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The Netflix showArcanehas finally come to an end, and with it, the stories of Piltover and Zaun. While there are plenty of tales left to tell in Runeterra, the one about Vi and Jinx is over, and with it, several stories have ended or just begun to surface.
The two seasons of Arcane didn’t just cover the lives of two sisters, but also the woes of two cities, the invention of Hextech, and the might of nations like Noxus. The ending covered more plots than anyone expected, so if a few things flew over your head, we are here to explain it all.
Spoilers For The Show Below!
The Story Of Arcane
Arcane follows the stories of several characters, but it can be roughly divided intothree parts:theconflict between Piltover and Zaun, thecreation of Hextech, and the turbulentinfluence of Noxus.
At first, these stories seem to be loosely connected, untilthey converge in an endingthat resolves them all.
Piltover And Zaun
Piltover is known asthe City of Progress, where technological marvels are created every day. Zaun works asthe slums of that city, filled with warring gangs and substance abuse, with people barely managing to makea day-to-day living.
The show follows the lives of two sisters,Vi and Powder, as they grow up in the streets of Zaun. After many hardships,the sisters split up, with the strong and bluntVi joining up with Caitlyn(an enforcer from Piltover), while the clever but disturbedPowder becomes Jinx, the right-hand woman of the gangster Silco.
After many back and forths between the sisters, Jinx endsblowing up the center of government of Piltover, killing Caitlyn’s mother in the process. There seemed to beno going backafter that, untila common issue brings them back together: their father, Vander, ends uptransformed into a werewolf(Warwick in League of Legends).
This mirrorsthe conflict between Piltover and Zaun, whereneither city can see eye to eyedue to their prejudices, and the painful memories of past aggressions. At the end of the story, they join forces todeal with a common enemy, made up ofNoxians and Hextech robots.
The Creation Of Hextech
Among the many scientists of Piltover, few matchthe combined power of Jayce and Viktor.
Jayce is an idealistobsessed with the arcane, a magical force that onlya gifted few can control, while Viktor is a physically weak man that wants touse science to overcome his shortcomings.
Jayce had a meeting with a mage when he was young, andthat mage gifted him a rune. Said rune became the basis ofhis theory to control the arcane, but only when he joined forces with Viktor did they manage to break the code,creating Hextech, a way for everyone to channel the arcane.
After prolonged use, however,Hextech becomes volatileand hazardous to human health. Jayce’s mentor, Heimerdinger, advises him todestroy the Hextech research, but just when he is about to announce his decision, both him and Viktor end upcaught in Jinx’s attack against Piltover.
Jayceuses a Hextech core to heal Viktor, turning the scientist into somethingcloser to a machine than a man.
Viktor no longer wants to destroy Hextech, but to use it toevolve humanity to new heights, while Jayce ends up trapped ina possible futurewhere Piltover isdestroyed by this forced evolution.
The Noxian Invasion
At first, the influence of the nation of Noxus is subtle, with WarlordAmbessa Medarda arriving at Piltoverto see her daughter, Mel.Mel Medarda manages a lot of wealth in Piltover, and is the onefounding the research on Hextech, but she has never had a close relationship with her mother.
Ambessa, in reality, islooking for a weapon to take back to Noxus, since there is some civil unrest there due tothe Black Rose, a shadowy organization that pullsthe political strings of the nation. Ambessa ends up finding her weapon in Hextech,rallying Viktor to her sideand planning ontaking Piltover by force, combining the forces of her army with Viktor’s evolved humans.
The Ending Of Arcane
The many plot threads of Arcanejoin together for the final battle, with some resolutions being far simpler than others.
We haven’t mentioned everything that happens in the show, likethe story of Echo, since it has little relevance to the ending beyond bringinga time-altered Hextech coreto the battle.
Vi, Jinx, And The Cities
Both Vi and Jinx, just like the cities of Piltover and Zaun,leave their differences behindto fight the Noxians and the Hextech robots/evolved humans. Their werewolf father, Vander,has been ‘evolved’ as well, hence why they have to fight him.
Their ending is simple:the good guys win, but through many sacrifices.Jinx dies protecting Vi, bringing their story to a close with a final act of love.
Caitlyn and Vi end up together, forming a new government thatincludes people from Zaunso they can work together in the future.
Viktor And Jayce
The most complicated ending to understand is that of Jayce and Viktor, since it seems to bring uptime travel and multiversesseemingly out of nowhere. The easiest way to explain it is by going through the events chronologically, althoughtime isn’t exactly a linein Arcane.
When Jayce was a child,he was saved from a blizzard by a mage; that mage wasa grown-up Viktor, who came from an alternate future wherehe already had a life with Jayceand ended uptouched by the arcane.
Viktor visited this point in time often, alwaysgifting the young Jayce a different rune, so his research could go one way or the other.
The Jayce we follow thenmeets with Viktor and creates Hextech, but once the Hextech core gets unstable, ittransports Jayce to an alternate timeline.
This isn’t the future of the current timeline, buta different universe altogether, whose Jayce received a different runewhen he was a child.
When Heimerdinger and Echo travel to their own separate universe, they seem to do so by inhabiting their timeline-doubles. It isn’t known why Jayce travels in a different way.
With knowledge of this future (the one where Piltover is destroyed), Jaycebecomes obsessed with stopping Viktor, who in turn becomesobsessed with forced evolution.
Their fight seems to be going the same way it did inthe alternate future Jayce saw, untilEcho disrupts Viktor’s forced evolutionwith his own Hextech core.
This makes Viktorwitness this alternate futurethrough the eyes of Jayce, as well asseeing his alternate self(the original Viktor that gave Jayce the rune), which makes himsnap out of his obsession.He tries to use Jayce’s rune to undo what he has done, withJayce himself offering to help.
The two scientists end updisappearing into a strange blip, seemingly leaving this reality and stopping the forced evolution. It isn’t clear where they went, but they seem to haveascended to a higher state of being, either as a single entity, or as two separate ones.
It’s possible that the old Viktor is, in fact, that combination formed from Viktor and Jayce.
The Future Of Noxus
Parallel to the whole Hextech story is the invasion of Noxus, or at least ofthe Noxian forces led by Ambessa Medarda.
The might of her army seems overallunchallenged by the efforts of Piltoverand Zaun, with the Warlord having a final confrontation againsther daughter Mel and Caitlyn.
This final confrontation seesthe Noxian forces not interfere, likely due to respect of the duel taking place (although it’s two against one), and Ambessa constantlyhas the upper handeither way. Mel tries to use hernewfound magical abilitiesagainst her mother, but Ambessa hasrunic protectionagainst such tricks.
Caitlyn manages totake the protection off, letting Meltrap Ambessa in a Black Rose interdimensional prison.Mel uses this chance tostrike against the Black Roserepresentative, butAmbessa dies in the confrontation.
While a bit confusing, it seems thatMel was only pretending to be working with the Black Rose, using them to bring her mother down. Mel’s own magicisn’t all that aggressive, after all, focusing more on shields and on dispelling magical effects done by other people.
The series ends withMel leaving with the Noxian forces, who now follow her seemingly due to her inheriting the title of Warlord.
There are also images ofa raven exploring the Hextech corpsesand then flying with the Noxian ships, clearly hinting ata future involving Swainfrom League of Legends.
