Arcane - Season 1

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[00:01:14] Hallo und willkommen zurück zum Radioactive Ramblings Podcast.

[00:01:19] Ich bin ein von deinen Hosts, Chase.

[00:01:21] Und ich bin ein von deinen anderen Hosts, Aaron.

[00:01:24] Und ich bin der letzte und letzte Host, Richard.

[00:01:28] Don't sell yourself short like that.

[00:01:30] Nah, sell them short. Sell them short.

[00:01:32] Yeah, I'm with Chase on this one.

[00:01:35] Alright.

[00:01:36] For today's episode, we will be covering all of Season 1 of Arcane, the short series based on some of the lore of the game League of Legends, Riot Games MOBA.

[00:01:48] MOBA stands for Ambassador...

[00:01:51] Oh my god.

[00:01:51] Note does not. It stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.

[00:01:57] Not MMO.

[00:01:59] But some quick notes before we start.

[00:02:01] There will be spoilers for all of Season 1, and we are not going to be doing a comprehensive breakdown of this season.

[00:02:08] Just kind of a brush up on the main points, important characters, moments that we found interesting.

[00:02:13] We're going to be doing a little bit more, but Richard can tell you a little bit about that.

[00:02:17] Yeah, next week we plan on covering Act 1 of Season 2, which is the first three episodes.

[00:02:23] We're just going to do all three acts, you know, week by week.

[00:02:26] So we'll do Act 1, 2, and 3.

[00:02:28] We'll be doing a more comprehensive breakdown than this episode, obviously, just because we're only covering three episodes at a time.

[00:02:34] But we're still not going to do, you know, every single frame of every single episode and be like, insane about it.

[00:02:40] Yeah, it just doesn't. Because we're assuming that most people have already seen this, given that Season 2 is over now, right, Chase?

[00:02:48] The last act and the last three episodes of the entire show just aired yesterday.

[00:02:56] Okay.

[00:02:58] Wow.

[00:02:58] Awesome.

[00:02:59] So this is, the show is officially over now, and they're going to be moving into potentially some other League of Legends universe shows, but they're not continuing this one, right?

[00:03:11] Yeah, they're actually confirmed that they are working or have something brewing, I think, now.

[00:03:19] I think it actually will save that for when we cover the next season.

[00:03:24] But, yeah, just letting everyone know, I'm the only one of the three of us who's actually seen all of Season 2.

[00:03:31] Aaron and Richard haven't seen any of it.

[00:03:33] So they're going to have a little bit of a, I would say, a fresher perspective of Season 1 than me.

[00:03:41] Yeah, and on top of that, of course, me and Aaron, we have not played League of Legends.

[00:03:47] We don't know the lore.

[00:03:48] I think Chase, I'd assume you know at least some of the lore.

[00:03:52] Yeah.

[00:03:53] What do you mean?

[00:03:53] I've never played that game.

[00:03:55] What?

[00:03:56] I swear to God you play League.

[00:03:59] I swear to God you play League.

[00:04:00] Shut up.

[00:04:01] Why would you out me?

[00:04:03] Why would you out me as a League of Legends enjoyer?

[00:04:06] What the hell?

[00:04:07] Okay, let's be honest.

[00:04:08] No one enjoys the game.

[00:04:10] Everyone just is shackled to it.

[00:04:14] Hot take League of Legends hate is so forced.

[00:04:17] No, it really is.

[00:04:18] No, I think that, oh, I thought you were going to disagree with me.

[00:04:22] Yeah.

[00:04:22] No, no, I agree with you.

[00:04:23] I have no reason to hate League of Legends.

[00:04:25] I just do.

[00:04:25] I think that, yes, the player base is toxic.

[00:04:29] But if you've ever played any competitive game online.

[00:04:33] Rainbow Six Siege.

[00:04:34] Yeah, if you've ever played any online competitive game before, I wouldn't say that it's any more toxic than any of those other games.

[00:04:43] In fact, I would say it's less toxic because there's no voice chat.

[00:04:48] Yeah, I feel like the newest Call of Duty has been really bad with the voice chat.

[00:04:55] Yeah, I've just gotten to the point where I just disable it in a lot of games.

[00:04:59] Yeah.

[00:05:00] Yeah, I can't stand the voice chat in competitive games.

[00:05:03] I don't really play competitive games very often because it's not really my style of game.

[00:05:08] But I feel like when I do, I don't want to hear what all of those idiots are up to because it is just the most awful people who are using that voice chat.

[00:05:19] Yeah, they tend to say some words that are not nice.

[00:05:23] Alright, let's get back to Arcane.

[00:05:27] And before we get into our review of it, I'm just going to give us a quick recap of the season.

[00:05:35] Just to refresh our memories a little bit.

[00:05:37] Because I'm sure most people haven't gone back and rewatched season 1 like I did.

[00:05:42] Arcane's first season is split between two cities.

[00:05:45] The shining metropolis of Piltover and the underworld of Zaun.

[00:05:50] Which is first referred to as the Undercity.

[00:05:52] At the heart of the story are two sisters.

[00:05:56] Vi, otherwise known as, or her real name being Violet, Vi's her nickname.

[00:06:01] And Powder, who later becomes Jinx.

[00:06:05] They start off as close sisters in Zaun, a place of poverty and unrest.

[00:06:12] When a heist goes wrong and their home is destroyed, the sisters are torn apart.

[00:06:17] Vi's taken by Piltover's enforcers.

[00:06:20] Marcus, to be specific.

[00:06:22] Who later becomes a sheriff.

[00:06:24] Because of this, Powder is left behind in Zaun to fend for herself.

[00:06:28] Where she becomes Jinx and her psyche slowly unravels due to trauma and loss.

[00:06:34] As the time passes, the tension between Piltover's wealthy elite and Zaun's desperate underclass intensifies.

[00:06:42] Piltover scientist Jason Victor, driven by a vision to change the world,

[00:06:46] discover a powerful invention that could reshape society, known as Hextech.

[00:06:51] But it also threatens to upend the fragile balance of power.

[00:06:55] Meanwhile, Zaun's criminal mastermind, Silco, sees this invention as a way to free his people from Piltover's control, setting the stage for conflict.

[00:07:04] Silco rises to power during this time through the invention of Shimmer, which is a drug that causes many weird effects.

[00:07:15] We'll talk about that later.

[00:07:16] And throughout the season, we see the growing fracture between the sisters.

[00:07:22] Vi becomes a fighter for justice, while Jinx spirals into madness, driven by betrayal and the scars of their past.

[00:07:29] The show delves into their emotional journeys and their complex relationships with those around them.

[00:07:35] That's a good recap.

[00:07:36] It's very fresh in my mind.

[00:07:37] I really had to fight not to watch ahead into season two so that I wouldn't have anything muddled.

[00:07:45] Richard, I know that you finished your homework at 11.59 and watched the last episode an hour ago.

[00:07:52] I was, okay, I sent you guys the message when I was like halfway through the last episode.

[00:07:56] And then I was going to say like, no, we don't have to go like that late.

[00:08:00] We could still make one o'clock.

[00:08:02] But then I had to game a little bit, you know.

[00:08:06] I was in a hurry.

[00:08:08] Yeah.

[00:08:09] That's what I kind of figured.

[00:08:10] I was watching YouTube while drinking a smoothie.

[00:08:12] So I'm chilling.

[00:08:14] The smoothie?

[00:08:15] Oh my God.

[00:08:16] I'm sorry.

[00:08:17] Smoothie and the new Ninja Foodie?

[00:08:18] Yeah, you don't even know what I'm talking about.

[00:08:20] They call me the drink.

[00:08:21] I still don't get that.

[00:08:23] A beverage of sorts?

[00:08:24] Trunks is the beverage, or is the drink.

[00:08:26] You just wouldn't understand.

[00:08:29] Richard, you want to take us into the cast of characters a little bit?

[00:08:33] I would absolutely love to take us into the cast of characters.

[00:08:36] Starting with Vi, one of my favorite, probably my favorite character in this series so far.

[00:08:42] She's actually voiced by Haley Steinfeld, who is also my favorite quarterback's girlfriend.

[00:08:49] We love Josh Allen and Haley Steinfeld.

[00:08:50] Wonderful relationship.

[00:08:52] Sorry.

[00:08:53] I'm sidetracked.

[00:08:54] I know.

[00:08:54] But she is a very strong-willed individual with a deep sense of loyalty to her family, which

[00:08:59] is at this point just jinx.

[00:09:02] As her older sister, she takes on the role of the protector, trying to survive and uphold

[00:09:07] justice within Zong.

[00:09:09] She has a fiery personality and an unbreakable bond with her sister, at the start anyways.

[00:09:16] But it doesn't work out that way later on.

[00:09:19] They really strain their relationship, and it does reach a breaking point.

[00:09:24] Well, I would say that from Vi's perspective, it's unbreakable.

[00:09:30] We see throughout the whole season she still cares for jinx, and she still thinks that she

[00:09:34] can reach her.

[00:09:36] Yeah, that is true.

[00:09:38] You know, Zong is a whole lot like the Buffalo Bills when you really think about it.

[00:09:45] Shut the fuck up.

[00:09:46] Holy crap.

[00:09:47] Zong is not that goaded.

[00:09:48] I did not think that's where you're going to go with that.

[00:09:51] I didn't either.

[00:09:52] I thought you were going to say something genuinely interesting.

[00:09:54] Holy crap.

[00:09:55] I thought he was going to compare it to like Night City or something.

[00:09:58] Listen.

[00:09:59] Because the aesthetic is there, but nope.

[00:10:01] Both underdogs.

[00:10:03] Both underdogs.

[00:10:04] No.

[00:10:05] No, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:10:07] No, I want to hear this comparison.

[00:10:09] We can cut it out, but I want to hear this comparison.

[00:10:11] The Bills have not been underdogs for like...

[00:10:13] Yeah, no.

[00:10:15] And Chase, just say it.

[00:10:18] Who's the reason for that?

[00:10:25] Say it.

[00:10:25] Come on.

[00:10:28] Josh Allen.

[00:10:30] Hell yeah, it is.

[00:10:31] Josh motherfucking Allen.

[00:10:33] My goat.

[00:10:34] He's good as fuck.

[00:10:35] He's good.

[00:10:37] He's good as fuck.

[00:10:38] He's good as fuck.

[00:10:39] I'll give you that.

[00:10:41] I will give you that, but let's not pretend like the Bills are a shit team anymore.

[00:10:45] They're good.

[00:10:46] No, no.

[00:10:47] They're fucking good.

[00:10:48] They're good.

[00:10:49] And just like the Bills rose out of being the underdogs into glory and power, Zahn is

[00:10:57] on a similar meteoric rise to the top.

[00:11:00] Um, no, but okay.

[00:11:02] No.

[00:11:04] My god.

[00:11:06] They're...

[00:11:06] Zahn is on the up and up, I feel, despite all of the problems.

[00:11:10] They're gaining power.

[00:11:11] They're gaining influence.

[00:11:12] In some ways.

[00:11:13] I mean, their evil, awful criminal overlord is dead.

[00:11:17] I would say not really, because when Jace starts Hextech, remember, it like starts plummeting

[00:11:22] Zahn.

[00:11:23] That's true.

[00:11:24] Because like all the Camberans are like, Piltover doesn't need to trade with us anymore because

[00:11:28] they have such easy access to trade with distant lands now.

[00:11:32] True.

[00:11:32] True.

[00:11:33] True enough.

[00:11:33] Sorry, I just wanted to get Richard going a little bit.

[00:11:36] Yeah.

[00:11:37] Shut the fuck up.

