Editor's note: The following contains spoilers through Season 1 of Arcane.Arcane is, without a doubt, one of the most pleasant surprises of the year. Not only is the animation style of Netflix’s hit show one of the most beautiful we’ve ever seen in a series, but the first League of Legends non-gaming media might as well be the best video game adaptation ever made. The reason is that Arcane is not so concerned with selling the game it draws inspiration from, instead telling a touching story about love, war, and family that can hook even those who've never played League of Legends before.
Not everything is perfect, though — it’s just that Season 1 only has nine episodes, and we need more seasons right now! We are all still digesting that gut-wrenching finale and hoping that Riot Games has some clever Hextech of their own to speed up production of Season 2. So, since we’ve already had the time to binge through the show three times in a row, it’s time we discuss the main questions Season 1 of Arcane leaves behind that that we need Season 2 to answer.
What's Silco's and Vander's Feud All About?
While the hearth of Arcane is the tragic story of sisters Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell), Vander (J. B. Blanc) and Silco’s (Jason Spisak) brotherly feud also plays a huge part in putting the series plot in motion. Even so, we don’t know enough about why the two men parted ways and became enemies after fighting side by side for the same cause. Arcane underlines how Silco and Vander were once allies determined to unite the undercity and found the Nation of Zaun. Tired of being explored by the wealthy caste of Piltover, Vander and Silvo led a revolution against the Enforcers, which ended in bloodshed.
Arcane’s Season 1 also shows us how Vander betrayed Silco, but we don’t know exactly why. Also, Silco’s scar is shown to be the fruit of a brutal attack. Someone tried to drown Silco in the rivers of the undercity, and the toxic waste that pollutes its water burned through his nerves, turning his left eye yellow and making him feel constant pain. It’s suggested that the man who tried to kill Silco is no other than Vander, but Arcane doesn’t give us an explicit confirmation. And if Vander did try to kill Silco, we need to understand how two brothers-at-war would end up on each other’s throats, especially since they still share the same dream of freedom many years later.
What Are Singed’s Goals?
One of the most mysterious characters in Arcane is Singed (Brett Tucker), the scientist who created Shimmer, a power-enhancing drug that’s highly addictive. While at first Singed seems to be just another henchman working for Silco, Arcane gives us glimpses of the scientist’s past that indicate his goals are a lot more personal. Singed says that he once had a daughter, but we don’t really know what happened to her. However, it’s clear that Singed’s family history might have something to do with his obsession with prolonging the life of his subjects. Even if Shimmer is a poison that infects the undercity, Singed doesn’t seem to have created it for power or money. Instead, he’s just experimenting while hoping to keep a strange creature alive.
Season 2 of Arcane needs to bring Singed to the spotlight, revealing what led the scientist to perform such hideous experiments and become an ally to Silco. Besides that, one of the last scenes of Season 1 shows that Singed is experimenting with a dead body that could be Vander’s, so Season 2 also needs to explain what’s that all about.
What's Happening at Noxus?
So far, Arcane is concerned mainly with the nation of Piltover, a city founded by people escaping from the warmongering of mages. Nevertheless, the last episodes of Arcane tease that there’s a bigger world outside Piltover’s wall with the arrival of Ambessa Medarda (Ellen Thomas), the cruel leader of the Empire of Noxus. Arcane describes Noxus as a conquering nation that reigns supreme through brute force, and Ambessa personifies the bloodlust of the Empire by manipulating Jayce (Kevin Alejandro) into building Hextech weapons.
Ambessa wants Piltover to go to war against the Zaun revolutionaries so that Hextech weaponry gets developed, not caring about how many people might die just to get what she needs. However, while we know Ambessa wants Hextech weapons to protect her Empire, we never learn who’s threatening Noxus. Ambessa only tells her daughter Mel (Toks Olagundoye) that a powerful man killed her brother and might now be aiming for the rest of the family. So, Season 2 needs to explain who’s so powerful to make the Empire of Noxus tremble.
What Was Sky Researching Before She Was Killed?
While Arcane’s Season 1 focuses on the discoveries of Jayce and Viktor (Harry Lloyd), there’s another scientist working on some miraculous technology. Sky (Kimberly Brooks) is often shown as Viktor’s assistant, but by the end of Season 1, we also learn that she was inspired by the scientist’s dream to improve the world and develop her own research. Sky dies in a horrible accident while Viktor tries to use Hextech to cure his sick body, but her notes are left behind. Viktor is consumed by guilt and grief after she dies, which could lead him to honor Sky’s memory by making her research a reality. Season 2 of Arcane needs to reveal what Sky was working on and how this new tech can help shake the status quo of Piltover once more.
Who Will Lead Zaun With Vander and Silco Gone?
During Arcane’s first chapter, Vander leads the Lanes neighborhood and tries to keep the peace between Piltover’s Enforcers and the undercity. Once Vander dies, Silco takes his place and starts to run the undercity in a whole different manner. Silco allies himself with crimelords, sparing no life in his crusade to make the Nation of Zaun a reality. By the end of Arcane, the war is knocking at the door of both Piltover and Zaun, and Jinx’s final act of defiance might doom everybody’s hopes that they can still reach a peaceful solution.
Even worse, now that Silco’s gone, there’s a power vacuum in the undercity that must be filled. Season 2 of Arcane must find a new leader to keep the undercity together, especially if Piltover decides to go to war. Maybe this leader can rise from Silco’s criminal organization; perhaps it can come from the Firefly’s free-fighters. Be it as it may, without someone to unite the undercity, the Nation of Zaun will fall. Season 2 needs to explain who will rise to the occasion and how this choice might affect the future of every Zaunite.