Arcane

Pitching to Riot

Since its launch in 2009, League of Legends has grown to be one of the most played games across the globe, but its characters and world-building remained relatively unexplored before the show. Linke and Yee, longtime creatives at Riot, saw potential to delve deeper into the characters’ backstories through the unique animation style of Fortiche, which had made two well-received music videos in 2013–14 for Riot. Linke and Yee first began pitching the idea for a TV show in the mid-2010s. Riot’s cofounders were initially hesitant, seeing it as a risky bet for a game developer. However, the company funded concept art, character designs, and animation tests and eventually commissioned a pilot episode in 2016. Though the project was briefly put on hold to iron out problems with the script, production began in earnest by 2019. Linke and Yee developed the story with a team of writers in Los Angeles, while Fortiche handled the animation in Paris and other parts of France.

Hand-crafted animation

Fortiche wove together computer-generated graphics and hand-drawn animation, reminiscent of traditional oil painting techniques, to render expressive characters and kinetic action within an overarching steampunk aesthetic. Artists overlaid computer-made 3D character models with hand-applied 2D textures, scratches, effects, and imperfections to imbue scenes with an almost tactile quality, celebrating the rough edges of human-made artwork. In the second season certain scenes were illustrated using watercolors and charcoal effects; some frames were composed to evoke the style of comic books. The team also shunned the use of motion capture (a filmmaking technique that records real human movements to animate digital characters realistically) in favor of painstakingly refining motion across frames to create more fluid movement.

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This one-of-a-kind animation process came at substantial cost: After the first season Linke said the series burned a “massive hole in Riot’s wallet.” In total the two seasons reportedly cost Riot $250 million to make and market, making Arcane the most expensive animated TV series at the time.

(The following discussion may contain spoilers.)

Season one

The tragic deaths of Vander and their adoptive brothers fracture Vi and Jinx’s relationship, sending them down two opposing paths. Vi is locked up and assaulted in a faraway prison—freed by Caitlyn years later—while Jinx becomes the adoptive daughter of Silco, who illicitly distributes the potent but corrosive drug Shimmer in Zaun. Haunted by visions of her past mistakes and yearning for Vi’s affection, Jinx has turned into a loose cannon ready to injure, maim, or kill at the slightest provocation.

Meanwhile, the divide between the wealth of Piltover and the deprivation of Zaun grows deeper. Hextech, created by Jayce and Viktor with Mel’s political support and despite Heimerdinger’s misgivings, makes Piltover even more prosperous and dominant, especially in trade, while the residents of Zaun are ravaged by Shimmer. The only ones standing in the way of Shimmer’s uncontrolled spread throughout the undercity are the rebel Firelights, led by Ekko.

Piltover’s politics, Silco’s manipulation, and Jinx’s crimes lead the two cities to the brink of war and the imminent weaponization of hextech. Caitlyn and Vi’s attempts to expose Silco’s machinations and avert the crisis are complicated by Vi’s desire to reconcile with Jinx, though their reunion is riddled with misunderstandings and Jinx’s mental instability. To end the tensions between the two cities, Jayce offers Silco an impossible choice: He will ensure Zaun’s independence if Silco turns Jinx in for her crimes. All of this culminates in Jinx kidnapping Silco, Vi, and Caitlyn and seating them at a dinner table, where she tries to gauge their motivations as she wrestles with her inner demons. A scuffle breaks out, and Jinx inadvertently kills Silco, and with his dying breath he tells her he would never have given her up. Overwhelmed by the turn of events, she launches a rocket at Piltover’s council members—just as they are about to agree to Jayce’s peace proposal.

Season two

Jinx’s attack changes the status quo drastically: Mel’s mother, Ambessa, manipulates the council to launch an offensive against Zaun, Jayce fuses Viktor’s body with an evolved form of hextech (called the hexcore) to save his life, and Vi loses all hope of reforming Jinx. Though Jinx is dejected and on the run, she takes an orphan girl called Isha under her wing and becomes a symbol of Zaun’s resistance to Piltover’s onslaught. Caitlyn takes charge of the council after her mother is killed in the attack, forming a special task force of enforcers—including the newly recruited Vi—to cleanse Zaun of Shimmer and hunt down Jinx. However, when Vi fails to kill Jinx despite having the chance, Caitlyn parts ways with her. Ambessa’s political maneuvering then elevates Caitlyn to Piltover’s temporary military general, granting her sweeping powers.

Meanwhile, Heimerdinger and Ekko investigate a strange infection that affects one of Zaun’s last remaining trees, which also serves as the Firelight’s base. Their search leads them to Jayce, and all three are briefly transported to an alternate universe. Ekko and Heimerdinger develop a time-manipulating device, and Jayce has a vision of an apocalypse brought on by Viktor.

In the main universe, it is revealed that Singed’s experiments have revived Vander but transmuted him into a mindless wolflike beast drawn to the scent of blood. Vi and Jinx reunite to retrieve what remains of Vander’s memories, but the attempt results in Isha’s death, plunging Jinx into despair. Viktor accesses the powers of the arcane to heal the Shimmer-afflicted people of Zaun, building a cultlike following. However, his goal soon morphs into a desire to rid humanity of weakness by taking control of people and coalescing their individual identities into a collective hive mind—a plan that Ambessa repurposes for building an army of her own to invade Piltover.

Putting aside their differences, Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn, Mel, and Jayce fight to parry both threats, with Ekko’s time-bending abilities putting an end to Viktor’s hive mind. Ambessa is also defeated, leaving only one problem: The rampaging wolflike beast, now free from Viktor’s mind control, must be stopped. In an emotional finale, Jinx unpins a grenade to blow up both the beast and herself.