Arcane: the end of season 1 explained – what does that mean for season 2?
The end of season 1 of the LoL series Arcane was awesome – but there’s a lot to talk about. What exactly was there to see?
The ending of the first season of Arcane is nothing less than a masterpiece in the eyes of most viewers. The last episode got a fantastic rating from 9.8 / 10 points on IMDb not only enthusiastic fans of League of Legends, but also most of the people who might not know what to do with the game universe.
And yet the end of Arcane is controversial. For some, it’s a gigantic cliffhanger that leaves way too many questions unanswered. For the others it is a brilliant finale that provides enough answers and is the perfect preliminary conclusion.
Spoiler warning: The article covers the history of Arcane up to and including the 9th episode. If you haven’t seen the consequences yet, you should do so now. It is a duty.
In the last episode of Arcane for the time being, the creators of the series had quite a party. Almost all the storylines were brought together in order to experience their climax with an explosive finale – in the truest sense of the word.
Jinx “collects” the protagonists and antagonists and leads them to a common table. Both Silco, Vi and Caitlyn can be seen in this long, final sequence that revolves around the minds and identities of Jinx and Powder.
The fact that in the end, with her gun, Jinx is directly responsible for Silco being shot and dying of the wounds is a tragic repetition of the tragedy from episode 3. Jinx wanted to find a solution, a way of helping the people she loves – both as Jinx and as Powder – to be brought together and saved.
Ultimately, however, it is only this merging of the characters that contributes to the escalation and leads to Jinx shooting Silco. Even if Silco lovingly describes her as “perfect” at the end, Powder has killed her father figure one more time through his own actions. Once again it has been confirmed that she is a “Jinx” and only brings misfortune and destruction to all people around her.
“Jinx” is an English term and stands for “bad luck charm”, “unlucky fellow” or “cursed”. So when characters in Arcane say that Powder is a “Jinx” or that she has “ver-jinx-t” again, they are alluding to the fact that it always brings bad luck for everyone involved.
Something that Jinx recognizes and accepts after a brief grief. She is a Jinx, always will be – and there is no point trying to prevent that from happening. So she fulfills her father’s supposedly long-cherished wish, completes the Hex-Tech weapon and fires it on Piltover’s advice.
What is particularly tragic is that Jinx is also destroying the legacy of Silco with it – because he was on the verge of achieving peace and significantly improving the situation of the residents of Zaun. The Hex Tech weapon should exist as a threat, not an actual option to attack.
The firing of the rocket is also a worthy end to the series, even if the effects are not shown directly and will only be answered in the coming years.
Because the decision to fire the missile alone has serious consequences, both for the individual fate of the protagonists and for Piltover and Zaun. The war, which should be avoided by both sides, is now inevitably started. The shot marks the first, real attack on the leadership of Piltover and is at the same time an incomprehensible show of force of what Hex-Tech can do in the wrong hands.
Finally, firing the missile marks the guaranteed death of a character – namely powder. In deciding to fire the Hex-Tech weapon, Jinx not only wiped out the lives of numerous residents of Piltover, but also murdered the remains of Powder that may have been in it.
Das fantasische Lied „What Could Have Been“
Also of particular importance is the song that is playing in the last few minutes, “What Could Have Been”. The lyrics of this song summarize the finale again and perfectly reflect the whole tragedy that stands in these moments.
„I am the monster you created“ (“I am the monster you created”) is directly related to Jinx. It is not only the result of their own actions, but was created primarily by external influences. The “Monster Jinx” came about because Vi had rejected Powder – Jinx had already said this a few minutes earlier when she explained that it was not Silco who created Jinx, but Vi was responsible for it.
„You ripped out all my parts“ (“You tore all parts out of me”) is again addressed equally to Vi and Silco. The events since episode 3 have ruined more and more of Powder’s personality, gradually destroying the lovable girl.
„And worst of all, for me to live, I gotta kill the part of me that saw – That I needed you more“ (“And worst of all, in order for me to live, I have to kill the part of me that saw – that I needed you more”). That, too, describes the inner conflict that Powder and Jinx had with themselves. She needed both Vi and Silco to survive, clinging to these two characters in turn. The line “That I needed you more” can easily be continued in your mind with “than you me”.
Powder needed Vi when she was left behind at the end of Episode 3. It looked to Powder as if her love for Vi was greater than the other way around – a disappointment that she carried with her from now on. The same is repeated years later with Silco. When Silco thinks at Vander’s statue about handing Jinx over to get Zaun in return. Here Jinx once again feels the impending “betrayal” and realizes the approaching pain that results from the fact that she needs Silco more than he does Jinx – even if that was a fallacy.
„I hope you know we had everything“ (“I hope you know we had it all”) is sung at the moment the series shows Piltover’s advice on voting for peace. For a brief moment, the protagonists really had everything. There was a prospect of peace, there was a way to save Powder in Jinx, and even contain the conflicts between Vi, Silco, Caitlyn, and Jinx. This condition prevailed for a tiny moment – before the song started „when you broke me and left these pieces“ (“When you broke me and these pieces were left”) continues.
Jinx wants to express the pain she feels about the loss of Silco, her own being as powder and thus also her sister Vi. The song continues with “I want you to hurt like you hurt me today” and makes it quite clear that Jinx sees no other choice.
„I want you to lose like I lose, when I play ‘What Could have been’“ (“I want you to lose, like the way I lose when I play ‘what could have been'” “). This also expresses once again the pain that Jinx feels and has built up over the years. By launching the rocket, she ensures that others who have caused her this suffering will also have to contend with similar remorse.
The explosion will claim many lives – and at least Vi would have to blame herself for the rest of her own life that she could not save Powder and keep thinking about “what could have been” – if only she had never left Powder behind.
What happens to the characters?
Even without knowing who the explosion will damage, it is more or less obvious which setting season 2 will begin with and what development some characters will go through. It seems particularly obvious here:
- Caitlyn’s hatred of Jinx will increase as she will inevitably lose her mother in the explosion. A chance for forgiveness seems to be ruled out.
- Vi will despair that she failed to save Powder in Jinx. This also puts a strain on her relationship with Caitlyn.
- Ekko is drawn into the war between Zaun and Piltover and has to defend his little highligtship.
- Sevika should take control of the chembarons and thus the Piltover underground.
- The explosion will reveal Victor, whose body has already been altered by the Hex Tech core. That will lead to further division between him and Jayce.
- Jayce’s peace plans will end. He will survive the explosion and advance research into Hex-Tech weapons to put Zaun in his place.
- Singed will advance his experiments in the beginning war between Zaun and Piltover, thus completing the creation of Warwick from Vander’s remains.
- The remaining councilors, aside from Victor, Jayce, and Mel, will pretty much sure die. If that weren’t the case, the explosion would have too little effect and the consequences of the finale would be too small.
The fate of Mel Medarda is still a little in the balance. Its golden decorations glow shortly before the rocket hits. It is uncertain whether this was a magical protection or just the reflection of the rocket’s light. It is very possible that she too dies in the explosion, which would radicalize Jayce further and at the same time move Mel’s mother to join in the conflict. Alternatively, Mel could survive the attack and instead her mother could be badly injured or even killed, which in turn could possibly provide Mel with war resources from Noxus.
Of course, all of these character developments at this point are only guesswork, but they seem to be the most obvious consequences of the ending.
Ultimately, of course, we have no choice but to wait for the release of Season 2 or at least the first trailer with moving images. But nobody should expect it too soon, because it has already been announced that the release should no longer be expected in 2022. Accordingly, new information will not be available until 2023 at the earliest.
Reference-mein-mmo.de