Summary
- Netflix's animated show Arcane explored fatherhood more than motherhood.
- The lack of warm and nurturing mother figures was deliberate to maintain a dark tone.
- Despite missing out on exploring motherhood, future Arcane spinoffs may delve into this concept.
Arcane is one of the most successful animated series on Netflix. Despite its success, its writer admitted there was one concept they did not explore in the show.
Arcane is a critically acclaimed animated series based on League of Legends. It debuted on Netflix in November 2021. It was well-received, so it was renewed for a second season. Arcane Season 2 was released on the streaming giant three years later and was as successful as Season 1. However, its creator and showrunner Christian Linke ended it after its second season despite the demand for more because it was how they wrote it. According to him, they didn't want to "overdo it." However, there was one missed opportunity for ending it too soon.
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Amanda Overton, writer and co-executive producer of Arcane, spoke with Screen Rant about the show. She admitted that while the series was good at exploring the characters' background and showcasing Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx's (Ella Purnell) sibling relationship, there was a noticeable absence of mother figures. In fact, both Vi and Jinx are orphans. Also, Caitlyn's mother, Cassandra (Abigail Marlowe), was portrayed as a politically powerful and protective but stern mom. She is also controlling. However, in the League of Legends lore, Cassandra is more warm, loving, and nurturing. Her arc in Arcane was flattened and she felt more like a barrier than a source of support for Caitlyn (Katie Leung). Overton admitted that they did not explore the concept of motherhood in Arcane and part of that was probably because she wasn't a mother herself when they were working on the show. She explained:
I wasn't a mother when we were writing season 1 and 2 [...] There is so much more to explore in terms of motherhood, or how phases of life shift.
While Arcane didn't explore motherhood, it was able to highlight the influence of fathers on their children. Vander (JB Blanc), Vi and Jinx's adoptive father, was portrayed as a warm, charismatic and strong figure. He took the two girls under his wing after their parents were killed during a riot. He also took Mylo (Yuri Lowenthal) and Claggor (Roger Craig Smith) into his household. Another father figure explored in the show was Silco (Jason Spisak), who profoundly influenced a young, volatile Jinx into giving in to her dark, violent, and chaotic side. It's safe to say Arcane explored fatherhood more than motherhood.
Mothers are usually warm, loving, and supportive, and the lack of these traits is probably deliberate to make the show darker. The creative team was able to feature the complex relationships between the characters, especially the father figures and the mentorship dynamics. However, the mother figures are either absent, were given minimal screen time like Vi and Jinx's mom Felicia (Jeannie Tirado), who only appeared in the fifth episode of Season 2, or were emotionally distant or controlling. The noticeable absence of mothers reinforces emotional abandonment and effectively conveys the idea to the audience that these children — Vi, Jinx, Ekko, and Viktor — had to raise themselves in a broken world. Arcane is a story of survival and trauma due to the lack of nurturing and stable mother figures. However, there are at least three spinoffs in development and with Overton still part of the creative team, they can likely explore what they missed in Arcane in their upcoming projects. This is likely, especially after Overton's realizations.
Arcane streams on Netflix.
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Source: ScreenRant