A quick disclaimer before the essay:
Both Riot and Activision-Blizzard have a history of workplace harassment, abuse and general frat-boy culture that is well-documented. I will be praising the narrative aspects of their products in this piece, as I do believe they're worthy of that, but I'd be lying if I said I was comfortable doing so without acknowledging their history. It's a disgustingly common trend in the gaming space recently, as more and more studios are put under the spotlight and the industry as a whole needs an overhaul so those who make the games we love are able to work without fear of harassment and discrimination. With that being said, on to the piece.
Hiya!
So today is going to be the first original piece I've written for this blog. I'm gonna try at least two original pieces a week, with the odd vault essay if I find one I think people will like. Need to start getting a proper backlog of work I can show off. Regardless, since I've been getting back into Valorant and with Overwatch 2 on the horizon, I thought I'd write about a show I really enjoyed, why I'm so surprised it took THIS long for something like it to be made and why I hope more franchises take note and follow suit.
Arcane
Arcane is an animated series based on the video game League of Legends that started streaming on Netflix in November of 2021. It takes place in the City of Progress, Piltover, a very steampunk centric city divided into the main city, where the academics, entrepreneurs and generally better-off folk live, and the Undercity, where the less fortunate and criminal elements of the city reside and a more... radical form of science takes hold. It follows Vi, Powder/Jinx, Jayce, Caitlyn and more as an heist gone wrong changes the city forever. Those named characters, along with others like Heimerdinger and Victor, are all Champions you can play as in League of Legends, and while Arcane doesn't follow their backstories from the game, it uses a lot of the preestablished lore to help flesh out its world. Those familiar with the game will probably recognize names like Zaun, the name for an independent Undercity that main antagonist Silco wishes to create, as the city where heroes such as Blitzcrank, Warwick and others are listed from in their League of Legends biographies, including Champions who appear in Arcane, or the invention of Hextech, a combination of magic and technology, as occurs in the show becoming a core part of a lot of Piltover Champions abilities in-game. Arcane is essentially an origin story for the steampunk side of the League of Legends universe, featuring some of its most well-known faces and, if I can be indulgent for a second, an absolute BANGER of a soundtrack. (There's a behind the scenes clip where some of the animators say they wanted to insert a music video in each episode and goddamn, did they succeed)
The interesting thing about League of Legends, however, is that Piltover isn't the only location with a lot engaging characters hail from. League is set in the world of Runeterra, a world filled with almost every single mythos you could think of. If you're a fan of nordic and viking-inspired stories, the Freljord with its snowy landscapes, unforgiving weather and tribes of warriors is for you. With Champions such as Braum, a man of massive size and an even larger heart, Ashe, the Frost Archer and Warmother of the largest tribe in the Freljord, and the ancient Lady of Ice and Darkness Lissandra, who, long ago, sacrificed whole armies and her two sisters in order to lock away the Watchers, massive beings from a primordial abyss of nothingness called the Void. There's demi-gods like the smith Ornn who keeps his kin in line and out of the buisness of mortals, as well as Volibear, the blizzard incarnate who wishes to wipe Freljord of civilization.
Are you more a fan of the strong, heroic and stalwart types with a hint of moral grey? Demacia is for you, a kingdom whose history has led it to outlaw all magic and imprison those who demonstrate an affinity for it. Its home to Garen, leader of its armies and loyal to a fault, his sister Lux, the Lady of Luminosity who hides her light-based sorceries as best she can while healing her allies, and Lucian, the Purifier, the first black Champion in League's history as well as a Sentinel of Light, dedicated to purging any and all undead and undying from the world at the end of twin relic pistols. Not to mention Sylas, the Unchained, whose ability to seek out and copy magical abilities led to his imprisonment and subsequent escape, now leading a full-scale revolutionary movement, or sibling demigods Kayle and Morgana, the former perceived as a bringer of justice and retribution yet grows tired of humanity, the latter a patron of outcasts, fighting from the shadows against the unjust systems her sister upholds.
