Adam here: I made a bit of a blunder when I uploaded this episodes footage and duplicated a different episode. So I present to you tarsier Brandon.

Heimerdinger was right though: -Hextech got weaponized. -Vi stole the boxing gloves. -Jinx made a bazooka He warned them and now the council died

"We were so focused on doing something great, that we failed to do good." killer line

To add some more context to Heimerdinger, in the game lore there was a historical event called the Rune Wars where magic progressed too far and super-powerful mages carved huge swaths of destruction and almost destroyed the world in their wars for power. This shapes a lot of the political history of the current world, but it's been many centuries since so people are starting to forget. Heimerdinger references living through these events, although it was only vaguely told through his perspective and we aren't really shown anything, so the show kinda nudges us towards siding with Jayce/Viktor. It's like if you lived through a nuclear apocalypse and centuries later you're somehow still alive and people started re-discovering nuclear tech. Of course the energy benefits would be massively helpful to society, but if you've lived through the worst consequences of that tech you'll probably be traumatized and fearful of going down that road again. We're already seeing some of the negative effects of magic, with the scale of destruction going up as the series goes on, and I expect we'll see more in later seasons, too.

Mel’s “180 narrative turn” was a result of her mothers arrival. She realized that she was becoming more like her mother and less like what she sees herself as. We see this when she begins to advocate for peace and covers the painting of her families Noxus flieght in GOLD strokes. Mel is not just Noxian like her mother, she’s also a Medarda like her father. Many believe that she is a Solari (worshippers of the Sun) seen by her golden markings across her body. Meaning there’s a chance she has the ability to harness magic and could protect the city council from Jinx’s rocket. In the ending, her regalia shimmered and she turned around to face Jinx’s rocket before anyone else noticed.

He said it: Arcane is a masterpiece. It has the Sanderson's seal of approval.

Regarding powder knowing right from wrong pre-trauma: she was creating nail bombs to kill rival criminal gang members and enforcers. She was a little kid, sure, but her morality seems to be "violence to defend family" throughout the show, whether her family is Vander or Silco or Vi

Also Sevika, Silco’s lieutenant, was the person who betrayed Vander in the first three episodes. She organized all of the men to help Silco.

It's satisfying to have Brandon agree with my opinion of Arcane. Arcane is a masterpiece.

the funny thing is that jinx didn't QUITE know right from wrong, even from the start. like, at the end of episode 3, it honestly seemed to me like she was more bothered by the fact that Vi had left her than the fact that the rest of their pseudo-family was dead. her "moral center" is essentially the approval of whoever she deems most important to her. that's why she didn't care so much about murder later on; because silco didn't, and he actively encouraged her to be "herself," as destructive and chaotic as that could be (which did bite him in the behind later, because then she became so cavalier about murder as a means to an end that she didn't care about how it could affect their goals, i.e. killing a bunch of police officers right inside piltover).

The big thing with the lieutenant is that she was on Vander's side but betrayed him to Silco at the end of act 1. That's why Vi has a meaningful conflict with her, she is the one who betrayed and inevitably led to her father' figure's death.

I think Heimerdinger's arc was that he was a casualty of his own immortality, that after hundreds of years of being alive, he's lost perspective on the human plight - which I think is shown when he first enters the under city and is appalled by what has been going on right under his nose for essentially decades. I think his arc is completed in his final scene with Ecko, where's stunned by the progress his people have made in so short a time, a direct contrast to his earlier beliefs when Jayce and Victor were first demonstrating the laser and gauntlet, where he thought a decade of research an insubstantial amount of time. I think this show was more focused on giving the main characters complete characters with satisfying ends, whilst most of the side character (like Heimer) were more kind of teased for a future payoff. I have to assumed Heimerdinger, Sevika, and Singed are all gonna play a major role in season 2.

5:42 is the start of the Arcane discussion in case you're not into MEAL STEALINGS.

I feel like they don't realize Sevika was the one who betrayed Vander in Act 1. In doing so, she ultimately helped cause Vander's death and Jinx's downfall. This is why Vi wants to take her out so bad.

