I Think About This Interview A Lot, Primarily Because Of What Christian Linke Says At 8:56:

I think about this interview a lot, primarily because of what Christian Linke says at 8:56:

“—We always said to ourselves that our first season should really establish our characters and get them to the point where they are pretty close to, you know, the version of the characters from our game. So…in a way it’s kind of like, really true to their origin story.

“Season 2–we definitely always wanted to take it further. To say ‘okay, now that we kind of know these characters and they exist (in our audience’s minds, also), where do they go from here?’”

He goes on to explain that characters will be becoming the opposite of what they were in S1, but I wanted to focus on this portion specifically because it’s the main crux of why I believe champion death and more aggressive canon divergence is an absolute possibility in Arcane S2.

Linke essentially said that the purpose of S1 was to be the origin story. S2 is pushing beyond that, which means they’re going beyond established lore and maybe breaking down parts of old lore. Whether that’s good or not remains to be seen by S2’s finale, but either way a lot of League players have told me online that champion death is simply not possible because Arcane is an origin story.

This quote contradicts that statement.

jayce and viktor fight(?) in season one arcane intro?

not based on leaks!!!!

I think it’s worth knowing that the two images we see of Jayce and Viktor in the last half of the season 1 intro are not anywhere in the first season.

First off, look at Jayce

He’s wearing his lab outfit!

There’s also only one scene in season one where we see him use the hammer

The shimmer thug fight scene. In that scene, he is not only wearing his council uniform, but his expression is completely different. Instead of the sort of remorseful shock we see plastered on him in the intro, he looks absolutely enraged, as if he’s releasing all of his pent up fury.

Secondly, Viktor. Viktor is kind of offhandedly in the last half of the season one intro, you’re only going to catch that it’s him if you’ve seen the show before.

Note the purple, the leg brace, the boots, the crutch in the background; this is 100% Viktor. However! This doesn’t depict any scene in season one. The only part of the show where we see him run he sort of stutters into it. He drops his crutch, gingerly takes a few steps before picking up and eventually kind of tripping or kicking himself into a full fledged run. This thing, in the intro, it seems to give the impression that he drops the crutch at the same time he starts running.

Also worth noting, viktor is barefoot and not wearing his leg brace in the running scene.

This might be a bit of a stretch, but with the added context of Vi and Jinx’s big fight from the season 2 trailer being in hidden the s1 intro, I don’t think it’s entirely impossible that a big, or maybe even the big Jayce and Viktor fight got hidden as well.

Here’s my stupid poster assumptions in rainbow order

❤️ = Ambessa (noxus colors)

🧡 = Viktor (orange/bronze was always his primary color in league—even in his tech)

💛 = Jayce (honestly don’t know what other color to give him…he’s associated with piltover i guess?)

💚 = Singed (green chemtech)

💙 = Jinx (hair)

💜 = Caitlyn, apparently (maybe because of her outfit through most of s1?)

🩷 = Vi (hair)

🤎 = Warwick (vander)

🤍 = mystery champ

This is assuming that the arcane social media team isn’t just messing with us or basing colors on something we couldn’t possibly know from s1, which they very well might be 💀

Vik doodle while i'm in class lol

Why are people surprised about a potential Jayce and Viktor fight? I mean yeah that's expected to happen. In the LoL lore, they are each others arc nemesis

I don’t think many people are surprised about the fact that it’s happening so much as being excited/nervous about the when and how. We know Jayce and Viktor are going to fight, but in which act will we see it?

Will there be a timeskip beforehand?

Will it be part of the finale?

Will it be a more ranged, mystical fight or will it be gritty and bloody and personal?

Viktor will most likely be in his MH form by that time but will he be more void-focused in design and fighting style or will he retain his clunky mechanics?

Will Jayce even recognize him during the fight?

How will the Hexcore play into all of this?

Will Jayce and Viktor’s fight be part of a larger fight involving other champions or will it be a two-man standoff?

There’s lots of stuff to theorize and discuss

GIVE HER A BREAK ☹️💐🧸