EARLY ACCESS: Arcane 2x6 Reaction & Discussion: "The Message Hidden Within The Pattern"
Added 2024-12-30 21:05:47 +0000 UTC
Comments
sorry for spamming comments lol but one last thing, your reaction is my second time experiencing the season and it's making me appreciate the season even more. And like, Arcane is the type of show I don't think you can fully understand at your first time watching. There is just wayyyyy too much going on in every scene. Sometimes I think that's even intentional, to overwhelm and overload you. That's why I love your discussions so much; you clearly have a knack for understanding stories and time and time away I'm blow away by your perceptiveness but when you have scenes like, for instance, the Viktor Singed convo in this episode, I think that's something one probably needs to listen to a couple times, maybe even after the show is over, to fully appreciate and understand all the layers. Or the dinner scene in s1e9. There is so much nuance in every line and frame that the first time will be overwhelming and sometimes I think a bunch of the critique for Arcane comes from this, from how overwhelming it is and how much attention you need to pay and think along but that's what I love about the show. I'm not saying it's some giga high iq show a normal person can't get, not at all, obviously - but Arcane does need you to pay attention and to think more than many other shows. If you don't, you probably won't enjoy it as much, especially this second season. With the animation too, there's so many small things Foriche put in there you won't notice in your first watch while you're trying to understand what's even going on. Oh I'm so hyped for your reactions and especially your discussions for the last act. Very curious how you will like it :)
R
2025-01-04 12:18:45 +0000 UTCoh and what you said about the music, I thought I was going crazy because it felt like I was the only one who thought season 1 used music better than s2. Like, okay, season 2 has more songs I listen to on my own, just because they are great songs, but the way season 1 used these set pieces, the Guns for Hire scene, the What Could Have Been dinner in ep9, gosh. That's like Star Wars, John Williams levels perfection in use of music in a scene. S2 has music I love to listen to but s1 has 2 moments that use music to its max effectiveness. But it is nice to have custom made music for your show, allows you to do so much more with it and it becomes more meaningful
R
2025-01-04 12:09:48 +0000 UTCseason 2 could never match s1. S1 was as close to perfect as you can get, really. But ah man, you are talking from my heart right now. I'm seeing video after video on my feed full of negativity about this season. But really, I couldn't care less about the faults because it hits me emotionally, it made me think so much, changed me, inspired me. To me, what I look for in art is emotional connection over anything else and few things have ever hit me as much as Arcane. I love the messiness. Like you said at one point, sometimes the flaws make something more endearing. I can acknowledge all my small gripes with the season but I cannot help but be amazed with the ambition of the writers and animators, the balls to experiment and go all out instead of trying to play it safe. They clearly had a vision and went for it, and to me, that's everything I could hope to ask for. I hope they won't try to lower their ambition for potential future projects.
R
2025-01-04 12:03:49 +0000 UTCI love the different takes ppl bring on the characters to this day I see some interesting opinions on the characters on social media, and I can tell the show is good or has some good character writing when there are a lot of different discussions about it . but the sad thing is it brings a lot of agenda and toxicity . and that is why I love your discussion and community, amazing ppl Thank you so much
abdulrahman fahad
2025-01-01 03:56:49 +0000 UTCSorry Alecz. And if my comment felt like i targeted you specifically, then sorry to that as well. My intent wasn't trying to be hostile, though i understand why my last line could make it sound that way. And you are right, you said it makes sense for her character. And my comment could make it sound like saying you weren't. My intent was to discuss whether this choice in Caitlyn's character is/was symptom of sloppy/rushed writing, which some people seem to claim. My stance is that, the bad writing choice would have been if Caitlyn needed to have a "big moment" of realisation before returning to "normal". As it would disregard everything that was set up by her character in season 1. Caitlyn is a smart person and a spare time detective, when she is not overly emotionally affected. And i think there is more than enough hints troughout the seasons the actions she took in episode 203, are actions she herself would find vile in hindsight. But of course i would also be in the camp that would be disappointed, if they didn't address this after episode 206, which we aren't discussing atm. anyway. So i guess in my own hindsight, my first comment was hastly made, since we can't really address her whole character yet.
Oliver W
2024-12-31 13:48:17 +0000 UTCAwesome comment! Feel free to share it on the YouTube video as well if you’d like, I’d love that if you’re comfortable so I can look back and read it more easily in the future! If not, no worries ofc!
