now that the hype of s2 has died down a bit i'd like to present my list of plot holes, inconsistencies and less biased complaints and critiques of arcane season two
i'll probably update this as i think of more
spoiler warning for all 9 eps
act one
#1 e1, 1:41
why/how did the other councillors live?
i know mel has op magic powers now, so i get she may have been able to protect herself and jayce from fishbones' blast, but we've seen the devastation that can come from hextech. while yes, it was a cruder gemstone; claggor, mylo, sevika, and the whole warehouse saw the destruction hextech can easily cause. a literal *nuke* fueled by hextech should've done way more than just take out 4 people and paralyze one. it should not have been possible that the other two councillors lived
why did the the suited shimmer warriors have green fumes?
not necessarily a plot hole but an inconsistency in my opinion since green was the firelights' color
#3 e2 5:19
isha should not have been able to fall on jinx
even before jinx underwent her shimmer transfusion/operation, she had insane reflexes and senses. in the arcade scene we see her pull her zapper and have it locked on a raven immediately after it made the slightest noise, and during guns for hire we see that she can hear the firelights in the tunnels before caitlyn or vi hear them, along with how she dodged scar's attack who appeared silent and should have had a perfect drop on her. post shimmer op she now has further enhanced speed and reflexes. how does a clumsy child that was running through metal pipes (every footstep would be so loud already) while panting/whimpering directly above her not get noticed let alone have the ability to fall on and crush her??
#4 - the zaun civil war/turf war never went anywhere??
why did they bring it up/start it just to never do anything with it? there's no fucking way sevika saying, "topside is the real enemy. joining forces is our best bet." was enough to get it to all end and that's why it never continued in the plot
#5 e2 30:53, smeech vs sevika in the alleys
why didn't smeech tell sevika that jinx killed silco?
he even says, "wait wait wait, there's a deal to be made here!" so you can't say there just wasn't any time to work in conversation. i'm sure sevika would've faltered if he asked, "don't you wanna know what happened to/who killed silco?"
why was smeech even introduced as a speaking/formal character just to die 20 minutes later?
#6 - why didn't caitlyn/the strike team seek out sevika?
sevika was silco's right hand man. any smart investigator would think that she would be the closest lead to jinx, especially when caitlyn knew how silco died. if she assumed that sevika knew too, she would've guessed that sevika would be hostile towards jinx and could be bargained with in giving up jinx's location/assisting them in finding her. or even if caitlyn didn't assume sevika knew, that would've been leverage for the same means. i know she's grieving but come on she's smarter than this
#7 - gassing the undercity doesn't make a lot of sense
on top of being a fucked up thing to do to an impoverished community that already struggles with having clean air, the vents and air system were cassandra kiramman's legacy and a major contribution by her when she was a councilor. "the people of the underground deserve to breathe.", she said. i know caitlyn is mourning but once again it makes no sense to do that. how is that honoring her mother and filling her role? and really how effective is choking everyone going to be at finding jinx and bringing her to justice? 10:08 salo even says, "princess kiramman is no closer to finding jinx."
#8 - how did the black rose never take ambessa?
and you can't say it was the glowing green crystals around her arm because we saw her all throughout s1 without them, and moments in s2 as well
#9 - e3 18:20 - the underground hexgates hexmesh thing
viktor would have absolutely never allowed any kind of risk to come to the undercity/approved the construction location if there was even a chance something could go wrong and impact zaun
#10 - e3 20:32 - jinx's reflection in the mirror before the fight
reflections kinda don't really work like that lmao but okay maybe i'm nitpicking
#11 "one dead kid? there's hundreds more where he came from thanks to silco and thanks to people like you who stuck their heads in the dirt!"
vi's own words, e9 1:15. if vi meant what she said about "not believing my own sister would orphan kids" and truly sticking to her morals that one dead kid is worth it for the life of hundreds more then she shouldn't have been so shocked about caitlyn potentially shooting isha. it's just one dead kid in exchange for a child murderer and orphaner right? it's just ironic to me that gassing her own people and potentially giving them all chronic health conditions (viktor's condition) is okay but one instant death by hexbullet is where she draws the line. i know she's afraid of caitlyn changing but i think they could've done a better way in writing and showing that in that scene because it falls flat.
