Arcane, one of the most intriguing shows streamed by Netflix today, finally comes to an end on November 23, 2024 after releasing the last three episodes of its second season.
From its great animation style and characters to its worldbuilding and story, Arcane was made by Fortiche Production and Riot Games with co-creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee. It is also inspired by the multiplayer online game League of Legends developed by Riot Games.
Although I have not played the game, I had a great time watching Arcane. In my opinion, viewers do not need to play the game in order to watch or understand Arcane. I personally have not played the game because I have heard the community of players there is very toxic (no, thank you).
I may be very late on this review because the first season was officially released by Netflix back on November 6, 2021, but the reason why I am late is because. . . I am: I started watching Arcane on the afternoon of November 17, 2024 when I was on Netflix trying to find something to watch (it was a Sunday, a day of rest).
In this article, I am reviewing Act I. If you have not watched Arcane, I would advise you to watch it first (Captain Obvious here) before reading this because I will not recap the episodes, as I will only do my review about why I love Arcane.
Welcome to the Playground
I like the beginning with the aftermath of the bridge battle because it establishes for the viewers a divide between the city of Piltover and its undercity and how these two factions despise and hate each other, especially with Vi and Powder witnessing their parents’ deaths because of the Enforcers.
The heist of Vi in Piltover does show how Vi and the others in the undercity have to gather scrap in order to live as she mentioned, but Vander also has a point in staying out of Piltover because another violent conflict could break out.
It was shown to the viewers how the undercity is filthy, rough on the edges, and dark. In contrast, Piltover is like a steampunk-like city that is clean, polished, and bright that further establishes their divide.
Vi’s heist was not a complete disaster: Powder found the gemstones that have the capability to explode with enough force hitting it, which was the reason the heist ended with the apartment blowing up and Enforcers chasing Vi and the others. The gemstones may be important for later because they were being studied by the owner of the apartment, Jayce.
The flaws of the sisters are relatable which makes it feel like these characters are really human: Vi is a hot-head who is impatient and Powder is a small and weak figure who wants to prove herself to the others, especially to Vi, by trying to help them even though it ends horribly most of the time.
This is why recent content centered around strong female leads is not as good as Arcane, a show that is centered around two sisters. For some viewers, a supposed mistake with recent movies or shows that center around a strong lead (that happens to be female) is that they seem to have no flaws or they are generally a toxic person.
With character flaws, the viewers would be hooked because they would want to see these interesting, human characters develop throughout a story. Viewers do not generally want a character that is perfect in every way because the character would feel unreal and unrelatable.
Although Vi cares about her adoptive family and tries to provide for them as a maternal figure of sorts, she always acts before she thinks which puts the rest in danger. She was the one who started the fight with Deckard, which the boys followed and Powder ran with the loot.
This is what Vander points out about her being the leader and how she needs to stop relying on her fists – and violence – to solve her problems. Vander was the one who led the undercity on the battle in the bridge, which cost a lot of lives including the parents of the sisters, so he knows the consequence of violence.
The moment he dropped his metal gauntlets was the moment he turned away from violence, which explains the unofficial truce between him and Sheriff Grayson to prevent another fight between Piltover and its undercity. This is evident with Grayson giving Vander a chance by handing him a capsule when he decides to change his mind in turning in the ones responsible for the apartment accident.
With Powder, she is the person who stays back and relies on her inventions, which is the complete opposite of Vi. She is afraid most times when she is in a situation, but she also wants to prove herself that she can help instead of being a liability.
She is discouraged by Mylo saying she makes mistakes, but Vi cheers her up by saying everybody has bad days and the important thing is that they stick together. Vi also mentions that Powder has her gadgets and she has her fists, which makes Powder like the brains and Vi like the brawn.
Powder wants to prove herself to Vi the most because Vi is supportive towards her despite her mistakes. However, she can be destructive with herself because she thinks she is not good enough or she weighs the others down due to her mistakes that even Mylo calls her a jinx. Her use of bombs may highlight her being destructive towards herself and others.
Moving on, Silco’s reveal gave me chills because of his appearance. With his red eye and the black scarring on his face, while wearing an attire that was likely stolen from Count Dracula’s wardrobe, he looks like a great villain. As far as this first episode, viewers can already tell that Silco had some history with Vander, as he is scheming something.
The purple liquid, Shimmer, enhances the physical strength and speed of a subject exponentially. Its consequence is the purple scarring around the body and the neurological problem that it makes the subject a mindless monster that is strong enough to kill a larger opponent, as evident with the rat violently and swiftly killing the cat.
