Arcane takes place in the world of League of Legends, but whether or not the Netflix series is a direct adaptation of its lore is a little more up for debate. Since all the broad strokes have been similar, and all the crossover characters perfectly recognizable, it’s easy to assume that the series is building up to a finale that gives its League characters the ending we expect. But there’s nothing to say that Arcane has to end somewhere familiar.
Throughout its two-season run, Arcane has seemingly treated League of Legends lore with a very careful balance of reverence and disregard. The show is adherent to the game’s existing story, and deeply respectful of — and in conversation with — its world. But it’s also in the business of making good TV, and it hasn’t let League lore get in the way of that yet. So I don’t see a reason to start that in its final act.
With that in mind, my expectation is that the place the show leaves the characters will gesture at their state in League of Legends, but won’t be overly concerned with keeping their details exact. For instance, I don’t think that Vi will somehow transform into the video game version of her character, a champion whose in-game lines are almost all dedicated to her love of police brutality and over-the-top violence. But I do think that she’ll end up as some kind of officer of the law in Piltover along with Caitlyn. Jayce is already long past his state in League of Legends by the end of season 2 Act 2, but I suppose he could go back to some semblance of normal. The easiest proof of this being Fortiche and Riot’s approach to Arcane’s story is probably Warwick, who is seemingly already dead in the canon of the series.
The most interesting example in this case, however, is Viktor, a character who is seemingly miles from his League of Legends state when we last see him in Act 2. In League of Legends, Viktor looks much more machine than man, an almost completely robotic cyborg with no exposed skin and a ruthless worldview that puts machine life above that of humans. He seeks to lead all humanity toward an evolution that turns them too into machines. In other words, it’s a rather staggering departure from the zen-like calm and post-human enlightenment that Viktor seems to have in the show before Jayce blows a hole through his chest.
As for the rest of the characters, they’ll probably end up somewhere along this same line of continuity, pointing toward the League characters we know, without the cheesiness of having to say their literal catchphrases in the show. Of course, another possibility for many of these characters is that Arcane won’t be the last time that Fortiche and Riot touch on their stories. So if we leave Viktor before he can complete his glorious evolution, maybe it’s just because there’s a machine spinoff in the works.
The final episodes of Arcane season 2 drop on Nov. 23.
