Arcane - League of Legends

SckizoBoy

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Thoughts and opinions?

I enjoyed it, personally, even though, for the record, I don't play League of Legends (competitive MP = uh, ew(!)) and only know a bit of the lore (purely circumstantially at that). I suppose it was only a matter of time given how many music videos and related shorts Riot have put out.
 
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Hawki

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Can't comment, as I haven't seen it. I know this MOBA's a bit of a legend in its genre, but playing it is a bit out of my league.
 
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McElroy

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Can't comment, as I haven't seen it.
Yet you replied anyway. Such a two-faced scoundrel.

I can comment that Riot takes their lore too seriously. From the trailers it looks the villains are mental illness, ptsd, and """society""", which is boring as hell, because in a fantasy setting that shit gets solved through magic and other arcane gizmos.
 

Fallen Soldier

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I haven’t played LoL before, but I will check out Arcane eventually.
 

BrawlMan

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In the game. That's a big no-no in a serious story.
Depends on how you do it; the concept can work. So far, reception seems to be fine from what I heard. I have no interests, and I am just waiting for Spriggan and Jojo Part 6 to come out on Netflix already. Jojo later this month, and Spriggan next year.
 
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Dansen

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People really should give this a chance instead of being snarky. The story so far isn't the most original but it is told very well. The characters are really emotive in a really captivating way to me at least. The editing and flow of a lot of scenes are also great. The Studio that Riot hired to make this is amazing and I hope they go on to do more great stuff.
Yet you replied anyway. Such a two-faced scoundrel.

I can comment that Riot takes their lore too seriously. From the trailers it looks the villains are mental illness, ptsd, and """society""", which is boring as hell, because in a fantasy setting that shit gets solved through magic and other arcane gizmos.
Its less mental illness and more "Society" atm. My only real complaint for this first act is that the causes of class conflict aren't really explained yet. The MCs are kids so it kind of makes sense but I hope we learn more in act 2. With how the story is heading atm I don't think magic will be the solution(in fact its going to cause problems). I am also getting the feeling we going to get a bitter sweet ending rather than than a happy ending.

At the very least Arcane has brought us this nice song. I was surprised to learn was composed for the series and not from the Motown era.
 

lostinreality

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It's absolutely brilliant. I may be commenting from a biased perspective since I am in love with the depth of LoL's lore. It's been years since I last played LoL but I intermittently play Legends of Runeterra (the card game) and have always been in awe with the top-notch quality Riot puts into their craft.
 

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I've only seen the first three episodes, and it's pretty freaking good. I was ready to completely ignore this show seeing as I'm not familiar with the game, don't care one iota to familiarize myself with the game, and Riot Games being, you know... shit. The only thing I initially felt it had going for it were the visuals, and even they seemed rather overbearing, a bit too obsessed with detail at the expense of visual cohesion. I only checked out the first episode to see how my surround sound on PS5 worked on a streaming service.

But anyway, yeah it's actually damn good. I'm sure this franchise has a fuckton of lore, but the show never drowns you in it or throws jargon at you. It uses the characters to skillfully navigate you through a large and unfamiliar world, and I can't say that at any point I felt lost or was confronted by something that I was obviously supposed to get if only I had played the game.

The characters are very well done, and it's suprising because they're the type of archetypes that in lesser hands would become the most typical and lazy interpretations. You have the brash tough girl, the rough, grumbling mentor, the quiet, shy gizmo child. There's even two more comedic side characters; one fat and one skinny. I know, right? And yet the show writes them to have real proper dimensions.

And visually, well, Jesus Christ, it's a feast for the eyes. This is truly something to behold.
 
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Dansen

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Act 2 came out this weekend and it is still holding up. The voice acting for this series is amazing, Silco's performance is especially good and is a fantastic villain with a surprising amount of depth to him. Adult Jinx was something I have been nervous about but in act 2 her crazy personality is rather subdued compared to her in game. It definitely comes off as a persona she puts on to deal with the gangsters she has been surrounded by and also as a way of avoiding her trauma.

I like this series a lot because it works fine as stand alone series for does unfamiliar with lol. In this new act they have been adding more background elements and have begun hinting at the larger world without really doing the whole "remember this thing" that plagues stuff like star wars. There is a huge reveal in act 2 that is easily overlooked unless you are really familiar with the side material that has major implications for the final act.

The only blemish on this act is the weird Imagine Dragons cameo crammed into it. It's really inorganic, distracting and weird. I've seen people compare it to Ed Sheeran showing up in GoT.

The show is doing really well but it feels weird that it keeps falling off the top ten while Big Mouth has held at #3 for two weeks now.
 