I would love to see a Brandon Sanderson novel animated in a similar style to Arcane. The show itself is visually stunning and I feel like an animated series can get around some of the limitations of a live action series. Could you all imagine Vin flying through the mists over Luthadel past the stain glass windows of the noble halls in this kind of style? It would be AMAZING

When they said Vi didn't really grow or change, I think that's mostly true. However, in the last episode she did learn to stop "blocking with her face." When the shield went up in the fight with Sevika, Vi was finally defending. I took that as she was starting to learn to stop blaming herself and hating herself for everything. I took that as she was starting to learn to stop punishing herself.

I’m disappointed that Mr. Brandon is not a walrus, but we will persevere.

I feel like you're both underplaying the fact that not only was Jinx dealing with immense trauma but that she was also molded by Silco while dealing with said trauma. This is a major reason why developed to be so violent and shows no remorse for most of her actions.

“Heimerdinger was wrong” *Story proceeds to launch a gemstone-powered missile into the council chambers where he was giving his warning on gemstone power in the wrong hands* “He was proven wrong at every point!”

The Hero fight between Vi and Sevika: I think Sevika was meant to be portrayed as the person who betrayed Vander (sided with Silko) which allowed Silko to come into power.

Near the beginning of the series, Silco clearly states his thesis - "You see, power, real power doesn't come to those who were born strongest, or fastest, or smartest. No. It comes to those who will do anything to achieve it." Silco passes this philosophy onto Powder-he instructs her, "Become what they fear, Jinx." In the end, when Silco knows first-hand how dangerous, unhinged, violent, unpredictable, brilliant, and terrifying she is, Slico declares Jinx "perfect." All questions of Jinx's perception of right and wrong are put to rest in the last exchange she has with her sister, Vi. Jinx is not suffering from an episode during that exchange--Milo's ghost and scribbled monsters are missing when she picks up Fishbones to nuke Piltover's council. Jinx is calm, resigned, and sad. In the end, Jinx embraces her identity, fully aware of the irreversible damage she is about to inflict-starting a war with Piltover's topsiders. Jinx has no one left to lose. Her transformation complete.

I agree with Dan on the mental health thing, I think Brandon's initial comments/thoughts are missing the full context that while Jinx may have mental health issues, she was also raised by a crime lord, who on multiple occasions has shown zero remorse for acts of cruelty. And don't get me wrong, I love Silco as a character, but he's not a good man and it doesn't surprise me that his surrogate daughter developed the morality (or lack thereof) that she did, I believe she would have turned out the same regardless of her mental stability. I also agree with Dan on the shooting of Silco scene, though I won't reiterate that since Dan pretty much summed up my exact thoughts too.

Mel wants to protect the city and she does it by manipulating people. She wasn't manipulating Jayce because she was in love with him. She's a kingmaker. She puts people in power that she can control. This was explicitly revealed in her flashback when she brainstorms who should be sitting on the throne. She's a good person with good intentions, but she uses manipulation to achieve those good intentions. Personally, I find that interesting

My only disagreement is the conversation about heimerdinger. I think the very important decision that he got RIGHT was them showing how he felt about the hexcore. When he first said the technology was dangerous it was just out of fear, but when he spoke about the hexcore it was an informed decision. And then the show shows us that the hexcore is actually evil. Vaporizing sky, possibly controlling victor for a moment, etc.

Jinx didnt become violent because of her mentall ilness, she became violent because of the circumstances around her growing up. Since the very beginning of the show we see that she was surrounded by violence and death, even before she killed Vander and her friends she was already doing dangerous things like building nail bombs and after that she was raised by Silco the most violent and cruel person in the show. Jinx is a violent person that also has a mental ilness that makes her instable, a very a dangerous combination.

11:50 I feel like Echo is a example for "doing the right thing" being rewarded. He is like Powder in many ways ( same age, interested in tech, sees V as big sister ) but how he copes with his situation is inverted. What a lot of people overlook is that in the same night were Powder lost everybody so did Echo. He lost all of his friends and family that we know of and was completely alone. After that instead of giving up and falling in a hole , or fall in with silco or the next best crime lord, he did the right thing. He pulled himself up and build a flourishing community. Ofc his good deeds also bring him a lot of struggle , but so far his decision to not give up and build this community is not punished.

