Cinepals - ARCANE 2x9 FINALE Redux w/ Michael Reaction! | "The Dirt Under Your Nails" | League of Legends

Episode Date: November 28, 2024

Michael missed the finale of Arcane with us because his baby was coming (welcome to the world Baby Boose!) but he was able to come back and react to the final episode with us. So if you missed Michael's reactions and commentary, here they are, and we also go in depth further about the episode and the series as a whole. Arcane season 2 stars Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Pitch Perfect 2, Hawkeye) as Vi, Ella Purnell (Fallout, Yellowjackets, Army of the Dead) as Jinx, Kevin Alejandro (Lucifer, Southland, True Blood) as Jayce, Katie Leung (Harry Potter series, The Foreigner, Locked Down) as Caitlyn, Harry Lloyd (Game of Thrones, The Theory of Everything, Manhattan) as Viktor, Toks Olagundoye (Castle, The Neighbors, DuckTales) as Mel, Amirah Vann (Underground, Tracers, A Jazzman's Blues) as Sevika and Ellen Thomas (Eastenders, Johnny English Reborn, Mrs Harris Goes To Paris) as Ambessa. You can watch the cut down reaction to this show (and many others) on our YouTube channel https://www.YouTube.com/@Cinepals and the full length reaction is available on our Patreon page https://www.cinejump.com SOCIAL MEDIA ~MICHAEL BOOSE~ Instagram: @BooseIsLoose ~ACHARA KIRK~ Twitter & Instagram:  @Acharakirk  YouTube:  @Achara  ~CINEPALS~ YouTube: @CinePals Insta: https://instagram.com/TheCinePals Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCinePals

Sina. Pals. What is up, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to Dad's React to the Arcane season finale of season two. We're doing a redux reaction because obviously I missed out for baby. They've already seen it, so we're just along for the ride. Baby Boos. Baby Boose is here. She made a grand entrance. She's like, excuse me, you can wait on the finale, dad.

I'm being born. I essentially told my wife I have not been able to stop thinking about this finale. She was like, go back to work. Go, get it done. So here I am, and let's get into it. This is one of the few instances I was wrong, by the way. There was a handful of instances in my life I've been wrong, and the baby showing up early was one of those instances.

Because you left in a jam, and I'm like, it's not going to be born today. It's going to be a week or two. And then you texted with the picture, I'm like, okay, I was wrong. 10 hours later, I want to say, from when I left. Yeah, literally. Crazy. Are you still in this fight, Tyler?

the dirt under your nails cupcake hmm nothing's gonna clean me out I'm glad Caitlin can be there for her yeah like that makes living love ones easier it's not easy but it makes it a little bit better that's the end

yeah that's the end so it still hits yeah so while you're collecting your thoughts Michael I just want to point out real quick I went to This a cinema art class many, many years ago when I was in 10th grade. Cinema 106 with DeCurso, that's the name with a teacher, at Valley College. And while I did not love the class, it took you through the entire gamut of animation styles.

And the only thing that I appreciate about that class is that it gave me the ability to kind of see just how many art styles in this. And like they went... So much. They went the entire gamut of animation styles. Like, all you needed was really steamboat. And it's like, they had everything in here. The rubber hose animation, that would have been fun to see. That would have been interested to see how they might have worked that in.

I agree. Every single episode has, like, a little dip into a different animation style. And the way they use it to either portray emotion, to portray psychosis, to portray, you know, the unknowable void. It's really, really impressive. I knew someone was going to die. Mm-hmm. and oh did you know who I had an interesting conversation with my wife in the car

we were driving to is she waiting outside no no no god no god no no we were driving to our kiddo's first baby appointment I was sitting there and I was going man is it weird that I'm nervous about watching the finale and she goes like why I'm like because I want everything to work out okay and I know it's not going to

because this show is a tragedy but I have I have a feeling we're going to lose someone and I'm like I feel like it's going to be Vi Oh, okay. I thought so too, actually. Or maybe Caitlin, because I'm like, they just had that really, you know, great moment of intimacy in the last episode. And, you know, in dramatic shows like this, you don't get away with having, like, a happy, intimate relationship without losing someone. So I was like, okay, maybe Vi.

