Arcane S01E05
Added 2025-01-09 18:19:07 +0000 UTCComments
I LOVE the theater scene's use of imagery. Heimerdinger only hearing the beautiful music, ignoring the storm. Perfect symbolism for how he is only aware of the good parts of the council, as the shady dealings literally happen right behind his back. Fortiche is so good at visual storytelling it's crazy. Also with Viktor and the assistant saying there is always tomorrow, but we see that Viktor is in a state where he might NOT have a tomorrow. Such good storytelling.
TheCakeMachine
2025-01-15 16:25:15 +0000 UTCWhen it comes to Silco saying "fear haunts as all" I've always thought of it as "you're not the only person who struggles with it", that she's not weak bc she's scared and most importantly she's not worse for feeling that way. I always understood it like that, bc her all life she felt that she's worse that others, that she doesn't fit, that she's weaker bc she's herself. So she wants to get rid of that (and getting rid of herself basically)
ZuzaaA
2025-01-14 18:50:11 +0000 UTCRe-enactment for mastery is a thing, so could be connected with that. I have a video on my therapy channel about the reasons why people re-enactment trauma.
StuBoy
2025-01-13 23:14:01 +0000 UTCI think he's trembling, either scared or terribly anxious. I don't think its a fidget (which could also indicate anxiety), I think its more than that - if that makes sense.
StuBoy
2025-01-13 23:13:07 +0000 UTCWatched a few days ago but forgot to comment! I love how much you pick up on even on a first watch, and I appreciate your willingness to go back and rewatch some things. Others have pointed out most things I would have at this point, but one thing I haven't seen mentioned is in the top-down shot of Jayce next to Viktor in bed, Jayce is visibly shaking . It's hard to tell if he's just fidgeting (tapping his foot really fast making the rest of him shake) or if he's actually trembling. It might be a mix of both. But either way it shows how deeply affected he is by learning of Viktor's terminal illness.
Amorena Nobile
2025-01-12 21:27:13 +0000 UTCyou made a really nice comparison in this episode, where Vander and Grayson were working together fine until it didn't (because the kids were reaching too far and blew up a building). now Silco and Marcus have been working fine for a while, until it also is starting to show cracks because Powder has reached too far with six enforcers dead (that Marcus knows of).
donglordthe3rd
2025-01-12 09:32:00 +0000 UTC💯 It always frustrates me when Marcus is interpreted as a one-dimensional villain. I guess that's inevitable as he's a minor character with less screentime.
Matt Sturgeon
2025-01-10 23:15:48 +0000 UTCSomething I just realized about what Jinx is going through up till now from your reaction: Her Big Trauma is caused by hextech and now she's trying to master it. That's a particular kind of response to trauma, almost the opposite of avoidance.
Yvonne Rathbone
2025-01-10 19:18:15 +0000 UTCAs someone working with particle accelerators: that is actually a really good analogy! You can explain the principle about how we keep the particles on their trajectories as they circle each other in about an hour (leaving out a lot of the stuff that you actually need to make things work). But building the first collider took us humans several decades of pushing our collective heads against walls, problems and supposedly "simplier" machines (in a collider, you are trying to hit particles in a beam traveling at almost the speed of light with another beam of particles also traveling at the speed of light exactly at the right positions so we can actually detect something, all the while the whole machine is operating on the verge of on-setting chaotic behavior). Or to put it in the context of the show: Piltover has all the structures, wealth, concentration of talent and the know how how to transfer these ingredients into outcomes. Societies need to not be struggling for survival over very long periods of time in order to arrive at the point where it is possible to dedicate these kind of resources.
Setec Astronomy
2025-01-10 18:16:27 +0000 UTCpeople, don't need to give spoilers, just let him enjoy the feast, from the main dish to the dessert. Talking a little about Jinx, she really is very inteligent indeed, to answer your doubt about why she did understand things quicker than them, you just to need to think about something, compared to the time you spent to read and understand about neural plasticity, how much time did the cientists spent sitting on a lab table trying to figure it out? to discover something people might need years but once it's discovered and understood, other people would need less time to follow up.
Marcos
2025-01-10 16:09:50 +0000 UTCI'm legit planning on cosplaying Viktor at some point, I love him so much 😁
JewelShadow
2025-01-10 09:09:31 +0000 UTCWe can geek out together. Do you want to be Jayce or Viktor?