The thing about the Jayce/Mel relationship is tht it actually transitions from a pure buisness partner relationship to one of genuine feelings. At first we see Mel offer her support to Jayce as a guide to the new Political landscape he had gotten himself into, and the wierd thing about it is, she NEVER steered him wrong, all the stuff she told him was legitimatly how to work his "Competator's" in his favor because she knew them and how to do so. Manipulation comes often with results that favor the manipulator but her interactions with Jayce almost never resulted in any greater benefit for her, than creating a significantly more morally grounded and inteligent conworker than the others that she would just naturally have an in with. But like you talked about their relationship changed drastically after they sleep together. The change came when Victor has his accident, causing Jayce to leave befor she wakes up, which we see is to her displeasure, a mood of hers that changes, when Jayce immediatly comes back to her side and seeking consol for his revelation of Victor's condition. We see her attitude completely shift when she realizes that Jayce hadn't just one night standed her, but had a legitimate reason for leaving, but also chose to come to her befor anyone else for emotional support, from here we see her process Jayce's opening up to her with seemingly legitimate emotional and day to day support, markign what we can tell a shift in her perspective of him as a partner.

Sevika is present during the scene where Vander dies. That's the scene where she loses her arm pushing Silco out of the way of the blast.

i strongly suggest you guys give arcane a rewatch. a lot of your analysis comes from making quick assumptions. the show has a lot more nuance than that. when i rewatched arcane it really helped me understand everything on a deeper level

The narrative actually proves heimer dinger right. Every single thing heimer said would happen if they didn't listen to him happened. Heimer was right but he was complex because he couldn't understand others because of how long he lives and how he has no sense of time and death.

The point around 9:30 about Jink's reaction. I believe this has nothing to do with mental health and everything to do with combat training. She has been taught to react to danger and react swiftly and efficiently to remove the threat. She sometimes toys with it (and that would be linked with the schizophrenia) but in this instant you can hear the trigger pulled by Silco, she reacts to the threat and fires, and then comes the realization of what she has reacted to. It was more about conditioning than mental health or neuro divergence as you put it.

Mel had a subtle arc that I loved and I hope she survives.

That's the thing though: Heimerdinger was right. Immediately after Jace and Viktor develop the Hextech Crystals, Jinx steals them, leading to the deaths of several enforcers, and eventually, the rocket that comes crashing through the council chamber window. That rocket is Heimer's worst fear come to life. I think the problem is that they didn't do enough to show how Heimerdinger's thinking has done good for other characters, or how much that position means to Heimerdinger. We're supposed to infer from his overcautiousness that he takes his job as a regulator and guiding hand very seriously, but that connection is purely cerebral rather than emotional. So when they hit us with a very emotional moment, even if we can logically connect the dots (and even worse if we can't), we're unprepared to empathize with him on such a strong emotional level. That probably has to do with how his arc was about reconnecting with people on a personal level rather than an official level, so giving him too many emotional moments would have compromised his arc, and I genuinely can't think of a better way to frame that scene. Triumph doesn't really work, maybe give the scene a bit of menace to imply that this is a mistake on Jace's part? It's hard to say. Overall, I think it was just meant to play into the tragedy of a character trying to do good, i.e. protecting the city he loves from dangerous ambitions, being punished.

35:48 Sevika was present when Vander died. She lost her arm in Powder's explosion. Silco stopped her from facing Vander, so that Deckard (monster juice blond kid) went instead of her. He stopped her because she was already too valuable to him to risk against Vander. Edit, also, she was working with Vander before "abandoning him" for Silco because he was pushing for peace with Pilltover and de-escalation.

While I disagree with the take of Vi and Sevika's fight feeling unsatisfying, I realised that all their fights and scenes work better from Sevika's point of view. After all, to Sevika, Vi represents what Vander wanted which got in the way of her own goals/methods to helping the undercity. To Sevika, Vi was part of the "doing nothing" problem and in taking down Silco, Vi would effectively put an end to the freedom Sevika had been fighting for for so long. Therefore Sevika actually had a lot riding on winning the fight. I think it's easy to think of the side characters as just bystanders or henchpeople, but a closer look into Sevika's actions and conversations with both Silco and Vander show how much of a protagonist in her own story she really is.

"No good deed goes unpunished." This is great point considering even the fireflies' refuge. That haven could serve as a contradiction to Brandon's point since it all represents hope, but what if it gets ransacked in a later season? It would make sense to the story considering one of the themes of arcane, that progress is a pain staking path. No good deed going unpunished is compelling in so many ways. Powder's tragedy wouldn't be as big of a tragedy if wasn't for a good intention.