Like, it feels like Vye has always kind of sacrificed herself or, like, done what she can to save jinks and to save the people she loves. So maybe she makes the ultimate sacrifice. Or we lose Caitlin, which is why I was really worried when Caitlin got stabbed in the, um, the, the fight with mom. So I was sitting here, I was like, waiting for it. I didn't really have on my radar that jinx was going to be the one to go. It makes total sense now, but I didn't have it on my radar, but I was talking to my wife and she's sitting in the car and she has no frame of reference for this show.

She has, like, no idea what it's about. She hasn't even played League of Legends. I'm like, yeah, I just, I have a feeling that like, Vi is going to die, maybe Caitlin. I don't know. I can't tell. And she kind of pauses and she goes, is that the blue-haired one? Oh, my God. And I was like, no.

No, no, vise the red hair. Why, does jinx die? And she's like, no, no, I just, I don't know anything about this show. She manifested that, and I'm mad about it. She has this weird psychic ability that has come up every once in a while in our relationship, and she called it. I had no idea, but she just knew, has never seen an episode of the show, and she knew the blue-haired one is the one that goes. So you caught something that she and I didn't catch because we were watching it at 3.30 a.m. Yeah, that's fair.

But, like, you caught the bit about the vents. Now, apparently in a previous episode, Jinks had said that she always wanted to fly away on one of those things. I mean, on a blim. On a blim. Yeah. And so towards the end of this episode here, you see the explosion.

There are theories that she got away. I was wondering if that's what they were leading to with Caitlin, like, going through her family records. Oh, the Pink Creek. Yeah. Oh, because that's what she does. And she activates her, like, powers. So apparently that is an indication.

And then at the end, when Caitlin has... She's got this in her hand. Yeah, she's got that in her hand. And she's looking at the vents. The plans of the vents. And there's an air ducts cooling system and you can shoot right now. I was wondering if that's what they were implying. Like, even if I wasn't as eagle-eyed, I mean, it's earlier in the day.

I still wouldn't have noticed that pink streak until going back through it and... I feel like anyone who did probably watched that part over it. over and over or looked at some videos or something or you're just like crazy eagle-eyed because I don't buy it I don't buy it I don't buy it I don't know I that's to me that's I've seen so many comments like she's not dead she's not dead I'm like she dead dead dead like I mean you know what's the thing they say no face no case yeah no face no case no face they didn't see a body that's true yeah that's true but I'm just like it undercuts the whole moment for me and so I want to believe that she died yeah in the great sacrifice that's that that's that's

the one thing that if that truly is the case where she's not truly dead, then I do feel like it is totally undermining the plethora of emotions that I have about this. The blimp is up to your interpretation, I think. Yeah, that little ending moment is kind of a beautiful moment where I was like, okay, what are we leading up to here? And then as it fades to black, you go, oh, okay, so that's just my little moment for me. You know, one of those individual moments, like you said, in a film where you're like, That's whatever you paint over it, your own personal experience with that.

I do think when she was looking at the vents, I was waiting for her to be like, oh, don't worry, she actually made it out or like some reveal that Jinks was still alive because she was looking at that so closely and the air vents. And also in earlier episodes in this season, Jinks utilizes the air vents in a way to like make a, I guess effectively a terror attack on Piltover. She just shoots a bunch of like colored smoke. over and then disappears. But, you know, she clearly has an understanding of how those things work.

And so it could be viable that she got away. I do see what you mean that the implication of that or her surviving does kind of cheapen that loss of her a little bit because it's like, oh, man, I just had these emotions and now they're pointless because she's actually alive and I don't have to feel bad. Yeah. And, you know, there's not, obviously we all know that we're not getting a season three. So there's no point in setting up. the fact that she might be alive.

