Some of these League of Legends easter eggs have a much deeper meaning than you think.
Act II of Season 2 of Arcane, the League of Legends animated Netflix series, has stirred the emotions of many viewers. However, it's also full of clever foreshadowing and League of Legends references. While these little tidbits are always exciting to spot in the moment, many of Act II's more easily-missed details provide significant payoffs and deeper explanations when tied to classic League of Legends lore.
To help you better appreciate Arcane Season 2 and the League of Legends story, we'll explore ten easter eggs and references you may have missed in Act II.
Runes: Domination and Resolve
At the beginning of Episode 4, Ambessa was trying to get her hands on the Hexgates, and commissioned a Piltovan Vastayan Goat to try and make it work. As the device started to spin, we saw a glimpse of the Domination and Resolve runes, which players use in-game.
Jungle Monsters: Scuttle Crab and Vilemaw
One of the more light-hearted moments of Act 2 was in Episode 4, when Jinx role-played as an announcer for a bug fight that she and Isha had set up in Jinx's hideout.
She introduced the defending champion and the contender: a bug named "Stink Maw." Although Stink Maw isn't an existing jungle monster in the game, the bug looked like Vile Maw, a Jungle Monster in one of LoL's decommissioned game modes, Twisted Treeline.
The contender bug, on the other hand, was named Scuttle Butt. Although its colourful appearance almost made me believe that it was a hilarious reference to Skarner's new VGU, stripping the bug of its colours and observing its appearance made it clear that it was a reference to the Scuttle Crab, a jungle monster on the Summoner's Rift that provides vision in the river when cleared.
Isha's Bunny ears: Cottontail Teemo or Powder's bunny
In the same bug fight, Isha was wearing a white bunny ears headband, with the ears bent a lot like the bunny ears of Teemo's Cottontail skin. This could be the case since Isha was sporting Teemo's hat in Act I.
However, others may argue that Isha's hat was just a regular miner's hat and that the bunny ears are too generic. With both of these present in Act I and Act II, I'm leaning toward the probability that this is a subtle Teemo reference.
This can also be linked to Powder's bunny, which Vi threw to a rooftop that Powder couldn't reach when she was younger. Although those bunny ears were floppier, this reference still checks out because Isha became Jinx's friend and replaced Vander, Vi, and Silco in her life as a new family member.
Isha's fate foreshadowed
Throughout Act II, Isha's seeming fate is foreshadowed. In the intro of Episode 4, "Paint the Town Blue," there was a scene where Isha's face was painted over with Jinx's monkey's face and a blue explosion.
Also, as Jinx showed off Isha's newly coloured hair, there was a shot where Jinx and Isha's reflection is in the mirror, but the crack in the mirror spreads from Jinx's heart, foreshadowing an incoming heartbreak. When Vander, Vi, and Powder were reunited and shared a hug, Isha joined them at the very last minute—but a pink X mark on her helmet seemed to suggest that she would not survive.
For now, though, we don't know what happened to Isha. It's hinted at with these scenes, and the memories that played before she took the shot at Warwick, that the child is dead.
LeBlanc's Ethereal Chains
Some viewers still doubted LeBlanc's presence in Arcane, despite heavy references to the champion in Act I—but in Act II, Mel (and her loyal friend Alora) was subjected to insidious, blood-coloured chains.
This references LeBlanc's E, where the champion launches a chain that shackles the first enemy hit and then roots them for 1.5 seconds.
Caitlyn's 90 caliber net
Another champion skill reference was Caitlyn's E, the 90-caliber net. In Arcane, Cait gives Vi a device to trap Ambessa. The device throws a white net with golden hooks, similar to Cait's 90-caliber net in-game.
Warwicks' Blood Hunt and Infinite Duress
Except for Warwick's face (which I believe could be a deliberate choice since Vander still had some humanity left in Act 2), the showrunners and animators accurately captured Warwick's essence as a champion.