I loved listening to your arcane discussion! But Mel didn't suddenly become erratic, her mom visited her and reminded her a lot of herself, influencing Jace, urging on weapons development and pushing for war with the undercity. Mel does a 180 and ruins her painting because she doesn't want to be a Medarda, she takes of the ring when she votes! Heimerdinger isn't bad at science, he doesn't want to continue with hex-tech because it's magic, he is the only one who knows where it leads and has seemingly founded a city of science because of this very fear. I think he wants to take things slow and downplay the short term because he thinks about things long term.

26:00 I think Hiemingdinger was shown to be right. Magic in the wrong hands is dangerous as seen with everything Jinx did. Killed Vander in episode 3 & blew up the council room in episode 9. We do see the benifits of hextech in the 5-ish year time skip but probably Hiemingdinger had a big part in regulating the advancement of the magic development

If y'all haven't seen them yet, KZfaqr Schnee has a GREAT series of analyses of scenes, episodes, and themes in Arcane. Totally worth diving into.

A major key to Powder’s character is that she isn’t just a character with mental illness. Her illness in a vacuum doesn’t make her do “evil” things. What it does is make her more vulnerable to negative influences. If she could have grown up around positive influences like Vander, Ekko, Vi and Benzo she’d probably have been ok. Or as ok as she could be given her situation. But that didn’t happen. Powder’s a character prone to co-dependency who was taken and emotionally abused and manipulated by a violent, brutal and callous crimelord. She know’s right from wrong. But she desperately needs validation and affection from the person she’s emotionally dependent on and Silco rewards her with both for doing violent, ruthless things for him. A truly depraved man took a tweenaged, ill trauma victim, gave her a gun a praised her for killing for him, fed her anger and paranoia with his own and didn’t hesitate to gaslight her to influence her choices. Powder by the end has done monstrous things. Her hands are coated in blood. But Arcane never lets you forget that she was also a victim too.

I think Heimerdinger, Jayce, and Viktor are all correct in their own individual assessments of Hextech. It is very, very dangerous, and is a box you cannot close after it's been opened, like Heimerdinger said. We've only seen glimpses of this, but we HAVE seen it. The girl who liked Viktor was vaporized, for one, as well as the scene where some really dark and strange things happen to Viktor after he keeps fiddling with the crystal. These instances seemed to show, albeit briefly, the dangers that are to come. But Jayce and Viktor are also right. Hextech can be an incredible blending of technology and magic that can make the lives of ordinary people better, among many other benefits.

Heimerdinger is the embodiment of the old traditional way of the Over City. He needs to fall to see that his way isn't working (realizing this walking through the under city). And by falling ,making way for Jayce's agenda. He is several hundred years old and believed to be one of the founders of the city, so his fall and realizations are pretty substantial to him as a character for the next season.

What Mel wanted was to use Jayce and his new tech for more power in the council and the city. She wanted to succeed in Piltover to show her mother that she wasn't a failure but over time she fell in love with Jayce. At the end, she takes of the ring to signify that she had chosen Jayce over her mother.

If Brandon wants a single player LoL experience, I recommend Ruined King. One of my favorite turn based RPGs I've ever played. So well done

In Ep 1 Jinx, as Powder, put shrapnel into an explosive device to try to protect herself and her loot from an unarmed gang member (at least not brandishing). That CLEARLY shows a reckless disregard for life, and one hell of a skewed view of Right and Wrong. And it is reinforced by Vi, just like how Silco reinforces it later.

Brandon looking good as always, But in all seriousness, it’s a good replacement choice.

So pleased that Brandon also loved Arcane. It's absolutely not the style of me or my generation but it is so well crafted and so beautiful I love it anyway. Silco is the perfect villain. There's nuanced characters like him in novels, but we rarely see them on screen.

