Opinion| Arcane’s act 2’s most understated scene could be one of its most important

Arcane is ending with season 2, but showrunners Alex Yee and Christian Linke have already outlined their desire to keep telling stories in the League of Legends universe. Now, with a single understated scene in episode 5, they might have paved the way for the future of Riot’s animation push.

This article contains spoilers for Arcane Season 2.

Throughout the first act of Arcane season 2, the final scene of each episode shows Singed going to great lengths to continue his experiment in a series of flashbacks. In Act 2, those flashbacks pay off, as Singed summons the beast he’s been creating to Stillwater Hold, the prison that Caitlyn found Vi in during season 1, after being arrested alongside several other characters during a rally in Zaun. While Jinx springs everyone else out of jail before the experiment arrives, Singed declines to leave, and is found still waiting in the Hold even after almost everyone else has left at the end of episode 4.

In episode 5, we’re reintroduced to Singed as he’s being interrogated by Caitlyn and Ambessa. Furious about this new Zaunite experiment, Piltover’s new commander threatens to have the scientist consigned to some of the Hold’s darkest dungeons, but Ambessa is more curious. That leads her to seek Singed out without Caitlyn, where she offers him a deal.

“It’s always the same look, when one covets a weapon,” Singed says to Ambessa as she arrives in his cell. Understanding that she’s prepared to bargain for his freedom, he asks her terms. “You will serve me. My enemies will be yours, your weapons will be mine. In return, I will supply all your needs. You will be treated as an esteemed advisor. But I demand absolute loyalty.” Singed accepts these terms in taking his pocketwatch, presumably confiscated during his arrest, back from Ambessa. It’s one of the quietest and most understated scenes in the season so far, let alone this episode – two supporting characters talking in hushed voices in a dark cell, none of the animation panache that the rest of Arcane is so celebrated for. But it’s also possibly the key to the next step in League of Legends animation.

Let him cook

(Image credit: Fortiche)

Ambessa is an emissary of the warmongering nation of Noxus, which for much of its in-game history has found itself at war with the islands of Ionia. The Ionians and generally a peaceful, spiritual people, and their resistance in the face of the Noxian war machine is broadly presented as an underdog story kept in check only by the Ionian’s significant magical prowess.

While Singed is a Piltovan scientist who eventually moved to Zaun, Ionia plays a key part of his in-game story. In his official lore, he’s contracted by a Noxian scientist to create chemical weapons to help Noxus turn the tide in the war. The result is an abomination so despicable that in earlier versions of these stories, Singed and his allies were cursed by the gods for what they’d done. That story has been walked back over the years to become a little more grounded, but the ties between Singed and Noxus’ war in Ionia are still significant.

They’re so significant, in fact, that a single shot from a trailer all the way back in June let one fan predict that it was the start of Singed’s journey to Ionia as fans speculated where the Arcane showrunners might go next. And while Linke and Yee aren’t giving anything away just yet, the former hinted that “the Noxus Ionia invasion is really interesting” when I asked him about his favorite stories in the LoL universe ahead of the start of season 2. While the pair don’t seem entirely keen on spinning up an interwoven set of stories like the MCU, it’s undeniable that the groundwork for that Ionia story has already been laid, with aspects of Noxian diplomacy become ever more intricately intertwined with this world – and it all stems from one of the most subtle scenes in the entire show.