This may likely foreshadow that someone, or a few, will die. When Silco said that someone volunteered to be his subject, and the camera pans to a chair, viewers are given a hint that the subject is Deckard because he sat at the chair when he was being lectured for his failure.
The episode sets the precedent that the next episodes will have so much detail, foreshadowing, and great visuals. I am saying this because each scene in this episode, and the rest, have many details that could be deep or foreshadow an event that will happen that I cannot talk about all at once because I have ranted too much already (and we have two more to go).
Some Mysteries Are Better Left Unsolved
We discover more about the gemstones: in his trial with the Council, Jayce explains that he was trying to create magic through science with the gemstones. He is a young scientist that wants to contribute to Piltover by giving the city magic. In contrast, Heimerdinger is an old scientist who is against magic.
Heimerdinger is against magic because he has seen what magic, the Arcane, can do with the wrong hands. In fact, Piltover was founded to stay away from the actions of warmongering mages. Heimerdinger is one of the founders, as well as the head of the Council.
It is understandable that Jayce wants to create magic with the idea that it could do good; he focuses on the positive uses of magic for the city, yet he has never experienced the negatives like Heimerdinger. He witnessed first-hand how magic can, as he said, corrupt and wipe out civilizations.
Meanwhile, Jayce witnessed a miracle when he and his mother were being saved by a mage when they were about to die on a high mountain that had a snowstorm, meaning Jayce sees magic as a force of good and Heimerdinger sees magic as a corruptive force of nature that can be destructive.
However, Heimerdinger still has sympathy for Jayce as he was his pupil. With Jayce facing banishment because of his dangerous work, he instead proposed that Jayce will be expelled from the Academy and left to the care of his mother which the Council agreed with (four out of seven at least).
In an arcade in the undercity, Vi plays, or trains, with a boxing machine and Powder plays with a shooting game. Vi with a boxing machine explains how she is good at fighting, since she fought Deckard and won, but she needs to practice defense because she is always on the offensive without thinking.
Powder using the shooting game says something about her character: she keeps her distance unlike Vi, and her reliance on her invention of bombs solidifies that. She shot all the targets with accuracy, which means she will have a gun as her weapon of choice in the future.
With Enforcers still looking for the ones who caused the apartment accident, they harass the people of the undercity in search for Vi and the others. The Enforcers could have been more passive in their investigation, but the fact that they are not, shows how Piltover and its undercity are divided and hate each other.
The Council in Piltover are even impatient and want the matter resolved quickly, which shows how little they care for the undercity. At least Sheriff Grayson has a shred of empathy when she said they may have done enough, but the councilors are willing to turn the undercity upside down to find the culprits.
The undercity is running out of patients as well: there are many who are willing to fight Piltover because the Enforcers are doing too much in their business. Vander opposes this because he is still guilty with the losses on the bridge battle. In response, Sevika, one of the people who wanted to fight, leaves as she sees Vander has become weak to protect the undercity.
Essentially, the undercity is divided when it comes to how they will deal with Piltover: there is Vander, who is responsible for keeping the undercity together and prevent it from going to war with Piltover again; then there is Sevika, who represents those who have had enough with Piltover and want nothing to do with the city anymore.
When Enforcers came to the Last Drop, one of the Enforcers named Marcus said he visited an old friend of Vander’s, which is Silco. Marcus got the tip from Silco and he wastes no time to show some aggression towards Vander; he is like the embodiment of Piltover’s general feelings toward its undercity which just foreshadows that Piltover and its undercity will have another conflict.
Luckily, Vi and the others did not get caught. However, the search convinces Vi to fight because Piltover will not stop until they are found. In response, Vander brings Vi to the bridge that contains small memorials now. Vander mentions that no one wins in war because the loss of loved ones is the price.
Vander bringing Vi to the bridge makes Vi remember – and visualize – how horrible it was when the undercity tried to fight Piltover. The small memorials with candles and pictures of the ones who died also reminds her that she will be risking losing her family if she does decide that she wants the undercity to fight again.
With his mother not supporting him, and the Kirammans no longer willinging to sponsor him, Jayce goes back to his blown up apartment with the intent to jump off it. However, Viktor prevents him. Viktor took an interest in Jayce’s work with magic, as he was present in Jayce’s trial and looked over Jayce’s research notes, so he wants to personally help Jayce in his study.
Viktor wants to be more than just the assistant of Heimerdinger – he wants to help people. He walks with a cane because he has some disability or disease which is likely why he is convinced that Jayce’s work can become a miracle for others and him. Viktor having the cane may also likely foreshadow that his condition may worsen.
