My (apparently not quite so) Weird Relationship with League of Legends
I guess this is a bit late, but… Arcane was really good!
If you have no idea what I’m talking about… Well, you obviously don’t have Netflix because they pushed it pretty hard. If you have seen the adverts and decided that an anime-style, nine-episode series about characters from a video game you don’t play was not for you, I encourage you to give it a go. If you like my stuff, then there’s possibly something for you here, and you do not need to know anything about League of Legends to appreciate it. Which is a bit weird for a video game adaptation, but that’s also pretty much my view of the entire LOL franchise. I have a weird relationship with LOL…
For those who don’t know, League of Legends, or LOL, is a multi-player, team-based, PvP video game, and it’s been around for a while. Every year they host a big esport tournament in Korea ‘LOL Worlds.’ People make money playing this game professionally. I wouldn’t touch it with a fifty-foot pole and a full suit of power armour. I grew up when PvP was about the dirtiest part of gaming, and I still have a general hatred for people who like it. Also, I suck at it, which doesn’t help. And yet, there is an aspect of LOL that I just can’t get over really enjoying: the marketing.
Every year for Worlds, Riot Games commissions a full-production opening show, generally with some form of really kick-ass song in some genre or another. Their cinematics when introducing new characters are pretty damn fantastic. I can watch the videos Riot produce to advertise their game for hours, they just aren’t going to get me to play their game no matter what they do, but they really try. This year, Worlds opened with several songs because, this year, Arcane is out on Netflix. Arcane has songs from Imagine Dragons and Sting! It’s an animated series, so the backdrop videos for the opening ceremony practically came pre-made. (And, actually, I think there have been better opening shows, but whatever.) Big opening. Great marketing. But Arcane is more than that…
Arcane tells the story of how several of the ‘champions’ from the game came to be what they are. It’s a prequel. Importantly, it tells the story of how Jinx got to be what she is (a sort of friendly psychopath with a gatling gun), but there are a bunch of other characters in the mix which I knew less about and now know more. I am happy to know more. I enjoyed finding out how these people grew from kids, basically, into heroes (or villains, or something in the middle), and I can’t wait for the second season to unfold (it’s in production). It still won’t get me to even download the game, however…
I thought my relationship with LOL was weird. I won’t play, but I love it when a new cinematic appears. Weird, right? Apparently not. The YouTuber Gigguk uploaded a video recently about Arcane. He actually plays the game, and hates it, but he thinks everything about the game, aside from the game, is great. He also does a better job than I ever could of selling Arcane, so I’m linking his video here.
So, maybe I’m not as weird as I thought.
No… Pretty sure I am.