#12
jayce, heimerdinger, and mel went missing and nobody gave a shit???
i get heimerdinger is out of office and went on a vacation to the undercity so maybe citizens wouldn't notice his absence, but mel and jayce are half the remaining council and the most involved. how did no one give a shit? why did ambessa and the other characters barely ever acknowledge that they're all gone? the most i could find that acknowledged it was e4 9:31 and 14:23 before it's forgotten about
#13 why was jinx even the sole representative for zaun's rebellion?
i get she's iconic and recognizable, and that she's fought piltover a few times, but it feels shitty that the zaunites never pay homage to the firelights who have arguably done so much more than jinx over the years. nobody wanted to spraypaint ekko's hourglass? wear a bug pin? dye their hair green?? jinx has never shown interest in fighting for the cause. she fights for people, not causes. it doesn't make sense to me that they all instantly idolized her and abandoned the firelights. not even arcane jesus was recognized when he basically created utopia for his cult
#14 jinx depicted waving a flag
like i said in #12 i know she's a symbol and people look up to her but she never wanted that? she never did anything to rally or lead the cause, so it makes very little sense to me that she's depicted as a leader. it would've made a lot more sense imo if they had her face or her monkey on a flag and we saw jinx looking up at the flag as it waves during the intro instead of her holding and waving it because that wasn't who she was/who she wanted to be. her acts of anarchy were for herself and those she loved, not because she wanted to liberate zaun
act two
#14 why was maddie caitlyn's love interest
the show could've gotten rid of their fling and absolutely nothing would have changed. what was the point here? her betraying caitlyn didn't even feel like much of a shock or betrayal because we were introduced to this character so quickly and never learned anything about her. if we had some insight into her motivations and who she was as a soldier and person maybe i would've been more moved
#15 e4 7:30
"jinx is dead"
okay then like what was the entire point of s1 and her arc and the finale where she sits in the jinx chair as she accepts and embraces her identity 💀
for a show that doesn't just say things casually it feels really out of place for her to just say it like it's nothing when only a few episodes ago it was a huge plot point
#16 - e4 20:00
why did sevika set up a rally in the middle of the town square when she knows martial law is in effect and there are enforcers/noxians prowling everywhere 💀💀
#17
what was the point in singed going to the rally and also what was the point in summoning warwick
at first i thought he did it just as a trial run to see how well his weapon would function in battle, but we later learn bro can't even control it?? i guess i could see if it was meant to be a test of survival and endurance then his test would be useful but what was the overall plan here bro? if jinx hadn't shown up warwick would've definitely broken through the bars and killed you my guy
#18 - how did warwick even make it to stillwater lmao
aint no way that bigass dog sat patiently on the trolley and just chilled there with all the blood singed dripped
#19 e4 30:50
how did ambessa survive warwick/why did they imply that she fought warwick without actually showing us their battle
this is a league of legends show aint no way they deprived us of a badass fight scene between two champs
#20 e5 3:00 jinx showing up at vi's pit
imagine your last interaction with someone was a fist fight where they wanted you to kill them and you acknowledged you are both very different people with different focuses. now imagine they show up at your place after you've been on a bender and have been engaging in violent acts (and might i add the other person knows this and has been stalking and watching you during said benders and violent activities) with a completely laid back and easygoing demeanor as if nothing happened between you two. would that be an intelligent move? hell fucking no this scene is so out of place
#21
they really watered down the tragedy of vi and jinx from being a badass heartbreaking falling out between two sisters to an ordinary squabble between siblings
i hesitated adding this one in because maybe this is too biased but does anyone else not see how insane it is that they went from writing a beautifully tragic show about doomed sisters and mellowed out their interactions like everything is fine? going from the to ashes and blood fight scene (e3 20:50) to petty insults and calling each other delusional (e5 13:00, basically the whole interaction in the caves) is so jarring and was such a letdown on my first watch especially and continues to stir weird feelings in me after
#22 e5 26:40
"if he found this everything might have been different"
i don't even think this is a biased take tbh.
imagine your best friend and sworn brother tried to kill you with his bare hands in one of the most slow and agonizing ways possible in a chemically polluted body of water that will go on to alter half your face and ruin your eye. imagine that event traumatized you, left you with trust issues, and shaped you into a whole new person. imagine previously you and your sworn brother were already realizing you have fundamentally different ways of leading and handling independence and revolution and were falling out. now imagine they left you a note saying,
"god i'm shit at apologies and writing. i'm sorry i tried to kill you. when our mutual friend died i lost my mind. anyway you know where to find me."
would you really be able to forgive that person and run back to them with open arms? the idea that one flimsy letter would have worked and fixed their relationship seems flimsy and downplays silco's whole s1 act 1 monologue and what he went through
#23
31:14 blisters and bedrock +
12:20 vander's remember me montage
it just feels a little odd to me that they wrote vander like he was always supposed to be a father figure to powder and vi when they already had a very alive and present dad (connol) that we never get to learn much about. also why did they both give each other a "was that you?" look when felicia says she's knocked up? 💀
#24 how was isha able to parkout throughout the undercity?
