The Reel Rejects - ARCANE League of Legends 2x03 Breakdown & Review

Episode Date: November 10, 2024

VI VS JINX REMATCH!! Save & Invest In Your Future Today, visit: https://www.acorns.com/rejects Arcane Season 2, Episode 3 "Finally Got the Name Right" Full Reaction Watch Along:  https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Follow Us On Socials: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  https://www.tiktok.com/@thereelrejects?lang=en After much anticipation and a HIGHLY acclaimed first season, Greg & John are BACK to give their FIRST TIME Reaction, Commentary, Analysis, Breakdown, & Full Spoiler Review for the new season of the hit Netflix series adapted from Riot Games' League of Legends. Picking up immediately where the first season left off, Arcane Season 2, Act 1 continues the story of wayward sisters, Vi & Jinx (True Grit / Hawkeye / Across the Spider-Verse's Hailee Steinfeld & Fall out / Yellowjackets / Army of the Dead's Ella Purnell) along with the ever-ranging conflict between the privileged nation of Piltover and the oppressed & burgeoning nation of Zaun...   Greg & John REACT to the Best Scenes & Most Exciting Moments as we make our way through Part 1 of season 2 and anticipate what could be coming in Parts 2 and 3... How will the series end?!? Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I just mailchimp my marketing. You mailchimped your what? I mailedchimped my marketing with AI to create an effective marketing campaign in minutes. No, MailChimp and way. Yes, MailChimp in way. Now I can hyper-personalize my campaigns across email and SMS. You can do all that with MailChimp. What did I just MailChimp and say?

MailChimp your marketing with the number one AI powered email marketing and automation platform. Intuit MailChimp. Number one, based on publicly available data on competitors, customers. Plans vary. SMS available as add-ons. Visit MailChimp.com. A massage chair might seem a bit extravagant, especially these days, eight different settings, adjustable intensity, plus it's heated, and it just feels so good.

Yes, a massage chair might seem a bit extravagant, but when it can come with a car, suddenly it seems quite practical. The all-new 2025 Volkswagen Tiguane, packed with premium features like available massaging front seats, that only feels extravagant. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Knowing you could be saving money for the things you really want, like that dream house or ride, is a great feeling. That's why the State Farm Personal Price Plan

can help you save when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling. Just another way to save with a personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. This week's video is sponsored by Acorns, the money app that makes it simple and cheap to make small yet significant investments. Guys, keep a lookout.

John's tickets go on sale. He's touring the country. He's going to be hitting up Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Sacramento. Keep a look out. Well, ladies and gentlemen, um, If you've been privileged to be in this position where you were listening to us on Apple and Spotify or podcast section, as goes, please leave us a one-star rating. I'm really trying to get that lower down. I feel like we're too high on the list.

Too good. We're outpacing every other podcast. Doesn't make me feel good. Doesn't make me feel good. Yeah, that's just mean. You know, it's like taking candy from a babie. We just watched Arcane Season 2, Episode 3, another phenomenal episode of television. I have so many criticisms

Good, that It's about time I don't have many criticisms Could you give me more things to gripe about You're making me look bad Give me some nits to pick Geez Dude, well the Caitlin thing at the end

That's crazy for her Because she has been someone Who's been in conflict About which path do I take And General Mommy is I like to call her Who's what a damn name Some names I say I'm like, I just never remember.

Ambasa? No. Something like that. I know Sato, Sato is the annoying, whatever. Salo is the guy you don't like. Yeah, okay. So, Mommy to Mel, Mel, Mammie. Melmom.

She orchestrated a lot of this as one suspected. Who predicted that? Is that me in this, between the duo? Yeah. Are you sure you predicted that? But who in the comments predicted it? Was it obvious to you? guys when they said someone let them in and then they cut to her looking that makes sense she needed to

make sure the chess pieces fell in her favor but anyway um but now even manipulating the situation of her advantage with katelyn going right down the path that katelyn has been at odds with now she's chosen the path by leading this which is only going to make things worse i think this show's so good at the writing because they do an excellent job at yes this is a progression of of plot and motive, but they create conflict usually by personal relationship with the heart of it, like Vye and Jinks sisters. And now her personal connection to the undercity is through Vye. And this creates like that, that's like the thing that's really at stake here, you know?