[00:11:39] Violet is just such a great character.

[00:11:41] I think that the arc that she takes in season one is really kind of an emotional roller coaster,

[00:11:48] which I think that we can talk about that a little bit more when we get to Jinx, which

[00:11:52] I think she's our next character.

[00:11:54] She is our next character.

[00:11:55] I can't believe you're stepping on my toes like this.

[00:11:57] I tried to order it by what I thought were the most important characters to go over

[00:12:03] and order.

[00:12:03] I put all of the characters I believe to be the main cast here.

[00:12:08] We can obviously talk about some that I haven't put in.

[00:12:11] I'm sure we will.

[00:12:12] But yeah.

[00:12:13] Okay.

[00:12:13] Next up, we've got Jinx.

[00:12:15] Aaron spoiled the podcast once again.

[00:12:18] But whatever.

[00:12:19] Whatever.

[00:12:20] Anyways.

[00:12:21] I'm always ruining the pod.

[00:12:22] Yeah.

[00:12:23] Words are hard.

[00:12:24] I get it.

[00:12:24] Once a sweet and innocent girl, Jinx transforms into a very chaotic and unpredictable force

[00:12:30] after losing her family.

[00:12:33] You know, she really goes through a lot of deep trauma here.

[00:12:35] She, as a villain, is driven by a need for attention and love.

[00:12:41] And her madness and self-destructive tendencies make her dangerous and tragic.

[00:12:47] She has a very strange relationship with her criminal overlord boss.

[00:12:52] Okay.

[00:12:52] Me and Aaron were talking about this.

[00:12:54] It was fucked up.

[00:12:56] And we were like, it's definitely weird.

[00:12:58] But I don't think the intention is for it to be in a sexual way at all.

[00:13:05] I don't think that it is meant to be explicitly that.

[00:13:08] It does have kind of that weird vibe to it.

[00:13:11] But I don't know.

[00:13:12] I just, the relationship between Silco and Jinx creeped me out in the way that I felt

[00:13:17] like, oh, this is an unhealthy relationship.

[00:13:19] At first, I thought that there was maybe that sort of undertone to it.

[00:13:25] But I don't think that anymore.

[00:13:27] I just think that it's a weird and creepy relationship.

[00:13:30] Yeah, I'm definitely with you after the end.

[00:13:33] And like, he does definitely care about her, but it's very strange.

[00:13:39] I don't know.

[00:13:40] Yeah.

[00:13:40] I mean, does he really care about her?

[00:13:42] Or was he just saying that at the end?

[00:13:44] I don't know if I really believe him, to be so honest.

[00:13:48] I don't know.

[00:13:50] Oh, well, he definitely does like a bit.

[00:13:52] Maybe not as much as he was leading on.

[00:13:55] Yeah, maybe.

[00:13:56] I think he cares about her in his own twisted way.

[00:14:00] Especially because we see that she's constantly causing so many problems for him that has everyone

[00:14:06] questioning his authority.

[00:14:08] Even Savika, like his number one fucking, she's doing it all, you know?

[00:14:13] Like he's got her doing all of the fucking dirty work.

[00:14:16] So I do think he does.

[00:14:18] I just don't think that he's a good father figure.

[00:14:22] No, not one bit.

[00:14:23] No, I mean, you don't need a drug dealing criminal psychopath as your father figure in your life.

[00:14:31] Especially, she had a really good father figure at the very beginning.

[00:14:34] And that was a real downgrade, wasn't it?

[00:14:36] It was.

[00:14:38] Vander was goaded.

[00:14:39] Should we get into Jace, Richard?

[00:14:41] Do you want to take it or I can take it?

[00:14:42] You got this one.

[00:14:44] All right.

[00:14:45] Jace is a gifted inventor and scientist from Piltover with big dreams of changing the world.

[00:14:50] He starts off as an idealistic and ambitious figure, but his decisions, particularly around

[00:14:55] his invention of Hextech, lead him into morally gray territory.

[00:15:00] Jace is often torn between his desires for progress and the consequences of his own actions.

[00:15:08] I really like Jace as a character.

[00:15:10] I think that the struggles he goes through, especially with whether or not to weaponize

[00:15:15] Hextech, are very realistic.

[00:15:18] And I think that the pressures that are on him from outside forces for someone who started

[00:15:24] basically from...

[00:15:25] I don't want to say the bottom because he was a part of one of the bigger houses in Piltover,

[00:15:31] but maybe...

[00:15:32] Well, he's part of a house, not a big one.

[00:15:34] But yeah, he still comes from wealth.

[00:15:37] Yeah, exactly.

[00:15:38] So I think that maybe he wasn't raised and prepared for that kind of pressure.

[00:15:45] And so he maybe makes some wrong decisions along the way, but I don't think that his intentions

[00:15:50] are ever impure.

[00:15:52] Yeah, I think me and Aaron talked about this a little bit because when Aaron watched season

[00:15:57] one, I was re-watching it with him.

[00:15:59] So we have talked a little bit about the show, of course.

[00:16:04] Can't not talk about it.

[00:16:06] It's such a good show.

[00:16:07] It really is.

[00:16:08] But I think that a lot of what Jace does is out of the goodness of his heart.

[00:16:13] There's a lot of times where he's like obviously very classist in the show and doesn't understand

[00:16:19] the plight of the Undercity and a lot of what people experience down there.

[00:16:24] And I think he does have a little redemption though, where he proposes the emancipation

[00:16:30] of Zahn to Silco.

[00:16:32] I mean, obviously Silco is not the greatest leader, but if you look at it from a governing

[00:16:38] perspective, he's the only one with the ability to lead at that point, Zahn.

[00:16:43] He comes to the council and basically forces them to agree to this emancipation.

[00:16:49] And I think that he made a lot of mistakes along the way for sure, but I think that he's

[00:16:53] truly trying to bring about a good change in the world.

[00:16:56] And I think that at this point in the story, he has had more of a positive impact than negative.

[00:17:04] Yeah.

[00:17:04] I mean, to kind of go off that, I think that one of the main reasons why he has a little

[00:17:11] bit more empathy for the Undercity and is more willing to work towards that goal of an independent

[00:17:18] Undercity if it means peace is because of his relationship with Victor and his close partnership

[00:17:23] with someone who is actually from the Undercity and can give him that perspective.

[00:17:27] Even though we see him be classist towards Victor on like one or two occasions.

[00:17:31] Yeah.

[00:17:32] I think Victor is truly like the yin to Jace's yang.

[00:17:36] They help balance each other out on a lot of things.

[00:17:39] Yeah.

[00:17:40] Richard, any thoughts on Jace?

[00:17:41] Um, you guys kind of said it all.

[00:17:44] I really don't have much else that I can add to that discussion.

[00:17:47] I think, I think he's a great character.

[00:17:50] That's, that's all I can say without being redundant.

[00:17:53] Do you ever have anything interesting to add?

[00:17:55] Holy crap.

[00:17:56] Next!

[00:17:56] I would know if you could fucking read Red Rising and join me and Aaron, but you don't.

[00:18:02] Well, I can't read, so.

[00:18:05] I'll read it to you, buddy.

[00:18:07] Don't worry.

[00:18:08] Richard is the audiobook narrator?

[00:18:10] I, no, I could never be Tim Gerard Reynolds, my goat.

[00:18:15] He's such a good narrator, bro.

[00:18:16] Alright, Aaron, what were you gonna say?

[00:18:17] I was just gonna say, Chase, what's your favorite part about Jace?

[00:18:20] Because, uh, every time it was on screen, you, you were like, that's so sick.

[00:18:25] Because this fucking giant hammer is fucking awesome.

[00:18:30] I don't care what anyone says.

[00:18:32] That shit is, like, the coolest part of the show to me.

[00:18:35] Big hammer is always a great weapon.

[00:18:38] Big hammer that shoots, like, giant fucking explosive electricity balls is sick.

[00:18:45] The only thing that wasn't awesome and based about him fighting with the hammer is when he killed that kid, yeah.

[00:18:51] But I think it was important.

[00:18:53] It was important.

[00:18:54] Me and Aaron were talking about how this is, like, one of the little weird plot devices in the show is how, why the fuck is that little kid who's, like, a child laborer, one of the Kembaron's sons?

[00:19:08] Yeah.

[00:19:09] How does that make any sense?

[00:19:12] No, no, he's a Nepo baby.

[00:19:13] He's a Nepo baby, okay?

[00:19:15] No, no, no.

[00:19:15] He was walking around supervising everything.

[00:19:19] He should be a Nepo baby.

[00:19:19] No, he was supervising everything.

[00:19:21] No, he is not.

[00:19:22] If your parents are rich and powerful, you're not going to be working that job.

[00:19:26] Okay, rich and powerful is relative, though.

[00:19:28] We are talking about the Undercity.

[00:19:31] Yeah, but they're a Kembaron.

[00:19:33] Like, they are rich and powerful.

[00:19:35] Blah, blah, blah.

[00:19:37] Blah, blah, blah.

[00:19:38] That's all I'm hearing.

[00:19:40] They're still poor, relatively.

[00:19:41] They sent him there to build character, and he didn't even make it out that day.

[00:19:47] He was grounded.

[00:19:49] Ooh.

[00:19:50] Grounded and had to work in the furnace room.

[00:19:53] Yeah.

[00:19:54] And then get blown up.

[00:19:57] By a really cool hammer.

[00:19:59] Awesome hammer.

[00:20:00] But it was important for the plot, so.

[00:20:02] That hammer is fire, though.

[00:20:05] Come on now.

[00:20:05] I think the gauntlets are sick, too, though.

[00:20:08] I love big gauntlet-y weapons.

[00:20:10] The hammer is just so fire.

[00:20:13] True.

[00:20:14] You told me that the hammer is, like, Jace's weapon in the game, and that's where that comes from?

[00:20:18] Yeah, in the game, he has that giant hammer, and he shoots the giant fucking energy balls out of it.

[00:20:25] I have an actual question, not, like, a leading question to make Richard go on a tangent.

[00:20:30] I was wondering, are all of these characters that are playable in the game, were they already in the game before Arcane, or did they add them to the game after Arcane came out?

[00:20:41] They were already in the game, but I think some of them got put in not too long before.

[00:20:46] I don't know a lot about before Arcane League of Legends, because that season one of Arcane is what got me to play League of Legends to begin with.

[00:20:55] I do know that Jace has been in the game for a long time.

[00:21:00] I think Victor also has been in the game forever.

[00:21:04] I don't know.

[00:21:05] I think Vi has also been in the game for a while, because she has really, like, old animations compared to a lot of the newer characters.

[00:21:13] I don't know about Echo, and I don't know about Caitlyn.

[00:21:17] Echo is so cool.

[00:21:18] Actually, Caitlyn definitely has been in the game since whenever Vi was in the game, because it came out, like, very similar times, I'm pretty sure.

[00:21:26] But Echo is probably the newest of them, and I think he's also the strongest of them in the game.

[00:21:34] Maybe Jace, because Jace has been in the pro scene forever.

[00:21:37] Cool.

[00:21:37] All right.

[00:21:37] Thank you for that answer, because I was, I had, when I was watching it, I was like, there's no way that these were characters beforehand.

[00:21:46] Heimerdinger.

[00:21:48] Heimerdinger has been in the game forever, too.

[00:21:51] Oh, my God.

[00:21:53] I have a skin for Heimerdinger that makes him look like an alien.

[00:21:56] What?

[00:21:58] As if he doesn't already look like an alien.

[00:22:00] No, like a green alien with, like, an exposed brain.

[00:22:06] Oh, my God.

