How Arcane Masters Tragedy, Trauma, and Tone

i'm going to state this right off the bat arcane has no business being as good as it is being based off of league of legends it joins the ranks of tv shows and movies adapted from video games and that is exactly why i and so many other people had such low expectations for arcane we had been subjected to things like the super mario bros movie assassin's creed rampage and a host of other adaptations that range from mediocre to insulting but arcane is none of that arcane is a beautiful impactful and genuine fiction aimed at telling a story of tragedy and trauma but it was no accident that the show became the highest rated original series on netflix arcane was written with care and with purposeful precise narrative techniques what i want to do today is you some of the insights that i have picked up as a novel and script editor to take a look under the hood of the show to unpack those objective learnable writing choices so that we all might become more skilled and knowledgeable about high-level writing and the first thing to talk about concerning arcane's narrative construction is its tone and theme and we are going to talk about both of those because typically they work in tandem with each other so the theme of a fiction is the topic or subject of what the narrative is centered on in other words it's the message of the story and all good stories have a message some themes are blatant in their message in order to make you accepting of an idea for example the theme of shrek is being loving accepting and true to yourself and others other times themes are trying to push you away from an idea breaking bad for example is a cautionary tale of pride greed and the ease and consequences of corruption and lastly some fictions make no positive or negative commentary on their theme they simply present a narrative scenario and allow the consumer to come to their own conclusion we will actually come back to that later touching upon tone it is the attitude and personality used to express the theme some fictions have darker more serious tones while others have lighter more easy going tones and the cool thing about narrative tone is that it can completely change the consumer's interaction with the fiction tone is the difference between taken and the hangover both are films based around what lengths we will go to to find someone important to us but each of these films could not be any more different the hangover wants to make you laugh and taken wants to put you on the edge of your seat and that difference affects what a consumer feels like coming away from the story now with these two terms defined we can apply them to arcane the show's theme is squarely based in duality arcane's message is about two opposing sides coexisting and the camaraderie in conflict that can arise because of it and one thing that i will quickly say is that theme is usually very subjective and open to interpretation since theme is a message it is something you have to perceive and perceptions differ from person to person but luckily here we do not have to guess about the theme because the writers for the show alex yi and christian link have detailed it for us at its core arcane is really just a story of duality right of of these these two halves of the city and these many different character pairings where you know they're they're bound together either by principle or by family or tradition um and then and then you know like they find they find that those elements you know get sort of like uh um opposed against each other right arcane's theme is centered on duality but what about its tone the personality in which the theme is presented well for anyone who has watched the show the tone is pretty easy to suss out arcane's tone is dark and serious and because of the maturity of that tone the narrative is then allowed to take a more genuine look at the nature of duality and how it affects the individuals on both sides but theme is easy to construct the author just picks a topic and surrounds a story on it however tone must be built within the narrative which is much more difficult so how does arcane establish that dark tone that enables the story to pull on our heartstrings and affect us in a real way an easy answer could be that simply showing dark events like murder and betrayal therefore creates a dark tone but that is a very surface level assessment plenty of narratives have murder and betrayal but are still considered to be of a light fun tone no arcane handles the construction of its dark tone in a genius way by having the tone mirror the theme of duality what i mean by this is that arcane establishes a light tone at the beginning to lull us watchers into a familiar comfort that we might have with other animated fiction and then without warning switches the tone to be dark and consequential remember tone is simply the personality of a narrative and that personality cannot be defined by a single event but a continuous display of events and character interactions and a dark tone specifically is exemplified by a genuine exploration of a human struggle the more honestly and realistically a narrative interrogates the nature of painful human hardships and conflicts the darker its tone becomes so if we consider that across the first three episodes we are continuously shown the lives and problems of children these are the overt displays that we become accustomed to it's kids being out when they shouldn't stealing things getting into fights and disappointing their parents these events of major focus are not heavy they do not have existential ramifications for the characters there is no death or widespread destruction it's more explorations of identity self-worth and loyalty but that is to not say darker elements aren't present in the first three episodes they definitely are however these heavier moments are quick comparatively less