Arcane would have been better suited as an art exhibition

This is my conclusion after watching the Netflix TV show Arcanebased on the video game series League of Legends by Riot Games, that the series’ story – about a conflict in a dystopian city – is far too trivial to be good. However, the art and animations are exceptional (that absolutely insane fight scene between Ekko and Jinx is right up your alley). Therefore, I think it would be far more impactful to experience the extraordinary work that Fortiche Production SAS did at the fair as a modern art exhibition.

We’ll break this down below. We’ll also look at why Riot Games expanding its tentacles beyond video games into television, trading cards, and who knows what else isn’t a good thing, and why the fact that brilliant creatives rely on the financial benefit of working on outdated intellectual property are like League of Legends is bad for the world. All the while we will struggle ArcaneThe key question is: can you really fully understand it without ever playing the game?

When the art is good, but the rest fails

A lot of nerd culture raves about how awesome Arcane Is. How character development makes you feel connected to the protagonists League of Legends video game, even if you’ve never played it before. How the story is full of satisfying twists and narrative benefits and how – if you watch to the end – you will be treated to a modern animated classic.

My friends, it is simply not true.

ArcaneThe characters are postmodern stereotypes. We can see this most clearly – and most disparagingly – in the character of Jinx. Jinx is a brilliant inventor who experiences severe trauma as a young girl. This trauma causes her to suffer from a chronic mental illness similar to schizophrenia in young adulthood. This defines most of their existence in Arcane as a central figure. But instead of treating Jinx’s decline with nuance and respect, the series shows her transforming from a vulnerable little girl into a shambling maniac who talks to dolls and blows things up with no rhyme or reason. And yet she retains her very logical inventiveness and curious mind. It just doesn’t add up.

So what if she is manipulated? It’s impossible to empathize with what she’s going through if the creators don’t treat her with the respect and consideration she deserves. This leads to an exaggerated version of the thesis that people with mental illness are somehow evil, inferior and unstable at the same time. It’s a sad and shocking cocktail, especially when the show is represented by the hypersensitive group of nerds whose tastes I usually take as gospel. I just can’t support this.

The other characters are no better. Jayce is a sulking politician who sometimes takes off his shirt and – for no reason, at the end of the first season – learns how to wield a giant warhammer that fires lasers. Silco is a cartoon with brother issues who enjoys torturing people for fun. Caitlyn and Vi have some redeeming qualities, but are reduced to their component parts because the show is so in love with its own ability to give its audience a thousand twists every episode and expects us all to suck up the crap without ever to question why it can’t even slow down its pace and flesh out its characters. Thanks to this reverence for inventions, Arcane becomes a whirlwind of predictable punchlines and undeserved whimsy.

Luckily, the art and animation are outstanding. It’s what carries the experience from start to finish, and I think if the Fortiche team were to set up an installation somewhere in a hip city (maybe Berlin?) that could walk fans through the making ArcaneIn the beautiful world of s – from the prototype sketches to the rigging and animation to the final product – they would have a slam dunk on their hands.

Walking around ArcaneWith a glass of red wine in hand, it would be a thoroughly entertaining way to spend an evening appreciating the hard work the artists put in to make it happen. Plus, this way I wouldn’t have to listen to the endlessly annoying Imagine Dragons music that the series clings to like an insecure parasite to a dying colossus.

Empire Building by Riot Games

Speaking of Imagine Dragons: ArcaneCollaborating with a band that was formed in 2012 at the expense of fake ravers and teenagers who thought they were punk shows how misled their founders are. Not Fortiche, mind you. These animators and artists knock everything they touch out of the park (see this totally cool Sevika slot machine arm scene below for more proof). No, I’m talking about Riot Games.

You may know Riot Games. This is the same LA-based developer that paid $100 million to settle a gender discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit. The case first came to light in 2018 after several female employees complained about sexism that spanned well into the company’s history.

The company recently announced that there will be more shows based on it League of Legends – their most successful IP – which is scheduled to be released in the near future. They’ve even gone so far as to promote an upcoming trading card game based on the League of Legends Universe.

All this news could be it League of Legends And Arcane Fans are complaining about it, 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 on monetization models that attempt to addict players and slowly bleed them out of money while simultaneously exploiting their nostalgia. This is different from the world of a fantasy novel, where an author interacts with readers and creates a community of hope and trust.

At Riot Games it’s all about the money. They fire their employees, mistreat the women who work for them, and feed fans content until they practically beg Riot to take their hard-earned money. Riot’s ambitions to build a media empire based on the US League of Legends Franchising is dangerous because it clearly shows how much corporate control is increasing within geek culture, and it’s only getting worse.

Fortiche Catch-22

But what about Fortiche? The French animation studio did nothing wrong. All they do is receive money from a bad company for their absolutely great work. At least they are worth celebrating.

But imagine what a team of artists of this caliber could accomplish if they had the latitude to work with their own original IP. We could have a show that doesn’t suffer from painful clichés and references to hardcore league Players will get.

Maybe instead of Professor Heimerdinger we would get another, similarly sweet and genius little creature who has more personality than just smart but overly naive. Maybe we’d get a replacement for Jayce who had a real personality instead of just being horny and angsty and all too obvious with his phallic blue hammer shooting plasma beams. Maybe we would get a show worth seeing.

But budgets in the creative industries are tight these days, particularly in television and film. These days, countless streaming services are vying to be on our mainstream radar feed (Think of something feed In this context means: We are them cattleimprisoned and fed at the trough, imprisoned by the monetary investments we make each month to watch only the things our streaming service – or services – of choice pays for). Fortiche has no option.

But we do it. We can read books and go to museums. And dig up old VCRs. Media that we actually own and can get involved in it. Instead of being fed.

You should pay attention Arcane if you are not one League of Legends Fan?

No. Plain and simple. The show makes too many leaps into video game territory to be satisfactory. Just watch a few YouTube videos (like the ones I’ve embedded in this article) of the epic feat that is the show’s art and animation and you’ll get the idea. There is no need to become attached to the soulless machine that is the Riot Games media empire and the characters it produces to blind the eyes and lighten the wallet.

In the meantime, I encourage you to be selective about what you consume. Think about the intention behind the worlds and spaces in which you spend your time. You’ll be surprised at what lies beneath the surface of even your most beloved piece of art.

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