Re: Mel's survival: The mega-nerds of LoL's fandom have alighted upon a hypothesis (as you are no doubt well-aware we do) that Mel's gold shoulder piece thing is an in-game item which provides shielding to teammates within a certain radius. While this in-game radius has little-to-no relevance to the dimensions of Piltover's Council Chamber as seen in _Arcane_, it is suggestive as a means to get, at minimum, Jayce, Viktor, Mel, and the councilmembers in their immediate vicinity through Jinx's blast alive. (In considering this hypothesis, I note that it would also be very easy for Jinx to have killed 5 people and no more in that singlehanded attack - an achievement which the game calls a "Pentakill!" to much laud and fanfare)

Sanderson: "I like Jace a lot." Me, a lonely Jace fan: VALIDATION, FINALLY.

I think heimerdinger is another point of what you guys were talking about earlier in the episode, where even though the morally correct choice was to give up on hextech, the characters chose to go againts him and they were rewarded for it. But again, just because something worked out doesn't mean it was right. As Heimerdinger loses credibility, him making the same claim that he made at the start is seen worse even though his point is the same, which I assume will lead into him being right and having to deal with the fact that neither party was right. Heimerdinger's approach would have seen the world go without hextech, but Jayce and Viktor and Mel's approach will (imo) have countless deaths and will lead to the popularisation of hextech in all fields, including its militarization by people other than jinx. Also him being the only uncorrupted one on the council is a moral progression of the story when he is kicked out. just my 2 cents

Ah I see, Brandon finally took a level in druid

Ok. The between Sevika and Vi was NOT the “boss fight.” You guys even said. Vi likes to punch problems, and there is so much going on she can’t control. Vi was looking for somebody that could hit her back because she was going to explode. She’s drinking during the fight. Rage screaming. Even though she finally found a problem to punch, it still just made things worse.

This is a bit late but jinx doesn't necessarily understand right from wrong as a kid. Episiode one she is being chased by a the gang member. And while the other kids use non lethal means to defend themselves jinx go to is to use a nail bomb. Episiode three she blows up the warehouse and is excited that it worked and doesn't become upset until vi becomes angry at her. She is then adopted by a violent criminal organization and used as a enforcer in his war. Even without her trauma/psychological issues she would still become jinx

15:10 I slightly disagree with Brandon's tiny gripe about Vi here. I don't expect any dramatic change in Vi at all. It makes sense to me that she came outta prison practically the same as when she went in. Much like in reality, being isolated from the outside world slows (if not completely halts) your growth as a person. Time practically slows/stops for inmates who are no longer connected to a world that's moving along without them. This is especially true if we're to believe she spent more than a lil' bit of time in complete isolation, as implied when we meet her again. It's everyone else who had the benefit of changing along with their environment. Her environment didn't change for 10 years, so I wouldn't expect her to either.

Vi's hatred of Sevika did not get enough screen time for most people to piece it together in time for the showdown to really make sense. This was one of my only pet peeves in the season. Sevika was the right hand to Vander, then betrayed him when Silco gave her a better offer. "Better," in that he seemed more likely to go to war with the over-city. Sevika revealed her betrayal in episode 3, cementing Vi's hatred of her. Everyone else that joined Silco, as far as we know, did it because Vander was gone. Sevika betrayed him to join Silco. In a sense, Vander died because of Sevika. Again, this was really good motivation, but we did not get enough screen time or explicit dialogue to build up the payoff, so anyone that missed these little details probably went into the big showdown like, "Why is Vi so mad at her specifically?" I would have loved to see more build-up, but episode 3 already had so much to unpack and there wasn't time to really flesh out Sevika's right-hand status in earlier episodes because there was so much to unpack in *those* scenes as well, but that is why Vi hated her. EDIT: Also, Sevika was present when Vander was killed, not sure how ya'll missed that one. She lost her arm taking the blast to save Silco when Powder killed everyone. That is how we knew she betrayed Vander in the first place. Like I said, episode 3 had a lot to unpack so it was hard to catch everything in the first watch through.

Vi is a Static Character Arc. She remains largely, though not quite, the same but the important part is that she does so despite all the pressure to change. "In the pursuit of great, we forgot to do good." is a phenomenal line. But I like "Is there anything so undoing as a daughter?" even more.

Sevika v. Vi is ultimately supposed to be unsatisfying. Vi spends 6 episodes trying to get to Silco and keeps running into the brick wall that is Sevika. She manages to finally get through Sevika in her final fight, but even then cannot make it to the person she actually wants to fight. Nothing ever seems to work out for Vi - ever.