[00:22:07] His design is awesome, though.

[00:22:09] I fucking love it.

[00:22:10] I love Hemroyd.

[00:22:12] He's such a cutesy little guy.

[00:22:13] Oh, okay.

[00:22:14] Yeah, we got you on tape saying you love Hemroyds.

[00:22:17] Shut up.

[00:22:18] Hemroyd, because he's just a little pain in the ass.

[00:22:21] Oh, my God.

[00:22:26] Don't be talking about my boy Heimerdinger like that.

[00:22:29] No, Heimerdinger's the goat.

[00:22:31] Yeah.

[00:22:32] Let's move into Victor.

[00:22:35] Victor is a brilliant yet troubled inventor who works alongside Jace.

[00:22:39] Victor's dedication to science and progress is overshadowed by his physical illness and his

[00:22:44] growing belief that drastic measures are needed to improve society.

[00:22:48] His ethical struggles make him a complex character torn between his ambitions and his humanity.

[00:22:53] I also mentioned in the Jace section that he is a Zahnite or a person from the Undercity.

[00:22:58] So that's a big part of his character as well.

[00:23:02] Yeah, and it's very interesting because like I know we mentioned it earlier, but like Jace will be venting about the Undercity and how things need to happen.

[00:23:10] And he kind of takes a very I don't know.

[00:23:13] He does say the wrong things a lot of the time in the earlier parts of the season.

[00:23:18] And then Victor kind of just reminds him like, I'm from the Undercity too, bro.

[00:23:24] Like, you're talking about me too when you say that they're all violent or whatever.

[00:23:29] I don't remember everything Jace was saying, but.

[00:23:32] Yeah, it's also heavily implied that his illness is because of the pollution in the Undercity that is Piltover's fault.

[00:23:40] Yeah.

[00:23:41] Yeah, the pollution in the Undercity is because all of the well, I know before in episode one where we see Vander on the bridge in the smoke and there's like all the enforcers and everyone's dead or getting beaten up.

[00:23:55] I think that's because before that huge fight, everyone in the Undercity was basically forced to be a minor.

[00:24:03] So Victor's illness is or not illness, but like, well, yeah, illness and leg probably birth defect if I had to assume what it was because it's not specified is theorized to be because of the gas in the fissures.

[00:24:19] I think Jace says something like that to Mel.

[00:24:22] So, yeah.

[00:24:22] And Piltover basically directs all of its dangerous gases and fumes down under itself, which just shoots it straight into the heart of the Undercity.

[00:24:31] So, yeah, everyone in Zahn in the Undercity basically has to suffer extra pollution because of Piltover.

[00:24:39] It's direct harm.

[00:24:40] Yeah.

[00:24:40] I have another question.

[00:24:41] That's a real question.

[00:24:44] What's the difference between the Undercity and the lanes?

[00:24:48] Is the lanes like a certain neighborhood in the Undercity?

[00:24:51] I just think it's like in reference to being in the Undercity, like welcome to the lanes, they say a lot.

[00:24:57] But I think that's just maybe like the, oh, wait, actually, it's because Zahn, we see that there's the bridge, right?

[00:25:04] So there's all the outer area of the city around Piltover.

[00:25:08] That's not directly below it.

[00:25:09] I think the lanes is the Undercity directly below Piltover.

[00:25:13] Under, under, below Piltover.

[00:25:15] Oh, okay.

[00:25:16] That makes sense.

[00:25:17] Because I was, I was wondering the whole time I was watching about what the difference between, because they throw around those terms a lot.

[00:25:23] And I just kind of, for the purposes of watching, I was like, this is all kind of the same area, but I didn't know if it went any deeper than that.

[00:25:30] When we see Vi and Powder and Milo and, I forget the other kid's name, but when they first get away with like the loot across the bridge at the beginning, with the heist gone wrong, and they're like walking and like you could still see like the daylight shining down.

[00:25:48] And like, they're in, obviously, Zahn, but it's not where a lot of the Zahn, like setting takes place in the show where it's like, everything is fucking dark and lit up by neon lights and there's gas and smoke everywhere.

[00:26:02] I think that's the outer city.

[00:26:04] And then the lanes is obviously where like the last drop is and stuff where it's more pollution and stuff.

[00:26:11] Okay, cool.

[00:26:12] I really like the world building, but we'll talk about that a little bit later because we're still in the characters.

[00:26:17] But I think the world building is so cool in this show.

[00:26:21] Yeah.

[00:26:23] Should we move on to Silco?

[00:26:25] Richard, you want to take him away for us?

[00:26:27] Oh, I fucking hate this guy, but sure.

[00:26:30] I think he's well written though.

[00:26:31] He's just a bastard.

[00:26:33] Of course.

[00:26:34] But Silco is the ruthless and extremely manipulative leader of Zahn.

[00:26:39] He is very determined to see the people of Zahn free from Piltover's control.

[00:26:45] But he's of course willing to go to any lengths, including a lot of violence and manipulation to achieve his goals.

[00:26:52] His obsession with power and control is matched only by his complex emotional bond with Jinx.

[00:27:00] My least favorite relationship in the show.

[00:27:02] Yeah.

[00:27:03] Yeah.

[00:27:04] It's a bad one.

[00:27:07] It's just very strange.

[00:27:09] I especially dislike whenever we see Silco shooting the shimmer into his eye.

[00:27:19] I don't like stuff with eyes.

[00:27:21] That freaks me out any time.

[00:27:22] Yeah, no.

[00:27:22] That shit's fucking...

[00:27:24] I wear contacts most of the time.

[00:27:27] And even just putting in contacts for me, I'm like, it freaks me out a little bit.

[00:27:33] So seeing him put that needle into his eye that got mutated or I don't know what happened to his eye.

[00:27:39] It's because when he and Vander were fighting, Vander like injured his eye.

[00:27:45] So the fucking polluted ass like river mixed with his eye blood and his thing.

[00:27:53] That's why it's so fucked up.

[00:27:54] Oh, okay.

[00:27:55] Is the shimmer...

[00:27:57] I kept wondering why he was microdosing shimmer.

[00:28:00] I think because we're shown like microdosing shimmer throughout the series,

[00:28:05] especially when Vi gets injured and Caitlyn gets her that potion, has healing qualities.

[00:28:11] So I think that he's microdosing it to like heal his eye and be able to use it.

[00:28:17] Because we see that his iris and pupil get like separated.

[00:28:21] But when he uses the shimmer, it comes back together into an actual eye.

[00:28:27] Yeah.

[00:28:28] Like an actual iris and pupil.

[00:28:30] So I think that he microdoses it to help his vision and obviously probably to deal with the pain.

[00:28:37] But I don't think it's like permanently healing it because obviously he keeps microdosing it.

[00:28:42] But at the same time, I think that like pollution that like fucked with his shit is so like deep in his eye that like he can't heal it permanently.

[00:28:54] Yeah.

[00:28:55] Maybe it's just temporary relief and a little bit of healing there for him.

[00:29:00] I thought that was really cool that they did actually have shimmer serve some kind of medical purpose.

[00:29:06] Because I feel like in a lot of shows, whenever there's a fake drug introduced, it's just like an evil, addictive, like horrible drug.

[00:29:15] And that's not really how things work in real life where there's usually an abuse side of it.

[00:29:21] And there's also like a genuine medical use for most drugs.

[00:29:25] Yeah, I was going to mention that actually a shimmer is like very realistic.

[00:29:30] I mean, obviously, other than the fucking like turns you into the Hulk moment.

[00:29:35] But yeah.

[00:29:36] But like to medicine where in small quantities, it's very helpful, but it can turn into a huge problem.

[00:29:45] Yeah.

[00:29:45] And I will talk about this later that because I noted a few things about shimmer in the real life comparisons with some other things.

[00:29:53] But yeah, I have more to say about it later.

[00:29:57] All right.

[00:29:58] Anyone have any final thoughts on Silco before we move on to his kind of inverse in Vander?

[00:30:05] No, I can.

[00:30:07] I can take us away with Vander, though.

[00:30:08] Yeah.

[00:30:09] Oh, let's hear it.

[00:30:11] All right.

[00:30:12] Vander is my second favorite character in Arcane.

[00:30:16] He is the former leader and protector of the Undercity or the people of Zahn.

[00:30:22] Vander is a kindhearted and morally upright figure.

[00:30:25] He acts as a father figure to Vian Jinx.

[00:30:27] And his efforts to main peace in Zahn often put him in difficult situations.

[00:30:34] His leadership and moral compass make him a beloved and respected figure, although he ultimately faces heartbreaking choices.

[00:30:41] Zahn and...

[00:30:43] Or not Zahn, holy shit.

[00:30:45] Vander and Silco have a very complicated past as friends who wanted the dream of Zahn, of an emancipated Undercity and nation of Zahn.

[00:30:59] And we see that obviously somewhere along the line they had a difference in opinion and Vander was beating the shit out of Silco in the river, which caused their fracturing and ultimately Silco's killing of Vander.

[00:31:15] I think that the difference between Vander and Silco is really...

[00:31:21] Silco is a very...

[00:31:22] The ends justify the means kind of person.

[00:31:26] Like, if he has to pile up bodies in order to get independence for Zahn, that's what he's going to do.

[00:31:33] If he needs to flood the streets with drugs to make Zahn independent, that's exactly what he's going to do.

[00:31:39] Vander, he's a little bit more...

[00:31:42] It's about the people for him.

[00:31:44] He's...

[00:31:45] When he was fighting for independence, I get the idea that he was fighting for the people.

[00:31:51] Whereas Silco...

[00:31:52] I think that Silco thinks he's fighting for the people most likely, but I...

[00:31:56] He's really not protecting them in the same way that Vander does.

[00:32:00] I think what you said kind of goes along with what Silco was saying when he had Vander locked up in his warehouse.

[00:32:10] When he said something about the minimum violence for change or something of the sort.

[00:32:17] I just wanted to mention that.

[00:32:20] Yeah.

[00:32:20] I think that's very interesting.

[00:32:22] Richard, what are your thoughts on Vander?

[00:32:24] I really did like him as a father figure, of course.

[00:32:27] He was very important.

[00:32:31] Like you guys said, he was very important to the early development of like Vi and Jinx.

[00:32:37] And he obviously really was protective of them and really everyone in the Undercity.

[00:32:42] But that ideological separation between him and Silco really just kind of did him in, unfortunately.

[00:32:51] Yeah.

[00:32:52] Yeah.

[00:32:52] I really loved his introduction to the story when you have that guy who we see later in the like shimmer slum outside the city.

[00:33:01] When he's trying to cut a deal and there's some shady stuff going on and then they threaten Vander and he's like,

[00:33:09] Hey, don't don't threaten the guy who pours the drinks.

[00:33:13] And then they realize, oh shit, this is the guy who's running things around here.

[00:33:16] The Hound of the Underground.

[00:33:19] That's a sick nickname.

[00:33:21] Yeah.

[00:33:22] Any final thoughts on Vander?

[00:33:24] I wish he didn't die.

[00:33:26] Yeah.

[00:33:27] That's the most important thing.

[00:33:30] I'm sure everyone in Arcane wishes that too.

[00:33:34] Yeah.

[00:33:35] Yeah, he was really keeping the peace there too.

[00:33:38] Both as a viewer and as the characters within the world.

[00:33:42] I think that everyone was wishing Vander would pull through, but poor guy didn't make it.

[00:33:47] Oh yeah.

[00:33:48] Unfortunately.

[00:33:49] But yeah.

[00:33:50] Our next character is Caitlin, who is a Piltover enforcer who comes from a very wealthy and influential family.

