[s2 spoilers] Season 2 of Arcane is terrible

Arcane S2 was fucking horrible

This show went from a legitimate 9.5/10 to 3. Absolute trash. The only good episode was Episode 7, and that says a lot considering that episode takes place in an alternate timeline and is almost entirely disconnected from the main plot. With that said, even Episode 7 sucked because the differences in that universe made no sense, no resolution for Heimerdinger, is out of place in the season and forces the rest of the season to compensate for the wasted time, overly-nonchalant interaction between characters, etc.

Jinx went through the same fucking character arc multiple times. A large part of her arc in S1 was the discrepancy between Jinx and Powder and settling on an identity. The season ends with her embracing Jinx, and it was definitely implied that she'd wind up trying to finish Silco's mission and become like her LoL character (a crazy villain). What happens in S2? Some little child, that doesn't talk, has no personality outside of "I admire Jinx", she's a literal blank slate used to drive plot, literally falls out of the sky and lands on her. Then the kid just follows her for no reason? She has no motivation, no personality, literally nothing at all about her and then she gets some undeserved hero death that viewers are supposed to artificially mourn. Jinx's ENTIRE story through this season revolves around this kid. The bonding montage between her and Jinx legitimately reminded me of the ending montage of Venom 3 it was so bad, because these characters have NO connection at all, their relationship isn't built up or justified in any capacity, we're just told "these people have a strong bond because." In S1 you could actually feel the weight of Jinx's trauma, because Milo, Clagger and especially Vander were strong written characters that you form a connection to, so their deaths actually mean something and then Jinx's spiral out from there feels understandable. Then Jinx just goes through the "am I Jinx? Powder? Neither?" dichotomy all over again as if this wasn't her MAIN ARC in S1, settling on an identity. They've done the "yeah I am crazy again" storyline 3 times for her now as well, first it was losing Vander, Milo and Clagger, then it was losing Silco, now this mute little asshole. WE'VE SEEN THIS BEFORE, WHY IS IT HAPPENING AGAIN?? Jinx was my favorite character in S1 and now she's my least favorite, this season was actual character assassination towards her.

Vander is somehow alive. The writers decided to conjure him up out of thin air, so they could find a way to reconcile between Vi and Jinx. Vi and Jinx were the main conflict of the show, why were they reunited in such an anticlimactic way? Why was there absolutely NO build up to their reconciliation at all. Again, they just created a plot device (Vander) with no build up or justification for it's existence to push the story forward. Not to mention Jinx's views on Vander are incredibly inconsistent, hasn't Silco, the person who mostly raised her, slandered Vander to Jinx for years up until this point? Why are her views towards Vander so healthy, and why is she so non-chalant about calling him "dad"? What about the way Jinx and Vi meetup, it was a bait-and-switch scene where you think Vi is hallucinating considering she JUST hallucinated Caitlyn basically a second earlier, but no, Jinx is actually there. How did she find Vi? Why does Vi believe her? These two characters fucking tried to kill each other last time they met, Jinx is crazy and schizophrenic, why would Vi even entertain her?

Vi is basically useless this season. The Cait and Vi relationship was just stupid. They kiss, break up, then in their very next scene together it's all sunshine and roses and they're back together again, then they argue once again just to abruptly fuck in some fan service sex scene. What is the point of anything if one thing happens and then it gets resolved with absolutely no resolution or narrative in-between in their VERY NEXT SCENE TOGETHER? Oh yeah, Cait is dating some other enforcer, for some reason? I still don't understand why they wrote that in given it services the plot in absolutely no capacity. I guess it was to make her betrayal, once again, feel artificially substantiated, because we do not know ANYTHING about this enforcer so why are we supposed to care or feel the weight of her betrayal? What in the gibbering fucking fuck was that sex scene? They're fucking in some dingy ass jail cell, and Vi is suddenly hornier than ever after her sister basically told her she's suicidal, tricked her, and Cait and Vi literally just had ANOTHER unresolved conflict in their previous scene. Then the scene just goes on for so fucking long, this time could've been better spent on scenes that actually service the plot, like, hmm I don't know, how about we see Ekko and Jinx have more interaction after the suicide attempt scene? An entire episode was just dedicated to Ekko and Powder's relationship in an alternate timeline, why can't we see how they interact further? How about we see Caitlyn or Mel mourn Jayce? The pacing is too fast to waste previous screen time on useless filler nonsense. There is also this random male enforcer who is friends with Vi, he is shown to be basically the only person who treats her well in the entire show, he gets a fair bit of screen time, and then he just abruptly disappears after some sad-Vi montage before reappearing at the end and dying lol. That could've been a strong friendship as I actually found myself liking him, just for him to be barely addressed. What was the point of introducing him in the first place? Vi does a bit of an "aw shucks" face when he dies, but otherwise nothing. Even he got more aftermath than Jayce, Viktor and Jinx lmfao.

The Arcane had NO build up at all. It just happened and there was no pacing in it's introduction phase. Ekko suddenly has an issue with the tree, so Heimerdinger and he break into a lab and stumble into Jayce, then simply out of nowhere they're going down an elevator into some obnoxious eye-rapey AMV edit (seriously the animation felt like it was sniffing it's own farts, especially in act 1). Wtf happened to the subplot with Ekko's tree? It was a random plot device (again, with no build up), that was used as an excuse to introduce the Arcane just to abandon and never revisit again. There is also this Blonde™️guy, who has some scenes dedicated to him, still don't know what his role is, he is just there and then tries to steal some crystals, still don't know what that was all about. Why is Heimerdinger now a comic relief character? Last he and Jayce interacted, he was being kicked out of the council due to concerns that he ended up being CORRECT about, why is none of this being addressed?

Mel's storyline was just also out of nowhere. Maybe I missed something but she just woke up in a basement with her "brother." She just fucking woke up there. There was no build up to anything about this. Then she manages to escape the basement within an instant, just for there to be some transfiguration character that I am still unsure who it is or why Mel decided to kill her at the end. She saves her mom from the transfiguration character, just for her to die anyway?

Jayce and Viktor are by far the most interesting part of this season, and even that was terribly written. Viktor goes into a coma, wakes up, and then instantly becomes Jesus and now he's suddenly a villain? Why was the time travel so poorly handled? Why couldn't Jayce just SHOW Viktor his fucking memories instead of killing him? What was the point of all those scenes of him trying to save Vander? Why did Isha run into the pack and kill herself for no reason essentially? There was NO reason for her to do that. Heimerdinger became basically a unserious joke of a character, who then died? Lives in the other universe? Why did he leave the portal? How does any of this make sense? How long were Powder, Ekko and he spent working on the time machine, just for Heimerdinger to get it working fully off-screen in a matter of a few hours? Oh also, I fucking HATED the Powder/VI's mother reveal, I hated it, not only am I confused about the timeline of events now, because Silco looked noticeably older in the flashback scene than the drowning scene which takes place (after?), but what was the fucking point of the mother being introduced in the first place? What plot narrative did this serve? So Vi is now Silco's goddaughter, and he tried to fucking kill her? Did they just fucking retcon some conflict between Vander and Silco?

I am getting tired of writing, but the ending was also trash, Jinx's "death" made no sense, Viktor and Jayce don't get a resolution, we don't get ANY form of resolution from the ending in any capacity. Sevika, Silco, Heimerdinger, and hell basically everybody are victims of character assassination. Cease to say this season was an absolute atrocity.