Arcane season 2

 First thing I noticed: they added League of Legends to the title.

Second thing: Stromae made his comeback after years of being away from the public eye, and his new song My Meilleure Ennemie has trashed the streaming numbers for 2024, even though it only came out end of november.

The series begins with Jayce and Mel surviving the rocket attack alongside a few other councillors, but Caitlyn's mother is amongst the casualties.  Viktor is mortally wounded, prompting Jayce to fuse the Hexcore with him to save his life.  Pushed by Ambessa, retaliation is planned against Zaun, but the use of Hextech weapons is blocked by Mel.

During an attack at a funeral for the fallen councilors, Renni and her men attack but Ambessa and her Noxian warriors arrive and kill them all.  A taskforce led by Caitlyn is formed to go and capture Jinx and to end the shimmer production.  But in Zaum, there is distrust amongst the Chem-barons, one of them, Smeech, even proposing to hand over Jinx to have their production not disturbed.  Jinx runs into a young orphan, Isha, and they decide to tag along together after she is saved from an ambush by her.  Ekko and Heimerdinger decide to sneak into the Academy to discuss a magical corruption manifesting at the tree in the Firelight's hideout.

Vi is concerned by the aggressive take Caitlyn displays on their mission, as Mel is abducted by a Noxian sorceress cult, the Black Rose, who are linked to Ambessa.  Jayce, Heimerdinger and Ekko discover a "wild rune" in the Hextech vault.  Vi and Cailtyn corner Jinx, but Vi stops Caitlyn shooting at Jinx with the child Isha shielding her, allowing Jinx to escape.  This leads to Ambessa declaring martial law in Piltover.  A force of Piltover and Noxians occupy Zaun, as the series makes a short time jump forward, with Jayce, Heimerdinger and Ekko missing, Caitlyn and Vi having broken up, and Jinx becoming a legend...

Starting a revolt, and encoutering a werewolf hybrid Singed has created in secret, Jinx and Sevika decide to free Zaun from their oppressors.  The beast is none other then Vander, and Jinx goes to seek out Vi who has become a pit fighter after her break-up with Caitlyn.  Singed through identity is deducted by Caitlyn, as Mel finds herself in a Black Rose prison where she is reunited with her thought dead brother Kino.  But he is al illusion, and it causes her latent powers to be manifest.  Jayce, having encountered visions inside the Wild Rune, is released by it and scarred by the experience vows to destroy all Hextech.

Jinx, Vi and Isha take Vander to Viktor's hideout in an effort to have him healed, as Viktor tries to bring his humanity to the fore.  But they are tracked by Ambessa and Caitlyn, and Vi is captured by them.  Ambessa orders Viktor's progress to be reversed, but it is revealed Caitlyn and Vi where in league with each other, as Jayce infiltrates the camp and kills Viktor, provoking a physical backlash of those he healed.  Vander goes berserk, and Isha sacrifices herself to try and stop him.  Ekko and Heimerdinger find themselves in a parallel universe, where Hextech was never invented.  They need to work together with Powder, who never became Jinx in this universe, to create a time-reversal device... and here the awesome song enters the fray.  

A small sidenote: I was driving the car at 9.07 in the morning, the moment the song actually hit, and heard the radio go all crazy as our elected "Greatest Belgian" made his comeback.  And boy, what a comeback that was!

 

Ekko is returned to his universe, at the cost of Heimerdinger, who vanishes with his fate unknown.  Jayce is transported to a post-apocalyptic world, reuniting with the hooded figure that gave him the runestone when he was a child.  Learning that this future is the result of Viktor's actions, he promises to stop him before being send back by the figure, leading to the events that happened at the sanctuary.  Following the attack, Singed used Vander's remains to save Viktor as Vi confronts Caitlyn about Jinx's arrest.  But as she goes to see her sister she is outsmarted and Jinx escapes.  Mel has become fully embraced by her magical powers, escaping her prison, and encounters Jayce, as they are attacked by an emmisary of Viktor.  Caitlyn finds Vi in the cell, and they reconcile in a sweaty way, I love Vi's back tattoo ;-)

 

 

Ambessa allies with Viktor and they prepare to attack Piltover, as the troops, joined by the Zaunites, hold the line.  Jinx, persuaded from suicide by Ekko, arrive to save the city from falling just in the nick of time, as our heroes face off their enemies.  Caitlyn and Mel face Ambessa, overcoming her at the cost of the eye of the former, while Vi and Jinx face Vander.  Viktor uses his powers as he controls the Wild Rune, but Ekko remains out of the brainwashing grasp thanks to his time device.  He reveals the hooded figure from his past was none other then a future Viktor, who wants to stop the destruction his current version is about to cause.

But Vander remains feral, and Jinx seems to sacrifice herself to finally stop him, as the attack is stopped.  Vi and Caitlyn ponder their future, but Caitlyn suspects Jinx did escape at the final moment, having gone in hiding to break the cycle of violence...

So this was a fantastic series for certain, even though the second is a bit weaker then the first, it still was a stand out production with awesome art.  Go watch this if you haven't, even like me you never played the game more then 2 weeks...