There were plenty of references to how Warwick's combat kit would work in the real world, but the one that stood out the most was how his W ability, Blood Hunt, was portrayed. In LoL, Blood Hunt or Warwick's E allows him to sense enemies below 50% health, which gives him movement speed and attack speed toward that enemy. This skill is portrayed in-game with a blood trail and the player's screen pulsing with shades of dark red over the summoner's rift. In Arcane, Blood Hunt is shown from Warwick's perspective.
Of course, the epic introduction of Warwick is only complete with the viewers seeing his Ultimate skill (R), Infinite Duress. In-game, Warwick suppresses the target he collides with and claws at them for 1.5 seconds while pinned. Unfortunately, Rictus was at the receiving end of this and perished. It's also a fantastic reference to how the Kaenic Rookern of Rictus (for Magic Resistance) does nothing against Warwick's Attack Damage (AD).
Orange Juice
When Jinx and Vi's mother shares the news of her pregnancy with Silco and Vander, Vander takes away her cup of alcohol and replaces it with a cup of orange juice with a metal straw. This is actually a direct callback to Season 1, where in the earlier episodes, Vander served Powder orange juice using an identical cup and straw, with his movements similar to how he served Powder's mom orange juice.
Singed, Dr. Reveck, and Orianna
Much of what happened in the series goes against the old lore of Singed, Orianna, and Warwick. However, the Arcane writers did a great job of integrating these in ways that reference old lore and connect these champions in new ways, and setting everything up from Season 1.
In Singed's old lore, he was a brilliant Piltovan scientist who moved to Zaun after being ridiculed for criticising Hextech. He then worked on inventions that made him money in Zaun, including creating Warwick. He experimented on chemically augmenting himself (similar to what we see with Singed and his daughter in the series) until he eventually attracted the attention of Noxus.
Since Season 1 of Arcane, Singed has been constantly checking on a locket that contains a photo of a girl whose profile and hair look a lot like Orianna. He also mentioned to Silco while working on Jinx that he "once had a daughter."
The payoff to this setup was in Episode 5, where Caitlyn called Singed Dr. Reveck. In the old LoL lore, Dr Reveck was Orianna's father, a talented Artificer in Piltover who augmented Orianna part by part to save her. Except for these other known details of Orianna and Singed, which are now retconned, this makes sense and provides a clear explanation for why Singed was experimenting on living, dying and dead beings.
Singed's locket was a key to a secret door in his lab, which led to a pod where he kept his daughter alive through chemicals. A golden ballerina is by her presumed nightstand. This is another nod to old lore, where Orianna left her father with a golden ballerina after being completely transformed.
Warwick's and Vander's memories
Another well-written payoff was the setup for Warwick. Warwick's lore was retconned more than once in League of Legends history, but this could be the one that ties up all his interactions with Zaunite champions nicely.
In his most recent League lore, he was a man who used to be involved with the gangs of Zaun but eventually set it aside to become a "good" and well-respected man. However, after Singed's experiments, he can barely remember anything from his past—and is prevented from remembering his past life, except for a few flashbacks, like an explosion and a crying child.
This all lines up with his interactions with Jinx and Vi and the events in Arcane. When he first encounters Jinx on the Summoner's Rift, he says, "You were there; let me forget," while Jinx, who usually has something snarky to say in-game, remains quiet.
There are two occasions where Warwick clearly remembers an explosion and crying child: one at the Bridge of Progress, where Powder and Vi's mother died and he picked up both crying children, and the other when Powder caused an explosion and a fire nearly killed him. As he was dying, Vi and Powder cry and a fight between them breaks out. Seeing a distressed Jinx in Episodes 4 and 5 made Warwick remember a crying Powder.
The second noteworthy in-game interaction he has is with Vi, where he asks her "Who taught you how to punch?" Although in Season 1, Vi had makeshift gauntlets while living with Vander, one of the memories shown in Season 2 was Vander teaching Vi how to punch. Keeping all of this in mind, Warwick's loss of humanity and the sisters seeing their father's transformation become even more heartbreaking.
Also, as a quick bonus, did you know that the intro sequence of each episode of Act II showed quick flashes of what's to come?
There still are plenty of other easter eggs in Act II. If you're a keen-eyed viewer, tell us: which ones have we missed?
