Arcane: League of Legends is an animated series available to stream on Netflix. The portrayal of how the characters deal with pain in their way has definitely made the series feel a lot more alive with the help of its fantastic animation and world-building.
1. Vander's parenting to Vi
The series starts off with the war between Piltover and Zaun coming to an end.
We follow the two sisters, Vi and Powder, scared and alone with no one to guide them as they are left to fend for themselves on what seems to be a bridge covered with dead bodies.
As Vi attempts to guide her younger sister out of this nightmarish bridge, she sees Vander for the first time as he ruthlessly beats another person to the ground.
The moment he sees the sisters, he instantly stops fighting and takes them away from the battle alongside him.
This left a big impression in Vi's mind as she sees Vander as the person she wants to become when she grows up.
A person ready to fight for their loved ones. A person who would selflessly protect the ones they care about.
However, as time progresses, Vander attempts to teach Vi that it is protecting the ones we love which is more important than fighting.
The lesson was put into practice when Vi tried a rescue mission for Vander while Powder set up toy explosives which ended up killing everyone in their adopted family except for herself and Vi.
2. Silco's parenting to Jinx
Silco is just the opposite of Vander in regard to his style of parenting.
Where Vander would try his best to keep Vi and the rest of the team away from danger as much as possible, Silco embraces Powder's curiosity and lets her explore it as much as she wants, even if it harms others in the process.
The reason Silco embraced Powder and adopted her as Jinx instead of killing her was that he saw a mirrored version of himself in her.
A person who feels completely betrayed by their closest one and is in pain from the abandonment.
His decision of adopting Powder and turning her into Jinx was so that she would never have to go through what he had to when Vander abandoned him once he changed his view on the battle between Piltover and Zaun.
Silco's parenting allowed Jinx to have all the freedom she wanted without any consequence or restriction which allowed her to create her gadgets and become the tech genius she is within the show.
3. Caitlin and Vi's relationship
A criminal from Zaun and an Enforcer from Piltover. That's what Vi and Caitlin are when they first meet.
However, as the series progresses, their relationship grows from strangers to friends to lovers.
Caitlin's pain originates from the fact that she wants to be free from her parents' influence and make a life of her own.
Whereas Vi's pain originates from feeling that she became a monster to her sister and that she feels that she hurts whoever gets close to her.
Both of them almost have nothing similar in regard to their pain, yet their bond only grows stronger when they share their worries in Caitlin's bedroom.
Their bond grows a lot stronger when Vi seemingly pushes Caitlin away when she describes their relationship as "Oil and water".
This is when Caitlin decides that their relationship means more to her for it be anything close to oil and water.
The scene aptly depicts her in the bathroom having a shower as the blood from the injury to her legs drips into the water.
Signifying that they may be different, but they can still mix together and make something wonderful out of it as the blood mixes with the water.
Not to mention that the colors also signify the characters, with water being blue to signify Caitlin with her blue hair and blue uniform, and blood being red to signify Vi with her red hair and red jacket.
4. Brothers turned enemies
Silco and Vander used to be the closest to each other, essentially brothers.
The battle for Zaun against Piltover brought these two very passionate and strong characters together. Their friendship and leadership were unmatched.
However, once Vander changed his views on fighting as he saw that it was doing more harm than good on both sides.
Silco could not understand his reasoning at that point in time and wanted to continue the battle which resulted in the brothers fighting each other for their version of peace.
Vander won that fight and left Silco beaten and injured his eye in the process.
Once Silco managed to get his revenge against Vander and killed him, he still felt a sliver of sympathy for the loss of his former brother.
After adopting Jinx, he finally understood the reasoning behind Vander's change in heart when he was faced with the decision of having everything he wanted in exchange for Jinx.
The love and care he had for her triumphed over his dream for Zaun.
5. Jayce and Viktor's bond
Jayce starts off as a scientist who aims to save the world from the pain of losing a loved one by harnessing the power of magic.
He knows this method works as it saved his mother when she was on the brink of death when he was just a child.
In attempts of recreating the technology, he gets exposed for mixing magic with science and is banished from furthering his research and has all of his life's work confiscated which leads him to his lowest point.
He attempts to commit suicide but gets saved by Viktor, a scientist in the making.
Viktor was supposed to confiscate his research but stopped after seeing the true potential behind the idea.
Viktor managed to bring Jayce back from his lowest point and pushed him to make his goal come true by testing out his devices.
We later find out that Viktor is suffering from an illness that is killing him from the inside.
After spending years and years attempting to find a cure, he gives up after accidentally taking a life of a co-worker in an experiment gone wrong.
This leads him to get to his lowest point and commit suicide. However, this time, Jayce manages to pull him back from his darkness.
6. Silco's control over Marcus
Marcus was an enforcer who was driven by greed and pride in his younger days.
This corruption led him to get aligned with Silco, the crime lord of Zaun.
We later learn that Marcus rises in the ranks and becomes the sheriff after a time j
ump. However, he seems more regretful of his actions and clearly has a guilty conscious. Even after achieving everything he wanted, he feels pain.
This pain is due to being one of the worst role models he could be for his daughter.
His work with Silco not only makes him one of the most corrupt officers working in Piltover, but also endangers the safety of his closest ones.
The terror visible in Marcus's eyes when he sees Silco pay his daughter a visit should say it all.
The sheriff was no more than a hardworking henchman and had no real power over anything.
This only enhanced his pain when he was tasked to follow through on orders he was never comfortable with.
What he used to do out of his greed and pride became the thing he despised after having someone he wanted to protect and care for.
Anjali Mehta
