Summary
Throughout its two-season run,Arcane: League of Legendsexplored many common themes in complex ways, such as sacrifice, class disparity, trauma, and love. One aspect ofArcane’sstory bears similarities to another complex video game story,The Last of Us Part 2.
On the surface,ArcaneandThe Last of Us Part 2couldn’t be more different. One is an animated series adapting Riot’s fantastical world of Runeterra, bringing its beloved champions to life in a stunning animated format. The other is a dark and violent story set in a grim post-apocalypse that has been overrun by fungal zombies. However, looking closer at the stories and characters ofThe Last of Us Part 2andArcane, there are actually quite a few themes that both titles explore.
Caitlyn and Ellie Seek Vengeance
Spoilers forThe Last of Us Part 2andArcaneSeason 2 are ahead.
The most obvious theme thatThe Last of Us Part 2andArcaneshare is the quest for vengeance. InArcaneSeason 2,Caitlyn vows to get revenge against Jinxfor the death of her mother, which occurred as a result of Jinx firing a missile at the Piltover council champers. In the opening three episodes ofArcaneSeason 2, Caitlyn’s vengeance is remorseless and overrules everything in her life, including her relationship with Vi. It also leads her to step up and become Piltover’s Commander, a title she uses to endorse martial law and oppress the people of Zaun for Jinx to be found.
InThe Last of Us Part 2, Ellie goes on a very similar journey. In the opening of the game, Ellie witnesses the death of her father figure, Joel, at the hands of Abby.Ellie makes a vow of revenge and follows Abbyto her home in Seattle, where she begins to kill everyone in her quest to track her nemesis down and make her pay. The loss of a parental figure is a motivator that Caitlyn and Ellie share as characters. Both characters also share other similar traits as they are both optimists when their respective stories begin, believing in the hope for a better future. But personal trauma drives them down a dark path.
The Cycle of Violence in Arcane and The Last of Us
The exploration of the cycle of violence is at the core ofThe Last of Us Part 2. Ellie’s mission of revenge begins with Abby killing Joel, but for Abby, the cycle started with Joel, who killed her father. While the cycle of violence is not the only theme thatArcaneexplores, it does operate similarly toThe Last of Us Part 2. Caitlyn’s cycle of violence began with Jinx killing her mother, and for Jinx it started with Silco’s death (an act she committed but as a result of the actions of those in Piltover), and before Jinx,Silco’s cycle began with Vanderattempting to kill him. All the characters are connected in an endless cycle of killing and grief that threatens to have no end.
How Arcane and The Last of Us Resolve the Need for Revenge
ArcaneandThe Last of Us Part 2ultimately find their resolution to the cycle of violence in a similar place.The Last of Us Part 2sees Ellie go to extreme lengths toget retribution for Joel’s death. She kills countless people, including those closest to Abby, but in the end, Abby spares Ellie’s life, choosing to break the cycle of killing in her life. Ellie doesn’t come to the same resolution until later after she’s tracked Abby to the ends of the Earth and forced her to fight to the death in hand-to-hand combat. But in the final moment whenEllie has the chance to kill Abby, she chooses not to, realizing that this act will not bring Joel back and that she will only be contributing to a cycle that she is a victim of. She spares Abby and, at that moment, also breaks the cycle.
Arcanecomes to a similar resolution with Caitlyn and Jinx’s arcs. InAct 3 ofArcaneSeason 2, Caitlyn finally has the chance to enact revenge on Jinx, despite Vi’s pleas that her sister has changed. Upon visiting Jinx in jail, Caitlyn offers Jinx a chance to account for her actions, desperately wanting Jinx to justify her own mission for vengeance. When Jinx submits, allowing Caitlyn to enact her revenge, Caitlyn finds she no longer has the energy for it. Her desire for vengeance has consumed her for too long and led to her hating herself. Caitlyn walks away, coming to a similar conclusion to Ellie that enacting vengeance won’t bring her mother back.
Jinx Also Breaks the Cycle of Killing
Jinx has a much more overt conversation about the cycle of killing with an apparition of Silco in the same episode.“Killing is a cycle. One that started long before Vander and me, and it will continue long after the two of you,”Silco tells her. Silco reveals he thought he could break free by killing those who held him captive, but then he admits the cycle only ends“when you find the will to walk away.”Jinx enacts this in the very next scene. When Vi arrives to break her sister out Jinx avoids committing herself to Piltover’s war and instead locks Vi in the cell, keeping her from coming after her. She walks away from her sister because she believes herself to be the cause of the cycle and thus by removing herself, she can keep those closest to her safe. This alsoties into Jinx’s final momentswhere she sacrifices herself to save Vi and then walks away from Piltover and Zaun altogether.
The cycle only ends once you find the will to walk away.
ArcaneandThe Last of Us Part 2both present effective explorations of the idea that violence and vengeance are a neverending cycle and that the resolution is to walk away from it. Each story’s characters learn this at great personal cost, but in the end, they each find the strength to break the cycle.
Arcane
Arcane is an animated series developed by Alex Yee and Christian Linke that follows a the story of Piltover and Zaun, two pivotal locations in the League of Legends universe. The first season follows the stories of Jynx and Vi, as well as Jayce and Viktor.