After he tips Marcus, in the underwater-bunker-slash-meth-lab, Silco convinces Deckard to take Shimmer, which means he will have someone, or a few, get killed by Deckard. On the other hand, Marcus gets scolded by Grayson because she thinks he has sparked another conflict with the undercity.
Suddenly, she gets the capsule she gave to Vander, meaning there is still hope to resolve the matter. However, it was Vi who sent it. After her talk with Vander at the bridge, the best option she comes up with is turning herself in to stop Piltover from messing with the undercity. She silently waits at the shop of Benzo, Vander’s friend, until the door opens.
The Base Violence Necessary for Change
The episode starts with a bit of a backstory: Silco gets violently drowned in a river, and he has a fresh wound over his face, by Vander. In the sequence, Silco is wearing clothing different from his Count Dracula costume, which means he was not always evil.
The fresh wound in his face developed into the black scarring around his eye that turned red likely over time because of the toxins in the river infecting the wound, which adds to how the undercity is dirty unlike the clean Piltover. This proves that villains are created, as well as Silco and Vander do have history, and this is also another reason why Vander does not want to rely in violence anymore.
I was surprised that it was Vander and Benzo who entered the shop while Vi waited for the Enforcers to arrest her. Vander admires that she is doing all of this and he tells her to not lose her good heart no matter how much the world wants to break it, then he pushes her into the basement and locks it.
The Enforcers arrive and Grayson is shocked to see Vander turn himself in. She said that she can’t do this because Vander is needed in the undercity as he is the one stopping the undercity from fighting Piltover again. However, Vander does this in order to save Vi which shows how much he cares about her as his own daughter, and how Vi views Vander like a father because she does listen to his advice on not fighting.
As Vi tries to break out, something zooms past the Enforcers and kills them. Sheriff Grayson and other Enforcers lay on the ground dead with their blood everywhere. Benzo and Vander get shocked, then they see Silco appear. Benzo tries to intimidate Silco away, but he gets killed by that thing which is Deckard transformed to a monster by Shimmer.
The last remaining Enforcer, Marcus, is petrified and tells Silco this was not the deal. Silco shrugs it off, then gives Marcus a bag of coins. Some of the coins fell on the puddle of blood, which symbolizes that the blood of the Enforcers are in Marcus’ hands. Vander gets knocked out and dragged away by Deckard.
In Piltover, Viktor and Jayce make a potential breakthrough that could help them prove that magic can be created through science. They sneak in and attempt to enter Heimerdinger’s lab, which contains the confiscated equipment of Jayce, until they get spotted by Mel Medarda. She is also a member of the Council, who seem to have taken interest in Jayce’s work as well.
Before Jayce’s trial, she talked about investing in potential inventors that could change Piltover and also make her richer. Then during his trial, she was the only one who was intrigued in Jayce’s work while the others dismissed it as dangerous. She sees potential in Jayce, so she helps him and Viktor by misdirecting the night guard to not check Heimerdinger’s lab.
Back in the undercity, Vi gets out from the basement with Ekko’s help. She comforts Ekko when he starts to cry because he witnessed all the bloodshed, showing her maternal care for the others. Vi gets back at the Last Drop, tells everything that happened, and sets off with Claggor and Mylo. However, she told Powder to stay.
Although she does not like to hurt Powder’s feelings, Vi cannot risk losing Powder too. She knows that Powder wants to help, to prove herself, but she takes Powder’s safety seriously. She gives Powder a flare in case Powder is in trouble, which Vi will come for. This demonstrates how Vi cares so much for her little sister because she may be the only one she has left in their current situation.
At first, her breakdown weirded me out, but I now understand where Powder is coming from: she sees herself as the weakest in the group, but she wants others to recognize her as not a jinx who messes it up for the rest. In this moment, Powder thinks that Vi agrees with Mylo about her being a jinx. She felt that Vi turned her back on her because Vi was the one who said that they have each other and they should stick together, but Vi does not want Powder to be with her on this one.
Suddenly, she remembered that she has the gemstones, which gives her the idea to make a bomb that will surely work. One gemstone was able to destroy about half of an apartment, so when Powder has about four or five gemstones, this foreshadows that there will be casualties. Since she is known to be a jinx, this would also foreshadow that she harms, or more likely kills, her own family.
In an abandoned warehouse, there are a few thugs stockpiling vials of Shimmer in boxes, while Silco talks to a beaten Vander before he chains him in a chair. Silco talked about how he hated Vander for betraying him, but his hatred started to pass with time. Silco actually learns from that experience how you need to stop at nothing to beat your opponent, hence he created Shimmer and schemed to take over the undercity.