[00:33:58] Caitlin is intelligent, brave, and determined to uncover the truth behind the growing tensions between Piltover and Zahn.

[00:34:05] She forms a pretty close partnership with Vi and her sense of justice and integrity makes her a very strong and sympathetic character in the narrative.

[00:34:14] Yeah, I think she's very much one of those like...

[00:34:18] I don't know.

[00:34:19] She sticks to her morals even when it would be easier to just kind of ignore stuff or sweep it under the rug, whatever.

[00:34:27] And really does make some hard decisions throughout the story, I feel like.

[00:34:34] Yeah, she's not the type of person to turn a blind eye to things that she feels are wrong.

[00:34:41] She's very much the type of person who's going to take action and speak her mind on what she thinks is the correct course of action, no matter whether that's putting herself in danger or not.

[00:34:53] Which I think that kind of goes back to her upbringing in an influential family.

[00:34:59] The fact that she's not really afraid to speak her mind.

[00:35:02] Yeah.

[00:35:04] Chase, any thoughts on Caitlyn?

[00:35:09] Just that she's an excellent shot.

[00:35:12] She is.

[00:35:13] When she beats Avasarala from The Expanse, who was the chief enforcer, that was a really fun moment.

[00:35:25] You could see that she's not just a spoiled, rich kid.

[00:35:29] She genuinely has skill and heart and is a good person, which I really like.

[00:35:35] Yeah.

[00:35:36] And I feel like you don't see that as much in shows where it's like the nobility...

[00:35:44] Kind...

[00:35:44] Like the nobility, the aristocrats are sort of against the undercity, like the slums, whatever other terms you want to use.

[00:35:54] I feel like that's very uncommon, that there's going to be like nobles that sympathize.

[00:36:01] Well, actually, I take that back.

[00:36:03] There's usually like one every fucking time.

[00:36:05] Yeah, you usually get a white savior here and there.

[00:36:08] Okay.

[00:36:08] Not what I was getting at.

[00:36:10] I mean, that is essentially what those types of characters usually are, but I think that this story does a good job of not turning those characters into the white savior narrative.

[00:36:22] And thank God for that, because I don't like that.

[00:36:25] I don't like that trope.

[00:36:26] I mean, yeah, we see flaws on like a lot of stories where it's like obviously the white savior narrative is like the perfect person being like,

[00:36:35] we need to help these people who can't help themselves.

[00:36:39] But yeah, we see like Jace has flaws.

[00:36:42] We see Caitlyn has flaws.

[00:36:45] Yeah.

[00:36:46] And now to, I think that...

[00:36:50] Echo!

[00:36:50] This is my favorite character.

[00:36:52] Take it away, Jace.

[00:36:53] Take it away, bud.

[00:36:54] Yeah, this is yours.

[00:36:55] Echo.

[00:36:55] A young and resourceful leader from Zahn, Echo is fiercely protective of his friends and community, the Firelights.

[00:37:04] Having grown up in the Undercity, he has a deep understanding of the struggles of the people of Zahn.

[00:37:12] And Echo is a skilled inventor capable of using technology to his advantage and has a complicated history with Jinx.

[00:37:21] Yeah.

[00:37:22] Yeah.

[00:37:23] I'm going to skip right...

[00:37:24] The boy savior.

[00:37:25] Exactly.

[00:37:26] I'm going to skip right to the end of his story.

[00:37:29] When Heimerdinger finds him, the fact that Echo is such a skilled inventor just kind of being a garage inventor and now he's with Heimerdinger, I'm wondering what they're going to cook up in season two.

[00:37:41] I'm sure Chase already knows the answer to that, but I'm really excited.

[00:37:48] Yeah, because I feel like those characters that are like street kid inventors typically have a lot more ingenuity or like creativity in what they want to do.

[00:37:57] And combine that with like...

[00:37:59] I mean, he is also just great when it comes to actually building his designs, but I think that him and Heimerdinger...

[00:38:06] Because Heimerdinger is obviously this master scientist craftsman.

[00:38:12] I don't know.

[00:38:13] It's going to be a creep mix for sure.

[00:38:15] I love that when Heimerdinger meets Echo and he's like, oh, this is a brilliant invention.

[00:38:22] He's talking about their hoverboards, but the angles are off on the propellers and Echo's like, it's because the gas in the fissures is so much denser.

[00:38:35] Yeah.

[00:38:35] Yeah.

[00:38:36] I love that Heimerdinger didn't even think to account for like a different environment than the one that he's in.

[00:38:43] And Echo just comes in immediately and is like, actually, there's a reason for that.

[00:38:47] It's not wrong.

[00:38:48] Another part about that scene that I actually really like, and it's about Heimerdinger, who we're going to talk about in a bit, is that it's because he's coming back from being in the Undercity.

[00:38:57] Because after he gets voted off the council, he truly does take the statements Jace says to heart.

[00:39:05] And he's like, you know what?

[00:39:06] I haven't been doing enough.

[00:39:08] And he genuinely tries to go down there and do some good.

[00:39:11] Obviously, at the time, he wasn't able to do anything because, as he says, people weren't too welcoming to him.

[00:39:17] But I do like to see out of Heimerdinger that he's acknowledged his mistakes that he's made in trying to make a difference.

[00:39:25] Yeah.

[00:39:26] Yeah, Heimerdinger has a...

[00:39:28] Actually, I'll wait until we go into him in a second.

[00:39:31] I'll stick to Echo.

[00:39:34] I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here, but Echo also has the coolest fight scene in the entire first season.

[00:39:41] Yeah.

[00:39:42] Let's get into Heimerdinger, who is a highly intelligent and eccentric Yordle scientist.

[00:39:47] Am I saying that right, Yordle?

[00:39:49] Yeah, I can explain what Yordles are a little bit after...

[00:39:53] Sounds good.

[00:39:54] Yordle scientist who is a mentor and advisor in Piltover.

[00:39:59] When we first see him, we find him as one of the members of the council.

[00:40:04] Heimerdinger is also a key figure in the scientific...

[00:40:06] He's the head of the council until...

[00:40:08] Oh, he's the head of the council, too.

[00:40:10] Until Jace boots him!

[00:40:13] That probably contributes to why Jace is like, he was my mentor and I betrayed him.

[00:40:19] Yeah, that's really shitty.

[00:40:21] Come on, Jace.

[00:40:22] Anyways, yeah.

[00:40:23] Key figure in the scientific community.

[00:40:25] I think that he's also the head of the academy, right?

[00:40:28] The scientific academy?

[00:40:30] Yes.

[00:40:31] Yeah.

[00:40:31] And he's really focused on the safety of his people while advancing technological progress.

[00:40:38] And his cautious nature often puts him at odds with radical thinkers like Jace and Victor who want to change the world with their innovations.

[00:40:47] Okay.

[00:40:48] So, Yordles in League of Legends lore are basically immortal creatures.

[00:40:56] In order to kill a Yordle, you have to kill their soul.

[00:41:00] So, they live for an extremely extended, mad long amount of time.

[00:41:07] They do eventually die of old age, I believe.

[00:41:10] But it's like thousands of years, I think, or something like that.

[00:41:14] Or hundreds.

[00:41:15] Maybe it's like a thousand years or something.

[00:41:17] But it's an extremely long time.

[00:41:19] Doesn't really matter.

[00:41:20] But yeah.

[00:41:21] And if their physical form dies, they just respawned in Bandle Land.

[00:41:26] Yeah.

[00:41:27] I'm glad you took the time to explain that because that was going to be one of my questions about him.

[00:41:33] I was really wondering when I was watching the show.

[00:41:35] Why is he a goofy furball?

[00:41:37] Well, not only why is he a goofy furball, but he makes some comments about how old he is and how he's been around since the founding of Piltover.

[00:41:47] And I was like, how does he live that long?

[00:41:49] I was assuming maybe because he's this powerful scientist that maybe he's done some experiments to extend his life.

[00:41:55] But I like that explanation a little bit better that it's just part of his physiology.

[00:42:02] No, yeah.

[00:42:03] There are other important yordles throughout.

[00:42:06] I think that we see images of Teemo throughout the series a lot, who's another yordle in League of Legends lore.

[00:42:13] And who's also a really cringe character to play in League of Legends.

[00:42:19] Is it like a busted character?

[00:42:21] You guys, don't play that guy.

[00:42:22] He's really strong because he has an ability where he shoots a dart at you.

[00:42:31] It's not if it hits you because all you have to do is click the button and it auto hits you.

[00:42:36] You basically can't attack him.

[00:42:39] And he does poison damage.

[00:42:41] Oh my god, that sounds like an annoying character.

[00:42:45] What are you talking about?

[00:42:46] That sounds awesome, dude.

[00:42:47] And he can throw poisonous invisible mushrooms around the map that explode when you touch them.

[00:42:55] Oh my god.

[00:42:56] What the fuck?

[00:42:57] That sounds like the kind of character Richard would play.

[00:43:00] Dude!

[00:43:01] No, Richard...

[00:43:02] Is there team killing?

[00:43:03] Is there team killing?

[00:43:04] Richard would play Singed.

[00:43:07] Richard would play the most busted character in the game.

[00:43:10] I was going to say I don't know who Singed is, but I actually do because he's an arcane, if I'm not mistaken.

[00:43:15] Yes, he is.

[00:43:15] We'll talk about that a little bit.

[00:43:17] He's the funny shimmer doctor.

[00:43:20] Oh.

[00:43:20] Yeah, the guy who invented shimmer.

[00:43:23] Yeah.

[00:43:23] Interesting.

[00:43:24] Well, last but certainly not least...

[00:43:26] Wait, wait.

[00:43:27] Before we move on, I actually want to make a point.

[00:43:29] I do think that a lot of the points Jace made that got Heimerdinger kicked off the council were very valid.

[00:43:40] If Heimerdinger has been around since the creation of Piltover and has been on the council for, I'm assuming, forever,

[00:43:47] it does kind of lend credence to the point that he is at fault for allowing such egregious things to happen to the people of the Undercity for so long.

[00:44:03] I kind of agree with that.

[00:44:05] I think that Heimerdinger definitely has some culpability.

[00:44:08] Especially as head of the council.

[00:44:10] Yeah.

[00:44:11] Like, he's kind of responsible for what's going on down there.

[00:44:16] Heimerdinger in maybe a less direct way than some other people, but he definitely is a part of the problem.

[00:44:25] And he doesn't at first really think of himself as responsible.

[00:44:31] But you do see him...

[00:44:32] You mentioned it earlier that he went down to Piltover because he genuinely thinks that it's his responsibility to do something about making the world a better place.

[00:44:40] And Heimerdinger is always in that position where he wants to do the right thing.

[00:44:46] Right.

[00:44:48] Yeah.

[00:44:49] Any final Heimerdinger thoughts before we move on to last but certainly not least, Mel?

[00:44:56] I think we're done with Hemroyd the little pain in the ass.

[00:44:59] Okay, well I was going to talk for a second.

[00:45:01] Fuck you.

[00:45:02] Literally two seconds.

[00:45:03] I just like his design.

[00:45:05] He's so silly and cutesy looking.

[00:45:07] I remember when he went to Zahn and he put the little cloak on.

[00:45:13] Aaron started laughing on the couch while we were watching it because it's so goofy.

[00:45:19] No, I love it.

[00:45:20] His design is very silly.

[00:45:22] I was also laughing at his ridiculous little dog creature.

[00:45:27] Oh, that's a Poro.

[00:45:29] Those are known as Poros.

[00:45:32] Oh, okay.

[00:45:32] His Poro.

[00:45:33] Because it looks just like a miniature dog version of him.