StuBoy
2025-01-10 08:53:06 +0000 UTCAbsolutely! Especially for the PTSD research, it may be useful for you. I'll pull up some of their work, I work primarily on stroke, but the neuropsychiatric side is fascinating
JewelShadow
2025-01-10 08:43:07 +0000 UTCLet’s catch up in direct messages, this is genuinely fascinating to me and so helpful in furthering my understanding past what is generally written in the trauma literature etc. I’ll have a read through and get back to you after I’ve seen some clients if that’s okay. It’s so hard to find someone to have these conversations with!
StuBoy
2025-01-10 08:41:36 +0000 UTCMy understanding (PhD candidate Systems Neuroscience, but not an expert in synaptic plasticity) is that none of the pathways take precedence exactly, because none of them are winning so much as they're all contributing. The signal that creates a final behavior or behavior change is encoded in the amplitude and frequency of the signals, as well as the timing of the signals relative to each other, the quantity of neurotransmitters released by the pathways in question, and the quantity of receptors available for those neurotransmitters on the post-synaptic side. So at the behavior level, it ends up being less of a threshold situation, and more of a set of knobs you can use to control the strength attributes of different sections of the network to fine tune behaviors and sensations. Similar to the critical period of development, when someone has a brain injury or stroke, people tend to enter a new phase of heightened plasticity (both growth and pruning) during the first 6 months - 1 year post injury, which allows the spared neurons reorganize, but often there is only so far they can heal on their own. VNS or Nucleus Basalis stimulation can be used to induce that heightened plasticity state outside of the critical period or an inciting injury, and that's what we use in our lab post injury to help people regain lost of motor or sensory function when temporally paired with physical therapy. It's also being tested in conjunction with exposure therapy for PTSD in clinical trials (Looking for some good papers on these, I'll put them up when I find them)
JewelShadow
2025-01-10 08:38:50 +0000 UTCI agree. One question (without spoilers). Marcus obviously didn’t want Silco to know he had done that despite their arrangement. This shows some sort of welfare concern for Vi perhaps but he throws her in jail which is arguably worse.
StuBoy
2025-01-10 07:38:00 +0000 UTCOh yeah, I know I’m right here - I caveat what I was saying because the exact science behind it is more nuanced than what I was saying. My question would be more along the lines of at what point does a new neural pathway take precedent over an old one and what impact that has on actual observable behaviour, especially outside of the pruning process during younger years. The argument that a stronger neural pathway takes precedence doesn’t always hold true etc. I just try to be cautious with my statements. It’s like when people still talk about how the triune brain (the thinking, emotional and brain stem) works and being 3 different parts which we’ve since learned isn’t the case.
StuBoy
2025-01-10 07:32:30 +0000 UTCI'd like to mention a couple other assumptions to that At the beginning of the video (at 02:05), Caitlin's dad brags with a gun in his hands that he taught her how to shoot, which really hurts Caitlin's mom, since apparently she's the one who taught her daughter how to shoot And most importantly, Vi is in a jail with absolutely no criminal record or paperwork. Being in a mixed prison with both men and women at the same time, with absolutely no rights whatsoever for eight whole years, sounds very cruel. The age rating doesn't allow for showing all facets of this horrible situation. I had this thought in my head for a long time. We were told that there was a lot of physical abuse by the guards, but something tells me that there was all kinds of abuse, not just physical. This had a huge impact on Vi's behavioral changes during and after her time in prison This is just my thought, and I'll be very happy if I'm wrong, but man..... this is so painful and sad... I hope I delivered the meaning clearly, as I am not a native English speaker
alex lavrenof
2025-01-10 03:15:20 +0000 UTCI think Marcus’s arc is really poignant. To me he’s the epitome of a tragic character done well, and it’s nice to see some empathy for him. My read is that was recruited by Silco as a younger more impulsive person, and now he’s living with the consequences of that decision. He got the job his ambitious younger self probably wanted at the cost of someone he idolized whose blood is now on his hands. He’s under the thumb of a man he clearly hates but is bound to because of his betrayal. He seems to genuinely care about the people he’s responsible for and is forced to keep covering up corruption because he can’t see any way out.
