After a long time of waiting, the series finale of Arcane second season came out to end the saga of Zaun and Piltover with a bang. The part is a continuation of the gap left by the first season’s cliffhanger; it plunges straight into tumult with revenge-driven plots and character arcs that explore power, trauma, and identity. For people like me who patiently waited since 2021, it was another unbelievably vivid season, but it was also the site of major disappointments.
Although Arcane second season retains most of the ground-breaking elements—innovative animation, layered characters, strong emotional beats—it does slide a bit in pacing and narrative cohesion. This review breaks into why I found it beautiful yet rather rushed and left unsatisfied despite its brilliance when it comes to the second season.
In the second season of the first six episodes, one would see Arcane actually best. Free from most of the first season’s load of treats, the sequel rushes headlong into the fray. Viewers are immediately plunged into gloriously chaotic scenes from Piltover and Zaun. The characters, the socio-political fabric of the two cities, and the relations among them need no explanation; it picks up as if the shocking, dramatic ending of the first season, where a Jinx attack changed the course of history, did not happen at all.
Act I connects both seasons; it serves as an epilogue to season one and an entry into the new conflicts. The first few episodes have a few shocking twists, but the treatment is absolutely brilliant. Every fun touch by the detail and the grand emotional bill every character action brings ensures a confident future with the audience.
Episodes four to six—Act II—see the peak of the second season. The show begins its evolution here, introducing new turns in the conflict’s stakes and at its center. The payoff is huge for the League of Legends lore fans since characters and moments eagerly awaited by the fanbase finally appear. The series seamlessly incorporates these into its plotline.
In the fourth episode, there is a particularly mind-blowing moment when the beast Warwick comes into the picture. The League fans have been speculating about the entry of Warwick from the very beginning of the series, and his first screen appearance is nothing less than breathtaking. Fortiche, the animation studio that does Arcane, pushes it further with the action and deep storytelling as they depict it on screen.
For that matter, Arcane first season set the standard for animated storytelling, and the second season somehow managed to surpass it. Fortiche boldly experiments with different animation styles to accentuate dramatic scenes. These artistic changes develop emotional depths as well as keep the visual surprise alive so that even old viewers will not grow stale.
The reason why different styles of animation have been entwined with the wonderful animation is that it serves the story’s emotional climaxes are signaled by painterly surreal images that reflect the inner chaos of the characters; the action sequences are hyped to hyperrealism in order to equal or even surpass the onrush of momentum and the energy associated with live-action blockbusters. It is indebted to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; the results are just really beautiful.
Music has basically been the lifeblood of Arcane, and it has not changed for the second season. Each episode includes original tracks that thread their way through the image to produce sequences that can stand alone as music videos. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of musical moments can occlude what is narratively happening. Even so, the soundtrack remains an audio-visual delight: it’s just another moment, a few like Ekko’s arc in Pretend Like It’s the First Time frayed by that indelible song.
If the first two acts of the second season showcase the strengths of Arcane, Act III lays bare its weaknesses. Season early episodes effectively balance character-driven storytelling with larger-than-life stakes but ultimately falter under the great weight of expectation.
A number of entirely new yarns introduced in the second season are completely undefined by the time the finale sets. For example, Viktor’s transition into a prophet who can literally change reality is intriguing but very fast. It’s also interesting how Caitlyn starts becoming a leader and how her decisions are surrounded by intrigue—the politics lack the complication they ought to have.
However, the most obvious problem is that all of these plot points resolve off-screen via a disruptive time jump. Suddenly, enemies have reconciled, and the story loses emotional excitement entirely. Class warfare and institutional inequities—the themes that defined the first season—are sacrificed for a basic “unite against a common enemy” plotline.
The most riveting chapter of Act III is titled Pretend Like It Is the First Time, which centers the tale on Ekko’s life and times within an alternative universe. In this parallel world, Powder never turned into Jinx, making way for a beautiful exposition of regret and unrealized possibilities.
Yet, the episode’s excellence draws attention to the other hollowness in the surrounding tale. This is not the finish that does justice to the promises of alternate timelines and a multiverse narrative; it is messy and hurried, to say the least.
The multifaceted dependence between Jinx and Vi is the foundation of the narrative in Arcane, albeit this dynamic feels equally undeveloped in the latter part of the story in the second season. Jinx’s transformation throughout the season is interesting, particularly during her vulnerable moments with Isha, yet future events are excruciatingly vague. Likewise, Vi’s uncertainty about the emotional journey and her time in the fighting ring feel hurried beyond that.
Viktor’s arc, while good in visuals, was thematically muddled. His new powers and the ethical dilemmas associated with them deserved more exploration. Caitlyn, on the other hand, has some of the season’s most fascinating moments, such as her difficulties with combining leadership and personal loyalty. However, it feels unearned when she reconciles with Vi and resolves her political arc.
While its achievements in animation and storytelling are extraordinary, the second season of Arcane suffers deeply on its own. The opening two acts of the second season serve not just as continued development from the first season but as the setting for some of the most exciting and emotionally rousing episodes of the series to date. Alas, this leaves what might have been a near-perfect sequel undermined in Act III, with presumed hasty pacing and a lack of closure.
This piece of art, despite all its faults, is a significant milestone in the realm of current animation, whose effect will be felt for many years on a wider scale. It leaves the story on a bittersweet note and, like many fans, leaves us wanting for more but utterly skeptical of what the future holds for Riot Games’s multimedia endeavors.
References
- League of Legends Wiki. (n.d.). Warwick, Viktor, and Jinx. Fandom.
- Motamayor, R. (2023). Arcane Season 2 Review: Stunning Animation Meets Uneven Storytelling. Polygon.
- Overton, A. (Writer). (2023). “Pretend Like It’s the First Time.” Arcane [Television Series Episode].
- Riot Games. (2023). Arcane: Season 2. Fortiche Productions.