Like, yes, the people built over in the undercity, but what about the relationship? That's the personal thing we're really connected to. so yeah John this is there's so much happening in here true there's so much but thank God we have you to finally explain to me what was going on with all that magic in the magic room with hymoldinger Jackie Chan and um elk boy elk boy can't remember them all but I can remember Squirrel boys. Yep, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I mean, the arcane clearly is speaking to them on its own terms.

It's sighing heavily in their direction. Pass me a tomb. Yes. I thought that was a great. It was a great little encapsulation of this. And I think it was on the verge of drying a circle and then folding that paper in half and choking a pencil. Ben Space Time back on itself. I mean, yeah, I like the likening of.

of the arcane, the magic power to something like that that has some level of innate consciousness, some level of innate flow, and perhaps even will, and the idea, I feel like it's a very kind of ecologically minded idea to assume that, yes, like this is a staggering force, it's an incredible asset, but there's also like a balance one must consider when engaging, it that obviously like you know the march of endeavor will not sit well with uh and and that kind of picks up some of the debates from early on in the first season before they've even you know like fully developed tech tech about yeah the ways in which you can and hymerdinger brings it back

here you know sort of saying that yeah like there's a million amazing things you can do but it's the monkey's paw and when is it going to turn sour and is there a way to counteract that changing of the balance. And I really liked that in this episode with that sequence in particular, they let you kind of, it's like they bring in other in like co-mingling stakes and ideas into that because they are at this like nexus point of these vents and stuff like that. And we get this explanation of like, oh, here's why the tree is growing and is so vibrant and alive. And, you know, here's also the machinations of, you know, Piltover, even here, you know,

kind of building in a safeguard that would be at the expense of, you know, the Zon Knights or whatever she calls. And whatever the people who live in Zon are called. And yeah, having this surreal interlude to where you get, you know, your cool sort of sci-fi imagery and stuff like that is nice. But it also just felt like, yeah, a great way to personify this crucial power that has been really cool up till this point, but especially this season,

I feel like they've been giving it this extra air of mystery and this sort of... Well, it's literally like a metaphor for abuse of power. Yeah. They say it like, you've been abusing,

you've been used too much X-Tex. Yeah, and you need to like facilitate the balance. I think if you... The message I got from that is you have to facilitate the balance if you want to continue using this stuff. If you want to harness its power, you know, you need to respect the resource

and where it comes from. rather than just taking as much as you want because you will it and that's very much I think a relevant theme to just the way we treat all the resources on earth but yeah having this sort of surreal moment with the three of them

and this warping and the way that it's bleeding over into the fight with Vi and and jinx and like and that's not really paid off in this episode but it is like an interesting and a fun thing to sit with and to wonder about and how it might

might either interact with or present like a counter to the mystical presence we see from, you know, the enemy of Mel's mom, you know, that the flowers that bloom into this sort of dark, red cosmic magic and their complementary colors. You know, you have the blue of the hextech and then the red of this other magic, which also is, you know, similar to the thematic choice of the colors between jinks and violet. But, you know, there's, there's, yeah, it's pretty rich. Yeah, I think this show is really good at demonstrating something that I feel like the opening of the season was doing. What the show does kind of just naturally throughout is that things are never as black and white as they seem. And as much as they, what are you going to say? Things are never as black and white as they seem. And events don't unfold the way you think.

Like, they'll often just go ahead and some other action will occur off screen and pierce whatever was happening. I'm quite the prognosticator. I can determine anything at a moment's notice. Ra! Yeah, it's pretty good. You are the prognosticator. Put that on a cape look up. What prognosticator?

pass me a dictionary um yeah no i mean things are never as black and white as they seem and this whole thing is them trying to just simplify choices of like choose a path everyone choose a path vi nah if you see my sister kill her yeah and it gets complicated when the kids are thrown to the mix i'm glad it was you you know when when uh she has the moment to actually kill jinx but then she doesn't and then it complicates things with having that kid show up and then having that kid show up shows like maybe there's actually maybe this maybe powder still in there if powder this child has formed a connection with her you know to to the point where the child's willing to die for her and protect her in that regard I think

that's really beautiful in this story also obviously deal so much with like the sacrifice of personal relationships for causes that they might deem bigger than themselves and also the of what happens in the pursuit of power. And we see this with, like, Mel's mom, which is all she's going to be known as Mel's mom, you know, like Mel's literally taken, and she has no idea that any of this is happening. And this is happening due to her actions.

