This is part of a continuing series of old rants/essays/snark/thoughts/etc/etc/etc from years back that I figured I might as well throw somewhere other than a decrepit and deleted Discord server. Please note that this was written well before any later content that the idle spectator might want to reference. Besides, how invested can you be all these years anyway?

As Always, Assume Spoilers

My partner and I made the choice of watching the first half of Arcane on Netflix, since I saw a lot of positive reviews and it’s been taking over the fanart sphere. It is . . . frustrating. The first three episodes are actually pretty good YA fantasy (though the third episode is a bit rougher). Writing? B+, solid but not special. Worldbuilding? C, it’s the bare minimum since the focus is more on character (it can confuse motivation sometimes, though). Animation? A, lots of good flow and kinetic action although the occasional beat is unclear. Character Design? A++, highly diverse Dishonored influenced art. A bunch of good ideas floating throughout, and a willingness to go dark. The writers don’t have a great grasp of how politics actually works, but it’s good enough for YA purposes.

Then the fourth episode happens.

We go from fairly dignified YA to almost complete nonsense. Every single character loses their motivation, an arbitrary time skip introduces large plot and characterization holes, and a canonically 18 AT EXTREME BEST character gets gratuitously sexualized when no one else is (and no one in universe reacts to this?). The show falls into a complete pit of lame Tumblr bait - in one episode, a single character gets ship baited with five different other characters, every single scene is directed like a bad AMV (at one point literally including obvious closeups of the band who wrote the theme song during a fight scene), there’s some weird-ass queerbaiting (and I think the show has a queer couple that is going to be canon, so the baiting is extra weird), and one of the main characters gets an annoying as fuck Hot Topic/Harley Quinn dialogue and animation style that no other character or scene does and clashes with the show style. There are still some extremely good visual ideas, because the real strength of this show is being a honest masterclass in character design. But for every delightful “sarcastic villainous baptism” scene, it also features a cartoonishly hilarious scene such as one that I have nicknamed “The Blood Nut.” (This is an extremely unsubtle visual metaphor where blood getting sucked into a magic vortex is literally intercut with a man having sex. I am not kidding. Even the middle school band geeks get this one.)

I am so confused, because it starts pretty strong and then after that first arc basically starts “Season 2” after only three episodes. And it wildly swings between “that’s really fucking cool” and “god damn that’s lame” and “I don’t understand why anyone is doing anything,” with a increasing percentage leaning towards the latter two in each episode. And this is only halway through.

Let’s take a couple of moments from Arcane (there will be no spoilers past episode 2):

  • First, the concept of the Lanes/the Underground. At some point in the recent past, the Lanes (which are clearly some kind ghetto) revolted against the rich districts. There are a lot of powerful emotional images of violence and struggle and defeat. But let me ask you a couple questions. What are the Lanes? Are they just poor people? Are they other races/ethnicities (the show kinda implies this, but isn’t actually clear)? Why did they rise up - were they riots or a revolution? Put bluntly, what did the people rising up want? This tied in to Vi as a main motivator - she wants there to be a new revolution. Why? What does she hope to change? Without knowing her motivations, how am I supposed to feel about her and Vander’s conflict?
  • Second, the entire concept of magic. A key early point is that someone is trying to “use science to create magic.” (Let’s put aside my standard complaint that science being used to create magic just means that magic is science, because fantasy loves that stupid debate too much). But what is magic in this universe? (they do explain a little more later, but not much). Without this information, a character dramatically yells “I was trying to create magic” and all the characters in the scene react as if this is huge news. But the audience doesn’t have the knowledge that all these characters have and it is not given to them. Is magic common? Is it rare? Is it dangerous? We know the city was created to protect against mages, but that only gets explained AFTER the pronouncement. The audience does not understand the gravity of this moment when it happens, and is only capable of understanding it in retrospect - which is too late.

In both cases, the writers know that this is dramatic in universe (and it is!) but got greedy at skipping to the “good stuff” without properly making it so the audience can understand it when it happens. They give exposition, but only after the fact. Which means that the viewer is expected to feel something in this dramatic moment, but they don’t know what or how to feel. The animators have to do a lot of work to make each moment feel dramatic - and they do! Almost nothing in this show is an animators fault, they deserve all the accolades. But the problem with using aesthetic to carry a story beat is that it’s a coverup for a story weakness that you can use as a patch once or twice - any more and you’ve honestly just got no story beats.