Yeah. Other than just like, don't worry, guys. Don't worry. We didn't kill the fan favorite character. Yeah. I promise. Although, apparently there are rumblings that although this is done,

it's just for their story. That they're, I don't know, you guys correct me. But even so, that doesn't help us. That doesn't help with Jinx's story, though. No. Like, whether Jinx is alive or dead, like that's not of any consequence to those other stories that they're going to explore as far as I can tell.

When Echo and Jinks were together in the alternate universe, There was that whole back and forth about how sometimes in order to move forward, you've got to let go. So that was her whole thing was like, if the theory is correct, she's departing. She's gone. Yeah, in order to make things better. Yeah. That's interesting. And someone had said in the comments, sorry, I don't know your name, but they were like, and the reason why Caitlin doesn't tell Vi is because she knows that.

Vi needs it to move on. Yeah. And she would move heaven and earth to get her, to find her sister. And so it's just better if she doesn't know. She doesn't know. Because, like, watching it back, I was really looking at the micro expressions and stuff. And I'm like, oh, that's super interesting because I can see how you can interpret it that way. Because the camera does hold on Caitlin's face.

And she has a moment. And then she just kind of has like a little. Yeah, yeah. And then moving on. And then the blimp is your spinning top. The spinning top. Inception, one of my favorite movies ever. Anyway, let us hear more about your thoughts.

No, I think that's really interesting. God, the level of detail. They put in and I'm going to keep talking about this to that point. I always talk about how this show doesn't do anything for nothing So the fact that there are those little hints and things like that probably does Lends to something because the the animators do so well at making every single minute thing pay off It took me a second to realize and Echo said it out loud in the like you know flashback alternate history episode that the Rune on Jace's arm was the same one that that he used to invert the, like, timeline thing.

And so the reveal that Victor has been doing this for, like, millennia and timelines over and over and over and over again, just trying to find the one that doesn't fail is crazy to me. I think the beauty of having the person achieve their hive mind and realize that it's really freaking lonely in a world that has no individual. and no separate communication.

And it's just, yes, you've created perfect harmony and peace, but at what cost. Yeah. I think that's really beautiful and poignant. And I think my favorite way that they could have gone with Victor. You know, there's a realm where it's this final battle. All of his humanity is gone. And they just have to defeat him. And Jace has to make that sacrifice of being like, you're no longer my partner.

You're no longer the person that I thought you could be. You're done. But I think maintaining that humanity and having Jace and Victor fix things together and having Victor be the catalyst to solving that problem is so beautiful and really kind of takes it back to who his character was originally. Yeah. So he kind of like comes full circle a little bit. So I have two things about that that what you just said. Number one is the experiments started out small, right, in season one. Yeah.

And then it gets to the point where their experiments are on time itself. And that's kind of crazy to think about. Yes. Because it starts out tiny and then it gets bigger and bigger until you're fucking with all of humanity now. And that's pretty wild. The other thing is that I wanted your opinion on that no one I don't think said anything about in the comments,

at least not that I saw. To me, as a Dragon Ball Z fan, I'm saying, Victor and Jace merged into like a Gojita hybrid. Yeah. Like that... They are one in the arcane. Yeah. Because when you saw him in, like,

because he had like the stars in his hood and he looked and he had the beard and his eyebrow. He looked. like a merge of the two of them. Upon watching again, I don't think you're right. Fuck you, I'm right. I'm kidding. No, I don't agree with you.

No, yeah. I think that was just old, old victor. I know we were kind of pulling for Jace to be like the all-knowing one. But they hugged at the end. They hug at the end. And that's like kind of the beautiful singularity that's... So he just dies? I'm sure they're alive in the chaos and arcane around everyone.

