(Editor’s note: The following article contains spoilers for Season 2 of Arcane.)
The three-episode finale of Season 2 of Arcane is as bold, experimental, and intensely character-driven as any of Netflix’s animated series, a reflection of the show’s structure. This has had quite a bit of an impact. Showrunner Christian Linke and the rest of the Riot Games-based writing team are constantly in hexgates (and/or Zoom calls) with directors and animators at Fortiche Studios to enhance the visual representation of the emotional journey. I was there.
A key example is the first episode of this final arc, “Pretending for the First Time.” It takes Echo (Reed Shannon) to a parallel world. There, the underground city of Zaun looks more utopian, like its sister city Piltover, and many of the characters we lost still exist, and Vi’s sister Powder never existed before. It will be a place. Become Jinx (Ella Purnell). And this episode was born out of Fortiche wanting to create an episode that would stand on its own. The writing team thought it would fit in with whatever experiences Ekko (Reed Shannon) and Heimerdinger (Mick Wingert) have when they travel to Powder’s Zaun.
“So we said, ‘Okay, let’s take some time to explore this idea and see if we can make it happen.'” That’s when we started developing Season 2. It happened pretty early on,” Rinke told IndieWire. “They get inspired and have things suggested to them, so we want to create a space that they can really enjoy.[Writers should]really think about the integrity of the story and the characters. Therefore, it is important to bring out the artist’s full potential.”
Part of unlocking the artist is having your characters make big choices in situations designed to actually pull them in multiple directions, and where the consequences of their actions aren’t necessarily logical or moral. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same, it’s about putting it in a new situation. A situation where you are forced to make a really big and difficult choice.
A prime example is Jinx, whose second season began adrift and ended in destructive mayhem with Piltover in ruins. The events of Arc 1 lead her to find a young Zounite named Isha (Lucy Lowe). “Maybe you don’t necessarily have to be the villain,” Linke said. “I became a big sister for the first time.”
“Arcane” provided by NETFLIX
But like any relationship, Jinx can’t just have a pleasant and merry time enjoying mutant bug wrestling with Isha. Just as Anbessa (Ellen Thomas) and Victor (Harry Lloyd) are trying to evolve his followers into such a state, they can completely toy with others and tell them exactly what they are supposed to do. cannot be executed. Isha believes in the myth that Jinx is a hero of the underground city and trusts Jinx to save Zaun. He saved Isha, so why didn’t he do that? “It takes a lot of courage from Isha. She really admires Jinx, and she resembles some of that[innocence that Jinx had]. And she’s like, ‘Hey, you can’t hide.’ It’s like, ‘This is what you have to do,”’ Linke said.
There, Jinx reaches out to save her adoptive father, Vander (J.B. Blanc), and to reconcile with her sister, Vi (Hailee Steinfeld). She failed in the former and succeeded in the latter, and Isha lost her life in both battles. And Episode 7 provides a little solace to that heartache. So the reassurance that somewhere out there exists a version of Powder, a beautiful synthesis of Isha, Jinx, and Vi, who is alive and living in relative peace.
Episodes 8 and 9 pull Jinx between the extremes of suicidal thoughts and standing up to save Piltover, giving both of them significant stylistic weight. The animation dissolves into chaotic sketchy line drawings during Jinx’s despair, Echo repeatedly interrupting Jinx (a joy of time travel), and the final spectacular entrance into battle between Anbessa’s and Piltover’s forces. was assigned a fun and colorful doodle.
“There’s a headline, and from there it’s, ‘So, what’s that scene?'” What do you do with this? what’s happening? ‘So we worked with the storyboards and Fortiche and said, ‘OK, what is this? ’,” Linke said. “Fortiche is about line work.”
“Arcane” provided by NETFLIX
But in Episode 9, it’s Linke and screenwriter Alex Yee who provide the superstructure upon which all the scenes are built. Jinx’s ultimate sacrifice, sacrificing her and Vander to save Vi while promising, “We’ll always be together, sis,” came naturally during early discussions about how the series would end.
“One of the more difficult things about this kind of work is, you know, Arcane was the first project we did for this kind of work, so we started looking at[TV scripts]. When do you create a season? How can you plan a season? And the answer from every showrunner and every creator we spoke to was an immediate “no.” is. You can’t. It’s too much of an organic approach. “When you build a story, it always kind of goes its own way,” Linke said.
Jinx’s ultimate choice is the sum of all her choices, all of her good and bad luck, and also the constant love and fear that has motivated her throughout “Arcane.” Otherwise, Fortis would not have gotten the pink stripes in her hair in the final battle. This is a great visual nod to the person she becomes in every universe. It’s heartbreaking and heroic, but Linke and the writing team were drawn to it because it felt like a true expression of the character.
“Animation (screenwriting) has an economy, and it’s never easy, but at its core it’s always about relationships and choices,” Linke said. “We always want our characters to make bold choices, and we feel that sometimes the outcome is satisfying, sometimes not. It’s not a perfectly constructed system of things where there’s always a benefit to the cost.”
“Arcane” provided by NETFLIX
This is an important distinction that writers can keep in mind to make stories like “Arcane” equally meaningful, especially now.
For Linke, the joy of expanding Arcane’s original story into two full seasons has been the ability to delve deeper into the characters and feel more invested in their ultimate choices. The final showdown between Caitlin (Katie Leung), Anbessa, and Mel (Toks Olagundoye) is also a product of the series’ organic chain of events. All three women learn from each other and what they want from each other, and as a sacrifice for the jinx, they want to destroy themselves.
“I think the moments between Caitlin and Mel and Anbessa are really special and cool. Caitlin is such a badass. I can’t stop thinking about how she’s transformed into this super cool character and I’m really happy about it,” Linke said. said.
But the influence of Jinx’s story, and Powder’s story, is already being felt. Linke can’t get over the fact that Jinx and Powder’s dance music track in episode 7, “Ma Meilleure Ennemie,” skyrocketed to the top of Spotify worldwide. “It’s like being next to Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar. It’s so cool to see our songs next to these giants,” Linke said. “This is a very special episode that is close to everyone’s hearts.”
It’s also for the audience, as the writing team and Fortiche have brought Jinx close to our hearts. Her story is over. Long live “Arcane”.
“Arcane” is available on Netflix.