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SckizoBoy

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Act 2 came out this weekend and it is still holding up. The voice acting for this series is amazing, Silco's performance is especially good and is a fantastic villain with a surprising amount of depth to him. Adult Jinx was something I have been nervous about but in act 2 her crazy personality is rather subdued compared to her in game. It definitely comes off as a persona she puts on to deal with the gangsters she has been surrounded by and also as a way of avoiding her trauma.

I like this series a lot because it works fine as stand alone series for does unfamiliar with lol. In this new act they have been adding more background elements and have begun hinting at the larger world without really doing the whole "remember this thing" that plagues stuff like star wars. There is a huge reveal in act 2 that is easily overlooked unless you are really familiar with the side material that has major implications for the final act.

The only blemish on this act is the weird Imagine Dragons cameo crammed into it. It's really inorganic, distracting and weird. I've seen people compare it to Ed Sheeran showing up in GoT.

The show is doing really well but it feels weird that it keeps falling off the top ten while Big Mouth has held at #3 for two weeks now.
How'd Act III leave you?

As an aside, one thing I will say unprompted is, despite his role within the story, I liked how they portrayed/characterised Silco.
 

Dansen

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How'd Act III leave you?

As an aside, one thing I will say unprompted is, despite his role within the story, I liked how they portrayed/characterised Silco.
I left kind of disappointed with the series as a whole. Act 3 is easily the weakest batch of episodes and doesn't live up to the promise of the first act and I blame it entirely on the script. There are a bunch of things that annoy me and i don't feel like getting to fine detail as to why so I will just list them.

-the reliance of Vi being kidnapped when the script needs a reason to move Vi to another location. It happens 3 fucking times, once is fine, two a coincidence, thrice it becomes bad screen writing.
-Vi gets sucker punched and does stupid stuff to the point where she looks like an idiot.
-Marcus just getting blown up feels like a wasted opportunity.
-Caitlyn surviving with minor wounds despite being in an explosion that pretty much killed everyone else.
-the weird music video when Ekko and Jinx fight just feels like it came out of no where and was rather corny.
-Vi leaving Ekko and Jinx on the bridge instead of staying feels weird and out of character.
-Jayce's arc feels incredibly rushed in this act.
-Jayce being able to go toe to toe with the chem suit guys despite being a scientist and having no combat training.
-The chem barons where pointless to the plot and could have been cut to focus on our characters better.
-I don't know why the cast someone who could barely speak English as Finn. It feels like they cast some Korean actor as a stunt cast, he is just terrible.
-I didn't end up finding jinx compelling at all even though this entire season hinges on her. Everyone says she is tragic but she is ultimately a rather cowardly character that would rather live in a world of delusion than take responsibility for anything.
-Heimerdinger's parts didn't really contribute much, but i guess it is to set up Ekko's chrono shift device. Ekko's VA was kind of bad.

Things I liked.
-Anything with the Madeara's was great, I like Mel's mom.
-Mel actually falling in love with Jayce and the city. I was expecting her to be a Noxian spy so her wanting to protect Piltover and Zaun from her homeland was neat.
-The unintentional comedic framing, when Sky is going to see Viktor and she says "everything you do inspires me", cut to Viktor naked in a dark room screaming in pain while holding the core. It made me laugh out loud.
-Silco was still amazing.
-Riot not Queer baiting with Caitlyn and Vi.
-Singed being a creepy doctor
-Vi and Ekko's reunion.
-Ekko's Firelight gang being made up of kids whose lives were ruined by Silco's actions.
-Jayce telling off the entire council.
 
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Samtemdo8

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I don't know why but I'm just not feeling this setting and its characters.

Some of the story and its conflict and characters feels been there, done that for me.

And the art style. Hoo boy, definitely not a fan. Especially since the actual League of Legends cinematic trailers looked far better then this.

And what the fuck is up with this pop/hip-hop music?
 

meiam

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Watched up to episode 3 and I actually quite like it visually speaking, but I don't care much for plot/characters. It's the usual elite rich vs scummy poor and I get we're supposed to root for the poor people but the shows hasn't bothered explaining much about the world so we don't really know really know what the conditions are like. So it just look like the poor are all thief who resent the rich for trying to stop them from being thief.

I just never liked Powder/Jinx, I don't understand this obsession with making character failure at everything as a way of endearing themselves to the audience, especially after episode 3. I don't get why she's obsessed with using toy in fight rather than... really anything else (running for one). I don't get why Vi bother bringing her along on episode 1, forget the whole "bad luck" part, why bring an inexperienced kid to a really dangerous stunt, she's got nothing to contribute. I'm guessing the two will have to fight later on and it'll be all tragic, but I'll firmly be behind the "Vi should just kill Jinx" side so it'll fall flat for me. Also, why didn't they just go back for the bag of loot they got, it feel in the water but no big deal. And why didn't they bother trying to sell the magic stone, could have at least justified part of the heist.

Jayce arc could be nice, but it's annoying that Heimmerdinger never bother explaining why he's so opposed to magic tech.