I feel like they've been absorbed into the... Whatever. The arcane. The arcane. Yeah. They're there happily in their soul forms. Yeah. But like, oh, you're like, thinking Jinks is alive, cheap as hell.

But Jase is definitely a Gojita hybrid with Victor. And I will take no comments. It's all about them together. That's what this whole thing is. I really like how they've approached the antagonists of the show. Yeah. Because they do it in such a way which feels so human. and while there are certainly moments where I'm like

I really hate some of these characters or like I dislike them very strongly right now like if you look at any villain they truly believe that they are on a righteous path and they're doing the right thing like any just go through history and find anyone who's done absolutely heinous things they think that what they're doing is for the greater good

and so in a similar way you know Victor's like I'm doing this for the greater good, but you see the humanity in him. And so, like, I never really, like, hate him for, like, I'm, I, I don't hate him for what he's doing. I feel bad because I like him and I want to get him back on the right path. And even with Ambessa, I'm like, she's supremely unlikable, but I understand that she's

doing all of these things for a love of her family. And so it's all coming from this place of love. I think going off of what Achara was talking about, it's kind of the point that I've been making throughout this entire show is the beauty of the show and the beauty of the writing is all of the characters are doing the wrong thing with the right intention in a big way. And you can even argue that for jinks when she's really in chaos mode.

She's doing what's right for her. She's doing what she feels she needs to do. And that's like burn it all down, rage against the system, stuff like that. And so it makes it so you have, have to sympathize with everybody. Yeah. There's really no one person where you're like, I just hate that guy.

Yeah. You're just slimy and icky and gross. Yeah. Again, it goes back to what Victor was talking about. Everybody has their flaws. Everybody, there's the human condition of like we try our best to coexist, but we always get thwarted by our own greed, our own thoughts. Emotions.

Our own emotions. Yeah. Right? And that's what makes us beautiful. And that's what also makes us horrible. And so the show does a really, really good job of depicting that in every single character where every single choice they make for a large part is perfectly on character for them. And we, the audience, are just forced to sit there screaming, no, I wish you wouldn't do that because this other person that you have no idea is doing this thing is doing this thing and it's all going to work out okay. Yeah.

The dramatic irony is like so heavy with this show and they do it so well where it doesn't, it feels awful, but we just can't stop watching. watching. Yeah. Achari, you pointed out when we watched it the moment with the mask. I don't know if you pointed out during the reaction or after we stopped watching it, but the moment where Mel's looking at the mask. And that hit me harder this time than the previous time. And it just pointed out to me how for a lot of us, especially in this generation, you know, where we're reflecting on our history and stuff like that, it's like where we come from is very complex. And it's like we have to acknowledge the sins but also appreciate it at the same time and that's very complicated and very difficult to manage because we want everything to be very finite like in a box and very neat

but it's not like that life is messy and you just sort of have to take all of it together you know that's what i got out of that moment with the mass growing up with with complicated parents it's like there's a mixture of love and confusion and like wanting to distance yourself yeah all at the same time and so that little small fleeting moment was very poignant even more this time around well yeah Yeah, and watching that part, I noticed, like, all of the stuff in the background as well. And her costume changed. Yes, it's a really powerful image of her stepping into the look and stylings of her mother. Yeah.

And, like, stepping into that void of, like, okay, I've got a rule noxas now. Exactly. The inheritance, right? And so at this time, I was like, oh, wow, the imagery. My God. Like, they say so much with very few. words. Because she looks very, very small compared to like all of the mammoth sort of weapons and things on the rack behind her, whereas her mother really filled and owned that space.