Saja
2025-01-10 02:55:33 +0000 UTCwoo!
Campleb
2025-01-10 02:55:16 +0000 UTCwhen jinx stole the gemstone, in episode 4, jayce remarked that she stole the gemstone along with some research papers (that jayce and viktor wrote). So she IS smart enough to reverse engineer what they did and push it further but she did have some basic notes from the other duo as a baseline , which explains also how fast she cracked that
Cyber
2025-01-10 02:50:04 +0000 UTCOh in case you missed it, as you didn't comment on it, during the scene Sevika enters Silco's office to tell him of Vi, Silco is applying makeup to his scarred side of his face, which I believe is quite an important aspect to his characterisation and how appearances matter to him
TaroGhostie
2025-01-10 02:42:41 +0000 UTCWhen it comes to Jinx being able to work with hextech quite quickly, it would mostly be due to the fact that she also has jayce and viktors research notes so they've already done a lot of the work for her in terms of how this works, all she needs to do now is mold their functions to her desired outcome
TaroGhostie
2025-01-10 01:47:29 +0000 UTCI think you missed a detail at the end of episode 3. It was marcus that grabbed Vi at the end so she couldn't return to Powder, I assume Vi got locked up almost immediately after.
Reuben Price
2025-01-10 01:00:42 +0000 UTCProbably a bit of both tbh!
Lily Luna
2025-01-10 00:05:46 +0000 UTCYes this, also this Hexgem is stable and "safe" (per Jayce and Viktor's comments in episode 4) contrary to the previous sort of jagged stones, so this also helps. Jinx definitely has the brains for inventions especially when it comes to making weapons, but she wouldn't have figured it all out so fast without the notes and the stability of the new gemstones. Probably would have gotten bored before getting to that kind of result haha - if she didn't blow herself up during an experiment! She shows a remarkable lack of concern for her own safety. Still super impressive though, like another commenter said, being able to understand the notes at all, let alone replicate things from them shows how smart she is. Jayce and Viktor also mention that only some of their notes were taken so she doesn't even have the full version!
Lily Luna
2025-01-10 00:04:29 +0000 UTCSynapses can definitely be either strengthened (LTP) or weakened (LTD) over time, but there may very well be some protective mechanism for strong existing synaptic connections to slow their weakining. Over time though, if you train a new pathway, the old one will weaken and the new one will strengthen. Maybe I'll poke around and see if I can find a paper about it, some people in our lab do addiction research
JewelShadow
2025-01-09 23:04:27 +0000 UTCSame with the scientists who built it. I doubt there is a person who'd build it alone. You can absolutely understand the tech and how they speed up the particle with electric field, but to build it, you would require advanced knowledge in physics, engineering, computing, material science and simple manpower. As for the hextech, its not a hadron collider. For me it looks closer to an energy conversion breakthrough, say, electricity or invention of steam engines. Its just their source was incredibly power dense, akin to nuclear power.
wfthkttn
2025-01-09 22:22:31 +0000 UTCI like seeing empathy for Marcus, he rarely receives it from reaction content haha
Matěj Macek
2025-01-09 22:04:11 +0000 UTCHeimerdinger is physically located in the middle of the audience at the theater. The rest of the councillors are on balconies, all around that audience. In a litteral sense, Jayce went around Heimerdinger to strike deals with every other councillor. And Heimerdinger, focused on the performance, stayed blissfully ignorant of it.
Simpelicity
2025-01-09 21:58:06 +0000 UTCWhat’s impressive is that she was able to piece everything together from notes alone, instead of be like “tf is this”
Chelly
2025-01-09 21:52:00 +0000 UTCI wanted to mention that too. :D Sure she is brainy, but I doubt, that she would be able to figure out the Arcane nearly as quick as it's shown here without all of Jayces and Viks research.