What about ninjas, samurai and other eastern imagery? Let me introduce Ionia, a land of unspoiled beauty and magic, whose scattered inhabitants lived in harmony until the expansionist conquering empire of Noxus smashed through its borders. Home to Yasuo, a wandering swordsmaster who was framed for murder, killed his brother (who later returned from the dead as ANOTHER Champion) and menace to players everywhere in-game. Home to Zed, the assassin leader of the Order of Shadows, an organization bent on militarizing the magic of Ionia to drive out the Noxian invaders by any means necessary. Home to Akali, an independent member of the Kinkou Order, dedicated to keeping balance between the mortal and spiritual planes, who strikes from the shadows and performs as part of fan-favorite K-Pop band K/DA, no I am not joking. I could mention Kayne, another member of the Order of Shadows whose weapon is home to an ancient God-Warrior corrupted by the Void and blood magic, or Ahri, a six-tailed fox woman who wanders the land, looking for a place she belongs, or Sett, who rose through the fighting pits of Ionia to eventually run them and lead the burgeoning criminal underworld, but I feel like you get the point by now.
Then we could talk about Noxus itself, whose brutal outward expansion hides a surprisingly inclusive kingdom, or the Shadow Isles, a once-beautiful land torn asunder by a cataclysm and now is home to ghosts and ghouls and dark magics, or Shurima, an Egyptian inspired fallen kingdom whose ancient heroes and villians return as Ascended and more I simply cannot mention at risk of throwing even more names at you. ALL of these characters (bar the Watchers) are playable in League of Legends, all the lands have their own storylines waiting to happen all have a rich tapestry to draw from if Arcane ever wished to include them. Riot, the developers behind League, have realized the goldmine they've been sitting on for years and have started to expand their brand in events like Sentinels of Light, an overarching story of the Shadow Isles's slowing corrupting the rest of Runeterra, or various spin-off games like Ruined King: A League of Legends Story or Project L. Arcane season 2 doesn't even need to continue the events of season 1, they can branch out to any other region of Runeterra. The world Riot have made in the character descriptions and short cinematics is so rich and wide that not tapping into it would be foolish. Which brings me to...
Overwatch
Overwatch is a video game by Activision-Blizzard released in 2016 to MASSIVE success. The first real hero-shooter to gain mainstream attention, it's set on a near-future Earth after a worldwide war known as the Omnic Crisis, where the titular robotic Omnics rebelled against their human bosses. Overwatch was a human strike force made to help protect and save humans, but was eventually brought down by scandal and a huge conflict at their headquarters, leading to many of its members either being presumed dead or vanishing off on their own paths. Years later, after the terrorist group Talon begin stoking the fires of a second Omnic Crisis, a new generation of heroes unite with some of the old guard to save the world once again. Now, the important thing to note here is, this is the story we gain from the opening cinematic, called Recall, that follows Winston, the scientist gorilla (yes, seriously, he's great) activating the titular recall signal after the Overwatch outpost he's living in comes under attack by Talon and one of their leaders, Reaper, a former Overwatch commander. This is the FURTHEST the story in the games has gone in over 6 years. There's been a lot of webcomics that flesh out backstories and show where various characters are around the time of the signal, and as various characters have been added, there's been small bits of progression, but if I was being kind, the actual timeline seems to only go, at best, a month or two out from the signal. The rest of the story events cover past conflicts, such as the Null Sector attack in King's Row, London, the first assignment Tracer, the cover character and fan favorite, went on as part of Overwatch, or the botched interrogation of a Talon operative in Venice by Blackwatch, the black ops wing of Overwatch led by Reaper, or the capture of Talon operative Maximillian by the newly reformed Overwatch soon after the recall signal... and that's it. So much time has been spent building the Overwatch universe wide but not nearly enough time has been spent building it tall.
This usually wouldn't be a problem, League doesn't even have a campaign mode and I've not leveled the same critique at it. The problem is League has a much wider, diverse cast all dealing with various stories. You have Ionia and Noxus at war, Demacia dealing with a revolution, the Shadow Isle's recent invasion of the rest of Runeterra, the clans clashing in the Freljord and that's not even mentioned the overarching, apparent big-bad of the Void or the other various threats individual Champions face. Runeterra feels like a living, breathing world where things are always happening. With each new Champion added, another section of the world is coloured in to create this beautiful tapestry of a world that drew me in, someone with literally ZERO interest in the game. Overwatch meanwhile, released a cinematic or a short comic for each new Hero as they released and while they're all good, a lot of them ended the same way. They look at a screen or hear a radio and realize Winston has activated the Recall signal, firmly establishing these stories within the same timeframe as that opening cinematic. Overwatch doesn't feel like a world that's growing and expanding, it feels like a world that we've been dropped into and instead of allowing us to piece together things as we go, we've been stuck in the same timeframe of a few weeks to a few months as Acti-Blizz fills in the past for us. League has multiple plates spinning and each of those plates could be expanded into a book or a game or an in-game story event if they wanted. Overwatch has maybe two or three that are all connected to the core narrative, a core narrative that hasn't progressed forward in years.