[00:45:37] Yeah.

[00:45:38] There's a game mode in League of Legends where it's like you're 5v5 fighting on a bridge

[00:45:45] but on the bridge are a bunch of Poros running around and you can feed them cookies till they

[00:45:49] explode.

[00:45:51] What the fuck?

[00:45:53] It's so ridiculous.

[00:45:54] It's like Pop the Pig.

[00:45:56] Oh my god, dude.

[00:45:59] Don't.

[00:46:02] Sorry.

[00:46:02] Let's get to Mel who I think is a very interesting character in this show.

[00:46:09] Yeah.

[00:46:10] Mel, do you want me to take it away?

[00:46:12] I can do it if you want.

[00:46:14] If you don't want to.

[00:46:15] Go for it.

[00:46:16] All right.

[00:46:17] Mel is a powerful and influential figure from Piltover.

[00:46:22] Mel is a member of the council with a keen political mind.

[00:46:26] She is both charming and calculating and often uses her position to manipulate events in

[00:46:31] her favor.

[00:46:32] Mel's background and motivations remain mysterious throughout the first season, but she is a

[00:46:38] formidable player in the political landscape of Piltover.

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[00:47:37] Mel is a Medarda, a very powerful-

[00:47:40] Like they rule a city, right?

[00:47:42] I don't want to spoil anything, but the Medardas are a fairly powerful house of Noxus, which is

[00:47:49] one of the most prominent countries or like civilizations, empires in Runeterra.

[00:47:57] So.

[00:47:58] And Runeterra is like the universe or the world of-

[00:48:02] Yeah, it's like the known world of League of Legends.

[00:48:05] Okay, cool.

[00:48:06] Mel is an interesting character.

[00:48:09] Um, I think that she genuinely does want what's best for Piltover.

[00:48:15] Um, and she uses some underhanded tactics to do so.

[00:48:21] And I think that her- at first her interactions with Jace are very manipulative and, uh, out

[00:48:28] of like, I don't know, selfishness to gain for herself and for Piltover.

[00:48:36] But I do think that she truly develops, like, a real, like, care, respect, and love for Jace.

[00:48:44] And I think by the end of the season that they have, like, a true and real loving relationship.

[00:48:51] But I do think it was born out of complete manipulation.

[00:48:54] And I do think she does manipulate him throughout the show in certain ways to get the weaponization

[00:49:02] of Hextech.

[00:49:05] Yeah, when I first watched it, I mean, we were watching together.

[00:49:09] So you heard kind of my thoughts where I thought Mel was going to be an evil character at the beginning.

[00:49:15] Just because of the way she was manipulating Jace, I thought that it was going to be to negative ends.

[00:49:21] But then as the story unfolds, it is very clear that she is a good person who is trying to do what she believes is best.

[00:49:30] Even though, like, I don't know, she grew up in that sort of political climate.

[00:49:36] And so manipulation and politics are the ways that she can find power in this world and exert influence.

[00:49:44] So I don't think that she's an evil character like I did at first, but she definitely is a master manipulator.

[00:49:51] Yeah, when I on my first watch of Arcane, I definitely thought she was going to be a villain when she's first introduced and the way that she was interacting with Jace.

[00:50:01] But yeah, as as the show went on, I was like, oh, this is very much more of a nuanced character.

[00:50:09] Yeah, and she's just the complete opposite of her mother to her mother is this like warmongering, like combat, a combative person.

[00:50:20] And Mel is so calm and collected.

[00:50:23] You can see where as Mel was growing up, maybe she had that thought in her mind of I don't want to be like that.

[00:50:29] I want to be different.

[00:50:31] Yeah.

[00:50:33] Richard, any thoughts on our good friend Mel?

[00:50:38] I really don't, honestly.

[00:50:40] I mean, I think she was a great character and I definitely liked her journey, you know, her arc throughout the season.

[00:50:48] And I'm excited.

[00:50:50] Well, I would be excited to see what would happen, what would happen with her character next season.

[00:50:54] But it appears that she takes the missile to the face at the very end.

[00:50:57] If all of those characters are dead, I don't I don't know if I can.

[00:51:01] I don't think that they're all dead.

[00:51:03] That's just me that I Jace can't be dead, I guess.

[00:51:07] Yeah.

[00:51:07] Chase, I know you can't comment on this, but yeah, I I don't think that most of them are dead.

[00:51:12] I think that maybe one or two of them died.

[00:51:14] I don't see Mel being dead.

[00:51:16] I don't see Jace being dead.

[00:51:19] I I see Mel being dead because she was standing at the window.

[00:51:23] I mean, so is Jace, though.

[00:51:26] Right.

[00:51:27] I don't think he was right there.

[00:51:29] He's a little distanced from her.

[00:51:32] But but either way, it's a big bomb in a tiny room.

[00:51:34] Very far.

[00:51:35] Yeah, exactly.

[00:51:37] True.

[00:51:38] So either most of them survived or like are in critical condition or something.

[00:51:44] But I just can't see them knocking that many characters out.

[00:51:47] Although I didn't see them knocking out all of those characters in episode three.

[00:51:51] And they did it.

[00:51:52] Yeah.

[00:51:53] Is that?

[00:51:53] Yes.

[00:51:54] OK, this this is something I wanted to talk about on the podcast, actually.

[00:52:00] Now that we're past all the extremely important characters, I did want to mention this is when

[00:52:05] we were watching that Aaron was like, holy shit, that's what hooked me is because he didn't

[00:52:10] expect the show to truly be that dark.

[00:52:13] Yeah.

[00:52:14] And I think that was like when Aaron said that, I was like, that took me back to when

[00:52:20] I first watched it.

[00:52:21] And I was like, holy fuck, that's so right.

[00:52:23] Because when I first watched it, I was like, wow, I did not expect those people to die because

[00:52:29] of that.

[00:52:30] I did not expect that at all.

[00:52:32] And you definitely don't expect that to have like.

[00:52:35] How do I put this?

[00:52:36] You don't expect powder's bomb to work, at least not not at that scale.

[00:52:43] And it really I shouldn't say work because it doesn't work the way she wants it to it.

[00:52:48] It kills all the wrong people.

[00:52:51] Yeah.

[00:52:52] And it's really such a great moment.

[00:52:55] I mean, we'll talk about this a little a little bit later, maybe, but because I have some notes

[00:53:00] about Silco in the later parts, which I think he has a lot of great parallels to Jinx.

[00:53:05] But you see that these mistakes and these events that Jinx just can't stop blaming herself

[00:53:14] for.

[00:53:16] It really transforms her into the sort of unstable person that she is and.

[00:53:24] Almost kind of a loose cannon and a monster for Silco to point at people.

[00:53:31] And I think that her transformation from innocent little girl who really just wants the best

[00:53:39] for everyone into this kind of cold.

[00:53:44] I don't I don't even know how else to describe her like as other than like cold and unfeeling

[00:53:51] in a very dissociative way, because she's a really emotional person, but not in a way

[00:53:58] that is.

[00:54:00] Impact.

[00:54:01] I don't know.

[00:54:01] I maybe I'm describing it wrong, but she's a very emotional person, but also very not in

[00:54:07] a healthy way.

[00:54:08] Yeah, exactly.

[00:54:08] Yeah.

[00:54:09] Yeah.

[00:54:09] Yeah.

[00:54:11] But yeah, I also wanted to talk about now that we brought that scene up, too, is that

[00:54:17] I've been seeing online like a lot of people being like, I can't believe why hit her and

[00:54:22] stuff like that.

[00:54:23] It's like why was like 12 or 13?

[00:54:28] Like, let's not pretend she was also a kid.

[00:54:32] Like, I think that people aren't understanding that like, if you like, okay, I'm not gonna

[00:54:38] say if you were a kid, you would have punched her, too.

[00:54:41] But like, you also would have had a really bad reaction to that.

[00:54:46] Yeah, you wouldn't have had the emotional maturity at that age.

[00:54:50] Exactly.

[00:54:50] Like, she just watched everyone she truly cared about besides Powder die.

[00:54:57] So, and it was Powder's fault, basically.

[00:55:00] I mean, okay.

[00:55:01] Not-

[00:55:02] Well, two of them were directly, not Powder's fault, but like, definitely killed, like, she

[00:55:07] did kill-

[00:55:08] She, I would say she is-

[00:55:09] The two characters?

[00:55:10] She is-

[00:55:12] I mean, obviously it's Soko's fault because of that.

[00:55:16] Well, yeah.

[00:55:17] Technically, the chain of events is Powder's fault because she's the one that made the building

[00:55:23] explode and caused all that.

[00:55:24] But you know what I mean.

[00:55:26] Yeah.

[00:55:27] I know what you mean.

[00:55:28] I don't think-

[00:55:28] Most direct-

[00:55:29] I don't think it's fair to-

[00:55:30] Yeah, exactly.

[00:55:33] But like, I just hate to see online people being like, so like, aggressive to blame children

[00:55:41] for things.

[00:55:42] I don't know.

[00:55:43] That bothers me.

[00:55:44] When you don't have that level of emotional intelligence and maturity in your life, I don't

[00:55:51] know that anyone would act differently like you said.

[00:55:53] It's just, she's just, Vi, has just watched her father, her brothers, like, all of these

[00:56:03] important people in her life die.

[00:56:05] And she's looking for someone to blame.

[00:56:07] And, you know, I think that pretty immediately after she sees Powder and Silco together, she

[00:56:14] does feel bad and she wants to go back.

[00:56:16] I think that she has that moment of realization.

[00:56:18] Okay.

[00:56:18] I think what people on the internet also aren't interpreting is like, they're like, people

[00:56:24] truly believe they're like, Vi abandoned her, Vi abandoned her.

[00:56:27] And it's like, are we being serious?

[00:56:29] Like, she just took a moment to like, get some like, peace.

[00:56:33] She just like, went around the corner to get like, a breath of air.

[00:56:36] She wasn't like, running away from Powder.

[00:56:39] She like, went around the corner because like, she was like, obviously so angry she couldn't

[00:56:44] look at her.

[00:56:45] So she was like, I just need like, some time alone.

[00:56:47] And was, and when she saw like, Soko standing over her with a knife, she was literally about

[00:56:55] to try and step in.

[00:56:56] But Marcus like, roofied her and took her to prison.

[00:57:02] Yeah.

[00:57:03] That's just insane.

[00:57:04] I feel so bad for her that she had to spend the remainder of her childhood and everything

[00:57:10] else in that prison.

[00:57:11] And she has that moment with Jace where she's like, do you just send people to prison?

[00:57:15] Have you ever even been there to see what the impacts are?

[00:57:18] Like, have you even looked and seen what putting someone in that maximum security place even

[00:57:26] looks like?

[00:57:27] It's, which is a really great point.

[00:57:29] I feel that in society, we're often very quick to condemn people to fates.

[00:57:36] And we see that this is a very central theme in a lot of media where it's like, you really

[00:57:44] need to have some more understanding of what you're putting people through.

[00:57:48] And if the crime really matches the punishment and everything like that.

[00:57:54] So.

[00:57:55] No.

[00:57:57] But yeah.

[00:57:58] Okay.

[00:57:58] I just searched it up and Jinx is like two years younger than Vi.

[00:58:04] Okay.

[00:58:04] So yeah, they're about the same age, like 12 and 14.

[00:58:09] And Vi is like 12 at the time.

[00:58:12] Oh.

[00:58:13] Like 12 to 15, I think.

[00:58:15] Yeah.

[00:58:16] So they're young.

[00:58:17] Yeah.

[00:58:18] Like peak adolescence.