And it seems like she just wants more power for a personal vendetta to get revenge about what happened to this. That's at least what I took it at, that she probably wants the heckstack and to be able to control. like the mom seems like she she's aware of like the progressive power that they have but at the end of the day the warriors like the actual fighters within are not as that strong and she can overtake that and weaponize them to the fullest extent yeah and i feel like noxas you know the the home they come from that is so grand and so mighty i gotta imagine that she's here probably because it's like crumbled and like she's like she's He's a character that puts forth such strength and resolve, and they made a whole point throughout this episode to highlight, like, no, I think underneath the surface, she's panicking. And I think that's a really interesting thing to watch, because it does seem like, I mean, yeah, obviously, like, hex tech is clearly the key to whatever she needs back in Knoxis, but also, what is that? And what position does she really come here in?

because when you meet her in season one, she feels like a powerful figure coming in to, you know, undermine Mel. And then, you know, the further we get into this season, the more it feels like, oh, maybe you were more desperate than you let on earlier in the story than you let on. Yeah. And now, you know, it's all come to this. Well, this whole story, like, especially with Jason's story,

just seems to be the giant Oppenheimer effect of someone who's like in the pursuit of some type of great science that would, be good for the people, but is ultimately going to lead to the death of many people, you know? And that's look what's been happening already. And watching how this magic is getting out of control and things are literally going nuclear. And the thing of like, I'm just a scientist and now I have to be a political figure and now I have to be all these other things. And I just want to go back to creating and improving life for humanity. Yeah. And that's his, his allegory for it. Yeah, I think it's so super strong show, man.

I'm really loving it. Yeah, they haven't skipped a beat. I'm really loving it. Like, this feels like it could have just flown right out of... They do. They got a cat lady. They got a human cat now. I do.

Humanoid, anyway. Humanoid cat. Yeah. I've always wanted one. Yeah. I love to it. To rescue a humanoid cat. That would be truly remarkable.

I make so much money. Yeah, you could film the live action cats for real. Oh, yeah, I do it. Yeah, you should. You should exploit that thing immediately. Why not? Yeah, I mean, you know, the humanoid cat will get rich in the process. How humanoid are we talking?

I mean, this is cat like, you know, understand speech and ideas, wears clothes, you know. Gap. It's only shop at the gap. Cat Gap. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited to shout out today's sponsor because it is an app that I have been using since before we partnered with them, which just makes my job easy. And I just get to share with you something I really do love. and that is the acorns app because money's involved i researched them extensively to make sure like they've got to be legit right you can find so many positive reviews on them there's one person here

they themselves gave me a very positive testimony about how it helped get them out of a bind once that they were in and i can say that you know i don't want to actually show my but i have the app just as evidence because one of my favorite things about it is how easy they make it for investing that's something that i think is really important it's really hard to get ahead in life for something like me who doesn't have a 401k who really does need to invest money so that way I don't have to just work for money but have money grow for me, have money work for me. It's an absolutely amazing start. The best part is you don't need a lot of money to do it. You can literally start with your spare change. They make it easy to automatically start saving and investing for you, your future, your retirement,

your kids, whatever it may be that you want to invest money for. Like I say, you don't need a lot of money. You don't even really need expertise, which is the best part. Acorns recommends an expert built portfolio that fits you and your money goals, then automatically invest the money for you. So it takes a lot of this stressful decision-making fatigue out of the process. I just love how I can let it do its thing and then I can just check it with my half like a month later, a couple months later, see how they're awesome dollar roundup or whatever my money investments I've gone into. Literally it's just awesome to see it grow. Plus now you can open an acorns later IRA and get up to a 3% match on new contributions. So it's extra money for your retirement. Cannot stress it

enough. It's made investing, especially at a jumping off point, super easy, super stress-free, super straightforward. It's all about small steps today, making a big impact on your future. Because from Acorns, Muddy Oaks do grow, grow your roke. So you can head at Acorns.com slash rejects or

download the Acorns app and start saving and investing for your future. There's a link in the description box and pin comment. A little disclaimer too, I got to say, because there's, you know, finances involved. Pay non-client endorsement compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns, investing involves risk. Acorns Advisor LLC and SEC, registered investment advisor. View,

important disclosures at acorns.com slash rejects. I highly recommend this app, so please go ahead, download it. Thank you again. Anyway. Anywho. Do we miss anything? Talked about a lot of things in the last few hours of this show. Yeah.

