The flames of rebellion.
Arcane: Season 2 is fast-approaching after the first season basically took the world by storm in 2022. Having been an avid episode-by-episode watcher when it came out, it’s been lauded for a lot of good reasons—drop-dead gorgeous animation, a tightly written script, a banger score, and an ability to successfully twist the knife into my heart. Now there’s a new trailer, and hoo boy does it look like it’s going to follow through on that stellar first swing.
Set in League of Legends’ Piltover, a steampunk wonderworld with the city of Zaun strapped unceremoniously to its underbelly, Season 2 appears to pick up right where the first season left off. That is, with the newly self-actualised Jinx firing a rocket right into the Piltover council chambers.
This event seems to have cemented in Vi’s head that her sister is well and truly gone, and that “there’s only Jinx now.” Caitlyn is similarly pissed, stating that she’d like to “tear that laugh from her throat forever.”
We promptly see the two of them rocking up in their Warden uniforms with a few other soldiers including what may very well be Orianna on the left, there—she’s flesh and bone right now, but considering the twists the adaptation’s first season put us through? Anything can happen. At the very least, her hair is uncannily similar.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Immediately after that, we get to see the two driving forces behind the immediate civil war between Zaun and Piltover. Topside, Ambessa Medarda (ruthless Noxian warlord and mother to Mel Medarda) encourages what remains of the council to shove Piltover into martial law.
Meanwhile, Sevika’s got a new haircut (and has recovered from Vi’s thrashing), informing Jinx that hey—committing a major act of domestic oopsie has made her into a legend and a symbol of rebellion. We see evidence of that, with Jinx having her shoulders touched in solemn respect as people pass by, as well as a gorgeous mural of her. She’s asked what she wants to do: “To watch it all burn.” So that’s probably a ‘no’ on sensible economic reforms, then. Maybe she’ll re-nationalise the railways while she’s hucking a molotov at one.
It looks like Season 2’s going to focus entirely around the conflict between the two nations—riots in the streets, all-out civil warfare, and freaking Warwick (who, let’s face it, is probably Vander) escaping whatever screwed-up facility he’s been birthed by.
That final shot in particular is fascinating. We can see what looks like Jinx getting flung back as she’s (accidentally?) activated a crystal while in a brawl between herself and Vi in ruins coated with Jinx-brand graffiti. Something is going terribly wrong—and while I’d say this looks like a still from the incoming finale, this is a series that’s great at burying the lede.
Arcane: Season 2, which is being animated by Fortiche Production (Fortiche directed and produced the animation, under the direction of the founders Pascal Charrue and Arnaud Delord), has a planned release date for November, and will be streamed on Netflix. It’s going to be the final season of the series, but there are plans to make more peak television of its ilk from Riot’s lore banks and—if this show’s successes are anything to go by—there’s a lot of fertile ground for more stories to tell.
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