Aline Wunneburg
2025-01-09 21:40:34 +0000 UTCRegarding Jayce and Viktor’s side of the story, I loved your comment about the shifts in their dynamic at the beginning of the episode. Jayce’s “naivety” in trying to do the right thing (eradicating corruption on his first day) says so much about his character. I can’t wait for you to learn more about him! Throughout this episode, it feels like their priorities are starting to diverge, and what the series does with this in the upcoming episodes is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating aspects of Arcane’s storytelling
luana_reads
2025-01-09 21:22:07 +0000 UTCAnother amazing reaction! I always love your comments on Silco and his relationship with Jinx. Silco is one of my favorite characters because, while he’s technically the villain, his relationship with Jinx reveals his human side. There’s so much depth there... pain, trauma, but also glimpses of someone who could arguably be a good dad if those burdens were taken away. As for Jinx, I really liked your comment about post-traumatic growth, and I’m very excited for future discussions! Also, she’s incredibly smart, even if she’s just following the instructions in the notebook. I bought a stationary bike the other day that was supposed to be easy to assemble, and halfway through I gave up and called my dad for help hahaha imagine if the future of the Undercity hinged on my abilities instead of Jinx’s lol
luana_reads
2025-01-09 21:19:25 +0000 UTCI really like the fact that during the theater scene while Jayce was weathering the storm, Heimerdinger was off on his own sitting up at the front humming along and fully immersed in the music while the machinations of the other councilors literally happens "behind his back". Just goes to show that he is blissfully unaware of what goes on within his own council. I am sure if he wasn't a founder of Piltover with all his years on the council, his naivety would have gotten him removed from the council long ago. That same fate or worse was coming for Jayce too if it wasn't for Mel's guidance. There is so much symbolism in packed into this show it's amazing. I see more of it with every rewatch! Also I bet Silco is thinking Vi's return from the dead could not have come at a worse time right after his talk with Jinx. Just as he is trying to help her let go of the past and become Jinx, one of the few people that could undermine everything he taught her shows back up. Thanks for the reaction!
Tim McCabe
2025-01-09 21:05:25 +0000 UTCI love the fact that most Arcane viewers gradually grow to love Jinx more and more and get excited when she appears, even though she actually kills several people in the first two episodes as jinx and behaves more like an chaotic teenager. This shows how interesting the character is and how well-written she is. No wonder she's a favorite character for most people.
Manu_lc
2025-01-09 20:42:34 +0000 UTCJust finished watching. Loved your initial reaction but I have to highlight your thoughts on Silco. He’s in my opinion one the most well written characters in past years. Watching the series again with your insights really feels like I’m watching a brand new episode every time. Looking forward to the next one!
yo_boy_Wolfie
2025-01-09 20:32:03 +0000 UTCMy thoughts, opinions, and some details. Its likely caitlyn chose to become an enforcer due to her conversation/conversations(?) with Greyson. Marcus's relationship with Silco is interesting. I think there is a part of marcus that is trying to follow in Graysons footsteps and keep the peace. It as you said parallels Graysons and Vanders relationship with some key differences and simillaritys. One of the differences is in Silco's relationship he holds power over marcus, the reverse was true for Vander and Graysons. Grayson held power over Vander, but not by intention. In both relationships its important that the council doesn't know about it as both would crumble if the council found out. Its an interesting choice for silco to give the family's of the enforcers Jinx killed money "from an anonymous concerned citizen". it really doesn't seem necessary, but it does show some amount of concern for how the civilians are effected by silco's war. I think Victor has been aware that he's dying for a while, he's been concerned with time since episode 4 "a decade?". I think its why he's so concerned with the people that "need our help now". It also makes it kind of sad some of the things people say to him like "there's always tomorrow, right". Vi doesn't take a deep breath until she makes it all the way down into the fissures. Side note the fissures is what the area the undercity was built in was called, Its called that due to the large natural cracks in the earth that run through the area. Which is what made it ideal for mining. I love Jerico's smile at the end of the Food stall scene. Have you noticed Jinx's pistol is modeled after the toy gun from the arcade they played in as kids. Also the Crow landed in the wrong place if it didn't want to be shot, the shooting range that is. Jinx later uses its feathers as bookmarkers at the end of the episode so it wasn't a total waste of life (kinda). The shot where Jinx is trying to beat Vi's score and picturing Vi is shot almost like Jinx and past Vi were fighting eachother. I think Jinx tried to beat Vi's highscore as a reference to what mylo said, "you were twice the person at half her age". In the Violin scene Himerdinger is fully focused on the music while all the counciler's (Jayce included) are caught up in making shady deals. This both highlights Himerdingers lack of corruption, and his unawareness concerning the problems of his city. Silco really seemed content to let jinx work out her problems in her own time and way, but stealing the gemstone changed things. It put them on a tight schedule, and now its only a matter of time before marcus is discovered. Neither Jinx nor silco can afford to be caught up in the past at a time like this, if they fail to weaponize hextech in time, they'll likely be thrown in jail for life or killed for their crimes. I think this is what prompts Silco to tell jinx its time to let powder die so she can weaponize the hextech. The line "You need to let powder die" does bring into question one thing. Does silco love powder, or does he love Jinx. Can he accept the person she was and that the things she felt were real. We see with sevika's arm another use for Shimmer, a power source for prosthetics, and despite injecting it into sevika the shimmer doesn't change her body morphing it into somthing new just her eye color. Yes silco thought Vi was dead, its likely thats what marcus told silco he did with vi when he actually threw her in prison.
