Arcane Might Just Be The Best Thing on Netflix
Arcane, the League of Legends Netflix show, is the best thing that Riot Games have ever made. And this is coming from someone who has hundreds if not thousands of hours combined on all of Riot’s games.
Not only that, it’s also one of the best things on Netflix, period.
There are a couple of reasons why I’m recommending this to everyone even if you don’t play the game and why this show is one of the best rated shows of all time on IMDB.
The Characters
From the beginning, out of everything else, the sibling relationship between Jinx and Vi is the heart of the show. It is one of the most compelling relationship I’ve seen on a show in a while. The first act did an amazing job of setting that up, making us care about those two, while the rest of the show followed through on the setup in creative ways.
Acts Two and Three did something a little different. While Act One put the focus mostly on sisters and only giving the other characters a little bit of foundation, the second and third Acts took the focus away from Vi and Jinx — at least a little bit — and shared the spotlight with other characters who didn’t get that much focus in the first act, namely Caitlyn, Jayce, Viktor, Silco and to a lesser extent, others as well.
That means, the show isn’t really just about the… complicated sibling relationship between Vi and Jinx anymore. It’s also about Jayce and Viktor’s conflicting paths of chasing their hextech dream, Caitlyn’s journey away from being a pampered rich kid as she got to know Vi, and many others that I can’t say due to spoilers.
The point is, there are a lot to love in terms of the characterizations. While the way Arcane treated its main characters are superb, many good shows do that, I think one of the things that separate great stories like Arcane from good ones is this way of making all the characters the main character in their own individual stories, so even if we don’t get to see it all unfold, we still get to see their pivotal moments and the way they change.
There are more than one time that I remember where the show takes a minor character, and with very few lines or scenes, it managed to make me care or be invested in their stories.
And because of this, there’s no clear bad guy in the story. Sure, there are characters who are shitty people, but the justifications for their actions are compelling. Everyone has a good reason to do what they do, and they all think that they’re doing the right thing.
And the reason why the show can do all of this, has something to do with my next point:
The Plot/Pacing/Story
Not a single frame in this show is wasted. Every single scene has its own importance and are always built upon later. Whether just a few minutes later, or half a season later, everything has its own payoff later on. That’s why they can tell the story of so many characters so compellingly in a relatively short period of time.
To look at it in a different way, I think the show has near perfect pacing. It has a lot of really exciting fight scenes that move the plot forward, but it does it in a way that doesn’t sacrifice the space for more contemplative character moments, which is a common problem in any story that from any genre that has action as a big part of it.
And that’s why the story managed to be both really exciting and yet at the same time, still provides a lot for the viewers to think about in a way that is interesting instead of frustrating.
One way it could’ve been frustrating if the show had incorporated fan service in a less graceful way. But fortunately, somehow they managed to not go overboard with it.
Most of the fan service is in the form of easter eggs that League of Legends fans will notice, but they don’t detract from the experience of viewers who have never touched the games.
And I suspect, all of this might have something to do with my next point:
The filmmaking/animation
The final piece of the puzzle that makes this show a masterpiece is its filmmaking. Without it, even if the characters and the story are good, if it’s delivered terribly, then none of it would really matter.
Riot and Fortiche really took their time in making and animating this show (6 years), which resulted in one of my favorite animation styles in any piece of media that I’ve ever seen. Everything about it is exceptional.
It has the perfect amount of detail that enables the world to feel immersive and the characters’ expressions to prop up the already amazing character writing, but not enough to make things feel like uncanny valley or to make the world feel cluttered.
The whole thing looks like a high quality concept art, except it’s moving smoothly. I can only imagine how costly and time consuming it all is to animate, so that might be why the plot is so carefully constructed.
But it’s not just the animation. It’s the way the “camera” is placed and the way it moves along with the action. Those things make it feel like this is a really well-directed action blockbuster movie, except it’s animated.
One of my favorite things to look for during my rewatches is the way the scenes transition from one to another. Often times, even when it seems to just be a simple cut, there’s a sense of continuous movement from one scene to the next, making even the little details stylish instead of generic. It’s little things like this that elevates this show above other great shows.
Nothing is Perfect
I don’t think the show is perfect, sometimes the storytelling is so subtle that I missed important things until my rewatch, and certain things only happened the way it did because it was convenient for the plot. The music choices can be… off-putting to say the least, but I do admit overall it’s pretty fire, lots of good tracks. Those are things that don’t really matter to me so it didn’t affect my judgment all that much.
And then there’s the ending, which I’m torn about. On one hand it a bit of a cop out because it has such a big shock factor and it doesn’t really say anything about the problem or the discourse that the show had thoughtfully brought up, but on the other hand, it’s the only logical conclusion considering all the plot points that are setup before that.
Conclusion
None of these things really detracted from my enjoyment because of how good all the things I’ve mentioned are. That’s why I’m giving this a rare 5/5. I think this show — or at least this season — will be seen as a classic in the future, similar to how people see Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s a reminder for people to stop looking down on animation like it’s some kind of genre that only children can enjoy. A reminder that animated shows are so much more than that.
And that is why I’m recommending this show to anyone who enjoys a good story. You don’t have to play the game, in fact, it’s even better if you nothing about the game.