Silco reveals that he and Vander had a vision once, a vision of the undercity’s unity and independence from Piltover – the nation of Zaun. Although Silco does not hate Vander anymore, he lost his respect for Vander when Vander decided to work with Enforcers to prevent another conflict. From this alone, viewers could likely tell that Silco plans to distribute Shimmer throughout the undercity, or Zaun, in order for him to intimidate Piltover into giving the undercity sovereignty.
Moreover, the effects of Shimmer are temporary: Deckard transformed back to normal when he was in the warehouse, yet he was vomiting Shimmer. This is also why there are a lot of vials of Shimmer in the warehouse. Silco is going to make people in Zaun take Shimmer, and they will likely want some more of it because it is a drug, which allows Silco to control them. This reveals that Silco wants power, not only the undercity’s independence.
Vi and the others were able to sneak in by entering through the exposed roof, but getting out is harder. Claggor finds a soft spot in the wall, Mylo gets on lockpicking the locks in Vander’s chair, and Vi wears the metal gauntlets to buy them some time because Silco sends his thugs to kill them all.
This shows again how much she cares for the family – her motivation – and how much of a fighter she is. However, her fighting style is still flawed because she relies on going into the offensive first in order to defeat her opponents as quickly as she can. Although she did some blocking, she was still relying on ending the fight as quickly as possible by going offensive all the way because she cannot last a prolonged amount of time, which causes her defeat.
When Silco then sends in Deckard after he gives him another Shimmer boost, Vi tries to jump him. As a result, she got caught and was thrown back pretty hard. On the other hand, I cannot be too harsh on her because she was the only one fighting and she could not possibly be thinking of going defensive at that moment because their lives were on the line.
The good thing was Claggor was almost done breaking through the wall and Vander was almost free from the chair. The bad thing was Deckard was trying to break into the room as Vi is the only one holding him back. Then there was Powder, who sends in her monkey bomb that contains the gemstone. The result was an overkill.
The blast got Deckard and almost Slico (he got saved by Sevika), but it also blew up the door to the room which caused some debris to hit the boys. The boys then get crushed and ultimately die as part of the ceiling collapses under them. Vi gets stuck on some debris, struggling to get out, as well as Vander. The warehouse is on fire from within.
Back in Heimerdinger’s lab, Jayce and Viktor started their trials with a gemstone. They adjusted the calculations and the calibrations, which allowed them to activate something within the gemstone. Enforcers outside the building noticed a bright blue glow in the lab, so they soon started to break into the lab because Viktor and Jayce blocked the entrance.
Heimerdinger was with the Enforcers, but they witnessed something in the lab as they entered: Jayce and Viktor were floating in the air as the gemstone illuminated the lab blue and it was surrounded by some forcefield with runes around it. As Jayce pushed a cog into it, the cog got accelerated inside the forcefield and came out faster – or teleported briefly – to the other side.
Heimerdinger is still cautious with the magic activated by science, but Mel was there to congratulate Jayce and Viktor for their efforts into the creation of Hextech. She states that it is perhaps time for the era of magic, of Hextech, in Piltover. With how the cog reacted with the activated gemstone, it hints that Piltover will become dominant in the transportation business (like Amazon’s one day shipping).
Back in the warehouse, Deckard was unfazed by the bomb, then Silco orders him to kill Vi and Vander. With nothing else to do, Vander had no choice but to start to fight again. He fights like an experienced fighter, which he is, as he gives Deckard some blows. However, Deckard on Shimmer is still stronger and defeats Vander.
While Vander stood up to fight again, Silco gave the final blow by stabbing Vander from behind (poetic revenge, I believe). Vander turned around and started to strangle Silco similar to how he nearly drowned Silco in the river. It was also likely because of the memory that Vander does not snap Silco’s neck. He could have done it easily, but he remembered the toll of violence and why he put violence behind him. He’s hesitating in killing Silco.
Meanwhile, Silco stabs Vander again. Vander gives in, and Silco makes him fall. Vander’s fall was broken, or worsened, by boxes of Shimmer. With Vi still stuck in debris and Deckard slowly approaching her, Vander took some Shimmer, killed Deckard, jumped out of the warehouse with Vi, and ultimately saved Vi by breaking her fall.
At this point, Vander dies after he told Vi to take care of Powder. Vi, who had just lost most of her family, starts to cry. Then Powder comes in, telling Vi how her bomb finally worked for the first time. Vi, in disbelief, tells her that if she did this, then Powder sees Vander and starts to cry, saying she only wanted to help.
