I’m going to start this article on Arcane making one thing clear: I’m absolutely sick of League of Legends lore and history. Warcraft 3 was the first title that made me interested in the universe of a video game, and after entering the game during Season 1 (it has rained a lot since then), I was curious about the universe that they raised from Riot Games.
I was a faithful reader of Journal of Justice (a small post within the old League of Legends client) until Riot decided to cut its losses and remove it from the game. The only way we had then to find out what was happening in Runeterra was with each new release of a champion, because from the company everything that had to do with the story was “abandoned” a bit, focusing on the gameplay.
Much has happened since then, and while Riot has greatly expanded the game universe (changing lore and stories many times to make them more suitable for a global “package”), we have never had a serial fiction that tells the beginnings or stories of some of the best known characters of Runeterra. When Arcane announced himself, my expectation rose like foam: we were finally going to have something longer than a 5-10 minute trailer or a graphic novel without much development!
With the passage of time, there have been short stories available through the game’s website, events within the client that told the progress of the story within the universe and even a curious encyclopedia in which they tell very interesting details about the universe and its creation. But as the saying goes “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and Arcane comes to demonstrate what was suspected: that an animated series of League of Legends was going to be the bomb.
Arcane has amazed me, and now I just want more
Before going to work, I give the warning now so that no one is scared: I am going to talk 0 about the plot, and I’m not going to say spoilers. As a fan of the League of Legends universe, I know how nice it is to face something like this blindly, and I will focus mainly on the technical aspects of the series (in addition to some impressions without going into any detail regarding the story and / or or characters).
The first thing that struck me about Arcane was the facial expressions. The visual section of the series is an absolute barbarity, and the animation, in addition to being fluid, can be seen. Those who have paid attention to the trailers they have been showing will have discovered that the aesthetic is VERY similar to that seen in, for example, the final scene of the Sentinels of Light event.
Going back to facial expressions … it’s hard for me to explain them without falling apart, but they are wonderful. You can know perfectly what’s going through a character’s head just by looking at his face, and in some of the most dramatic and tense moments this section takes on even greater importance. If you add to that a fluid animation and superb photography work, you will have a graphic section at the height of the universe that they intend to recreate.
Nor does it take a lore like me to find constant references within the series. The most obvious are the characters, and you will find yourself on more than one occasion saying “wait, isn’t that …?” to confirm your suspicions a few seconds later. However, it is not all about the champions, and it is that in these first 4 episodes that I have been fortunate to enjoy, I have found quite a few references to Summoner’s Rift very well inserted.
Dubbing is another point in favor of the series, and it is that they have tried to respect as far as possible the voice actors that we already know from the game. While some voices remain the same throughout the series, others make a child / adult differentiation. In any case, the Spanish dubbing has seemed sublime to me, and there is not a single voice that I find discordant or out of tune.
Following with the sound section, the music and sounds of the series do their job in a more than decent way, and there is a particular moment in which the music manages to make your hair stand on end thanks to the atmosphere that the series builds. Sticking to the technical aspect, it shows that total care and pampering has been put into Arcane: nothing is chosen at random, and everything adds up to create a fantastic setting.
Since I’m not going to say anything about the plot, I’m going to stop here. Simply tell you that you will see several champions of Piltover and Zaun, in addition to understanding the functioning of both cities on a social level. I don’t want to spoil anyone’s surprise, and I’d rather you be the one to discover the whole story that lies within Arcane. If you trust the word of a lore nerd: don’t miss the series. If you like League of Legends it is almost impossible that you do not like it, and if you do not like it it can be a great way to introduce yourself to this universe.
Remember that it is already available on Netflix, although it is not whole. If you allow me in this holy house (and when a reasonable time has passed so as not to spoil the experience to anyone) I will return to tell you the references that I have found within the series when it is complete. The series will arrive in 3 acts, The first one was released on November 7 (chapters 1 to 3), the second on November 14 (episodes 4 to 6) and the third on November 20 (episodes 7 to 9).