Arcane Season 2 released the final act today, marking the end of the series and the story of Zaun and Piltover. The sequel picked up right where the first season ended, with most of the characters look for revenge on someone. Overall, I found Arcane Season 2 just as beautiful as Season 1, but I will use this review to explain a bit about why I found it rushed and unsatisfying. Spoilers from Arcane Season 2 below.

The main thing I can agree with most of the people I spoke with is that there just wasn’t enough time for anything to get fleshed out. The first episode wasted no time and we immediately see the aftermath of Jinx’s attack. Caitlyn lost her mother, and a few other councilors also perished. However, it still seems to go too fast, as they get attacked again and we can hardly keep up with what’s happening.

Viktor’s transformation into the miracle-inducing herald, Caitlyn going Canute-mode and suddenly leading the charge, Jinx somewhat reverting to a normal person thanks to Isha, Black Rose getting involved with Ambessa. These were all great moments that seemed to just happen too fast with no time for us to understand them completely

Least understandable were the whole Hextech timeline anomalies. Jayce, Ekko and Heimerdinger went down to the undercity to check if there was anything there. Either their entrance there seemed to trigger the anomaly that made all the Hextech weapons malfunction in the middle of the main fight (Vi and Caitlyn vs Jinx and Sevika), or they just happened to enter at the worst possible time. Either way, I had no idea what had happened to either of them at this point, but I was expecting some explanation by the end of the series.

It did not arrive immediately. Instead, Act II began after a timeskip, where Jinx was now a symbol of rebellion. However, she herself seemed to have settled into a slow life with Isha, now being an older sister and just enjoying her time with the young girl. This also felt sudden, but it was nice seeing some non-action moments, especially with Jinx seemingly reverting away from the psycho League of Legends path that the game’s players have been waiting for.

With a bunch of people dying their hair blue and wanting to rebel, Jinx’s own involvement seemed inevitable. Unfortunately, it had to go through Isha, which instantly made me think her death could trigger Jinx back into the madman route. After the young Jinx-wannabe attended her rally and got imprisoned, Jinx went to save her together with Sevika.

Singed also got imprisoned, and I thought him summoning Warwick using his blood was portrayed perfectly. League of Legends players are familiar with Warwick’s ability to trace opponents using their blood, while it was easy to understand even for those unfamiliar with it. It being Vander was also already pretty obvious, and him remembering Powder was touching. However, yet another thing that seemed rushed was how they managed to escape the prison and get into hiding long enough for her to find Vi.

If Vi’s time in the ring was supposed to be relevant, unfortunately that also eluded me due to it just being shown too quickly. The sequence was beautiful, as was most of the show, but I could just not properly get attached to her backstory and time there as it was just a single song’s worth of seconds. The ring itself seemed cool and her opponents were no doubt strong enough to force her to grow a lot, but it just felt like filler until Jinx came with the news that Vander was alive.

Caitlyn learning that Singed was Dr. Reveck was interesting for the League of Legends players (because it confirmed that it was Singed), as well as his showing his daughter, which eventually becomes Orianna. But combined with Mel’s experience with Black Rose (and LeBlanc?), it all felt pretty hard to follow for me. Add to it Vander’s backstory with Silco and Felicia and their “Blisters and Bedrock,” and I could barely keep up. Still, the main part was plenty emotional, and the animation/OST were incredible again.

Vander and Silco being all friendly, with Felicia there as the kind bridge between the two, made it easy to think about a better future where things didn’t go so wrong. We didn’t learn how Felicia died, but it was probably one of the main reasons the other two eventually got detached and went completely separate ways. It also served as a reminder as to why Vander cared about Vi and Jinx, which transitioned the flashback beautifully to the present, with him stopping himself before hurting Vi, much like he did with Jinx in the previous episode. Since I’d been hoping Jinx would get a happy ending since the start, I almost felt like it’d be fine if the series ended right there.

There were 4 more episodes left, though, and Jinx did not have that much fun. They took Warwick to Viktor, who thought he was worth saving despite all the potential risk. We got to see how Viktor was seeing the world now, which felt pretty confusing. Though that’s understandable considering he was now supposed to be some prophet that could see way more than the average person.

Still, the last episode of Act II felt most rushed up to that point. Jayce came out to seemingly kill Viktor, Caitlyn believed Vi despite the big timeskip and plotted against Ambessa who’d been controlling her, and Singed needed both Viktor and Warwick alive for his plan to revive his daughter. Viktor was seemingly making progress on Vander’s recovery before he got shut down. It was again all a bit too much to grasp in a single episode, and then Isha came along.

With a raging Warwick, a dead Rictus and the aftermath of Viktor’s apparent death, Isha ends up being the one to put a stop to it all. Not before we get a quick flashback into her short history with Jinx, and being reminded that she could be more than enough for Jinx to go mad again. Once again, my opinion can be summarized by the title: beautiful but unsatisfying mainly because it feels too rushed.

Which brings us to the final Act III, where I expected to get some answers and possibly change my opinion on the season overall. Well, there were answers, but my general opinion did not change.