Vi told her that she should have stayed away, but Powder pleaded for forgiveness. Suddenly, Vi punches Powder, who tumbles into the ground. Vi told Powder that Mylo was right, that she was a jinx. Powder is just crying at this point, then Vi snaps out of it when some of Powder’s blood got into her hand (Powder’s nose started to bleed).
Honestly, I cannot be mad at Vi, or Powder even. For Vi, she was only trying to protect Powder, while also trying to save Vander. For Powder, she only wanted to help, although it was too much. If Powder did not come to help, Vi and the others would have most likely been killed by Deckard. Although Claggor already broke through the warehouse’s wall, and Vander was already free from his chair, Deckard would have killed them the moment he got in the room.
Vi’s anger did get the best of her, but it is a very human reaction because she was dealing with grief and guilt for the family’s death: Vander got arrested by Enforcers which got him kidnapped by Silco because she planned to turn herself in; moreover, she risked the lives of the boys when they came for Vander’s rescue.
Powder is also dealing the same thing as Vi: in her attempt to prove herself, she ultimately gets her own family killed; if she would have stayed like Vi told her, they may have been still alive. When Vi snaps out of it, she starts to walk away, leaving Powder as she pleaded for Vi to come back.
The reason Vi walked away from Powder is because she could not face her sister at the moment: If she stayed with Powder, she may have hurt her more; by hurting Powder, she forsakes Vander’s last words which was to take care of Powder. She also could never have imagined she would hurt Powder.
Since Vi is good at fighting, she uses her fists to protect her family, to protect Powder. She only throws her fists at someone who intends to hurt her and her family, but Vi punching Powder makes her question if her fists really have protected her family, if Vander was right all along with the consequences of violence.
When Silco appears in front of a crying and vulnerable Powder, Vi runs to come back to Powder. However, Marcus silently grabs Vi away into the darkness, knocking her out with a handkerchief dosed with likely chloroform (I don’t know if chloroform exists in Arcane or not).
As Silco asks Powder where Vi is and approaches her, with a knife in his hand, Powder jumps him and hugs him tightly, knocking the knife from his hand. Powder tells him that Vi abandoned her and that Vi is no longer her sister.
At that moment, Powder begins her descent to madness, with her family’s death being the catalyst. Powder is someone who thinks she is helpless and weak, which she is hard on herself when she tries to help her family every time. Besides her use of bombs, this also shows how she is destructive towards herself and others.
It is worse for her when Vi hurts her and calls her a jinx for the first time. Powder has always seen her big sister as her protector, as well as her inspiration. Vi has always expressed to Powder that they will always stick together and how they got each other’s backs. Vi loves her the most because they only have each other after their parents died.
Although Powder was not as strong as Vi, Vi has always supported and encouraged her use of intelligence with Powder able to make bombs out of scrap. It is because of that love and support that Powder wants to prove herself to Vi, to make Vi proud of her. Instead, in her time to shine, she kills the family and Vi leaves her. Vi did leave her, but Powder does not know that Vi tried to come back.
With no one in her family to be there for her, she jumps at Silco for comfort. At first, Silco had the intent to kill her with the knife, but he felt bad for Powder. Vander betrayed and left Silco, which parallels Vi leaving Powder. Silco sees a betrayed and hurt individual, so he can relate to Powder and somewhat see himself in her. He does not go for the knife, but goes in to embrace Powder, telling her that they will show them all.
From the scene and that statement, viewers can tell that Silco will become Powder’s mentor, helping to hone her skills and making her embrace that madness of hers. He will make her believe that Vi is dead and he will make her an instrument for his schemes as he is now in charge of the undercity.
In the end, viewers are left with three crucial pieces of information: Piltover is on the verge to advance with Hextech, Silco takes control of the undercity with Vander dead, and the sisters get separated. Viewers can anticipate what the plot of the next act will be: Piltover becomes powerful and recognized by other nations with Hextech, while Silco schemes to bring Piltover to its knees in order to get his nation of Zaun; since the sisters are both alive, they will meet again. However, they – their relationship – will not be the same.
Stay tuned for this long journey of reviews: I will be reviewing all the remaining episodes of Arcane Season 1 which I will separate into three parts – Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. I also plan to review Season 2 as well. The reviews will likely be as long as the last (apologies for the upcoming long reads), but that just shows how I love this animated series (although I may be biased). Stay safe and have a good day, afternoon, and night!