Prepare to be amazed, but don't forget the tissues.
Sorry, you've caught me at a bad time. I’m still in a corner, depressed after watching the sixth episode of Arcane Season 2. Netflix's League of Legends series is already well known for gripping its viewers with raw emotion, but Act II in particular focuses on characters fans have already become deeply invested in only to start tearing them down. And yet, every big reveal and fight sequence has somehow left us thinking, “That’s just f****** cool.”
Prepare the tissues if you’re about to dive into Act II—it’s going to be quite the ride.
SPOILER ALERT: This review contains minor spoilers for Act II of Arcane Season 2. If you haven’t watched it yet, proceed with caution or return later!
Two sides to a coin
In Act I, we watched our favourites go through stages of grief, woven into conflicts that might have even made you question your own moral compass. Some questions from last season were answered, and with that chapter closed, new journeys have opened up for every major character.
Act II dives deeper into Arcane's colourful cast, showing us new and unexpected sides of these characters. One example is Jinx, whom by the end of Season 1, might have been thought of as crazy, deranged and delusional - the villain of the story. We don’t see that here. Instead, we see a softer side of the blue-haired tinkerer who doesn't care much about explosions or making a scene, but for what she deems close to her heart. It's enough to make me think that Silco alone was influencing her actions in Season 1—or is it that she’s finally healing, in her own way?
Thanks to the brilliant voice acting of Jinx's voice actor, Ella Purnell, we see this new side of Jinx without it feeling forced or unfaithful to the character. This feels like a natural evolution. Caitlyn’s transformation has two sides, too. We’ve seen her become hardened in Act I, especially after everything she’s been through, but this is a lot more complex than her just “breaking bad.” While her face is colder and almost unreadable, her time with Ambessa and exposure to Noxian ruthlessness has made her question her own choices and convictions. There’s an underlying tension within her, like she’s fighting to hold on to who she was.
Meanwhile, Ambessa remains the same—power-hungry, calculating, and ruthless. I thought we'd see more development for her too in Act II, especially after that incident in Episode 3, but she's manipulative as ever. Everyone and everything serve as mere tools to her end goal. If anything, her brutal pragmatism seems to have only intensified since Act I.
However, some aspects of Act II's character development efforts feel a tad rushed. Caitlyn’s hasty decisions, Jayce’s simmering anger, and Vi’s sudden change of heart all stand out as examples. This might be due to the time skip between Act I and Act II, which was teased in the lead-up to the new episodes, though the exact duration of this time skip remains unclear.
Mel’s arc also feels underwhelming. Transitioning from a respected Piltover councillor to a captive, her struggles in this act lack depth, especially considering the explosive storylines set up in Season 1. Her scenes feel hurried, overshadowed by unfolding drama elsewhere. That said, with Act III still to come, there’s still hope that these threads will be explored more fully in the season's closing episodes.
Fight, fight, fight!
No one wants a war in real life, but let’s be honest, the fight scenes in Act II are phenomenal. When Arcane Showrunner Christian Linke shared in an interview with GosuGamers last week that they made deliberate choices to capture each champion’s unique moves, he meant it.
As a LoL player, it felt like being back on the Rift—laning, getting ganked by the enemy jungler, and those moments when “your AD Carry isn’t fed enough,” except this is happening either in Piltover or Zaun, and not the Summoner's Rift. One of my favourite moments, however, was the reveal of one of my favourite LoL champions this season. Many League and Arcane fans have been waiting for this moment since even before Season 1, and Act II found a way to pull it off satisfyingly.
The climactic events that see this champion being introduced provided a heavy dose of nostalgia for League of Legends and its lore. Again, the animators and writers perfectly captured everything about their instincts and combat style. Even the musical score and cinematography was perfect: each scene was framed deliberately to switch the viewer's perspective from seeing through the eyes of apex predators to those of helpless prey.
But then we finally get a close-up of the champion's face, and all I could think of was… “Who the hell is that?” Don’t get me wrong, the animation is beautiful, and the animators served up all the necessary visual bells and whistles besides the most important bit: this champion's face, which did not meet expectations, to say the least. I can only hope that this is just a temporary version of the character and that there will be more changes and developments to come in Act III.
Tears, lots of tears
I’ll just say this: grab the tissues. We’re two seasons in, and if you’ve been on this ride since Act I of Season 1, some long-awaited moments surrounding the rift between the sisters are finally unfolding. The payoff to this plotline is as heartfelt as it is heartbreaking. Act II masterfully bridges the past and present, exploring “what could have been” and weaving those threads into the current narrative. It places you firmly in these characters' shoes, immersing you in relatable struggles—especially the agony of working so hard toward something only to have it all snatched away in an instant.
By the end of Episode 6, we’re left on yet another cliffhanger, grappling with more questions than answers. If you’re deeply invested in these characters and their journeys, prepare to shed some tears. It’s a jarring wake-up call: just as hope begins to glimmer, it's shattered by the power-hungry, the opportunistic, and the cruel. It’s a stark reminder of life’s unfairness—a theme that hits painfully close to home.
