It's my conclusion after watching the Netflix TV show Arcane, based on the video game series League of Legends from Riot Games, that the show’s story — about a conflict in a dystopian city — is far too tropey to be good. However, its art and animation are exceptional (look no further than this absolutely bonkers fight scene between Ekko and Jinx). Therefore, I think it would be far more impactful to experience the exceptional work that Fortiche Production SAS did on the show as a modern art exhibit.
We'll break that down below. We'll also let’s tackle why Riot Games expanding its tentacles beyond video games into TV, trading cards, and who knows what else is not a good thing and why the fact that brilliant creatives have become reliant on the monetary benefit of working on stale IP like League of Legends is bad for the world. All the while, we’ll grind away at Arcane’s vital question: can you really get it fully without ever having played the game?
When the art is good but the rest falls flat
Much of nerd culture is raving over how amazing Arcane is. How its character development will make you feel attached to the protagonists of the League of Legends video game even if you’ve never played it. How the story is full of satisfying twists and narrative payoffs, and how — if you watch to the end — you’ll have been treated to a modern animated classic.
My friends, it just isn’t true.
Arcane’s characters are post-modern stereotypes. We can see this most clearly — and derogatorily — in the character of Jinx. Jinx is a genius inventor who undergoes immense trauma when she is a young girl. This trauma causes her to suffer from chronic mental illness akin to schizophrenia in her young adult years. This defines the majority of her existence in Arcane as a central character. Yet instead of treating Jinx’s decline with nuance and respect, the show depicts her transforming from a vulnerable little girl into a shambling maniac who talks to dolls and blows things up without any rhyme or reason. And yet she still maintains her very logical inventiveness and curious spirit. It just doesn’t add up.
So what if she’s being manipulated? It’s impossible to empathize with what she’s going through if the creators don’t treat her with the respect and texture she deserves. Thus, she ends up a hyperbolized version of the trope that folks with mental illness are somehow evil, lesser, and unstable all at once. It’s a sad and shocking cocktail to swallow, especially when the show is being espoused by the hyper-sensitive group of nerds whose taste I usually take as gospel. This one I just can’t endorse.
The other characters are no better. Jayce is a pouty politician who sometimes takes his shirt off and — for no reason, at the end of season one — learns how to wield a massive warhammer that shoots lasers. Silco is a caricature with brother issues who likes torturing people for the fun of it. Caitlyn and Vi have some redeeming qualities but are reduced to their component parts because of just how much the show is in love with its own ability to throw a thousand twists at its audience every episode, expecting us all to suck down the slop without ever questioning why it can’t slow its pace and flesh out its characters for once. Thanks to this adoration for contrivance, Arcane becomes a whirlwind of predictable punchlines and unearned moodiness.
Luckily, the art and animation are stellar. It’s what carries the experience from beginning to end, and I think if the Fortiche team were to set up an installation in a hip city somewhere (maybe Berlin?) that could walk fans through the creation of Arcane’s beautiful world — from prototype sketches through rigging and animation all the way to the final product — they’d have a hit on their hands.
Walking around Arcane’s art and video with a glass of red wine in my hands would be a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend an evening appreciating the very hard work the artists did to bring it to fruition. Plus, that way, I wouldn’t have to hear the endlessly annoying Imagine Dragons music that the show clings to like an uncertain parasite to a dying colossus.
Riot Games’ Empire-Building
Speaking of Imagine Dragons, Arcane’s engagement with a band that came up on the backs of fake ravers and teens who thought they were punk in 2012 is indicative of how misled its creators are. Not Fortiche, mind you. Those animators and artists knock everything they touch out of the park (see more evidence below with this absolutely dope Sevika slot machine arm scene). No, I’m talking about Riot Games.
You may be familiar with Riot Games. It’s the same LA-based developer that paid out $100 million to settle a gender discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit. The case first came to light in 2018, after multiple female employees complained of sexism that stretched deep into the company’s history.
The company has announced recently that they have more shows based on League of Legends — their most successful IP — planned for release in the near future. They’ve even gone as far as to advertise an upcoming trading card game based in the League of Legends universe.
All this news might have League of Legends and Arcane fans champing at the bit, but let’s take a step back and think about what it means for consumers. Both League and the upcoming trading card game are based around models of monetization that attempt to addict players and slowly bleed them dry of their money while preying upon their nostalgia. This is different from something like the world of a fantasy novel, where an author interacts with readers and creates a community of hope and trust.
Riot Games is all about the cash. They fire their employees, mistreat the women that work for them, and drip-feed fans content until they’re absolutely begging Riot to let them take their hard-earned money. Riot’s ambitions to build a media empire on the back of the League of Legends franchise is dangerous because it shows clearly how much corporate control is growing within geek culture, and it’s only getting worse.
Fortiche Catch-22
But what about Fortiche? The French animation studio did nothing wrong. They’re just receiving money from a bad company for their absolutely stunning work. They, at least, are worth celebrating.
But imagine what a team of artists of this caliber could do if they had the leeway to work with their own original IP. We might have a show that doesn’t suffer from painful cliches and references that only hardcore League players will get.
Maybe instead of Professor Heimerdinger, we’d get another, similarly cute and ingenious little creature who has more of a personality than just being smart but overly naive. Maybe we’d get a stand-in for Jayce that has an actual personality instead of just being horny and angsty and all-too-obvious with his phallic blue hammer that shoots out blasts of plasma. Maybe we’d get a show worth watching.
But budgets are tight in creative industries these days, especially those in TV and movies. Today, myriad streaming services vie to be on our main feed (think of what feed means in this context, we are the livestock, caged-off and fed at the trough, kept captive by the monetary investment that we make each month to watch only the stuff that gets paid for by our streaming service — or services — of choice). Fortiche doesn’t have an option.
But we do. We can read books and go to museums. And dig up old VCRs. Media that we actually own and can engage with. Instead of being fed.
Should you watch Arcane if you’re not a League of Legends fan?
No. Plain and simple. The show makes too many jumps into video game territory to be satisfying. Just watch a couple YouTube videos (like the ones I’ve embedded in this article) of the epic accomplishment that is the show’s art and animation, and you’ll get the picture. There’s no need to become attached to the soulless machine that is the Riot Games media empire and the characters it churns out to dazzle eyes and lighten wallets.
In the meantime, I encourage you to be selective with what you are consuming. Think about the intent behind the worlds and spaces where you spend your time. You might be surprised by what’s under the surface of even your most beloved work of art.
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