This show caught me by surprise and I can genuinely say that I love it. Since completing the show about two weeks ago (I know, later than most...), I still find myself re-watching certain episodes and watching old cinematic videos/trailers from the League of Legends YouTube channels to learn more about the characters in the series as well as those I would love to see.
This is my first experience with anything League of Legends. I had a friend who played avidly who told me to try and get into it back in 2014, but I am very particular about the games I play. I will touch on it more when I cover more games but in a nutshell, I prefer playing games where you get to create your own character and the skillsets are not fully dictated. Even as I type this, I am guilty of currently playing Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, which I have been playing for almost three months now as I am clearing my third rewards calendar.
The Goods
There is so much to cover...
The Art Style is what finally convinced me to even start the show. I have never seen anything like this before, It kind of gave me an "Into the Spider-Verse" feel as it is definitely a style utilized everyday.
The Story is amazing! Much like how Star Wars: Lost Stars made me feel apart of the story, Arcane does a great job expressing their strong points without the use of exposition for you to understand what is going on.
The character development is excellent. I have not once played League of Legends, and from what I have found, there are some differences in story and skillsets from game to small screen, however they still capture the essential essence of every character. A character that I had grown to love is Ekko. His development can be seen in just a span of three episodes and his scene with Jinx is my favorite scene in the whole series. Even though Silco and Jinx are the antagonists, I couldn't help but sympathize with some of their decisions as they were broken in their past and finding each other seemed to fill the missing void to maintain whatever sanity they had left. Even background characters like Sevika and
The pacing is better than most. You dive right into al the main characters' histories and all the stakes at hand depending on the decisions they make.
The connection to the game seems spot on. I have been stuck on League of Legends' channel almost daily and from what I have seen, there are minimal differences. The expansion on everyone's backstory is done beautifully as the game cinematics literally can only cover so much as Riot Games would naturally want you to play the game more. A good example of a slight difference is Ekko's abilities, hair, and primary weapon. In the game, he can manipulate time and travel back a few seconds to make more effective attacks/decisions; his original design has a mohawk that is more straight and stands up; and his weapon is a neon bat which kind of looks like a flat bat from the game of Cricket if it were in Tron. In Arcane, he is definitely skilled however cannot manipulate time... so far...; he still rocks a mohawk however it is more curled like dreadlocks than straight; and finally his weapon is like a bat with gears at the end which kind of looks like a Keyblade from Kingdom Hearts. Even with these differences, they still pulled him and the entire show near, if not, flawlessly.
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| Ekko (Game Design) Photo Credit: www.leagueoflegends.com |
The Bads...?
I am not trying to cop out here but I will say that because I was completely ignorant of the game and its lore beforehand, I cannot specifically name anything bad about the show. It left me wanting more and I cannot wait for the second season.
If you are reading this, I would love to hear your thoughts on Arcane; what you liked or disliked about it. Would you recommend playing League of Legends: Wild Rift? I'm genuinely curious.
Until the next one,
Pd
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