And so I think to your point, as she's looking at the mask, she's realizing that like, okay, I've got to fill these shoes, but how can I take what my mother did and learn from that and also my experiences in Piltover? How can I be better? How can I build off of my mom and my own experiences. Right. And the fact that they paint all of that in just a look, just a brief shot of a mask and Mel's sitting there kind of looking much smaller and feeling small. So incredible. But the fact that she's still stepping into that and she's still stepping into that role, despite like all the weight it's bearing on her shoulders, also says a lot about who she is. And hopefully, the future of Knox's. This is a very small and significant thing,

but I wanted to point out before I forgot. So there's a moment during the fight when Caitlin and Mel are up against Mel's mother, right? Yeah. And Caitlin is just like giving everything she's got. And there's like this expression in her face. And I just like wanted to shout out the animators for all the hard work that did.

Because even in that moment, I could feel like, God damn, this fight is still going. Why won't she die? Why won't this bitch go? Like I could feel all of that in this expression that Caitlin had. I'm like, dang, this is incredible animation. Yeah.

You know, that it's not just the beautiful, painfully beautiful colors, but it's also the expressions that the characters have. They just feel very, very human and lifelike. Yes. Did I read somewhere, like, probably maybe in one of your reactions with Kristen, people were saying, or even in yours, they weren't mo-capped. Oh, I don't know. I'm not sure about that.

If they didn't use motion capture, like, boy. They did an incredible job of just, like, all of the movement and the faces and everything, because it just felt so real. Life-like. Yeah, like the micro-expression. Well, animators, if they don't, if they're not using mocap, well, animators often do, that I've seen in behind the scenes is like they'll have a mirror there. And make faces at it.

Yeah, make faces at it. And then be like, okay, that's what I want to. And then they make the do the thing in the computer. Amazing. Yeah. Amazing. Almost like a self-poachery. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's genius. I mean, every frame of this entire show, you could. print and put on your wall. Yeah, absolutely. That's what I was saying, yeah. The animation is so stunning. Like, kudos. I'm sure any of the animators, like,

while watching the show, just pause and go, that, that eyebrow lift, that's my magnum opus right there. That is, I did that. It was painstaking. It took me 20 hours alone just to get it to go and then I had to render over and over and over again to make sure

it worked. It's so phenomenal. At the doctor's office, you know, we're at a pediatrician's office because baby. They're playing Toy Story 2, which was one of my favorite movies on the planet. Compared to this, that stuff looks so crunchy. Animation has come so far in my lifetime. Yeah. Oh my God. And I loved that movie.

And I thought it was stunning. And it looks good even compared to Toy Story 1, which Toy Story 1 looks crunchy as hell now. But the fact that we have come so far within my own lifetime. animation is so incredibly cool that we can have such near perfect lifelike expressions in such a stylized means or depiction so cool so I want to ask you um because Char and I already did our deep dive what are your theories around this how does that's number one uh how does it relate to the game and do you like this better than season one those are my three questions I will forget one of them if you ask me later okay so theories around this is in like where we where do we go from here

what's... Yeah, like anything. Anything that popped out at you. I think there's so much lore to League of Legends. Okay. Like, this is a really, really beautiful depiction. And I've talked about this in earlier episodes where because there's such a wide sort of uncollected lore of League of Legends that doesn't have a whole hell of a lot of direction,

it's the perfect place for adaptions like this where you can take the characters and get really specific about their lives, their engagements, the world, and just like, really get into the minutia because you already have the world built. It's like fantasy novelist, any good D&D campaign, stuff like that, there's always a massive world around the really specific focus that you're dealing with. And so Riot Games, the company that publishes or is behind League of Legends, already has this massive collection of lore. So I have no idea where they might go from this if they're going to be continuing like

arcane as kind of a vignette saga of like where are we going into the world. So let me focus on one thing for you then. So one debate a char and I had was about whether or not when Victor was giving him the stone, if it was a singular timeline that was repeating on loop, or if it was multiple timelines diverging. And I have a reason to believe it's a singular timeline, but I wanted to hear your thoughts. I feel like the way they depicted it, it's a singular timeline. Okay. Just because it seems like he kept going back over and over and over again.