I mean, there's some great animation flourishes. I really like the sort of like 2D. That was this episode, right? This sort of 2D-ish prologue. Yeah, when they were explaining the gases and the green gases, which I think is, that's got to be a metaphor for, something historical starting to lose brain power

I guess well yeah it's a classic I feel like story device of like oh this this problem that just seemed like it existed was actually orchestrated by us

yeah and the fact that there was like a fail safe like there was a backup already institutionalized like it was already implemented in there it wasn't something they brought over because that's what I was like wondering when they were doing it

was what I thought it was a creature But I love the way they do illustrate that. I liken it to backdraft where the fire really feels like some type of demonic entity. But they even go more overt here where at one point it does form a face that like snarls. And I love that. It makes it even more threatening. And like the fact of how I love what they do with Jinks because Jinks seems from the outside looking in that she's just kind of this wild card who just improvises shit. she kind of is, but she's also, like, insanely brilliant.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's the cause it all shit. Yeah, well, yeah, and it's a nice razor's edge that they're able to walk because, like, her machinations are formidable and also within that, you know that, yeah, like a bunch of random chaos is also going to be kind of baked into the plan. And, yeah, like, it makes her both a compelling, dramatic character, but also a compelling antagonist, certainly. And, I mean, that's one thing.

show is really great at from front to back so far has been with jinx and and and various other like altercations and and you know very physical moments like conflicts will happen in what seems like chance or what seems like just the heat of a moment rather than for narrative purposes for like you know you're never thinking about the screenplay the way certain things will just jut into the story and like oh damn you know it's it was exemplified in the memorial and I feel like they're going to making choices like that where it's like, oh, we could just have Piltover invade. But no, there's going to be like an attack during some completely other scene or something like that. And, like, they make the threat of violence just always feel like it could be anywhere.

And you're never, especially this season, like, you're never really quite comfortable in any room because you don't know who's... Like, they really do a good job of making all the characters feel alive because it feels like everyone's got their own program running simultaneously. And some of them line up and some of them completely conflict. and it's like the i would love to see what their like story map is before they write one of these because like it's it's just a one it's just chat gp t you know they just feed in a bunch of plot beats out the whole show making notes on his iPhone yeah hey make it do this uh but yeah like they i want a cat lady they make those things feel actually like random but also motivated once you're resituated and what this whatever's happening you know true and uh yeah like it's a battle

of ideologies and convictions and the way they do the scope and the way they personify certain things it's like you know to give the gray this sort of personality makes sense because it is just this threatening you know no matter who you are who invented it when you come in contact with it it is formidable and and you see how deep the rift between it's like there's so much back and forth between like who's the progenitor of this conflict is it the top siders or is it the underfolk and it seems like it just goes further and further back the roots of that and it is constantly being personified in different ways if i had to choose a side i'd go with the top siders because it's just so much nicer yeah it's way more comfortable

food is cleaner you know half the city probably isn't really concerned they have hot water when it's cold they probably do I bet they have cold water when it's hot outside they probably do in fact I'm certain they do they probably have dish soap they do and it's only dawn

how am I going to fight for in the inner city you know it probably smells awful alleyways and trash gosh I say below it up John and that one sushi bar I am Team Mel's

mom That's right Just knock it all Of the ground But what are the Havs gonna do Without the have knots You know

Gotta have somebody To run the gears Way down below I think the under city Is the ones to actually Their anger is most justified Oh sure Yeah

And they're It's like Topside is more like What are you're angry We're getting angry Because they're angry Because they're angry It's one of those relationships.

That's how it started. Like, you're just mad because we're bad? No, it's, you're the ones who started. It's a good, it's a good dramatic microcosm of society because, yeah, it's like there are these conflicts that exist. And from the upper, upper crust, you probably look down and go, like, what? Pull yourself up, you know?

Like, this has nothing to do with us, but oh, come to find, actually, it does have something a lot to do with us. This set story in, in like, I think it was house at the, dragon in this latest season when they said that before you know you kind of forget like who started what and why it started you just know you're in it you know and that's how this feels it feels like a conflict that's been raging for so long that like you can trace certain roots and threads but it's just its own organism now yeah well someone who grew up with not much money had a house shut down foreclosure went bankrupt I definitely identified with top siders I say let all those zonni and zonites burn Yeah, hell yeah Let them choke on their gray

Yeah, I want to get away from that I don't like looking at a mirror I don't want to go do shimmer down there Oh, but they do have shimmer They do have shimmer Well, you can get shimmer up in the Piltover though You gotta be royalty

You can do shimmer anywhere in the person That's what cool That's what cool Shimmer flows freely in the underworld the under place Let's be coming up that sheriff's daughter It doesn't know it's here Is that actually her?

