I’m 22 years old. I have been playing, watching, or exploring the world of League of Legends since it released when I was 11. I have seen every Worlds Finals, read every possible bit of lore, and played every Riot game ever released. So, when Riot announced they were going to be making an animated tv series (something I’ve been wanting for years), I was ecstatic. In all honesty, I had what some might consider unreasonable standards for Arcane. After all, it’s a show based on a video game that I knew all the lore of and played almost daily; of course I was going to have high expectations. Arcane not only exceeded those expectations, but it subverted them completely as well. I went in with the expectation to be happy, maybe slightly disappointed, and left crying and wanting nothing but for the next 6 episodes to be out already. Spoilers Ahead
In light of such an emotional response, I can only sit back and question what caused it. How did Arcane go from a show about a video game to a fantasy world deeply rooted in class warfare, family values, and mental illness? In a word: Powder. As one of the shows key protagonists, Powder is not yet the character that fans of League of Legends know and love as Jinx. Instead, she stands for everything that makes the show a terrifying masterpiece. Powder is a young girl from Zaun, the trash heap of Piltover. She is an orphan who has seen incredible violence, has been looked down upon her entire life, and is constantly put down as someone who offers nothing but destruction and failure to those around her. All she has when the show starts are her sister VI, and her found family in Mylo, Clagger, and Vander. She isn’t Jinx, the psychopath. VI isn’t the police officer of piltover…no one is who they are in League of Legends. And that is what works so well: I don’t feel like I’m watching League of Legends.
In my opinion, the greatest shows put the audience into their characters. When I watch shows that I have loved in the past, like Avatar: The Last Airbender, I feel a part of certain characters. How Sokka masks his pain with humor, how Zuko feels like a disappointment to his family, and how Toph wants the freedom to express herself. As the first 3 episodes of Arcane progress, I feel in touch with Powder. I’m not a fighter, I’m emotional, I’ve struggled with mental illness, and I have hurt people when I was only trying to help. I feel in touch with VI, who wants only to protect her found family, who has to take on too much responsibility at a young age, and who refuses to give up in the face of adversity. And I feel in touch with Jayce, who wants to push the status quo, with Viktor, who wants to prove he is more than just a pity case. Watching Arcane, I felt in touch with almost every character in some way.
To me, that is what really made the difference. Because I became a part of each character, each in different ways, I no longer saw Jinx, the loose cannon, or VI, the Piltover enforcer, or Jayce, the defender of tomorrow. Instead, I saw Powder, the scared little girl who loses everything. I saw Vi, the girl who sacrifices everything for those she loves. I saw, me. I saw me in the way Powder breaks down; how she hits herself and screams, similar to how I am when I lose myself to mental breakdowns. I saw me in VI’s eyes, the determined look of resilience and rebellion that I put on in the mirror every morning. I saw me. And that, that was truly special.
I could write for pages about the art style, the narrative techniques used, or how incredible the writing is, but when all is said and done, only this one thing truly separated Arcane from League of Legends and other tv shows for me. It is heartbreakingly beautiful, and because of how it pulled me in; I broke with it. Go watch Arcane, it is a masterpiece.
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