And he has that line where it's like you were the only one. who could make me see this, it kind of implied like he hadn't seen it yet, like it hadn't fixed. Now, there's the sort of like mind-fucky consideration when you get into time, space, continuum stuff where even if it is a single timeline, if you adjust it, it becomes multiple timelines. Okay, okay. Where, you know, he feels like he's going back every time and redoing it, but all of those timelines exist parallel to one another at the same time.

Branch off. Yeah, every time he hands a different time. different ruin to Jace, it creates a different timeline. Gotcha. And so he's just managed to finally find the timeline where they succeed and he fails because he gets echo the right ruin to create a device that quote unquote shouldn't exist that can then open up Jace to be able to expose Victor to old Victor and yeah. So I think what they're kind of implying is that Victor has always been going after this

goal singularly and he's just tried a different ruin every single time is my perception of it. But again, when you get into the philosophy of time travel and messing with the timeline, it gets really like spaghettified super fast. Yes, yes, yes. Unfortunately. Yeah. So my opinion was that it was a singular timeline because they showed you the alternate timeline with Echo and Jinks. And it's like that was a happy timeline. You're right. It's like you could have just leaped over to another timeline and kept jumping until you found a happy one if that's all you were going to do. So it's like he was obviously fighting for this timeline. That's my opinion on it.

No, yeah, I absolutely see what you mean because, like, what would be the point? If this is just the one timeline where everything was screwed, unless, like, he can only exist within that timeline. Like, the arcane doesn't allow. Well, if that were true, then it wouldn't have allowed Heimerdinger and Echo to jump to an entirely separate universe where things are happy and the arcane is never created. You saw a Terminator very recently. Yeah, yeah. So this has, for me, this has a very Terminator-esque kind of approach to things because it's like a close. loop that has to circle right right because like the the war with the machines happen and then

john connor sends kail reese back in time to make a baby with his mom to make john connor to be able to facilitate the war against machines yeah yes and it just keeps happening and so it's like there's no beginning for arcane it's just a loop it's a loop you know because like where does where does that victor come from that starts this whole process that drops the stone off yeah oh you're right yeah because he has to yeah yeah that's a good point otherwise there is no victor it's like head It is. It hurts. Again, the deeper you dive into. So comparison to the game. There is no comparison to the game. It's, again. You were mentioning like different stuff. Like, oh, that's a power. This is a power. Yeah. So they do a really, really good job of depicting and bringing in art and stylings from the game. Vi uses punching fists in the game. It's all true to their characters, how they fight. And then they've kind of modified it, adapted it for the story. Which I really love. It was kind of interesting because initially some of the early comments

in my watch with Kristen of season one a lot of people were like, how did Michael not catch that that was Victor when he like says his name? He looks nothing like he looks in the game until this episode, guys. And like, again, I hadn't played the game since high school.

So when I realized and I saw that comment, I was like, oh, wait a second, which is why when later on you were like, okay, where do you think Victor's going from here? I'm like, I can't talk about it. Because I know what Victor's character is in the game. I know what he looks like. I know what his kind of style is

so I couldn't talk about it because I knew some sort of transformation was coming. Right. Do you play as Victor? Yeah, you can play as Victor. Jinks is a character. Victor's a character. Vye is a character. Echro's a character. Like our main cast are characters in the game. That said, there's

a lot of extracurricular cast that aren't characters in the game or are like vague references to the game. But again, it's a multiplayer PVP game. It's like, did you ever play Warcraft? No, but I'm aware of it. Okay, yeah. So it's basically like Warcraft, except you play one character instead of a whole bunch of armies. And then you, battle it out. And so the entire focus of the game, you can miss out on the entire lore if you

just play the game because it's about playing against other people. It's match-based gameplay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You only get all of this deep lore if you go into like the characters and read their bios. And then sometimes they hint it stuff with in-game events and things like that. Like I played back way in the way when they had like a big sort of tournament between major players or like kind of ranked tournament where you could help engage in a sort of grander story arc where noxas was invading another like small kingdom in the league of legends universe and so like through playing the game you could kind of affect how that turned out but that's like the most depth of story they have so if you're going into the game if some of you

