#bones.ask

I have very conflicting feelings about s2. on one hand, it really made me LOVE this thing that I really liked already, but had never been CRAZY about. I think s2 is wildly inferior to s1 BUT it did make me SO hyped and excited, and made me fall in love with arcane as a whole.

I think on an episode to episode basis, s2 is good. I really was hooked after every single episode, and could not wait until the next one aired, and I think (with the exception of the finale) I will probably be quite content to go back and watch any episodes again and get just as much enjoyment out of them. I think the plotline of each episode is enjoyable, and any gripes I have with them can be pretty much waved away as the constraints of the narrative.

I should also interrupt myself and say all of the above is excluding the finale. I didn't like the finale —outside of the viktor and jayce stuff, and even then, they're kinda on thin ice for me— pretty much at all lol. I really came out of it disappointed in every way: my partner and I watched it at 2am as soon as he was done from work and we were both like "oh. I didn't like that". we even watched it again the following morning just in case we were stupid and sleep deprived and missed like a scene that would've made it all worth it, but no. it was genuinely such a let down for me.

anyway, I think as a whole season, s2 REALLY fell flat for me. they seemed to have so many great ideas that they didn't have the capability to follow through with. like, I liked isha, but because I'm a sucker for little kids—she had no character whatsoever, and died before she could even get one. caitlyn's dictator arc? SUCH an awesome idea, and I was stoked to see this genuinely really awful side to her privileged worldview, all for it to be waved away in one half apology and a jail cell fuck (don't get me started on the jail cell fuck.......................... why).

not to mention, I think a lot of the things that made s1 so good were just. dropped. all of the politics went completely out the window for a big epic avengers endgame style fight finale (I could be picky on this, as a rule I hate fight finales LOL), and I get it, I was not anticipating the class struggle between piltover and zaun to be solved even remotely, but it felt so silly for them to forget about class struggle for the ENTIRE season, only to go "oh look! sevika's on the council, though!". also, did we just forget jinx has psychosis? cause the show runners sure did. unless you count her one hallucination of silco telling her to kill herself

(THE THREE CHARACTERS WHO HAVE EXPLICITLY BEEN SUICIDAL ALL DIE AND ITS FRAMED AS A GOOD THING. AND LIKE NO ONE ELSE OF THE MAIN CAST DOES. COME ON.)

(the silco character assassination is actually the one thing I don't hate tbh skfkskdke I know a lot of people got pissed like "he would NEVER! tell her that" and like ........ yeah. that's kinda the point lol. her delusions do not have her best interest at heart, that's why milo and clagor were literally TORMENTING HER LIFE for like. seven years. why are we suddenly mad when hallucination silco is like "kill urself lol" that genuinely seems very in line with something jinx's mind in that state would come up with. NOW IF THERE WERE GOOD WRITERS ON THIS SHOW the response of the narrative probably would've been something like "hey girl, when your delusions tell you to kill yourself.... maybe don't<3" and not "actually killing urself is the ONLY way to atone for your actions suicide rules!!!!!!!!!!" but anyway.)