What Arcane Season 2 Act III Answered

It immediately started off with what happened with Ekko. The anomaly affected him and Heimerdinger in a different way than it did Jayce, and they were now in a parallel universe. Of course, it had to be one with a more happy version of Powder, one where she never became Jinx. It feels like a recurring theme for Arcane is to show us happy futures that could have been (or that were, only not in the universe we are following), and they showed this yet again for Ekko and Jinx.

An alive Vander, Silco, Claggor and Mylo, but a dead Vi. Still, it seems like this Powder is the opposite to the one that became Jinx, and is keeping her own desires inside in order to help others. Ekko understandably doesn’t feel like he belongs in that reality, and he convinces Heimerdinger to work on a way to get back. They also need Powder’s help, and the three get to some science after Ekko uses his story of his version of Vi to get her to join them.

This is yet another part where I felt like I should be feeling more emotional about had I had the time. From having forgotten about Ekko to him suddenly getting an arc with Powder where they get together, it felt too sudden to get attached to it. The two have obviously had their history and I was hoping they would get together, but I couldn’t feel the same for this new version of Powder that was obviously not going to last. Though it did succeed at making me even more convinced that the version we’d been following would end up as the psychotic version Jinx.

The scenes of them working together were again animated wonderfully, with me finding the ‘pick my brain’ portrayal particularly creative. Seeing the invention of Z-Drive was also nice, with the nice touch of showing how they got to the 4 seconds limit (matching the time from League of Legends).

Jayce was on his time-traveler journey where he seems to have gotten to the end of his journey and got helped by future Viktor. Heimerdinger chose to stay behind in the parallel universe, which I think was kind of explained but not enough. He obviously prefers inventing in peace, but why did he not advise Ekko to stay a bit longer to invent a more solid arsenal of weapons to fight back in their own reality? Surely a few years wouldn’t matter much if they had a way to go back in time.

Unless the time of their own universe was flowing in parallel, and they could only travel to it in a single timeline. But this is kind of confusing since Heimerdinger had already said he was there for about 3 years (1128 days, 6 hours, and 20 minutes at the time he told Ekko), which would mean that Ekko would already be too late by the time he got back. I felt like it was too random for Heimer to just send off Ekko the moment he found a way to send him back, choosing to stay in the peaceful version of reality himself with no explanation. It didn’t feel like it was a sudden decision either.

In the meantime, Jayce learns that Viktor’s way of saving everyone is to have them share a consciousness with him, while Mel learns of her ability as a mage and is recruited by Black Rose. The two are just about to share some of their experiences when one of Viktor’s ‘perfect soldiers’ arrives to attack them. They manage to defeat the creature, which, after watching the followings episodes, seems like it was only a warning by Viktor about what was coming.

Vi is mad at Caitlyn for locking Jinx without even hearing her explanation about what had happened while she was passed out. Cait eventually does say that it was Jinx’s own surrender that led to it, and that her only concern was Vi’s safety. Despite this, I couldn’t believe how easily Vi got tricked by Jinx into getting locked. I was also surprised that Caitlyn had planned it to happen, and that they would then use the cell to make out with each other. Still, it was a nice fan-service moment that had been a long time coming.

I also thought it was a nice way for Jinx to walk away, but it was obvious that she’d still have a role to play. They later show her remembering Silco and him teaching her that ‘killing is a cycle.’ The only way to break it is to ‘walk away’, which again didn’t bode well for Jinx in my mind.

Either way, Ekko manages to come back to the exact point in time where Jinx is contemplating offing herself, managing to use his new timeleap to save her and convince her to help. This also made for a sad yet powerful line from Ekko that paralleled his experience with the other Powder: “Always a dance with you.”

Why I Found the End of Arcane Season 2 Unsatisfying

As I mentioned several times throughout this review of Arcane Season 2, the main reason I found it unsatisfying is that it felt rushed. I couldn’t be surprised by Maddie’s betrayal (to be fair, Ambessa’s foreshadowing also made it obvious) and it felt meaningless as Mel easily ricocheted her bullet into her.

Viktor’s newfound ability to control perfect soldiers made of seemingly anyone made Vander’s unmatched physique meaningless and Warwick just another soldier, which felt completely different from his previous portrayal. His only purpose was basically to chase Vi and Jinx and to hold them down while the mind-control beams got to them.

Most of all, I was hoping for a more definite conclusion for the ending of the series. I hated the way Vi made Jinx sacrifice herself, and I am not a fan of Jinx’s survival being only a theory. Back in Episode 1, she did say that she would ride one of the blimps that are shown in the final shot of the final episode, but I wish we actually got to see if she went mad or if she peacefully walked away.

It felt to me like only Caitlyn and Vi got a proper ending, with Heimerdinger still in the parallel universe, Mel taking over from Ambessa, and the status of most of the others unclear. We also saw that Singed managed to successfully get Orianna moving, which only left more questions.

I still enjoyed Arcane in its entirety and think it’s an incredible piece of animation. I only think that it could have used more episodes to tell the stories in a deeper way. Regardless, I will be incredibly excited to see any other League of Legends story, and there are so many options to go with (Noxus and Demacia, Freljord, Ionia, The Shadow Isles, Bilgewater, Shurima, etc.)

All images via Netflix, where Arcane is streaming. ©Riot Games / Netflix