A brainchild of Christian Linke and Alex Yee, members of Riot’s player support team, Arcane is one of the biggest and most critically acclaimed animated series of all time. The first season blew away fans and critics alike, taking home four Emmy Awards in 2022, including Outstanding Animated Program. Needless to say, fans had major expectations from Arcane season 2. One can argue that season 2 progressed at a much faster rate. Due to the interesting plot lines and enough screen time for every character, it was entertaining to watch everyone unfold so rapidly. In this article, we have explored the poignant ending of Arcane Season 2 and explained what it means for the future of the series.
Season 2 may not be able to surpass Arcane season 1. Many of the subplots were not fleshed out and developed to the fullest. The narration was quite rushed. The incredibly beautiful animation and skilled dialogue writing remain consistent throughout the second season. The ending was epic but quite open-ended. Before the curtain falls, we hear Caitlyn say, “Our story isn’t over”. So what’s in store for the League of Legends fans and the future of the Netflix series Arcane?
Let’s explore the open-ended finale of Arcane season 2, Act III — from Jinx meeting her traumatic fate to Victor being consumed by the Hextech he once wanted to destroy.
Arcane season 2 ending explained: What happens in Act III?
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Act III in Arcane season 2 consists of three episodes — Pretend Like It’s The First Time, Killing Is A Cycle and The First Under Your Nails. Heimerdinger and Ekko end up in a different timeline where Hextech was never invented, Zaun is a Utopia, Jinx is Powder (Now all grown up) and Vi is dead. While Heimerdinger seems perfectly content, Ekko realises the need to return to his original timeline. Together, they build a time machine which later plays a huge part in stringing the end of Arcane Season 2. The machine goes back in time by four seconds, emulating his ultimate ability fromLeague of Legends.
Meanwhile, Jayce lands in a dystopian timeline where Piltover has turned into dust. He sees the grim future of his city caused by the Hextech should he fail to stop Victor in time. He traverses the Hextech-Vault-like world with great difficulty to meet the man who once presented the Hextech to him. This mysteriously cloaked man turns out to be Victor.
Vander returns!
When all hope seemed lost for the sisters, their only mentor and the man they cared the most about, returns alive albeit in an inhuman form. Jinx is the first one to encounter Vander in a beastly form. She reaches out to Vi to join forces with her to track down Vander. The sisters along with Isha take him to Herald The Healer aka Victor. After examining him, Victor decides to take the risk to bring Vander’s psyche back from the beast on one condition — he must be retrained at night for he poses a great threat to the people of Zaun as a beast. The sisters agree. Thus begins Victor and Sky’s journey to heal Vander. They dive deep into his memories with Vi and her parents, his vision of a utopia in Zaun and more.
Meanwhile, Ambessa and Dr. Reveck team up to capture Vandar’s Warwick to their advantage. Their plans are cut short after Caitlyn and Vi reunite and join forces to save Vander. With a clever and quiet tactic, Vi manages to dismantle Ambessa while Caitlyn captures Dr. Reveck. However, in a series of unfortunate events, Jayce strikes Victor, destroying his peaceful commune and ending all possibility of curing Vander. It ensues a war as Warwick gets out of control. While Jinx tries to save Vander, Ambessa’s army tries to capture him to use him as a weapon in the war. Jinx watches in horror as Isha sacrifices herself. Additionally, she witnesses Vander being pulled away from her. This seems to be the final straw in her traumatic journey.
Mel discovers her true legacy
After being attacked by the “Black Rose”, Mel goes MIA into oblivion for a long time where she confronts her true heritage. She is revealed to be the sister of Arcane‘s Black Rose and a powerful wage. She discovers her true powers that have been running through her veins and finally embraces them to go against her mother and her dangerous ideology. Along with Caitlyn, she takes on Ambessa in close combat. Their battle ends with Mel being declared as “The Wolf”. This could be a powerful set-up for an Arcane spin-off on Mel and her legacy.
Victor vs Jayce
ACT III starts centring around Victor. He seems to be the thread pulling everyone together. He forms a cult-like community of the people he healed, including Vander as Warwick. He becomes an omnipresent entity that just doesn’t seem to ever die and keeps popping up now and then. His priorities shift from destroying the Hextech to being consumed by it. He wants everyone to be of one mind and rid them of their choices that lead to corruption, greed and death. He emerged as a biblical figure who wanted to attain the ultimate evolution for humans. He joins forces with Ambessa who has her own motives — one that would destroy Piltover — and her Noxian army.
Ironically, his plan to unite everyone’s subconscious mind into one became the very reason behind the warring nations, Piltover and Zaun, to reunite and fight against a common foe. With the help of Ekko, Jayce manages to stop Victor, helping everyone to get out of his trance. Even towards the end, Jayce never leaves Victor and helps him escape the trance of Hextech. Jayce finally embraces his League of Legends subtitle: The Defender of Tomorrow.
Is Jinx dead?
In a showdown, Jinx, Vi and Vander get into a scuffle. After Victor’s trance wears off, The trio fall onto the ledges. Jinx tries to convince Vi to leave Vander before the ledge falls off, killing them both. As Vi gets emotional, Warwick awakens and tries to kill Vi. Jinx meddles, pushing Warwick along with her to death. She detonates the bomb and embraces Vander one last time before falling to her death. While we can see Vi mourn her, we don’t see Jinx’s body. Therefore, it is not far-fetched to assume that Jinx may have somehow survived her own bomb. Meanwhile, Vi and Caitlyn reconcile and find comfort in each other’s grief.
Will there be Arcane Season 3?
Though it was initially budgeted for a five-season arc, a report from Variety suggests that season 2 is all the fans are going to get from Riot Games’s League of Legends series. The reasoning seems to be budgeting as it cost USD 250 million for the company to produce 18 episodes, making it the most expensive animated series ever on streaming or linear TV.
(Hero Image and feature image: Courtesy Arcane 2/Netflix)
The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.