I didn't think the timeline would wind up But I don't think that's her She's also way too chipper Junior She's also way too happy She used to what happens When people lose someone in here They're like, I'm not for a baby

Yeah That personality wouldn't line up with that John Junior cadet certainly has looked disturbed By a lot of what she has seen In the brief flashes of, you know Her journey we've gotten And what's going to happen with Xander, not Vander.

Do you think it's Fander's brother? It looks like Vander. I don't know. Part of me entertained. I feel like he would have been mentioned. Or maybe they had such a bad falling out that he was never mentioned, even though he lived down the street and all this time, Vye, and Jinks never knew him. It could be, I mean, think of it.

He is an enforcer, so maybe there's something in that that was either begat from a rift or drove a rift between him and his. brother you lost me a bagel bagels lost me a bagel they wanted bagels and he didn't bring the bagels so now sworn enemies anyway oh the misery i'm just a sucker for pain was that the suicide squad movie song yeah yeah you gotta compile all they imagine i love them that's good i love imagine dragons people laugh all the time at them and i love them I mean, you know, they are one of the most successful bands. I love Nickelback, too.

You know. I really love Nickelback. Sentiment has come back. I see the put... It was dang. The thing is... Something about I said, do you... People still shit on Nickelback, but I think of this.

Imagine Dragons is opening the door for people to look at Nickelback and go, they don't deserve all that hate. It's like the way people feel about Jared Leto after Joker 2 came out. Yes, exactly. You know, and at least that Gerald was more accurate. All we need is the next Imagine Dragons to arise. And then people will start reassessing Imagine Dragons and going, oh, they're not that bad, you know. It's because Imagine Dragons and Nickelback sound like Christian rock without the Christianity.

They can. Yeah. Yeah, Christian trailer rock. They're cool. Sure. It's like when you like Christian rock, but I'm not Christian. So I'm a hard time jamming out. Look at this.

Bible page Takes away all of my rage Yeah Yeah yeah Was the Mission Impossible Imagine Dragon song Oh I could kind of hear it Oh I could kind of hear

Yeah Oh God Oh it's like it's like barely in my brain I can kind of hear it Yeah Yeah I'm actually surprised I can't draw I know a hard time drawing

I've heard this song a thousand times It's just all of them some of them screaming imagine dragon songs start to find again well because they do have someone that's someone that starts sounding off like a mission impossible tune but then it's not yeah a mission as imagine dragons well they they do have a sound that is semi unique to them they do have their own thousand percent trailer music sound dude a thousand percent ladies and gentlemen what did you think about this season of arcane act one episode three season finale of series of the finale.

Your thoughts down below. Do you like Imagine Dragons? We'll talk you guys. See him. Josh Asano. Joshua. Josh, my dude, it's Thanksgiving time.

And I got to say, I am so grateful for you, Josh Asano. If there's anyone here who I would love to build magical devices with. Yeah, buddy. It would be,

You are the magic. You know what magic we could build together? A teleportation device, that way, you could see me whenever you want. It's just a one-way teleportation straight to the bathroom whenever I'm showering. Yes. You can just come in there any time you want, my friend. And then you have to let yourself out the front door. Let yourself out the front door.

Everyone can see. Walk home. And even if I'm like yelling at you, screaming at you, hitting you with my rolled-up newspaper. Mm-hmm. Because La Chunkler. I think like, get out of here. Get your ass. out of here is what I say

to my wife on the daily so I would say that to you now. No, you could be the next wife. That's what everyone wants, especially Josh Asano. He gives me planning to work with every month. I think Josh Asano has earned it, all right? Oh, he totally has.

And imagine your wedding reception. Imagine what high class pleasures would be on display to commemorate your joyous union. All the major families would show up. You know, John and I once a mentor when we were younger named josh it's true kind of went a little nuts he's out here some somewhere he sometimes watches the channel oh well we should have him on a little crazy

we're all a little crazy are you a little crazy josh isano i know you are kind of looks like him at all oh oh i think it's the doctor i think it's the doctor but but you know josh could be a doctor by josh Bye Josh.