On Nov. 6, Netflix released the new animated series “Arcane: League of Legends.”
The show introduces Vi (Hailee Steinfeld, “The Edge of Seventeen”) and Powder/Jinx (Ella Purnell, “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children”), sisters scaling the walls of Zuan and its twin successor Piltover city as treasure hunters. Through their adventures, the duo encounter scientific experimentations that compromise the city’s health and its citizens, creating a diverse population of collisions amongst the engineers. The power duo must gear up and train with other alliances to halt the unknown alchemist Jacyce’s (Kevin Alejandro, “Lucifer”) experiments that are binding evil powers into the daily city’s inventions.
The binding magic results as a type of void magic with damaging results that can slurp the life out of other magics and forms, while corroding the life around itself. This can be combated with healing ironclad weaponry and competitors with trained artillery skills, which is totally what Jinx and her team are about. Ironically, the void magics are represented as wind-up gadget toys, a symbol for the beloved mechanics of the cities of Zuan and Piltover hold dear, especially the items similar to the restoring inventions on display on Progress Day.
The most attractive part of the show is vibrational camera angles that help the characters and the user glide along in battle even though there is no direct heal percentage against the voltage thrown by the celestial blasts and void magics as they collide in mid-air. As a storyteller, there needs to be an understanding that magic is seen as a personal representation in “Arcane.” Every spell cast comes from an eternal evocation unique to the characters such as Jayce, Vinx or Powder. Just as there are unique fingerprints, the elemental magic along with the spiritual, and celestial are altered from an evocation of the individual. Due to this origin rule, the battle’s circumstances in the later episodes are all the more surreal with each character becoming a more compelling competitor within the conflict itself.
Any viewer of “Arcane” will interpret magic divided into cultural, region, and the magical forces already at work therein. There can be an offset when mages manifest magic, culturally drawing from local spirits, others will attempt neo-scientific explanations and even then the possibility of what is expected of it can alter the outward results if something doesn’t go the way it was prophesied.
In the show, there are instances where the aforementioned rule divides guildes into cooperative, if not opposing forces. This effects the iron adorned Vinx, as her guild is in conflicting danger. Her mentor Vander (JB Blanc, “Barry”) falls into different councils of Plitover guards. Vander knows one of the trades between the coalition is monetary gain and that is what keeps the team safe as they tarde deals and avoid pitfalls. The Plitover city deems the hyper-scientific magicians more worthy than those who oppose violence and void magics. In the episodes you can expect the void magics to infect others like a virus, manifesting an even more stronger and vengeful character.
Another aspect of the visual art is seeing floating blood in the graphics, therefore if you are squeamish about blood, an overall violence “Arcane: League of Legends” may not be for that certain viewer.
After watching the show, other fandom activities may be enjoyed, as fans can play the PC game based on the Netflix show, and check out the main “League of Legends” website.
Image from League of Legends via YouTube
