Arcane

***Arcane*** (titled onscreen as Arcane: League of Legends) is an adult computer-animated action-adventure streaming television series created by Christian Linke and Alex Yee for Netflix. Produced by Fortiche under the supervision of Riot Games, it is set in the League of Legends fictional universe, and primarily focuses on sisters Vi and Jinx. The series was announced at the League of Legends 10th anniversary celebration in 2019, and first released in November 2021.

## Premise

Amidst the escalating unrest between the rich, utopian city of Piltover and the seedy, oppressed undercity of Zaun, sisters Vi and Jinx find themselves on opposing sides of a brewing war over clashing convictions and arcane technologies.

## Why Its A Legend

1. It stays faithful to the source material that the show is based on. In fact, you do not need to play League of Legends in order to understand this series as it takes place before the events of the games.
2. A lot of the characters are likable and have moments where they can be relatable.
	* Vi and Powder (later known as Jinx) lost their parents in a failed rebellion from Zaun to Piltover.
	* Becoming a father figure to Powder, Vi, Mylo, and Claggor; Vander wants Vi to understand that she must put others ahead of herself.
	* Powder wants to be useful on a mission but always screws up due to her age and lack of combat experience.
	* Jayce wants to develop Hextech to improve lives but is left in the shadows by higher-ups in Piltover who care more about themselves instead of the people.
	* Silico wants Zaun to be an independent nation but will stop at nothing to achieve his goal.
3. Excellent cast with the likes of Hailee Steinfield, Ella Purnell, Kevin Alejandro, Katie Leung, and even the band Imagine Dragons.
4. Speaking of Imagine Dragons, the soundtrack is excellent, especially the main theme.
5. The show is not afraid to tackle politics such as police corruption, class division, and hierarchy. Not only that, the political issues are interesting and relevant to the show.
6. **Incredible pacing:** Due to the interesting characters and storylines, no scenes felt too slow or too fast.
7. Spectacular animation that it feels like you're watching a painting come to life. What's even more impressive is that while the animation team had some restraints, it still looks impressive.
8. Incredible writing and worldbuilding. No scene feels like the audience are being treated like idiots on not knowing how Hextech or Shimmer works, what Piltover and Zaun are as cities, how magic works in this universe. When the show requires exposition, it doesn't feel boring at all and feels interesting and relevant. What makes this even more noteworthy is that the main writers have never written anything before aside from some lore in League of Legends. In other words, **Arcane is literally their first try.**
9. Despite the show starring female characters as its leads, male characters are not demonized and feel important to the show. For example, Jayce and Vi work together to stop a Shimmer Factory in *Oil and Water.* Not once was Jayce portrayed as useless and incompetent nor Vi being portrayed as overpowered and sexist.
10. Incredible action scenes. Thanks to the animation, the action feels fluent and uses slow-motion very well.
11. Great character development. No character feels like the same when we first meet them.
12. LGBT representation is used very well between Vi and Caitlyn, and what's even more impressive is that the relationship is relevant to the main plot, as Jinx believes Vi chooses Caitlyn over her.
13. **The ending to Acts 1 and 3.** You must watch it as we don't want to spoil it!
14. **Meta Example:** The show's success increased League of Legends Players, saw a sharp increase in players playing as Vi and Jinx, and like *Squid Game* and *All Of Us Are Dead*, saved Netflix's reputation after *mh:awfulmovies:Cuties*.

## Bad Qualities

1. Mylo is so far the only unlikeable character as he complains about Powder being useless.
2. The overuse of flashing images can be distorting to some viewers.
3. Act 2 is noticeably weaker than Acts 1 and 3.