during isha's death montage and all throughout the show she's depicted as agile and is able to jump around the lanes and even parkours on the roof in rebel heart. how is she smaller and likely younger than powder and still able to do all this (i know she fell on jinx but that was a one time occurrence)
act three
#25
why did ambessa think she could control/make a deal with viktor
ambessa is a smart woman, and an incredible fighter. she's obviously a great war strategist and has a brain. so what the fuck went through it that made her think "oh yeah- i, a mortal, can make a deal with egirl jesus and he'll grant my wish and give me a controllable undead arcane zombie army."
and i tried to rationalize it by saying "well, she still hasn't technically found mel. the black rose order is still out there and a threat." but she never mentions it? never talks about or thinks about it? it doesn't seem like the black rose is her motivation anymore and her actions at face value seem stupid and arrogant
but even after she finally does learn mel is alive (e8 31:20) and finds her it makes even less sense that she goes on a tangent about how mages "violate the very core of noxian principles".
"that every one of us is equal on the battlefield. that through cunning, sweat, and steel, we shape our destinies."
would making a deal with an arcane herald to gain magic soldiers not seem kinda hypocritical then?
#26
everyone forgives ekko way too easily and quickly in the au/accepts that he's behaving really fucking weirdly
e7 1:16 he throws a hand sized metal object at powder's face. if she didn't have the instincts to dodge it that could easily be a broken nose, broken orbital bone, damaged eye, concussion, and just overall unpleasant time
1:16 he brandishes a screwdriver like a knife and behaves hostile/defensive/fearful body language like he's about to stab powder if she gets any closer. if my best friend/partner who i've known for over a decade looked like he was about to hurt me, i would not be asking "uh, did you just throw that?" and "whoa, jumpy much?"
4:20 (haha funny number again) he flinches so hard at powder making physical contact he knocks over a whole cup
11:26 this man really asked if vi is dead and if powder did it 💀
on top of being horribly insensitive, that's coming from powder's best friend of a decade and partner. the guy who sent them on the mission that killed vi. the guy who was there watching everyone mourn when it happened. and powder just forgives him and doesn't think further about how weird he's behaving???
29:30 bro bluntly reminds the whole bar that vander tried to kill silco and they're not even a tiny bit hurt or offended by how rude and out of pocket that is???
#27 heimerdinger's character assassination
before s2 i was so excited to see what heimer and ekko would get up to as heimer's new pupil and see how together they'd better the firelights' refugees and zaun's population overall. then we got nothing and i was and still am pissed. he created a bubble machine which is nice and enriches the lives of the kids for sure- but how does that fix real issues? how does that show he truly cares for the lives of his citizens? they wrote him as a genius and wise inventor in s1 who was out of touch from being a politician and was just starting to see the challenges of living in zaun. and they completely eliminated any growth he started to/would have had. he doesn't even try to better the lives of the people in the au, has no interest in making it home, or bringing ekko home when he knows how loyal ekko is to his people and how much responsibility he has to them. the only thing he wants to do is play his stupid ass fiddle for the town square and be a bodysnatcher. that's not the heimerdinger i expected or wanted at all, and on top of that he never even amounts to anything or is remembered again? he dies in a basement and before and after ekko returns it's never asked where he went, if he's okay, etc. he meant nothing in this season. why?
(i know in league lore yordles respawn but arcane was great originally because you didn't need to know league to follow along)
no wonder ekko gave very little fucks after heimerdinger sacrificed himself cause bro didn't bring shit to the table 💀
#28 the tree plot never went anywhere
e3 14:55 it's implied and stated that the tree is suffering due to the effects of hextech and the location of the hexmesh underground basement thing. as ekko says that tree means everything. it's the firelight's entire identity, source of clean air- it represents their hope. it's an important tree which obviously means anything bad happening to it is cause for alarm. when heimer and ekko went to see jayce about what could be done, jayce tells them he's seen this kind of decay/effect before, and it never ended well. granted, they were never *trying* to save the plants themselves, but he paints a picture that it's not looking good. so that means the tree is fucked and the firelights are going to have even more conflict right? right? no the tree is completely fine and never gets mentioned again along with the firelights, and they're all perfectly healthy and geared up to just go into battle at the final fight. the tree was nothing more than a plot device to get jayce, heimer, and ekko to go to the hexmesh gate so they could all be whisked away and removed from the show for half the season.
#29
sevika and the firelights disappear until the final fight
they chose not to focus on either of these very interesting very important characters for any of the 9 episodes? they're just put away like toys and never played with until they're convenient? okay
#30 ekko and vi never meet? not once?
i have no other explanation for this other than lazy writing. ekko vs enforcer vi was what i looked forward to the most in this season and we got none of it. literally not a single interaction neither positive nor negative (no i do not count them looking at each other from 20 feet away for 0.1 seconds at e9 16:24 and 21:01 as an interaction)
not even a silent shot of vi sitting next to ekko in the finale and just placing a hand on his shoulder? literally anything to signify that she's there for him and still cares??