[00:58:21] Yeah.

[00:58:22] Famously a time when your emotions rule you.

[00:58:25] Vi is 22 when she gets out of prison.

[00:58:29] Okay.

[00:58:30] That makes sense.

[00:58:32] So Jinx is 20.

[00:58:35] Yeah.

[00:58:36] 20 years old.

[00:58:38] I was wondering about that, how old they actually were after the time skip.

[00:58:42] Because they, I don't think that the show specifies how long it's been.

[00:58:46] No.

[00:58:48] No, I think it says at 1.7 years.

[00:58:52] Okay.

[00:58:53] Gotcha.

[00:58:54] I must have missed that.

[00:58:56] Do we want to...

[00:58:58] Go into some interesting moments and things that we thought were...

[00:59:03] Stood out in these episodes?

[00:59:07] Yeah.

[00:59:08] Yeah.

[00:59:08] Yeah.

[00:59:09] I've...

[00:59:09] You're up first, bud.

[00:59:11] All right.

[00:59:12] Awesome.

[00:59:12] So let's go over some standout moments then.

[00:59:15] The first thing that I took note of was Silco's fall into the river.

[00:59:19] And I think it's a great case study of how does betrayal and failure shape someone who might have at one point been this idealist into essentially a monster?

[00:59:31] You know?

[00:59:31] How does that type of trauma in your life shape someone who had this dream of a better world into someone who wants nothing but power and to see everything burn to get what they want?

[00:59:45] Yeah.

[00:59:46] This is actually one of my favorite tropes.

[00:59:47] I like it.

[00:59:49] I like when the idealist ends up having to become a realist.

[00:59:54] Yes.

[00:59:54] A fall from grace.

[00:59:56] And they have to be more realistic with their ideals and kind of get corrupted by, you know, actions taken against them.

[01:00:07] Yeah.

[01:00:08] I mean, you see Silco, he was a freedom fighter trying to gain independence for his people.

[01:00:14] And then by the time we find him, he's pushing drugs onto the streets and creating addicts out of the very people that he once wanted to help.

[01:00:26] And I think that that's just such a fall from grace for him.

[01:00:30] And I'm sure that he was already starting to develop some ends justify the means type of behavior because he got into those arguments with Vander.

[01:00:40] But I'm sure it got so much worse after that major event.

[01:00:46] Yeah.

[01:00:47] That was like the turning point in his character, I feel like.

[01:00:51] For sure.

[01:00:53] Yeah.

[01:00:53] But the other moment I found really interesting, also related to Silco and the Shimmer.

[01:00:59] I think that an interesting concept that they do is the Shimmer slums outside of Zon, like outside the main proper city, which it reminded me a lot of the real life sort of medieval leper colonies where people were forced to live outside of society with their disease.

[01:01:19] And in this case, there's obviously the added twist of having this addiction to a mutagenic agent that's changing your body into something else like it.

[01:01:32] And yeah, it's just it's a different twist on it.

[01:01:34] But I get a lot of those vibes from the Shimmer slums outside the city.

[01:01:40] Yeah.

[01:01:41] But yeah, Chase, did you have any interesting moments that you took note of in this season?

[01:01:47] Yeah, I have a few.

[01:01:48] Um, first of which we talked about, um, for a little bit just before is powder with a gemstone and the symbol banging monkey.

[01:01:58] Um, I just thought like her crash out beforehand where when Vi's like, you can't come with us.

[01:02:06] And then she like tweaks out alone and like destroys the symbol banging monkey and then has the brilliant idea to turn it into a explosive.

[01:02:16] Um, and basically ruin her own life.

[01:02:20] Um, I just thought that was a really interesting moment.

[01:02:25] Um, kind of gave us a look into Jinx.

[01:02:29] I feel like when we see her crash out and start tweaking.

[01:02:35] And, um, you could say she's hit a lick Bob crash out pants.

[01:02:41] Yeah.

[01:02:41] Fuck you.

[01:02:42] You brain run in me.

[01:02:43] I don't know.

[01:02:45] Yeah, what is that?

[01:02:46] Oh my God, I'm not being gaslit right now.

[01:02:48] Shut up.

[01:02:49] I've never heard of that phrase before.

[01:02:51] Hello?

[01:02:52] You have literally called me that.

[01:02:53] Wait, listeners.

[01:02:54] Several times.

[01:02:55] Listeners, contact us and tell us if you know what that means because I have no clue what we're talking about.

[01:03:00] Shut up.

[01:03:01] I am not being gaslit right now.

[01:03:04] I mean, going off of what you were saying, I think that a major thing I was wondering is when we see Powder listening in on Milo and Vi's conversation about Powder and Powder hears Vi basically.

[01:03:30] Oh yeah, and she like leaves before she hears Vi compliment her.

[01:03:34] Yeah.

[01:03:34] Exactly.

[01:03:35] I wonder if things would have turned out differently for her.

[01:03:39] Like, she carries a lot of hatred for Vi throughout her adult or throughout her transition into adulthood.

[01:03:47] And I just, I don't know if I see her having that same kind of resentment towards Vi if she knows that Vi had her back in that moment and had always had her back.

[01:03:58] Yeah.

[01:03:59] Yeah, I think that's definitely a huge part that gets overlooked a little bit.

[01:04:05] What are some of the other things you took note of?

[01:04:07] Yeah, I took note of, we talked about this a little bit too, but Heimerdinger's venture into the Undercity slash Zahn.

[01:04:15] I think that it was interesting to see that he really took it upon himself to go and try and do something on his own rather than trying to push it off onto someone else.

[01:04:27] He takes the responsibility of being that counselor and basically father of Piltover to try and do something about it.

[01:04:36] And also we see he's forming like a relationship with Echo.

[01:04:42] Is it shown in season one that he goes to the tree with Echo?

[01:04:50] Yes.

[01:04:51] Yeah, they show that in season one where he shows up to the tree and he's like, oh my God, how did you build this?

[01:04:56] And Echo's like, well, when you have people that needs, like when you have a population that is kind of close knit and wants a better life for themselves and is willing to put in the work for it, like you can accomplish anything.

[01:05:12] Yeah.

[01:05:14] So yeah, that's also another part of that interesting moment that I wanted to put up.

[01:05:20] It's just him and Echo's interaction.

[01:05:23] We love to see that Heimerdinger is like kind of becoming friends with Echo.

[01:05:29] Yeah.

[01:05:31] And then the last one I put was Victor begging Jace to destroy the Hexcore after it kills.

[01:05:41] I forget her name, but like his assistant that was crushing over him.

[01:05:49] Oh, yeah.

[01:05:50] I don't know her name, but I just someone it's it's someone.

[01:05:57] Yeah.

[01:05:58] But when she dies, that was I felt really bad for Victor.

[01:06:03] He I mean, he obviously didn't mean to do it.

[01:06:07] It wasn't something that he had control over or at least I wouldn't say it was his fault.

[01:06:13] But yeah, he feels at fault for it.

[01:06:16] And dude, when he's like going through her ashes and her like notes and reading them all and putting it together, dude, that was so sad.

[01:06:25] Yeah.

[01:06:25] And he finds I think it's her glasses to her in there.

[01:06:27] Mm hmm.

[01:06:28] And it also really broke my heart when he's he takes her ashes to his special place and is like, I I'm sorry, I don't know where you would have preferred to be spread.

[01:06:40] And like that's just really.

[01:06:42] But then he's about to kill himself.

[01:06:44] And then it's like the mirroring of Jace being like, am I interrupting something when Victor was stopping Jace from killing himself?

[01:06:51] Yeah, exactly.

[01:06:53] So it's there's a lot of really emotional scenes with between Victor and Jace.

[01:06:59] And I think that there's some of the best written characters in this show, which says a lot because every one of these characters.

[01:07:07] I really love their dynamic.

[01:07:09] Yeah.

[01:07:10] And I do think it's funny that they get shipped together all the time.

[01:07:13] Do they actually?

[01:07:16] Yes.

[01:07:17] Dude.

[01:07:17] Dude.

[01:07:19] It.

[01:07:20] Oh, never mind.

[01:07:22] But it's.

[01:07:24] It's it's very funny.

[01:07:26] I can see that greatly.

[01:07:29] I kind of thought that they might have.

[01:07:31] They have some chemistry.

[01:07:33] They have some chemistry.

[01:07:35] I'm not going to pretend like at some points.

[01:07:37] I'm like, damn, maybe they should just kiss or something.

[01:07:41] No.

[01:07:41] Yeah.

[01:07:41] When I first saw them get together in like and they were researching things and they were doing their secret experiments behind Heimerdinger's back.

[01:07:50] I was like, damn, they have chemistry.

[01:07:51] I wonder what's going to happen with them.

[01:07:53] And then they both get their separate love interests.

[01:07:55] And I was like, oh, I guess I was wrong here.

[01:07:57] But I really did think for a hot minute that they were going to end up together.

[01:08:01] Yeah.

[01:08:01] And then Victor vaporizes his love interest.

[01:08:05] Yeah.

[01:08:06] I mean, barely a love interest, but still vaporizes her.

[01:08:09] I know.

[01:08:10] Still very sad.

[01:08:12] It would have been great if he didn't cremate her on the spot.

[01:08:16] Yeah.

[01:08:17] I mean, not a great way to.

[01:08:18] Not him, but you know.

[01:08:20] Not a great way to start off a relationship.

[01:08:22] All right.

[01:08:23] I'd love to get my points, actually.

[01:08:25] Yeah.

[01:08:25] I get to.

[01:08:25] Yeah.

[01:08:26] Yeah.

[01:08:26] Obviously, we've talked a lot about drinks kind of crashing out.

[01:08:28] And I think my favorite, not favorite, I guess, but the most interesting moment of that for me was at the very end, which was her setting up the dining table.

[01:08:39] And she really kind of started tweaking before she killed Silco and before blowing up the Council of Piltover.

[01:08:48] Well, seemingly blowing up the Council of Piltover.

[01:08:50] And also, just a thing that I'd like to add is that that fucking gun firing was beautiful.

[01:09:00] It really was.

[01:09:01] Oh, I also want to bring up this one point that I actually just thought of that might have saved the Council of Piltover.

[01:09:11] We did see that the Hextech stuff was capable of producing some kind of shield.

[01:09:18] We see Vi do that with her gauntlets.

[01:09:21] Oh, yeah.

[01:09:21] So, I'm wondering if maybe, maybe that could be like an out for the Council.

[01:09:29] But I don't know.

[01:09:30] That's an interesting theory.

[01:09:30] A theory that came out when Season 1 finished, like fucking four years ago or whatever it was now, that I thought was pretty interesting at the time as a League of Legends degenerate player.

[01:09:45] There was that there's kind of like an Easter egg in that scene on Mel to an item in League of Legends called the Locket of Iron Solari.

[01:09:59] Do you want me to say this or no?

[01:10:01] Yeah.

[01:10:02] No, yeah.

[01:10:02] Tell us the theory.

[01:10:04] Okay.

[01:10:05] And it's an item that in the game has an active ability that when you press it, it creates a shield around you and nearby allies.

[01:10:15] Oh, okay.

[01:10:17] So, maybe I could be on to something here.

[01:10:19] The reason it was an Easter egg or like, not an Easter egg, but I would say more of like a theorized Easter egg is because she has like the golden like back plate like part of her dress that starts like, it's not starts, but is depicted as glowing in that like last scene where the rocket hits the glass.

[01:10:49] Hmm.

[01:10:50] But yeah.

[01:10:51] Yeah.

[01:10:52] That's cool.

[01:10:53] I'm, I really can't wait.

