco and Vander both fought for Zaun, Jayce and Viktor are partners and share similar dreams, Jinx and Ekko shared their childhood). But each set are also facing real differences (of philosophies, of priorities, of what they're fighting for). It's about tension, about unity and division pulling against each other.

The Ekko-Jinx fight is probably the best example of this. Of the three it's the scene that's the most self-contained story. And it's not a very straightforward one. The emotional punch of it comes from the fact that these are childhood friends who are now enemies. But it's not just a case of what was once united now being divided. Because in the end, that connection between them still exists, it still overcomes Ekko. Both tendencies are present at the same time, both coming together and pulling appart, both attraction and repulsion.

But then there's also instances of relationships coming together on the bridge.

Vi and Caitlyn's first hug, the first real acknowldegement of what they've come to mean to each other, happens on the bridge. That's a really significant moment, it's the first instance of a connection successfully taking place there, and it's one between characters from either side. I think to a large extent, Vi and Caitlyn's relationship itself represents the possibility of reconcilliation between Zaun and Piltover. By having this moment on the bridge, that symbolism is played up.

Later on, Heimerdinger and Ekko meet for the first time by the bridge, another connection between characters from two opposite sides, and one that turns out to be vitally important to the fates of the two cities.

Then, in act 3 of season 2, we start to see the bridge in quite a different way from season 1.

Starting with the AU world in episode 7. We see the connection between Piltover and Zaun fully realized. Not only is the bridge open, but it's full of activity and life. People are fully living in that connection.

And not only that, this is on the part of the bridge that opens up. But there's people just hanging out there. Heck, there's seemingly permanent businesses there. That means the bridge hasn't been raised in some time. Which sounds very inconvenient for maritime trade. But more importantly, it shows how well-established and stable the connection between Piltover and Zaun is.

The spot where two forces meet isn't just the place where they come into conflict, it's also where they begin to integrate. And of course, the division between Piltover and Zaun still exists in a literal sense, people are never going to not need the bridge to move between them. But it's being crossed over constantly as if it's nothing.

Then in the next episode, we start to see the bridge being used to connect rather than to divide in the main timeline.

Like in season one, enforcers are set up with their flood lights, but this time as an invitation rather than as a barrier. And there is a small number of Zaunites who come across, showing that first potential for a coming together.

And I want to go on a bit of a tangent here, because the show could have gotten quite simplistic at this point, to just be like, the two sides need to come together and sing kumbaya etc. But the show doesn't do that.

The characters who cross the bridge in this scene become subsumed into Piltover. They wear the same uniforms, and go through the same training. And the two characters that are highlighted the most, Gert and the nameless father, they die. And Piltover still loses to Noxus.

It's only when Zaunites show up under their own leadership, fighting with their own methods, that the battle turns around. A positive kind of unity does not mean one side being subsumed by the other. It doesn't mean submitting chaos to order. It doesn't mean eliminating the contradiction of duality (as Viktor tries to do). It is a unity of opposites.

We see this in the last scene on the bridge, the memorial.

The bridge is finally a true meeting place. There's still a certain two-sidedness to it, Sevika and Shoola are each representative of their two cities, and they're presented as being on opposite sides, with a strong line between them. But at the same time, when you look at the crowd, Zaunites and Piltovans are mixed together. Shoola and Sevika's colour palettes are very similar. Behind them, the two land masses look like they're tapering into each other. It's a unity of opposites.

I think the theme of duality carries over into the final scene with Cait and Vi as well. Like I mentioned above, I think Vi and Caitlyn's relationship is itself partially representative of the potential unity between their two cities. And even though the scene is not set on the bridge, bridge is still invoked by the song that Vi hums. The potential for connection that was first implied in the song has been fulfilled.

Of course, that doesn't mean the end of struggle, or the end of tension, or the end of the story. Caitlyn says as much, "our story isn't over." We see that there's still tensions when Sevika joins the council. Differences are not blended out, the duality remains, with all it's contradictions, which means that the relationship between the two sides will continue to be dynamic and evolve. And then there's the idea of "the dirt under your nails" which I think has layers of meaning, one of which is being a reminder of the past, a reminder that Caitlyn got her hands dirty, and in that sense, a reminder of what the history of Piltover and Zaun has been. There's no erasing the past or forgetting it, but there is forward movement, which is then communicated by the airship, carrying Jinx off to start a new story.

Point being, the relationship between the two sides, the duality of it, has changed its dynamic, but not its complexity.

I feel like there's not a lot of shows that can deal with such broad themes on so many levels, and do such a good job of it. And part of that is using symbols in complex and evolving ways.

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