Last Thing
2025-01-09 20:25:12 +0000 UTCJinx has access to jayce/viktors notes on hextech thats why why she is getting results fast
aramhasa
2025-01-09 20:23:35 +0000 UTCJust a little note, Jinx stole not only the hextech gem but also some of their research notes, which is probably how she is able to got it to work so fast. You can see she reading those notes in both scenes where she is working it.
Luís
2025-01-09 20:11:43 +0000 UTCThey say you can pause Arcane on any frame and witness a true work of art...
Matt Sturgeon
2025-01-09 20:07:56 +0000 UTCWhile we're talking cameos, the "drunkards" on the airship in Ep4 were the founders of Studio Fortiche (Jérôme Combe, Pascal Charrue, and Arnaud Delord)
Matt Sturgeon
2025-01-09 20:06:23 +0000 UTCTo be honest I think it was more luck I saw it on the door as I think I had paused it for some reason just before so when I unpaused it was the first thing I saw !
StuBoy
2025-01-09 20:00:49 +0000 UTCOh and Imagine Dragons too made a Cameo !
Carol Grein Ericson
2025-01-09 19:59:20 +0000 UTCOh so sorry !!! I don’t want to spoiler anything!!! You got one concept that will be explained later one!
Carol Grein Ericson
2025-01-09 19:53:57 +0000 UTCI'm impressed you picked up on that "two As" insignia. I've probably watched that scene 30 times, but I never spotted it was on the door! I always questioned what exactly the symbol on the paper really meant and whether it was a "tip" or just the bill 😂
Matt Sturgeon
2025-01-09 19:52:51 +0000 UTCI think he's giving her what he thinks he was missing when he and Vander had their split in the past. I don't know if he's actively aware that he's doing that, but almost immediately, when he said "I'll show you what you really are" to Vander, it turned into "We'll show them" with Jinx. I think he's as scared of trusting someone else as she is, and he's also as scared of abandonment as she is.
Kae Devine
2025-01-09 19:49:53 +0000 UTCWait… that makes me even more intrigued, I love being nerdy and now I’m thinking about that instead of trying to work out when I may have thought someone was being needy.
StuBoy
2025-01-09 19:49:48 +0000 UTCLittle bit of trivia: The musician performing in the theater scene was modeled after the real-life violinist (Ray Chen) who performed most of the lead violin pieces throughout the series. Both the score and much of the soundtrack, too. He was also heavily featured in “Bridging the Rift”...
Matt Sturgeon
2025-01-09 19:49:22 +0000 UTCInteresting. I saw it as like a caged animal being freed back into their natural habitat.
StuBoy
2025-01-09 19:47:57 +0000 UTCWhat strikes me about Silco is that, despite fitting the typical “villain” mold, he shows deep empathy and understanding toward Jinx. He’s thoughtful about her emotions and goes out of his way to make her feel better and more confident in herself — all without ever patronizing her.
Carol Grein Ericson
2025-01-09 19:45:27 +0000 UTCYeah, she is quite literally a genius, there are only a hand full people in the world that can create hextech devices.
Kabidu
2025-01-09 19:44:18 +0000 UTCI hadn't thought that that sentence from Sevika about Jinx being like a daughter to Silco would be enough to make Vi essentially give up in that moment, but it makes sense entirely. I naively figured she was just too weak to fight due to the stab wound post-fight, but, this makes a lot more sense. Especially considering how tenacious Vi always is. Good eye on that.