[01:10:55] It's been, I've said this a few times, but I really have been struggling not to start season two and get answers.

[01:11:02] I'm actually shaking.

[01:11:04] So excited that I'm shaking for it.

[01:11:06] I believe you.

[01:11:08] Richard, did you have any more points before we move to the art?

[01:11:12] Richard, I did.

[01:11:13] Um, I just thought it was really interesting, like seeing Echo's Haven from really kind of like Haven from Zahn and Piltover.

[01:11:22] Not like it's its own nation or anything.

[01:11:25] Obviously, it's not big enough.

[01:11:26] No, I agree with you.

[01:11:28] It is like a safe Haven from both societies.

[01:11:32] Yeah.

[01:11:32] Kind of like a little hole in the wall.

[01:11:35] Yeah.

[01:11:35] And the way that they use the fire lights as their symbol of freedom almost.

[01:11:41] I really love that.

[01:11:42] I think that it's so cool.

[01:11:45] And seeing Jinx in the series use the fire lights, which are this symbol of sort of freedom and unity in Zahn, using them as a weapon when she makes the mechanical ones that blow up on the bridge.

[01:12:01] Um, I think that that's a really good visualization and metaphor for how Jinx and Silco's faction treats Zahn versus how the others treats Zahn in like Echo's group.

[01:12:20] So, yeah.

[01:12:21] Do we want to get into some of the art for this season?

[01:12:25] Oh, of course.

[01:12:27] Richard.

[01:12:28] Oh, I got you.

[01:12:29] I got you.

[01:12:30] Take us away, buddy.

[01:12:31] Okay.

[01:12:31] My favorite things.

[01:12:32] Uh, my first thing is from the first episode, actually.

[01:12:36] Uh, it's, it's the explosion in the Piltover Tower.

[01:12:39] It's just.

[01:12:40] Oh, like Jace's laboratory?

[01:12:42] Yeah.

[01:12:43] It was just really, really pretty.

[01:12:45] Um, I liked the smoke, like, coming out of the building as the explosion hit too.

[01:12:49] And I think that the way that the cracks ran down the buildings and, like, ran through them is just a really cool visualization.

[01:12:57] Um, but yeah, that was, it was cool.

[01:13:01] One thing I was actually thinking about putting on here that kind of connects to that is with the gemstones.

[01:13:06] I feel like they do a really cool, like, and interesting way of, like, illustrating the, like, magical electricity and energy that arcs off of it.

[01:13:18] Yeah.

[01:13:18] Yeah.

[01:13:19] Yeah.

[01:13:20] And then the other thing I had was just, like, the intro for each episode is really well animated.

[01:13:26] Sorry.

[01:13:29] Give me, give me, give me some time to think.

[01:13:31] Yeah, I know.

[01:13:31] I know.

[01:13:32] I know.

[01:13:32] I'm aware.

[01:13:33] I wake up to the sound.

[01:13:34] Yeah.

[01:13:35] I was talking about, I was talking about the actual animation.

[01:13:38] Watch out for yourself.

[01:13:40] Look out for yourself.

[01:13:43] I'm talking about the actual animation itself.

[01:13:46] Shut up.

[01:13:48] The animation during the intro is great.

[01:13:51] And just, in general, one of the, one of the things that hooked me onto this show.

[01:13:56] Shut up.

[01:13:57] Stop laughing at me, you bastard.

[01:13:58] Dude.

[01:13:59] Anyways, the, my, like, just the art style in general was a huge selling point of the show for me.

[01:14:05] Because, like, I'm not too interested in League of Legends lore.

[01:14:08] But, but goddamn.

[01:14:10] What a show.

[01:14:12] Me and Chase have been doing the, like, poses from the, from the intro in our kitchen.

[01:14:17] Oh my god.

[01:14:19] No, I just, me and Aaron have talked about this a lot.

[01:14:23] Is, the thing is, I don't think Imagine Dragons is bad.

[01:14:27] I just think they're very mediocre.

[01:14:31] And, obviously, people are gonna be like, well, they're so popular.

[01:14:37] How are they mediocre?

[01:14:38] But, I don't know.

[01:14:40] I just don't enjoy their music that much.

[01:14:42] I don't think they have any, like, real banger bangers.

[01:14:46] Like, I guess when I was in middle school, I really liked Radioactive.

[01:14:49] But, um, ever since then, I haven't really been listening to their music.

[01:14:55] You're not waking up to Ash and Dust anymore.

[01:14:58] Like, I don't think, like, the intro song is egregious.

[01:15:02] I just think that with their sound, like, not sound design, sorry.

[01:15:07] Their soundtrack that they have for the show, it is really a step down compared to all the other music that they feature in the show.

[01:15:15] So, yeah, speaking...

[01:15:17] Sorry.

[01:15:18] Sorry.

[01:15:18] Um, I was just gonna say, speaking of the music, um, I wanted to, like, give a quick shout out to the people who did the music because it's really fantastic.

[01:15:30] Alexander Seaver, who is, like, an EDM DJ known as Mako, uh, did, like, all of the EDM style stuff.

[01:15:37] And then Alexander Temple, uh, did, like, the more orchestral stuff.

[01:15:42] And they worked closely to create this really beautiful score where the...

[01:15:48] It just is a great blend of that sort of EDM cyberpunk-y style of music and that really dramatic orchestral music.

[01:15:57] So, just kudos to the... that team.

[01:16:00] Oh!

[01:16:00] Oh, the misery!

[01:16:02] Shut up.

[01:16:03] I'm really excited to see, um...

[01:16:06] Because I know...

[01:16:06] I think you sent it to me the other day, Chase, is that Heavy is the Crown.

[01:16:10] And, like, I know I'm talking about Linkin Park again.

[01:16:12] No, it's a good song.

[01:16:14] But I think...

[01:16:14] I enjoyed it in the show.

[01:16:15] It should have been the intro for season two, though.

[01:16:18] I would have greatly enjoyed that much more than continuing to use the same Imagine Dragons song every episode in season two with the intro music.

[01:16:28] I know.

[01:16:28] I know.

[01:16:29] And, like, I'm just...

[01:16:30] I gotta talk about this for, like, two seconds and then I'm done.

[01:16:33] Can we just admit that it's fucking crazy that Linkin Park is back in 2024?

[01:16:38] Like, what the fuck?

[01:16:40] That is kind of crazy.

[01:16:41] But you know what's even crazier?

[01:16:43] What?

[01:16:44] What is even crazier?

[01:16:45] How amazing the scene where Imagine Dragons were animated into Arcane.

[01:16:49] Oh my god.

[01:16:49] That was just fantastic.

[01:16:51] What?

[01:16:51] I remember telling Aaron that, like, what did I say to you or something?

[01:16:56] Like, we were watching the episode and I was like, just wait, you're gonna witness the best part of, like, the whole series or something.

[01:17:02] I think I just didn't notice this.

[01:17:04] And we were dying.

[01:17:05] It's when Vi, like, after she, like, leaves Caitlyn in the brothel.

[01:17:10] Um, or whatever that place was.

[01:17:15] Um, and she's, like, walking with, like, her hood on throughout the lanes.

[01:17:19] She walks past the entire Imagine Dragons band created as Arcane characters.

[01:17:29] And they're playing their instruments!

[01:17:34] It's playing!

[01:17:36] Dude, it was so funny!

[01:17:38] Dude, I thought that was so good.

[01:17:42] Oh my god.

[01:17:43] I don't think I've ever laughed so hard while watching a show.

[01:17:46] That was, that took me out so bad.

[01:17:48] Like, if there's one stain on season one of this show, that scene was it.

[01:17:54] It took me out.

[01:17:55] But it was so ridiculous that it was kind of entertaining.

[01:17:58] Yeah, it was like, when a bad joke is so bad it's funny, but not so bad it's not funny.

[01:18:05] Yeah.

[01:18:05] Yeah.

[01:18:06] So, Aaron, real quick, about season two.

[01:18:10] You'll be here before we actually have to record it, correct?

[01:18:14] Um, I'll be in Buffalo.

[01:18:16] Yeah.

[01:18:17] You should pull up and we'll just binge the three episodes that we gotta watch.

[01:18:21] I'm down for that.

[01:18:22] It depends.

[01:18:23] We'll see.

[01:18:23] I might even have to keep watching on my own.

[01:18:26] We'll see.

[01:18:27] But yeah, I wanna, I think what I'm gonna do is.

[01:18:30] You guys should watch act two, because me and Aaron are gonna watch act one together.

[01:18:35] Okay, fair enough.

[01:18:36] Yeah, we'll do that.

[01:18:38] We'll do that.

[01:18:38] If we even get a chance to watch the three episodes together, just because, um, it might

[01:18:44] be hard to get away from my family for long enough to watch a show during the week that

[01:18:48] I'm home.

[01:18:49] Wow, get away is crazy.

[01:18:51] You know what I mean.

[01:18:52] Not get away.

[01:18:53] I love my family.

[01:18:54] I think they'd make an exception for Richard the goat.

[01:18:57] They would.

[01:18:58] They would make an exception for Richard.

[01:18:59] Uh, but yeah.

[01:19:00] The, do you have any other, like, thoughts on the art before I get into my yapping?

[01:19:07] That's it.

[01:19:08] For the artwork.

[01:19:09] One of the things that really stuck out to me was the runes are visualized so beautifully.

[01:19:14] I'm sure that that's kind of pulled straight from the games, the way that they look.

[01:19:18] But I thought they did a fantastic, fantastic job at making the magic in this world look and

[01:19:24] feel unique.

[01:19:25] And it had almost this kind of, uh, I want to say manual aspect to it where it felt very

[01:19:32] raw and powerful.

[01:19:33] And the runes make the magic feel much more scientific or kind of artistic.

[01:19:39] Yeah, I, I genuinely think the League of Legends lore, like the magic is so fucking cool and

[01:19:47] interesting.

[01:19:47] I think the lore and a lot of behind a lot of the League of Legends characters is very thought

[01:19:53] out and interesting.

[01:19:54] Um, there are a lot of characters that have plot holes in their lore, but, um, as anyone

[01:20:02] who knows about League of Legends lore and also has watched Arcane, there is like a lot

[01:20:08] of things that have changed because of Arcane.

[01:20:11] And I think Arcane actually is taking precedent as the canon of, um, these characters lore now,

[01:20:20] which is really cool.

[01:20:21] I think they're also introducing Mel, um, into League of Legends as a player.

[01:20:28] Oh, as another champion or whatever they're called, right?

[01:20:31] Yeah.

[01:20:31] Interesting.

[01:20:32] Interesting.

[01:20:33] Listeners, write in and tell us if you're a League player, write in and tell us who your

[01:20:38] favorite character to play as is because I'm, I'm genuinely curious.

[01:20:42] Um, yeah, maybe we can get Aaron to play.

[01:20:45] I remember I played like two games of League of Legends when I was in middle school and I played

[01:20:50] Aurelion Sol.

[01:20:52] Oh, that's all I know.

[01:20:54] That's back when Aesol was the worst character in the game.

[01:20:58] Wow.

[01:20:59] Okay.

[01:21:00] You know what's really funny, actually?

[01:21:02] Um, Aurelion Sol is basically the god of League of Legends.

[01:21:07] Oh.

[01:21:07] And up until very recently, he was by far objectively the worst character in the game for a really

[01:21:15] long time.

[01:21:16] You know what's even crazier is that I picked him because cool dragon.

[01:21:21] I mean, yeah, he's like a cosmic cool dragon that throws galaxies at people.

[01:21:25] It was that simple.

[01:21:27] I was looking through the characters and I was like, yeah, cool dragon's the move.

