Reviews From The Nerd Cave!
Warning, heavy spoilers for Act 2
The Good:
Act 2 dropped last weekend and it punched me right in the feels, twice in the same sitting! To start off with the big high of this arc, I was completely caught off guard by the amazing character growth of Jinx. I did not like Jinx in the first season of Arcane, not that she was a badly written character by any stretch of the imagination, I found her personally to be too wild and chaotic for me to find anything worth liking as a person. Espislay (sorry for spoilers) when she shot a missile at the high counsel at the end of the first season. However, I was pleasinly surprised by Jinx's growth from an agent of chaos, to being the big sister she never had to now being possibly a hero for the people of Zaun, this is all thanks to a new addition to the Arcane cast, Isha. Isha has to be the best thing that happens to Jinx and it pains me that we don’t get enough time with Jinx and Isha being basically long lost sisters to each other. Isha is the driving force that fudinaliaty changes Jinx for the better and it has to be some of the best moments in the show. It takes a lot for me to get emotional watching a show or a movie or video game or even a book, but what happens to Isha at the end of the last episode of act 2 left me in [readticed] ugly tears!
Another moment that made me ugly cry was the family reunion of Jinx, Vi and Warrick/Vander. The return of Vander as the werewolf beast Warrick had been teasted all the way back at the end of season 1, the set up for the reunion was amazingly done given the slight rushed feeling of episode 5. The whole scene where Jinx engersu from the darkness, worried that Warrick had struck down Vi in their battle in the mines only to see Vi hugging their father Vander is just amazing stuff. Then to add on to it for Jinx and then Iash joined the group hug to have the family back together just left me in tears. Nuff said.
One last mention of something I found halruas in Act 2 was when Vi and Catylin come up with the plan to take down Ambessa before she and the Noxin’s invade Viktor’s camp. Vi spits on Caylitn’s face to make Vi’s capture look convincing, Caitlyn wipes the spit not off her face but wipes it over her mouth! My god, Caitlin is simply just down bad for Vi. It's just great stuff, Nuff said.
The Bad:
Unfronuilty, the issue that I had with last week’s act seems to be more prevalent here in Act 2 as well. Everything outside of Vi, Jinx, Caylin, Isha, Victor and the beast Warrick has been fleshed out and everything else feels like a complete after thought. Now I have seen this happen in other shows and movies where this exact issution has happened and it works against the favor of the show or movie. For exapble, in the marketing for the second season, they leaned heavily on Vi being a pit fighter by showing the whole clip from the middle of episode 5. I really wanted to see more of Vi’s spiral down after the event that took place just the espide before. Then there is also the mystery with Mel and being attacked by the black and red magic thorns and being stuck in a prison. There are hints that there is more to Mel and her mothers relationship with these people and it just doesn't feel that it's been given, like with everything else outside of the core cast, enough time to be fleshed out. Even with that, Vi and Jinx make up almost as if nothing happened at all between them that it seems like the writers had more planned but again just ran out of time. I really am not sure how all of this is gonna be wrapped up by the end of the show.
I don’t get that feeling of sloppy writing in act 2 of Arcane, it's just more of a case that the show is working with the limited time they have left. This is a shame because while I do not think that the show needs five seasons, I think Arcane would have benefited pacing wise with either some of the acts having an extra episode or maybe having three seasons in total. There is so much going on and I want to see how everything will play out and it feels like we are only getting small bits from everything happening in the show outside of the main story. Maybe if we are lucky, these stories will be expanded on in spin-off books or comics or the like.
I can’t believe we are at the end already, but I am down right hyperbolically feverish for the colustion of this fantastic show! I can’t wait for Act 3 to be relaized on November 23, but I will say, I am not ready to cry until the end of time now that the show will be over.