are watching this and like man i should really get into league of legends it doesn't look anything like this show except for the characters have the powers that they have in game so if you're really excited about that great yeah so the guy who looks like you know vander light uh that got shot with the Yes. Is he in the game? There is a character that uses a big shield. I'm not sure. I can't remember his name and I'm not, he's a newer character that's been added, so I'm not super familiar with him. He might be. Does he launch storage containers at characters? No, no. There's nobody launches, nobody launches storage containers at anybody. It feels like Vander went through some iterations of characters. Okay. Which I thought was really interesting. So at first,

when Vander is, he kind of reminds me of this pirate captain character that's in the game. Okay. And then in the end of episode three in season one, when he gets really like out of his mind on shimmer, he reminds me of Mr. Mundo. If you guys know who that is, he's this big, like, muscled purple guy who's got crazy purple eyes and a blue tongue. And he runs around with a meat cleaver. And that's like his attack and things like that. And so I was like, oh my God, Vander, they're turning him into Mr. Mundo. And I thought that was how he was going to come back.

And that's like how we were going to see him. And then we didn't get that. And then in here when Singed, who is a character in the game, I used to play as him too. When Singe starts, like, looking for, like, the animal creatures and things like that. I'm like, oh, we're getting Warwick, who's this big, like, basically wolf dude, wolf humanoid, and things like that. And we're like, oh, we're introducing Warwick into the game. And so then when they were just, like, shrouding Vander's, like, wolf beast form character, I'm like, ah, we've released Warwick. This is the introduction of Warwick.

And then it turns out to be Vander. And I'm like, wow, you guys have really, like, duped me twice. Yeah. I had an inkling he was going to come back, but I thought he was coming back as a different representation of a character, not as Warwick. So during the episode, you were like, is Vander still in there? In the previous episode, they showed his memories got wiped. Getting wiped. Yeah.

Yeah, unfortunately. He's not there. I was wondering if they were going to have like a little bit of a moment where, you know, even though like kind of depicting that despite Victor's best efforts to clean out the individuality from everybody. Yeah. Like those deep-seated memories, like locking eyes with jinx for Vander, like couldn't totally be erased. Maybe there'd just be like a little bit there where finally like Van der. like Vander, like, let's go just briefly enough that they can defeat him or something like that.

You know, or maybe it's like the crack in the hive mind that allows Jace to come out. They did that, of course, with Echo instead, but there was a part of me that's like, maybe this is what we're leading to is like you can't totally wipe out someone's individuality. Yeah, I mean, you cannot totally wipe their core being. Even when you format your hard drive, there's leftover four kilobits all over the place in your hard drive. You can put back together. There you go. There's an argument to be made from muscle memory. Your body remembers even if your mind doesn't.

And your gut. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So how do you feel about this compared with season one? I really, really loved season one. Okay.

Season one was phenomenal top to bottom. Okay. I really, really loved season two until about episode seven and eight. Okay. They were beautiful. And I really, really loved episode seven with Echo and Jinks in the alternate universe. Like, that one really stuck with me. Like, that was the one that was kind of giving me the Tetris effect of, like, I closed my eyes and I saw that episode.

Like, it really stuck with me. Okay. But those two episodes watching them, and maybe this is because I didn't go directly into the finale, felt like a lot more exposition and set up heavy compared to the entire rest of the show. Like, this show books, it rips. Every single episode is maybe 40 minutes, and they cram so much into that 40 minutes, and it always feels like a ride, and it always feels like we're progressing forward. Except for those two episodes.

where it felt really like we're just setting up for the finale. And so I was kind of worried that because we had all this set up, the threads weren't going to come together as well as I would have liked. I think they did a really good job. I think they really stuck the landing and made something beautiful here. I don't know. I think all of season one was amazing from top to bottom. Season two was great.

