Many fans have voiced concerns about the pacing, especially towards the end of Arcane’s second season. Showrunner Christian Linke has recently addressed these critiques and shared his perspective on the matter.
Arcane is undeniably stunning in its animation and design, but some viewers have noted that the storyline became a bit chaotic in its final stretch. With numerous plotlines packed into the season, it seemed like an additional season was necessary to flesh them out properly. During a chat with GamesRadar, Linke discussed these observations about the pacing. He acknowledged, “When people watch season 1, there’s an aspect to the pacing… season 2 is a bit different in that regard.”
Linke has shown respect for the feedback from fans. “I respect that people express that [opinion]. You’re right – the vast majority of the audience seems to be happy. But there are people who say, ‘It’s rushed. What’s going on?'” It’s noted by GamesRadar that a significant draw for fans was the development of character relationships in the first season. The second season, however, seemed to hurry through some of these elements to reach a conclusion.
He explained that the creative team took some calculated risks with the structure of the second season, adjusting the pacing to try new things. “It seems like for most people that works really well. There’s some people who specifically wanted to see the continuation of season one in that regard and are disappointed. I’m not happy that they feel that way, but I respect that,” Linke said. He also pointed out the absence of certain characters from the League of Legends universe, which left some fans wanting more, despite others thinking there was too much going on.
“There are people who say it’s too rushed, too much going on. There’s also the flip side. I see like, ‘Where’s Camille? She’s part of Piltover. Where’s Blitzcrank? Where’s Twitch? Why didn’t you include them?’ On one side, you have people saying it’s too much. On the other, you have people saying we didn’t do enough and we did our best… It’s hard. We’re doing our best to include the right amount of story.”
All things considered, it’s clear that Arcane probably needed an extra season to truly do its story justice. The budget constraints of the series are understandable when considering the rich production value we’ve seen. Nevertheless, with Riot’s plans to expand into other multimedia projects, they likely felt the need to conclude this particular story arc efficiently.