overt and take a purposeful back seat to the struggles of these kids still their presence does allow an audience to know that there is a possibility for more mature thematic aspects to be interrogated in much the same way that adventure time inserts darkness into its overall light tone but again everything changes in episode 3. up to this point we have spent nearly two hours getting used to a relatively light tone then we switch on a dime there is blood there is death there is kidnapping the consequences and implications have evolved past the worries of children now now our characters are dealing with existential threats and the episode only increases from there arcane chooses to utilize one of the most delicate narrative tools in the writing game violence against children the reason i say this is delicate is because when done wrong it comes off as a cheap and easy way to get a reaction from an audience when done right violence against children creates possibly the darkest tone a narrative can attain it's a demonstration that the world does not care about the innocence or fragility of a child they are not protected they can feel pain and die just like everyone else and this tone becomes even more impactful when shifted to subtly this is why violence against children is typically used as a tonal tool within the first act of a story a quiet place was able to set the calm tone of a family traveling by foot only to blindside us with violence against a child it established the carefree tone of a kid playing in the rain only to show violence against a child and arcane follows suit in its first act by juxtaposing the duality of its lighter first two episodes with this harsh third episode but arcane still goes above and beyond where a quiet place and it both had their violence against children enacted by the antagonist mainly to solidify their danger arcane has one of our main characters one of the children herself be the enactor this narrative choice puts arcane in the perfect position to have a genuine exploration of the human struggles of the characters in the aftermath of this event it allows for a deep showcase of jinx's guilt and shame of wise anger of silko's predatory nature and it tells the audience that the characters can and will die going forward act one did a great job at establishing the theme and tone of arcane both of which gave opportunities to explore these characters not just as one-dimensional rips from a video game but as real people embodying real struggles one of the best pieces of advice that i give to clients that i work with on developing realistic compelling characters is to think of them as deeply as you would a real person a character can only be as impactful as how genuinely it was created which means a consideration of their wants needs fears passions and all the things that make them human only then can you evoke the narrative drama of what they are meant to represent christian link co-writer for arcane has basically said the same thing when talking about his writing process when you hear something like i can you do have to go much deeper you know if you think about sticking with a character for you know for every six hours you're just gonna keep watching them you start asking a lot of different questions you know around what's their daily life like you know like where do they sleep what do they eat like how do they kind of go about their day and that was something we never really explored um so i think it was just it was that you know like adding these layers that actually they're necessary to even really entertain real drama and real you know i don't know like these human elements and moments so considering that arcane is thematically about duality and is tonally dark we can start to look at the primary narrative techniques used to build upon this basis arcane as a show is built upon foils now this may sound familiar from 10th grade english class or perhaps might even evoke wrapping material but just as a recap what we are talking about today are narrative foils that being a character that has contrasting traits with another character typically foils are used as villains meant to accentuate the virtues and strengths of the hero arguably the most famous foil pairing is joker to the batman but there are plenty of others such as magneto to professor x and yoda to palpatine but in arcane foils are not just the villains foils are everywhere and you start to notice them when you compare some of these characters to each other some contrasts are easy such as silco being a foil to vander barinder was a pragmatic altruist where silco was a ruthless idealist professor heimerdinger is a foil to the scientist singed both are intellectual giants assisting the core characters but where heimerdinger is tempered and very much restrained with his vision of advancement singed is willing to do absolutely whatever it takes to see his experiments bear fruit and doesn't care about the consequences a more subtle foil would be jace and victor jace was the son of a noble family from piltover he was rich famous influential and muscle bound victor in contrast was a poor boy from the undercity he was overlooked quiet and deathly ill by pairing these two character types together their growth and development becomes more pronounced because we are continuously seeing the opposite side of the coin usage of foils is a great way to execute duality which works well seeing as how duality is the theme of arcane however arcane plays with this use of duality by making multiple characters foils of each other jace is just as much a foil to victor as he is to silko both men are put in a position to lead their respective cities as best they can maneuvering against a cadre of other powerful individuals on their side in order to achieve their goals vi and jinx are obvious foils but vai also has a foil in caitlyn being completely honest as a