There was a slight pace shift that kind of hit me weird. and then the finale and so I enjoyed it but I just think like because season one was so great and we knew going into season two that this was going to be like the end there's a certain degree of like

it's never going to live up to how much we want it to be really good despite it being amazing so like none of this is to say that I didn't like this season none of this is to say that like wow they really dropped the ball on the ending absolutely not I just think that like

me personally my mind and perhaps some of you hyped this up a lot because we're like, they got to end on a big note. A lot's coming. And they did end on a big note, but they had to set up a lot leading into that, and it took a little bit more time. By the way, they never mentioned Isha in the last three episodes at all.

Isha's not mentioned whatsoever. You're right. And so for me, where episode six stops, that should have been the end of season two. And then episode seven to nine should have been expanded upon to give you an entire season three. because there's so much going on and they had to really

just jump right into the middle of the war if I got to do that girl on her back and she's hauling ass and I'm like we've got none of the preamble to this war we just went straight into it and it's like while that's cool I just feel like I missed out on a lot of beats yeah that's what I'm saying is like 7 and 8

felt like a lot of exposition and a lot of set up that they were just like ah shit we have a whole lot we got to get done I mean you just had this crazy emotional moment with Isha and we got to get to the end. Oh, my God, just cram it in. We've got an alternate universe and also just everybody talking at each other and getting ready to strategize.

Boom, done. Oh, and also, Vi and Caitlin do the thing. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. No, I absolutely see what you mean. So, yeah, I think overall, season one is still like the end all, be all of animated series right now.

Yes. And season two, I'm satisfied with how it ended. However, yeah, I think they had to tie things up a little bit quicker than I would have liked. As someone who has watched a lot of video game adaptations over the years, and as someone who has not played League of Legends, this for me is the best video game adaptation I have ever seen. Even with season two and one together, like, it's just the best video game adaptation I've ever seen way more than Last of Us for me. I much more prefer this. I know it's like comparing apples and oranges because one's animation, one's live action, but like this just hits and it hits so well. And maybe because I'm not someone who's played the game,

because then I'd have, like, other expectations maybe. But I just love this so, so much, you know. And watching it through a second time, I'm like, I appreciate it more. I still feel season one is so much better, but I appreciate it even more going through it again. Anyways, sir. No, I was just going to share a little anecdote.

Because it involves a baby. No, it involves an old man. The old man in question being my dad, who's 79, and he loved arcane. season one. Aw. And so he's at home recovering from a minor surgery right now. And so he's got a lot of time on his hands.

And he's like, oh yeah, should I watch season two? I said, yeah, dad, absolutely. It's really great. And he's like, you know, no spoilers. Of course not. And so he's like, he messages me and he's like, so I try to watch season two. I don't remember season one well enough. And I'm having a really hard time with season two.

I'm like, oh, dad. Yeah, they move really fast. season two so and they don't hold your hand which like you know like some other shows you jump into a season two and they'll kind of have like a just give you a quick recap yeah we get a quick flashback or like yeah this is what's happened you know and season two is like no we're picking up right where season one left off and we're not offering you any more explanations and we're not holding your hand so like if you did your homework you're good and if you didn't sorry sucks but i know so i had to be like dad you know what you should just watch season one over again and then just

jump right into season two because you won't understand it has to be second screenable okay geez well like my dad loves fantasy and sci-fi it's just like right up his alley but also it was like three years yes since season one and if if we hadn't watched season one before jumping into season two i i would have been yeah it's not the benefit of watching it recently it's not like there's a whole library of content coming out every single week okay it's not like there's so much to keep up with it's super easy barely an inconvenience yeah no not at all you guys you guys Thanks so much for hanging out. Hopefully you enjoy that.

I'm Jabby Koi. This is Michael Boose. Acharakook. Peace out.