Harris
2025-01-09 19:43:38 +0000 UTCJinx also builds all her guns/bombs and everything else she has, basically. Even her pants were used to be a part of her shirt (in the first act) that she herself probably turned into pants. And all this with scraps she found and with no one to teach her. She IS quite smart
Jude
2025-01-09 19:41:29 +0000 UTCAnd as you said, the dynamics between silco and jinx is also really fascinating. He really gets her. He understand/ listens to her and helps her through her trauma rather than diminsh it. Through silco, jinx gets more confidant and stronger.
Lu
2025-01-09 19:40:55 +0000 UTCAuto correct made needy for Nerdy 🤓🤣😂
Carol Grein Ericson
2025-01-09 19:40:24 +0000 UTCJinx is brainy but she also stole jayce notebook, when she stole the crystal from him. We saw her reading from it in the beginning. So she would "only" have to recreate what jayce and Victor did and not invent it new. Therfore it is faster for her.
Lu
2025-01-09 19:38:25 +0000 UTCThis episode is a “filler” for Vi Story so no much of big Cliff hanger … one the thought that got my attention, when Vi arrived at UnderCity… her will to run and jump around even adding her life in danger right away ( fighting) it could be her dealing/ manifesting hers PTSD?
Carol Grein Ericson
2025-01-09 19:38:24 +0000 UTCI always used to have the subtitles on... Then I realized I wasn't actually paying attention to the scene, faces, etc; because my eyes were always looking at the text! Now I find them really distracting, and only turn them on if I'm re-watching a scene where I missed some dialogue.
Matt Sturgeon
2025-01-09 19:32:54 +0000 UTCYeah, I wouldn't know where to start haha. But she really is smart—she's been building stuff since she was a kid. I'm sure it wasn't that difficult for someone like her, especially with an instruction manual!
Bea
2025-01-09 19:32:25 +0000 UTCYeah I get that, but if someone left me the instructions to build a haldron collider in my bedroom I don’t think I could do it. Ikea is challenging enough. But it definitely sped up her process!
StuBoy
2025-01-09 19:29:55 +0000 UTCReally enjoying your commentary on Silco. I think he's in the top 3 of most interesting characters in the show. I have stronger favourites of course but I was always intrigued by how heavily his past clearly influences what he does now and the ways that he does it. When I first watched the show, around this episode I was intrigued by how he seems to use power and fear as a wall between him and anyone else except for Jinx, so I'm really enjoying your observations on the way he is with her. Can't wait for you to get a full picture on him, he really is so interesting.
Kae Devine
2025-01-09 19:29:13 +0000 UTCJinx stole Jayce's journal too when she stole the gemstone (she is shown reading it several times during the episode), so she just followed what he wrote in there to make hextech work. I mean, of course, she's very smart, but in this case, she just had to follow the steps haha
Bea
2025-01-09 19:24:38 +0000 UTCHmmmm. Intrigued.
StuBoy
2025-01-09 19:22:03 +0000 UTCGood spot.
StuBoy
2025-01-09 19:21:54 +0000 UTCWhen Jinx is in the arcade, she uses the name 'POW' on the scoreboard. There is enough space for four characters (Jinx). Claggor is on the board too, in the last two spots as CLAG.
Will
2025-01-09 19:09:41 +0000 UTCI’m amazed how Stu gets the things that are going to happen without knowing, even things that are very nerdy.. If you know what I mean 🤣
Carol Grein Ericson
2025-01-09 19:02:59 +0000 UTCAlso, I do like it with the subtitles a lot especially with being a sort of analysis as you watch it makes it easy to see how you mean
Soldier 69
2025-01-09 18:38:57 +0000 UTCCan't wait for the Vi psychology analysis
Soldier 69
2025-01-09 18:26:38 +0000 UTCWoooooh, i love these reactions!!
Foozy
2025-01-09 18:26:28 +0000 UTCOh yeah I am ready for this !!!! This one came along quick. Love it. I shall be watching later
Thomas Cheetham
2025-01-09 18:21:06 +0000 UTC