Aleczander
2024-12-31 12:01:35 +0000 UTCOh you didn’t need to lay anything out like this - there is no confusion whatsoever and nothing needs to be cleared up. As I said in the discussion, it’s totally in-character for Caitlyn to act this way. That doesn’t absolve the character arc of criticism, though, when the change in character feels like it leads to a disproportionately small effect on the narrative in terms of payoff and weight. I’m not sure if you’re trying to insinuate that my criticism is lazy criticism but it reads that way to me, and if so that is quite unfair, especially considering that you weren’t referring to my actual problem with it. There’s really no need to throw any insults around, we’re all adults here. If you’re not talking about me then you can ignore this lol
Aleczander
2024-12-31 11:34:16 +0000 UTCTo speak on the Caitlyn criticism. I think, if you do a simple breakdown, then it pretty much clears it up. Why is Caitlyn here, and what does she want? She is here for the beast, she wants to stop the beast from causing harm. Ambessa's first action, when getting here: Threaten violence, against a peaceful commune, to get the beast. Caitlyn meets Vi: Vi wants to save the beast, who happens to be her father. So you are Caitlyn, and you have these 2 options: 1. Support the warmonger, who has used violence in the name of peace in ep4, who released the guy that invented Shimmer just after Caitlyn gave him a life sentence. And who now threatens violence again. 2. Support the girl you like, who wants to save the beast peacefully, who happens to be the daughter of the beast. In what mad world would Caitlyn, of all people, not support Vi here? If Caitlyn did not choose Vi here, then everything we saw about Caitlyn in season 1 would've been pointless. And even her grief over her mother would just have been a writing tool to support her vengance, and nothing more, but now it is used for 2 things. The POV that this is sloppy writing/rushed, is just lazy criticism, if people don't have more to add.
Oliver W
2024-12-31 09:22:15 +0000 UTCJust like Viktor said: "That which inspires us to our greatest good is also the cause of our greatest evil."
Ivan Tzarovich
2024-12-30 23:36:10 +0000 UTCYESSSSS I'VE BEEN ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT WAITING FOR THIS ONE!! I've rewatched it like a dozen times and I'm still blown away by every second of it. You have the best take on Isha's role in the story that I've seen yet, and it's given me a new appreciation of her character. Also I love that you're wearing a Wilson shirt because Cast Away is LEGIT all I could think about with Jayce in this arc, like he looks like he's been alone on an island with nothing but a bloody volleyball to talk to for ages lmao. He swore to Wilson that he wouldn't fail!!! And god, poor Viktor. His heart was really in the right place, but he tried too hard to solve problems with no solution. Fixing physical ailments and mental traumas can be a slippery slope already, but you can tell by the way the people he's "touched" act that he meddled with even more than that. I feel like he took away their ability to feel negative emotions. None of them ever show FEAR. Anticipation, curiosity, concern, yes- but never fear, suspicion, or even defensiveness. Not at the sight of Vander, Jinx's gun, or the Noxians on their doorstep. The kid had a huge weapon pointed and charged up right in his face, and he was just like "you good? I know where you need to go, I'll take you there." And leads this filthy, unstable dude who was ready to kill right to Viktor. Because of course he does. Viktor told Jayce to come, and likely told his followers to let him through even with a weapon, because he had full confidence that Jayce would never harm him, that they could reconcile anything. Affection still held them together. But that trust cost him EVERYTHING. Between that, Singed doing all this for his beloved daughter, and Ambessa being driven by motherly love... Viktor realizes that getting rid of just the negative will never be enough, but instead of accepting that fact.... I'm also glad you noticed the dissonance between Viktor's physical form and his mental/astral form, which yes, is a fully healthy and healed version of himself. His physical body is too, but there's still SOMETHING that isn't right about it. I think it's because it's not truly "alive." There's a brief frame during the scene where the Hexcore fuses with him in the first episode that shows his skeleton, and you can see that his spine was snapped totally in half. He was DEAD. By the time Jayce is running with him to the lab, Viktor's shirtless, suggesting that Jayce probably spent quite some time trying to revive him on the scene. He would've seen the runes Viktor carved into his skin, and the altered hand and leg the Hexcore had already given him, thus his thought that there might be a chance to save him with Hextech still. So Viktor is a reanimated corpse in every sense of the term. He WOULD be stiff and kinda disconnected from it. Super eerie. One more thing is that during that final sequence of everything going to hell, there's a brief shot of Singed standing in the ruined greenhouse, seemingly holding that device he had been about to inject Vander with, so it's likely that he took advantage of everyone distracted by the commune's death to do it. Vander would've lost all his progress with coming back to himself anyway, but that serum turned his insides to lava, sealing the deal... Oop, I lied- ONE MORE THING! Apparently the forehead touch is a Zaunite custom that's like a gesture of deepest love and devotion, be it familial or romantic. Vander even does it to Silco after he stabs him, right before Silco pushes him off the bridge into the pile of Shimmer, and Powder does it to the monkey bomb when she pleads for it to work. It's such a lovely detail that's even more touching once you realize it really MEANS something.
Alayna
2024-12-30 23:23:56 +0000 UTCAlso reminds us why the Jinx persona exists to begin with. Because Powder wasn't fit/safe in an environment where children can't be free. Sadly then the freedom and carefree nature Jinx brings to Isha's life, is also the tragedy that then gets her killed.
Oliver W
2024-12-30 22:52:06 +0000 UTCThis episode serves to remind us that Jinx is the personification of an ominous crow, condemned to a life of eternal grief and mourning. The fact that Jinx found in Isha someone who could bring Powder back makes everything all the more heartbreaking...😢
Ivan Tzarovich
2024-12-30 21:10:19 +0000 UTC
