ianwagnerwatches

This show is a lot of things: it's a visual marvel, bordering on a masterpiece. Arcane is one of the best looking 3D animated television series ever made. It also has a pretty good story (nothing groundbreaking, but certainly engaging). Due to the moderately engaging story, I postponed watching the penultimate episode without realizing it, and did the exact same thing with the final episode. This show leaves a but to be desired in terms of story, and even character development, but it's still a competent story. I think the worldbuilding does a lot of heavy lifting, which isn't a bad thing.

The only thing I seriously dislike about this show is the music. God, I think I actually hate the music. It feels like the music is trying to stand alone, refusing to be part of the "score" and insisting it deserves an award, and yet, it's mediocre. Boring pop rock and pop EDM that feels soulless in its execution, even if it is soulful on paper. The music ruins so many good moments, for me. It ruins the tone, too. I don't like the music. I should have named this review "I don't like the music at all."

This is the most emotionally impactful episodes of television I can recall. I have been destroyed and remade by this episode. There is a modicum of joy, a modicum of self evaluation, and a great piece of true suffering, such that justifies and gives meaning to everything we've been through up until this point. Once uppn a time, I watched this episode during a particularly intense come-up on psychedelics, and it made me feel psychotic. Without any spoilers, this episode made me want to kill a fictional character. That is very rare. In fact, I have never felt that way before. During this psychedelic episode, I watched this episode twice in a row and got something new from it each time. I thought it was 45 minutes long, for all of the development and emotional turmoil it incurred in me. "Angela" is perfection.

We're not all the same. We all suffer, extraordinarily, and suffer to find company for your misery. You don't understand anyone. Noone understands you. But, sometimes you understand another so well that it stops you. You could swallow the whole world in it, the bottomless depths of empathic cries and moans, and that's all there is. That's all there is.

This episode stopped me in my tracks. I sobbed for damn near half an hour. I love these writers, I love these performances, I love it all. The writing finds all the right places to make you laugh and all the hardest places to make you cry. I will remember the feeling that our protagonist felt at the end of this episode. I will remember it for a long time. It almost broke my heart.