I felt like Heimerdimger has been right the whole time. What they are doing is dangerous, very dangerous. His arc shows how disconnected with the lower city he was, because they were doing it too, in a much worse way. In the end, when all is said and done, Heimerdimger was always right.

Arcane: opens with shots of smoke and fire and enforcers brutally murdering people Brandon: Takes until the end to realize it's grimdark. Jk love ya brandosando

One of the things I love most about Arcane is that the writers actually had the balls to depict Zaun in a way that does justice to the established lore of the world. In general kids don't have plot armor on Runeterra and hoo boy I do hope we get more series like Arcane that take place in different parts of the world. Personally I'd love to see one with Malzahar as the main character before he becomes the Prophet of the Void. The world is grimdark kinda like Warhammer so there's plenty of humor but one of the first playable characters in League also happens to be a little pyromancer girl who accidentally burnt her entire family along with their home.

25:30 ish: I saw someone else discussing Heimerdingr, and they took him as a symbol of the city. He's not really a character with agency so much as the old culture, a living piece of history, and so the reason it's framed as negative when they vote him out of the council is because the ruling body of the city is, in a metaphorical sense, breaking ties with it's own culture and history in favor of a new future. And I personally think the writers want us to wander if this is Jace and his political allies going too far in the name of progress. "Wait, Heimerdingr may be overly cautious, trapped in his fears of a past foe, but he's well-meaning in a way most of these politicians aren't. Is this really a good thing for the city, to oust him?"

Oh, I wanted to add, I actually really liked that Melora didn't end up being nefarious. I thought that would have been terribly obvious and also would have been repeating a tired sexist trope about powerful/ambitious women. I can see how maybe there was a missing story beat--something like Jayce thinking she was betraying him and turning out to be wrong would have been nice. But still, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't go with the "sudden but inevitable betrayal" thing.

Quick note: Jace wasn’t the only playable character in the council room when the rocket hit the window. Victor is there as well. My personal assumption is that Victor’s ability to absorb hextech will save Jace and disfigure Victor in the way Dan was waiting for.

Damn right the show is a masterpiece XD While I do not agree with all of Dan's and Brandon's opinions about the characters, it was a very interesting discussion and breakdown, as always. I am a bit disappointed though that they didn't discuss Caitlyn. She was one of my favourites in the show.

The real question everyone wanted to know was does arcane influence Brandon’s thought process when it comes to adapting is Work animated???

While I can certainly in some way agree with Brandon that Arcane's setting is more grimdark than most other fantasy, I would argue that the nature of good decisions bringing about bad outcomes is part of it being a Tragedy. You can do the right thing, but it will not solve everything and with so many factors and actors in play, things will inevitably go wrong. And when the situation has been left to fester and degenerated so badly to the conflicts in Arcane show, doing the right thing may not be enough to stop forces that may have been headed off earlier.

Does the narrative prove Heimerdinger wrong? Jayce, Viktor and Jinx have all gotten people killed using magic, so......

I agree with the fact that it is a masterpiece, and therefore have watched it way to many times. As such I want to add some things to the discussion. Let's start with Mel. The way I see it is that she has an internal struggle between what she was taught is best for her country, and between her own beliefs. In the beginning, she sees technology as a means for power. Her upbringing clearly would have seen technology as a weapon, and although she broke away from her mom and thus her beliefs, she still carries that with her in some sort, thus being interested in Jayce and his invention. Therefore she manipulates him in the beginning. As she grows closer to him, she also grows closer to her own morals, him representing that part. A small but important moment in her character arc is after she sleeps with Jayce, he leaves, she is angry, but not surprised. Then he comes back and shows her his vulnerability. Now, she is taken aback by that. Jayce in that moment has no defences, it is just the purity of it. And I think it is that purity in him that started to change her even before this moment. However, I do agree that this should have been more clear, as I can only say that this is how I have interpreted her arc. Then we have Heimerdinger, and once again I agree with what they said. For one, he does look like a disney character and it makes him stand out. However, and I don't know if they did this on purpose, Heimerdinger is kinda out of touch with the reality of the under city, as is also shown in the series. When it comes to his opinions on science, I also agree with what is said. In the first few episodes he should have had moments where he was correct, to make him more of a wise character. At this moment, we see him more as a cautious character than a scientist of his own. But what I find interesting about his character, is that later on, all of what he warns against, does happen. We see the crystals having a dooming effect in the under city, while they mean progress for the topsiders. He warns Jayce about the new inventions of his hammer not being ready, and later on we see Jayce accidentally kill a child with that hammer. Heimerdinger is interesting in that he is a character with a lifespan that last way longer than the others and thus most of his warnings take a few episode to happen because his perspective on immediate time is difference. He does not warn about what will happen tomorrow, but rather over the span of week, months, years. And I dare argue that we can even read some commentary about our own politics in this. A commentary of our time is that politicians make decisions based on what gets them more votes in the next election, thus chosing things that have results now, not in long terms. Thus what does it mean that Heimerdinger, the one character who is for slow progress instead of rapid one, is voted of the council. Another thing about Heimerdinger is that he represents older science, while Victor and Jayce represent the fast science of modernism. All this to say that there are many layers to Heimerdinger as a character. I'm sorry this was such an essay of a comment, but much like Brandon Sanderson, there are many ways to describe me but brief ain't one of them haha