[01:21:31] He's actually really good now in the game, but let's, let's get on with what Aaron was

[01:21:37] talking about.

[01:21:37] So yeah, uh, if you have a favorite League character and you want to let us know, radioactive

[01:21:42] at the lorehounds.com, let us know.

[01:21:45] Anyways, uh, the second point that I sort of made note of, oh my God.

[01:21:50] The second point I made note of here for the artwork was, uh, the grungy cyberpunk-y

[01:21:56] style of Zahn.

[01:21:57] I think it's a really great contrast to the shining, gilded, upper-class city of Piltover.

[01:22:02] Using art to show just how bad things are for Zahn because of the actions of Piltover is

[01:22:08] incredible and they do a great job in general in this show of showing us and not just telling

[01:22:14] us.

[01:22:15] Yeah.

[01:22:15] What a juxtaposition, am I right?

[01:22:18] Yup.

[01:22:19] Exactly.

[01:22:20] Some of the interesting art moments I took note of was obviously the fight between Echo

[01:22:25] and Jinx on the bridge between Zahn and Piltover.

[01:22:29] I thought that whole, that whole scene they depicted was magnificent.

[01:22:35] I thought that when they showed like Echo and Jinx as like little man and powder, dude,

[01:22:42] that was so awesome.

[01:22:44] I thought that was so beautifully done and just great to see on screen.

[01:22:50] It was really captivating.

[01:22:51] That was my favorite sequence in the entire show so far, I have to say.

[01:22:56] It was just, it was so creative the way they used all those still shots and like really

[01:23:02] artistic back and forth, like you said, between their adult characters and their child characters.

[01:23:08] It was, I was blown away by that.

[01:23:12] Yeah.

[01:23:12] Every time Echo's on screen is just a treat, I fear.

[01:23:17] He is a great character.

[01:23:18] And the other art moment that I thought was awesome was when, um, Jason Victor break into

[01:23:27] Heimerdinger's laboratory to try and basically master or not master, but make a breakthrough

[01:23:35] in Jace's, uh, research together.

[01:23:39] And they get caught by Heimerdinger, but only after they've made the breakthrough and they're

[01:23:45] just like floating around in the laboratory.

[01:23:48] Um, I thought that was like a really like beautiful scene.

[01:23:51] Cause it's, it's like the, the, the gemstone between the two in like the little contraption

[01:23:58] they've made covered in runes.

[01:24:00] And then like, I think if you look closely, all like the little, like small light blue particles

[01:24:06] floating around are all runes.

[01:24:09] Oh yeah.

[01:24:10] Yeah.

[01:24:10] So it's like really, really cool.

[01:24:13] I thought that was like a really interesting, uh, design choice.

[01:24:18] Yeah.

[01:24:19] Man, the attention to detail in this show is just so extraordinary.

[01:24:23] It's, it's really impressive actually.

[01:24:26] Also another thing that I think goes unnoticed a lot is when they like throw the gear, um,

[01:24:36] through like the center of like the little energy ball between them.

[01:24:39] It like gets like turned magic.

[01:24:43] Yeah.

[01:24:44] It gets like fucked up magically when it comes out the other side, which is really cool.

[01:24:48] But that's kind of cool.

[01:24:49] Yeah.

[01:24:49] I like that they actually just use that to show the effects of the, the goofy little

[01:24:56] thing they made.

[01:24:57] Yeah.

[01:24:58] It's awesome.

[01:25:00] Um, any final thoughts on the artwork?

[01:25:05] I think that's all that shit was fucking fire.

[01:25:09] Oh, of course.

[01:25:09] I'm assuming it's even better in season two.

[01:25:14] Um, I mean, I would say it's the same level.

[01:25:17] I mean, it's hard to get better, but true.

[01:25:20] Um, yeah.

[01:25:20] I'm sure there's areas they've improved, but it, I mean, as someone who's not super like

[01:25:28] understanding of all those ways to do art, I'm there things that I would never be able

[01:25:34] to pick up on as improvements.

[01:25:37] Right.

[01:25:38] Same here.

[01:25:39] I'm, I don't know too much about animation.

[01:25:41] All I know is that in season two though, there are a lot of like random single frame shots

[01:25:46] that if you pause at the exact right time, you'll catch something that you've never, that

[01:25:50] you were never expecting to see or that you, that would change your perspective of the

[01:25:56] story.

[01:25:57] That's really interesting.

[01:26:00] Yeah.

[01:26:00] Uh, Chase, do you want to take us away with your final thoughts on season one?

[01:26:04] Yes.

[01:26:06] Um, so what I wrote is I really do love this series.

[01:26:10] I think that this season does such a great job of just pulling the viewer into the world

[01:26:16] of Ruben Terra, specifically Piltover, um, and Zahn.

[01:26:21] And I think the characters are so compelling and the art style is so fun.

[01:26:25] And aside from Imagine Dragons, the soundtrack is awesome.

[01:26:30] I really cannot recommend this show enough and it's hard to turn it off once it's on.

[01:26:34] Um, I'm sure Aaron can tell you, I was practically fucking begging this guy to watch this show

[01:26:40] for like a whole week before he, maybe two weeks before he finally got on that grind.

[01:26:47] And you know what he was telling me, you know what he's telling me?

[01:26:50] I have to watch every episode of the news first.

[01:26:54] Oh my God.

[01:26:56] What a fucking asshole.

[01:26:58] See, I, I have my other reasons for not watching this show yet.

[01:27:03] Yeah.

[01:27:04] Like Chase said, I was really reluctant to watch this series.

[01:27:07] I know nothing about the league of legends lore.

[01:27:10] I haven't played the games.

[01:27:11] I, I don't know anything about it.

[01:27:13] But after Chase recommended it to me, I did take a while to actually start it.

[01:27:17] Can't lie.

[01:27:18] A little bit of a cynical asshole about it when he was asking me to watch.

[01:27:22] But now I genuinely can't believe I've gone this long without watching this banger of a show.

[01:27:28] The art style is fun and inventive.

[01:27:30] The music is beautifully composed.

[01:27:32] And there's just this great mix of beautiful orchestral music and punchy VM type music.

[01:27:38] And I've said it a few times, but it has been a genuine struggle for me to not start season two before we recorded this podcast.

[01:27:46] That's real.

[01:27:47] Real as fuck.

[01:27:48] One quick thing before we get into Richard's thing, just because you mentioned the music again.

[01:27:52] I, in my opinion, I think the music gets even better in season two.

[01:27:58] Ooh, I'm looking forward to that.

[01:28:00] I think it's great.

[01:28:02] Yeah, that's awesome.

[01:28:02] In season two, there's a song made by David, the guy who made, I think his name is David, the guy who made the introduction song to Invincible season two.

[01:28:13] Oh.

[01:28:14] So it's kind of a little tie-in for us.

[01:28:17] That's awesome.

[01:28:18] It is.

[01:28:19] Which we'll be covering Invincible when it comes out in February.

[01:28:22] Yeah, February 3rd, I think, is the first episode.

[01:28:25] Yep, and we'll have full episode-by-episode coverage of that.

[01:28:29] Yes, we will.

[01:28:30] Oh, I am so hyped for season three.

[01:28:32] Yes, but shifting gears back to Arcane, I'm pretty much the same as Aaron on this one.

[01:28:38] I was very reluctant to watch it.

[01:28:41] Not just Chase.

[01:28:42] Well, Chase didn't really like bag me as much, but my roommate who recommends like every piece of media that I'm interested in currently has been begging me for like the last couple weeks.

[01:28:54] I mean, he's the one who recommended Red Rising and Cosmere stuff, all that.

[01:28:59] And I love that stuff, obviously.

[01:29:01] So I really need to just listen to him.

[01:29:05] But yeah, I watched it and I'm really happy I took the time to binge it.

[01:29:09] I watched it in like the last two days, maybe three days.

[01:29:13] And I'm so hyped for season two.

[01:29:17] I know it'll be featuring the reformed Linkin Park, which I can't stop talking about the new album.

[01:29:23] So the soundtrack obviously is going to be great, especially given what Chase and Aaron just said.

[01:29:30] And I'm sure that the animation will somehow be even better, even if it's just in small ways, like we said earlier.

[01:29:38] But even if it's not, I don't think I'm complaining.

[01:29:41] The art style is beautiful.

[01:29:43] The animation is wonderful.

[01:29:46] They really do create just some amazing moments with that.

[01:29:52] Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

[01:29:54] It was awesome.

[01:29:56] I just want to say, not as a spoiler or anything, this is spoiler for season two, but just I think they did a really good job with it.

[01:30:06] I think that if you enjoyed season one, you're going to greatly enjoy season two also.

[01:30:11] I don't think it's a letdown in any way.

[01:30:15] And I'm really excited to see what other stuff they're going to do with the League of Legends lore media wise, like with shows and stuff.

[01:30:25] I really hope they give us something to do with the area of Sharima, because that's like a really cool area of League of Legends, in my opinion.

[01:30:36] So, yeah.

[01:30:38] I'm also really excited to see the other spinoff shows, because now that Arcane has ended, I'm glad that they decided to end it on a high note and not drag it out for a super long time and explore those other stories instead.

[01:30:52] Yeah.

[01:30:54] Yeah.

[01:30:55] That's pretty much it for me.

[01:30:57] How about you guys?

[01:30:59] Yeah, I think that's it.

[01:31:00] I'm all set.

[01:31:01] I'm ready to get out of here and go start season two.

[01:31:04] Me too.

[01:31:05] Ready for the outro?

[01:31:06] Yeah.

[01:31:06] Let's do it.

[01:31:08] All right, everybody.

[01:31:09] I think that's all we have for today.

[01:31:11] So thanks for joining us, and we hope you tune in again.

[01:31:14] And now it's time for Richard to share with you guys some ways you can all contact us.

[01:31:21] Yes, it is.

[01:31:21] This is my time to shine.

[01:31:23] Yeah, I knew what you were going to say before you even said it.

[01:31:25] I'm going to spread my wings, idiot.

[01:31:27] Yeah, shut up.

[01:31:29] Anyways, we have our email, of course, which is radioactive at thelorehounds.com.

[01:31:34] We have a channel set up for radioactive ramblings within the Lorehounds Discord server where you can send us a message, chat about the show.

[01:31:41] We also have a contact form that you could leave, or you could leave us a voicemail at thelorehounds.com.

[01:31:47] And consider following us on Blue Sky at Radioactive 141.

[01:31:52] We'd also appreciate a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever else you listen.

[01:31:57] And it helps other listeners like you find us.

[01:32:00] Yeah, and before we let you go, I wanted to give a quick shout out to all of the other podcasts in the network.

[01:32:06] First, to the ones who make all of this possible, our parent podcast, The Lorehounds.

[01:32:10] Also in the network are amazing podcasts like Wool Shift Dust, the Star Wars Canon Timeline Podcast, Rings and Rituals, Properly Howard Movie Review, The Severance Podcast, and the newest affiliate, Nevermind the Music.

[01:32:24] Links to all of these and info on how to get a hold of us will be in the show notes.

[01:32:28] Thank you guys so much for listening, and we will see you all on the other side of the hex gate.

[01:33:01] Holy shit.

[01:33:02] Are you fucking stupid?

[01:33:05] Oh my god.

[01:33:08] I'm sitting here, I'm like, it does say chase first, right?

[01:33:11] What the fuck?

[01:33:13] I forgot to unmute and I was just talking.

[01:33:16] Oh my god.

[01:33:18] You're such a goofy little guy.

[01:33:20] Shut up!

[01:33:22] Fuck you.