#31 ekko kissing powder feels kinda weirdly gross in hindsight
at first i was a loose timebomb shipper and thought e7 was a major w for ekko since he deserves heaven but when you consider the fact powder isn't kissing her friend/partner but a completely different person that's just wearing his face/skin because his body was invaded and she has no/very little idea
ekko absolutely deserves to live in paradise but it just feels a little odd when you think about it and especially if you believe ekko's va saying it's canon that they got freaky at the end of the night 💀
#32 - mel becoming a mage takes away from her character and accomplishments
what i loved about mel and really appreciated in her character was the fact that she didn't rely on brute strength or magic to get her way. she was the fox; an empathic, cunning, brilliant manipulator and politician. she used her wiles to get her way and was able to obtain and hold power all without brute force. that was a fascinating and unique character to me. now that they've decided she's an empath mage (leblanc's words e8 1:23) it makes everything she's ever accomplished feel shallow. was she subconciously just using magic on them the whole time and she wasn't actually a highly intelligent individual with wicked people skills? she feels like a mary sue to me, especially with how quickly she picked up her magical abilities (14:24). leblanc even calls her a weapon now (3:48), which is so different from what she was in s1. i really wanted to see her take on her mother/handle the war as a diplomat and politician, not a sorceress. we have plenty of other combat characters for that. even mel seemed jarred and sad and confused by her transformation (e8 23:35), she's struggling with this new identity now. so why give her a new identity at all? she was a brilliant character and it feels unnecessary. i wanted to see her prove her mother wrong, that she is enough as the fox
#33 - the sesbian lex scene
we all know the scene and i know you all love it
im a lesbian i couldnt not celebrate when the show came out
but am i the only one who thinks it's in poor form to go have sexy time right after finding out your sister (who you've already had a very unstable and complex relationship with for the lasts decade) is about to do something bad/possibly kill herself?
i get they were trying to say that vi was choosing herself/her own happiness/healing from her trauma from prison by being vulnerable in a prison cell
but could they not have portrayed that in any other way?
if i found out my sibling or really just anyone was about to go kill themself or do something bad i wouldn't even be in the mood to do anything like that
also why is caitlyn touching vi's stabby wound don't do that why would you do that
#34 - what was the point in making loris look like vander?
this is more of a question but i just don't get what they were trying to do with him. i feel like there was supposed to be something more? that we were supposed to feel more when he died because he was vander's replacement? but we never learned anything about him to make his death moving
(and yes i've heard the theory that he along with the other fallen soldiers are meant to represent all the soldiers who die in battle without being heroes. they just simply die, never able to be recognized or have their epic moment. i have heard that theory and while i agree with it and think it was done well for the other characters, i still can't help but feel like their relationship was set up to be more)
#35 - the amount of off camera growth jinx gets
we never see how isha heals jinx's hallucinations, her mood swings, her guilt, or just any part of her mind. we're just expected to believe and see that she's all better after adopting a new little sister
and we never see how ekko is able to truly get through to her and get her to fight for piltover when she was minutes away from trying to monkey bomb herself
we see him talk her out of it momentarily, but the whole makeover? the fixing of powpow? the balloon? how did he keep her from changing her mind again? and gathering the firelights? we didn't even get a reunion of the firelights and ekko after they thought he'd been dead for months
and we never see how they rallied the rest of zaun to come fight for piltover when the odds were already really shitty (plus how did the noxian guards not see them coming lmao do they not have any higher vantage guards at all)
#36
how come everyone in the final fight survived being touched by viktor/joining the arcane but the original cult members are all dead/stuck as arcane marionettes?
#37 - e9 41:03
when all the hextech and viktor's arcane effects were removed from the world vi's gauntlets were working well enough to hold onto warwick's heavy ass weight? and jinx's monkey bomb still went off?
#38 - e9 41:03 also why did warwick stay alive when once again all the hextech and effects from viktor disappeared
#39 - sevika is not going to last a day as councillor
i think this is an unfortunate no brainer tbh. we've already seen from heimerdinger's forced retirement that other councillors can vote each other off
and if you look at who else is on the council it's all pilties
specifically, the pilty families of the fallen councillors who did not want to stay and help when jayce said noxus is going to invade (e8 25:29)
there is no way they are going to respect her and i guarantee she would be off the council in less than a day
thank you for your time and for coming to my ted talk i hope i am not alone and other people share my disappointment
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