Maybe we forget things, but Vi fought Sevika once earlier and got beat, but was saved by Caitlyn during the series. The fight at the end was the second fight, where Vi wins. It was a rematch. Also, Sevika was involved with Vander, VI’s surrogate father. She was in the bar early on in the show when Vander runs everything.

Brandon is really reinforcing the idea of being the person with the best takes ever. Both Arcane and Titanfall 2 are masterpieces.

Did you guys forget that Savika worked with Vander at the start and turned against him to work for Silco in episode 3? And she was going to fight Vi in episode 3 (and lost her arm in the explosion), but Silco held her back and gave shimmer to Deckard to go after Vi instead? She was super involved in betraying Vander and his death and Vi knew it.

I think what Sevika needed is a scene with her and Vi before she left Vander for Silco, to show a bit of what their relationship was like before. I suspect Vi may have really looked up to her.

Wow I love this show, a real labour of love, you can feel how much effort they put into it over 6 years. On one hand I can't wait for another season, on the other I want them to take as long as possible to make it just as good.

1 of my favorite scenes in show was silco sitting under venders statue and having that monologue", all we ever dreamed off , the boy didint even haggle " such a great scene where he becomes what he hated . loved your takes on show ,keep up the great work

Best phrase of Víktor is "If you're going to change the world, don't ask for permision"

So what I'm hearing is that we need a session where Brandon plays League while Dan mocks him relentlessly and a session where Dan plays Elden Ring while Brandon cackles his head off

Very thoughtful discussion. On the 'No good deed goes unpunished' it's an interesting challenge to come up with counter examples. First thing that comes to mind would be Caitlyn saving Vi at the end of episode 5 and through into episode 6, I'm sure people will have some disagreement on that though.

When it comes to Mel's character, I think her driving motivation was not a scheme but an underlying insecurity. We see her think of herself as an exile, as the "poorest Medarda" and such, and I think it shows that she was seeking power primarily to sate her own insecurities. However, she shifts once she gets her prize in Jayce (satisfying some of her insecurity) and more so once she sees gains a more concrete identity in having a merciful approach to ruling. When her mother shows up it shocks her into actually choosing her own path, mercy, in contrast to her mother who uses violence and manipulation.

Arcane is a masterpiece. Definitely one of my favorite shows of all time (Animated or Live-Action). I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Mr. Sanderson. 👍 If any of your books (All of The Cosmere) get adapted someday, i would love to see it all beautifully animated like Arcane. It would be so amazing.

I have no idea what Arcane is, but Brandon's diet is really working, although he's much more harry, and the lack of body mass makes his eyes much more protuberant. Still handsome, though. Dan, handsome is as handsome does.

Regarding Jinx’s inability to determine right from wrong, keep in mind she thought she was helping (“doing the right thing”) yet in the process killed her friends and “lost” her sister. This event had to have made an impact that makes it almost impossible for her to know what to do or the right path to take, emphasized by the grim dark nature of the story.

Yes! Literally binged the show last week so I could be a part of this!

I don't feel like Mel's character had a sudden change. It was revealed in the later acts why she did everything. Being raised by that type of mother would have made her want to make sure her city was the most powerful and most protected. Sure, she rejected her mother's lust for violence so she didn't want to wipeout the undercity, but she still wanted to make sure her side had the biggest weapons/tools. Could have been a bit more fleshed out, but I think it made sense to me.

