Arcane

So this was surprisingly good, looking forward to more episodes this weekend.

It's surreal to see a multimedia powerhouse grow from a custom WC3 map that my friends and I played in college. I'm not a "fan" of all of it, but I respect the maximum effort approach. They could've half-assed a series and gotten by on existing popularity but are instead spending the money and time to do it right.

Man do I fucking hate Imagine Dragons though. I don't think I've ever skipped an intro sequence faster.

I figure even if this is a self-contained story they will do another season with a different storyline from LoL. This has to be very lucrative for them.

Watched episode 4 and I'm trying to ration the rest... we will see if my willpower is up to snuff.

Qhue said:

I figure even if this is a self-contained story they will do another season with a different storyline from LoL. This has to be very lucrative for them.

Watched episode 4 and I'm trying to ration the rest... we will see if my willpower is up to snuff.

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Actually kindof doubt it is profitable. This is a super high budget animation. Look at all the cartoon network, etc animated shows that all get cancelled due to lack of toy sales.
so ok the toy here is the LoL brand. runeterra, lol, etc.. but, who isn't already playing? its not like normal toy sales selling toys to established fans. this is just selling what, more skins?

second set slows the story WAY down. funny for how breakneck first set was.

going in, I was wondering if they were going to push the story past where it is in the game. give some jinx/vi conclusion. going into ep 6. at this point, I'm not sure how they can.

they could easily do another full season of zaun/piltover. alot of the corruption in the aristocracy things I mentioned. A few of those side characters I mentioned. Noxis interference, assassins, mercs. Janna the wind spirit, is part of Zaun/piltover lore as well. Jhin is a Piltover serial killer. hextech and Runes. Rhyze's whole deal is protecting runes. he probably would have issues with hextech mimicing runic magic. Runic magic capable of destroying the world. so hextech versus magic is certainly a way it could go.

Caliane said:

Actually kindof doubt it is profitable. This is a super high budget animation. Look at all the cartoon network, etc animated shows that all get cancelled due to lack of toy sales.
so ok the toy here is the LoL brand. runeterra, lol, etc.. but, who isn't already playing? its not like normal toy sales selling toys to established fans. this is just selling what, more skins?

second set slows the story WAY down. funny for how breakneck first set was.

going in, I was wondering if they were going to push the story past where it is in the game. give some jinx/vi conclusion. going into ep 6. at this point, I'm not sure how they can.

they could easily do another full season of zaun/piltover. alot of the corruption in the aristocracy things I mentioned. A few of those side characters I mentioned. Noxis interference, assassins, mercs. Janna the wind spirit, is part of Zaun/piltover lore as well. Jhin is a Piltover serial killer. hextech and Runes. Rhyze's whole deal is protecting runes. he probably would have issues with hextech mimicing runic magic. Runic magic capable of destroying the world. so hextech versus magic is certainly a way it could go.

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They've been making cinematics and films using this "painterly" shader look to maintain a consistent design language across the whole LoL brand. The thing is, the shaders used in the Arcane series isn't even the most impressive. In the show each frame looks like a hand-painted piece of concept art, but their most impressive use of it produces individual frames that look like oil paintings:


And all those cinematics were produced as branding support material with no expectation of immediate profit or media partners who have their own expectations (like Netflix). Riot has been producing these assets, TFT, Runeterra and even their upcoming fighting game called project L:


They all use the same consistent character designs and the same design language as Arcane to lay the groundwork for Riot's upcoming MMO.

Didn't link it originally, cause I didn't think it was directly related previously. I don't think the ep2 rune mage was Ryze. but, this tells of Hiemerdingers vision, and why he noped out.
The rune wars destroyed civilizations. and its why Demacia outlaws magic.

Yeah I'm thinking if they do another season it would see delegations from Demacia show up in Piltover to demand restrictions on Hextech while Noxus sends a rival delegation demanding Piltover share it with the poors of the world.

By the "present time" in LoL/Runeterra Hextech is everywhere and even Noxus street urchins are using it.

yeah, there were a number of Noxian hints throughout. The Ravens might even be Swain spies..

Also, Mel Jayce's councilwomen is an OC. pretty sure Jayce/Caitlyn are a thing previously. Mel is awfully young for how Machiavellian as she acts. theres some theory's on her being Leblanc.

Dandai said:

This may not be a timeless story of the human condition like Deadwood or The Wire, but it's gotta be among the best animated shows ever made. I'm way too hyped for the final 3 episodes.

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Yeah easily one of the best animated anythings I've ever seen. Best thing on Netflix now for sure.

Only bad thing is that they didn't manage to release their MMO or even their ARPG in time for the show.... I really want to play in the show's world somehow and LoL ain't cutting it.

They need to stick the landing before we can really talk best, or whatever.

theres some weaknesses in the storytelling here and there. this set had those psuedo-music video segments, which ate into time that could have been better spent.

Castlevania nailed its finales. Both s1, and even the later one were solid. like s1. Bloodytears and "I'm killing my boy".

I wasn't that impressed with the animation on Castlevania enough to stick with it for more than a season. But even without Arcane's final act I'm ok with talking about it as the best animated anything I've ever seen on Netflix.

The script is spare and disciplined enough to sneak in that one music-video montage as an establishing shot for the gambling den scene. But what's remarkable isn't that the show barely overstays its tropes and archtypes, it's how well cramming these decade-old DOTA cartoon champions into those narrative tropes worked and it somehow manages to flesh out compelling and relatable characters out of them.

Animated Jinx is leagues better than live action Harley. I will agree that the finish needs to be solid and avoid a dip in quality, then it will deserve all the awards it will get.

Malakriss said:

Animated Jinx is leagues better than live action Harley. I will agree that the finish needs to be solid and avoid a dip in quality, then it will deserve all the awards it will get.

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Prolly aging myself but I'm pretty sure Jinx was more supposed to be LoL's copy of Tank Girl than Harley Quinn. Jinx's been around for about 8-10 years now but I doubt anyone who plays LoL would remember the Tank Girl comics or even the movie. Least of all the vast majority of the Chinese and Brazilian players who made tencent a 500-billion-dollar company.

BoozeCube said:

So again coming from someone who hasn't done the game how many characters from this series are playable ones in the game?

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All the main focus characters are playable champions plus a few side characters like Ekko, the kid from Benzo's. The teleportation mage is assumed to be Ryze, credits list the researcher as Singed, and even the gerbil is a champion.