This isn't a dismissal of Overwatch's narrative, by the way. What they've established is interesting, Talon's endgame and the actual explosive disbanding of Overwatch are both engaging mysteries players have been waiting on for a while. Its just a matter of getting to the firework factory, so to speak. Which leads me to...
Valorant
Riot's newest game, Valorant is a hero shooter heavily inspired by Valves Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (henceforth CSGO) set again on a near-future Earth. The narrative of the game follows the titular Valorant Protocol, a team comprised of superhumans called Radiants and other superhuman soldiers as they fight against invasions from a Mirror Earth version of the Valorant Protocol, who're attempting to steal the Prime Earth's Radianite, a special mineral that powers a lot of the new technology of the universe. Immediately, we can see the comparisons between Overwatch and Valorant, both games following a diverse cast of characters under the same name as the game, fighting against a mysterious organization with some similarities to them, be they former members or outright mirrors. There's also some more coincidental similarities that fall into the trope category (the two games both having their gruff, no-nonsense veteran in Soldier:76 and Brimstone leading their respective team and withholding secrets from the rest, their second in-command being the medic of the team and so on) but the similarities end there.
This is gonna be a shorter segment as Valorant is still in the early days of its narrative, the team having only recently figured out a way to visit the Mirror Earth thanks to some new members, but there's a lot of plates spinning already. The main questions, such as why the Mirror Valorant team are invading to begin with is and what the Kingdom Corporation has to do with it as well as some of our cast (Multiple Agents are former Kingdom employees such as Brimstone, Viper and Killjoy, while characters like Raze actively fought against their expansion) are slowly getting answered, while more Agent-focused ones are hinted at. Omen is a character with no knowledge of his own identity, yet he wears a Kingdom logo and some characters comment on knowing his true name, while Kay/O is a robot from a 'Days of Future Past'-like alternate timeline where the Radiants of the Prime Earth went to war with the rest of humanity, the most dangerous of them being Reyna, another Agent with mysterious motivations. Then we have Chamber, whose the only member of the team to actually meet and converse with his mirror counterpart without a firefight, even teaming up with them at one point. Recently, we had a long buildup for the newest Agent, Fade, whose Radiant ability to sense fear and access people's nightmares allowed her to blackmail Valorant with their darkest worries before being recruited after the correction of some misunderstandings. The whole team has various levels of mysteries, personal and more impactful on the wider world, to be unraveled and the main narrative is still firmly in Act 1, despite what the game would tell you.
The thing both Acti-Blizz and Riot do extremely well, however, are their cinematics. Occasionally, either to coincide with a new character or just to hype up a new competitive season, a cinematic will be released to build excitement and show off what's new. Recently, as part of an ongoing story in League surrounding the resurgence of the Void, Riot has released short videos of the new "Empress" of the Void communicating with other Void-related Champions, with a full reveal just being released at time of writing. Likewise, Overwatch has done less cinematics overall, but each and every one are of an extremely high quality. Both studios have massively talented animation departments at their disposal and that's not to mention Riot's ability to get incredible music for their trailers. Arcane is just a natural extension of what Riot's been doing for years, good narrative, great worldbuilding and incredible animation and music and i really hope other franchises follow suit. If the Sony/Bungie deal leads to a good Destiny movie or series, I may just self-combust in happiness.
Conclusion
Arcane's success is a great example of the potential of video game adaptation (a thing i'm planning on writing another piece about so look out for that) and an even better example of the richness inherent in games that focus on unique and varied casts inhabiting a similarly unique and varied world. If brands like Overwatch or Destiny wish to start getting people invested again or reaching a new audience, creating shows inspired by their game worlds as opposed to directly following the plot of a game is a fantastic way to go.
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