“Vi doesn’t have a story arc”. I disagree, as her friendship and potential romantic relationship with Caitlyn (who I don’t think was mentioned) forces her to confront her deep rooted bias against the topsiders. Maybe not the deepest character arc, but more than zero.

I think Vi's fight with the dinner lady, was to the represent her tying up loose ends. And was also implemented to be her final flaw. She didn't need to go fight her, she simply wanted to. Echo mentions many times that Vi is stubborn and hot headed, and I think this fight was to represent that fact. She went there to settle a score. Putting her in a shape that allowed Jinx to abduct her easily. It's just another example of Vi not knowing where to put her anger, and how to best use her influence in the story.

21:03 That is a begrudged "You're right" from Dan Lol I love these podcasts ❤️

!!Episode Spoiler!! Imagine having worked on Arcane, and then listening to Brandon Sanderson state that it's a masterpiece.

I've never given grimdark this in-depth thought, this is neat

Glad you liked it but you got Heimerdinger completely wrong. He IS right to fear Hextech and we see that by what happens with Viktor. This is his purpose in the story, he is right BUT he fails to communicate with everyone due to his unique perspective of being 300 years old. Heimerdinger and Viktor is what happens when idealism clashes with reality and that was the most interesting part of the story for me.

I'm disappointed this episode isn't titled, "Is cocaine a food?"

So, here are my comments about the discussion! > I saw (and liked) Vi's arc as Kaladin arc, if Kaladin wasnt the protagonist of the story! :P Life keeps beating her up, and she keeps going against what she think is wrong. I understand they are not equal, just similar. > Loved the interpretation of Viktor as Jayce's consciousness, from my perspective I was thinking about the duality of them in the same way as the duality of the cities. Both were brilliant and great, but Jayce was not broken by his city, so he could "succeed" as a politician/public figure. Piltover not seeing Viktor in the same way was a way to show how eugenist the city is towards Zaun. > Silco is just a perfect villian. > Ekko vs Jinx was the climax of the show, beautiful scene! > Also, Heimerdinger is a Yordle, as far as I know, they are kinda immortal, and Heimer even says he already lived hundreds of years. By the flashbacks I understood he already lived through a war using magic and know the danger. The problem is that he doesnt know how to explain it and don't understand the "timing" of humans that want things fast.

Heimerdinger is a complex character. Because of his past with magic and knowing how bad it can be he is over cautious about the good. However, he also serves as the voice of warning. While he may see the worst in Hextech it also seems like he is the only one who can see the bad.

To Brandon's preference for single player games, Ruined King was fantastic.

15:56 "thank you for trying to help him when he's in danger, here's your vaporization" 😂😂

I resent the idea of Mel's character doing a 180 or simply only a manipulation character with a buff mom. She was simply more guarded than the open book characters we were used to in the show. Even if it seems manipulative if you look at her every action its been in order to show mercy or make piltover look good so she can shove it in her family's face. She wasn't speratic she was calculated. She wanted peace but logically wanted counter measures. We may know how unfair it may seem to have weapons but the show goes out of its way to show they didn't understand the undercity plights. Throughout the show every innovator, besides echo, were headstrong and practically in a rush to push their investments into the future. She didn't loose agency she realized that neither the fox or wolf approached was not working. She wasn't willing to go to war but wanted weapons for defense (she practically said just dont hit first) and usual talking/diplomatic routines wouldn't work against a hyper violent and sadistic crime lords. Towards the end she was simply and rationally out of her depth and her war mongering mother drop that point home especially as to way she wouldn't come with the solution of total separation coming from a conquering home country.

They start talking about arcane at 5:55

Vi fights her because she betrays Vander. She was originally on Vander side and left him for Silco.

Himerdinger is more essential to ekkos progress in season 2 very likely, especially if there is a big time jump. If we counter in ekkos future game-like transformation

Brandon never looked better :D Just look at the wisdom in his eyes

League used to depict Jayce as a Superman type. It doesn't anymore. It depicts him now as an arrogant asshole who doesn't really care about anyone but keeps a good outward face of being the Superman type. I don't agree with this characterization personally. I much prefer Arcane's take on him. He's still arrogant, but it's arrogance that is fueled by wanting to do good things for people