Arcane co-creator reminds fans 'there are always constraints', dispels theories the show was rushed or restrained by Riot's higher-ups

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(Image credit: Netflix)

Arcane character art - Vi portrait

Arcane’s second season has hit some fans all weird—while I’m of the opinion that animation studio Fortiche did apretty dang good joball things considered, cramming as much story as it possibly could into every frame, it’s also an imperfect show in the sense that all shows are imperfect. Coulda, woulda, and even some scant shouldas abound.

I’ve been a medium amount of skeptical that anything nefarious went on behind the scenes, especially given Arcane had a very high budget (although still not too far abovemost animated moviesin terms of watch-hours) for production and marketing both. Now, Linke’staken to Redditto set the record straight (thanks,Gamesradar):

“Some theories are a bit too far out there,” writes Linke, before having to come out and state that one conspiracy—that the showrunners asked Foritche for a feature-length finale and got rejected, is right out: “It’s quite the opposite, our scripts are always shorter than what Fortiche ends up proposing in the story board phase. We wanna let them get inspired and roam free, so we can then reel it in while also allowing for the magical moments to find themselves. It’s a tight creative collaboration, not some sort of ‘alright vendor company, do your work, achieve the impossible, but do it quickly!'”

The corporate greed angle, Linke says, is also a heap of nothing: “Yes, there are always constraints, both in budget and time. That’s part of our job as creatives, to work within those constraints. Constraints are NORMAL, and they were always generous, and I always had final say on anything creative. But they do exist. They also existed during Season 1.”

“It would have been great to have more time to work on this second season, or extra time to add to the episodes, but we didn’t have it. For a number of reasons. Budget being one. We have been EXTREMELY lucky … NOBODY ELSE gets these types of budgets. Please don’t forget that.

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“Time being the other constraint … There’s a release window that a massive amount of people work towards, not just at Fortiche, but also at Riot on different games, at Netflix, brand partners. Even key talent that works on the show that, simply put, is getting tired cranking away at this incredibly long season and project over multiple years.”

In other words—nothing lasts forever, and no creative endeavour comes out perfect. That might leave a bit of a sting to those expecting some kind of transcendental storytelling nirvana out of Arcane’s second season, but for me, my rotten little heart loves imperfect and wonky stories. I’m also glad Fortiche, a studio I want to see make other stuff, hasn’t burned itself out completely in the pursuit of passion.

“It’s not perfect. You don’t take these types of hefty swings and expect that everything wraps up perfectly with a neat bow tie. It grows and evolves in its own way, and it becomes what it becomes.” While I do appreciate Linke’s transparency here, I do think now that he’s said his piece it’s time to log off for a minute—you categorically can’t please everyone. Besides, it ain’t over until the fatcats stopfunding a big animated League of Legends universe. I think that’s how the saying goes, anyway.

TOPICSRiot Games

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