writing nerd it's actually really interesting and impressive how this theme of duality has been packed into almost every part of the show even the setting is based in duality with piltover and the undercity standing in stark contrast to one another and of course the conflict is based in duality each side fighting for their own cause and what they believe is their survival this two sides theme in storytelling is a tried-and-true classic and the best way to unlock its complexities is to have a narrative based in gray morality typically in storytelling and especially in older stories there is a side of objective right and objective wrong the consumer knows exactly who to root for and exactly what decisions should be made what's more this black and white morality style of storytelling usually has characters aligned without explanation the villains want evil for evil sake and the heroes want good for good sake but stories of grey morality understandably sit somewhere in between these narratives provide context to the outlooks and decisions of both the heroes and the villains and what this does is create a situation where there is no obvious answer to the conflicts of the narrative in the penultimate episode of arcane there is a scene where vi and jay speak to the council within some characters are advocating a peaceful deal with silko while others are in favor of open conflict each character had their own compelling arguments and reasons for why they thought they were right and honestly i was just happy i wasn't in that room because i had no idea which decision to make this grey morality environment where every character has a realistic standing for their beliefs and positions only strengthens a narrative of duality because both sides become understandable arcane does not seem to endorse a particular direction with its thematic message rather it presents it and allows us to watch the events unfold but a story based in gray morality only works with grey characters the last thing we will talk about is arcane's secret sauce how the narrative goes about creating characters that are multifaceted and complex let's listen to writer alex lee talk about it real quick you know they're they're bound together either by principle or by family or tradition um and then and then you know like they find they find that those elements you know get sort of like uh um opposed against each other right like it's like do you who do you stick with when when you're you're someone who's your closest family relative you know winds up having a completely opposite idea of of what what morals are or um you know if you've if you've become bound to someone in in a mission that you both have in life you know what's the point that you say like hey you know we we need to part ways this is the magic of arcane what it does so well it uses the bonds of family to flesh out these characters and ultimately enhance the tragedy that the conflict brings if you think back to some of the most impactful moments of the show they are given strength because of the bonds that tie the characters together milo and clagger were basically jinx's brother and her reckless behavior caused their death jinx and vi were sisters but vi abandoned jinx because of what she did silco considered vander his brother but their ideals had diverged so much that silko ended up murdering him conflict between characters is empowered by how close they are which then makes the destruction of their relationship that much more tragic the show also plays with this idea of family to keep the characters from being stagnant just when it seemed that silke was a stereotypical soulless megalomaniac he took in jinx as his daughter and seemed to truly love her just when mel seemed to be the flat one note character that always came to whisper in jace's ear her mother was introduced a noxian warrior who banished mel essentially because she loved her daughter too much to do her duty mel's character evolves and develops in an instant upon her mother's arrival it is not just the major characters that get this treatment the conniving corrupt sheriff was shown to have a daughter that he really cared about speaking about her in his last breath one of silco's criminal allies was shown mourning her son furious that silke would let such a thing happen these family bonds are used on a narrative level to show that the characters in this world are not simply good or evil they all have people that they care about and enemies who they want to protect them from and just as it should be that duality is epitomized in the final scene of the season where jinx has to choose between her sister and her adoptive father the tragedy comes from knowing that there is no right choice for jinx this all started with her accidentally killing her family and the finale puts her in the same position again no now it must be an active choice the final scene is the thematic internal identity of the show manifest arcane isn't about league of legends arcane is about family brothers sisters children friends each standing in opposition to each other and simultaneously depending on each other for their emotional needs and survival it is a dark genuine look at how responsibility division and regret can come to affect our relationships and what we accept as right and wrong arcane is about the duality of humankind and i cannot wait for season 2. anyway thank you all for watching all the way until the end if you like what you heard leave a like comment and subscribe if you want to be a real homie support on patreon or check out some of my books on my website links will be in the description as always it was a pleasure i will talk to you all again soon

Channel: Savage Books

Views: 339,488

Keywords: arcane, league of legends, writing advice, dialogue dive, jinx

Id: RmH0ulyxTHc

Length: 18min 39sec (1119 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 28 2021