SKYLER LUDLOW
Arcane Story Analysis
Riot Games' Arcane tells the tragic story of two sisters, Vi and Powder (Jinx), torn apart by a "monster" that comes into their life. Through Arcane's use of imagery and parallelism in its camera work - despite being an animated show - the writers are able to add a lot of depth and layering to the themes within the tragedy being told. A great example of this is found in the latter half of Arcane's third episode, "The Base Violence Necessary for Change".
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In this episode Vi and Powder confront the "monster" of the show, Silco, who has captured their father Vander. While Silco is presented to the audience as the monster at first, the writers, through Silco, suggest that "there's a monster inside all of us", including Vander. It is at this point where the camera work begins to beautifully portray to the reality of this theme.
At the beginning of the episode it was revealed to the audience that Vander and Silco used to be really close friends, so much so that they referred to each other as "brothers". Despite this, when Silco attempted to do something Vander didn't like, Vander tried to kill Silco by forcefully drowning him in a river. Later in the episode Vander claims to sincerely regret his actions, telling Silco "I'm not that man anymore". However, after Silco nearly kills Vander's daughter Vi, Vander attacks Silco and begins choking him. In this moment, as the camera does a close up on both Silco and Vander's faces, we see that the camera is looking up to Vander - suggesting he is powerful, in control, and dominating the situation - and the camera looks down on Silco - suggesting his lack of power or control over the situation. Additionally, the camera cuts to a flashback of Vander in a similar position drowning Silco in the river. The parallelism in these shots emphasizes that the monster that Vander used to be, was still in him all along, which Silco reinforces later when he says "I knew you still had it in you."
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A similar strategy is employed at the end of this episode, though it isn't as immediately noticeable. Throughout the entirety of the first arc of Arcane, Vander has warned Vi against taking aggressive actions, telling her that instead of solving things, it only causes more problems. When Vi learns that her sister had a part in the tragic events that unfolded, the camera shows us that Vi has in fact become the monster that Vander had consistently warned her about. The way Vi grabs Powder's face is a direct parallel to the way that Vander choked Silco. And as we get to see the close up on Powder's face, we are able to understand that as Silco had been betrayed by his "brother" in the past, Powder feels that same betrayal from her sister.
The parallelism of the camera work doesn't end there. In the final shot of the episode, after Vi leaves a crying Powder alone in the rain, Silco approaches Powder and comforts her. As Silco wraps his arms around Powder, we are given a single, spine-tingling shot of Powder's right eye filled with tears and hate. A viewer could watch the entirety of Arcane without realizing that this shot also parallels another. There is a promotional piece of art for Arcane that shows Vi holding Powder, presumably protecting her from some kind of harm, with the only thing being visible being Powder's right eye. For some reason or another, this shot was left out of the show. If it were up to me, that would not be the case. I think the viewers having knowledge of this promotional piece of art adds a lot of depth to the final shot in the third episode. Through the camera work we are able to see that Silco has not only replaced Vi as Powder's protector, but also that Vi has gone from the protector to the thing that Powder needs to be protected from. This is emphasized even more through the imagery within the shot. At closer glance, one will notice that Silco's arm forms a V-shape - imagery that is associated with Vi all throughout the show (see image below).
Arcane is no stranger to finding unique ways to compare and contrast ideas in order to further its themes - whether it be Vander choking Silco in episode 3, Jinx's boxing scene in episode 5, or the Jinx vs. Ekko fight in episode 7. As such, I think it is a shame that this was not done with Powder's "eye" image. A simple solution would be to simply, but cleverly cut it into the scene through a flash of lightning. The scene already takes place out in the rain, so I think it would be quite fitting. A great example of such a shot can be found in Batman: Under the Red Hood.
When Bruce finds out that the villain he's been chasing throughout the entirety of the film is actually Jason Todd, a former Robin that had been killed by the Joker, for a brief second you can see a shot of Jason Todd as Robin before it cuts back to the present situation. It goes by so quickly that it doesn't disrupt the scene, but for those interested and observant, it also serves as a great tool to add depth to the story, and leave viewers wanting to rewatch the scene over and over again. Implementing this into the climactic ending of episode 3 of Arcane, in my opinion, could only add to the beautiful tragedy.
