Romania & Bro: ARCANE Season 2: Episode 3 FULL LENGTH Reaction!
Added 2024-12-02 18:00:06 +0000 UTC**RECKLESS HEADPHONE WARNINGS**
It's the end of Act I and Oh ho ho...things are REALLY getting mysterious, wild, and of COURSE, this show can't let me have my yuri moment without temporarily dooming it. *sighs heavily and squirms in fangirl denied*
This episode was crazy and I was certainly speechless for parts of it, but my brother and I have lots to talk about it...I wish you could see his face as he tries to not spoil me!
LINK TO REACTION: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/2tbRjYuqYgRDNe3RXWivpa?
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
Hahaha, that is a fair point on Gabi! I agree with you, episode 4 gave me more empathy/sympathy for Jinx, but like you said, I don't want her deeds that were bad excused just because we got to know her thought process more.
Romaniablack
2024-12-18 15:23:37 +0000 UTCMust be my contrarian side coming out again, the more Gabi hate i saw the more i loved her, but here i guess i haven't seen enough Jinx hate. :P I still have sympathy/empathy for Jinx i just hope the show doesn't sweep to much of her deeds under the rug.
Christopher Pettersson
2024-12-13 19:08:48 +0000 UTCOh no worries! Tone is something I’m admittedly not great at differentiating - I should air more on the side of giving the benefit of the doubt, though! 😀But yeah, “WHO” are the good guys in this? Everyone? No one? Where’s Erwin Smith to help us point out who the enemy is? 😛 Hahaha, The GABI stan in me does want to lean a little more towards giving Jinx a little empathy, especially in this episode coming up (4 and 5, which is as far as I am right now) but yeah…more on that to come! ;)
Romaniablack
2024-12-12 19:13:02 +0000 UTCI personally think he was trying to maybe stay as uninvolved as possible, but that’s just me reasoning why he did what he did, and then curiosity got the better of him and he got more involved – I’m not saying he’s right in doing that - but hey, all of these characters are making bad decisions everywhere, so why not involve Heimerdinger, too? 😛
Romaniablack
2024-12-12 19:10:50 +0000 UTCTo me his biggest mistakes were part of the founding of Piltover, which if it is 200 and Heimerdinger is 307+, he was there for. It's like if George Washington was still walking around, it would be hard not to ask "Why didn't you abolish slavery in the constitution?" The council kicked him out, but he helped create the council and established it as a group of nobles and oligarchs to begin with. IMO, the political establishment was long overdue for reform, and it had to start with getting rid of the old guard.
Lynden
2024-12-07 23:11:25 +0000 UTCEven if i consider myself quite proficient in english i don't use it for communication all that often so i don't actually know how my "style" of writing comes across to others. If i would try to state an overall intent when commenting i would perhaps put it as "respectful but cheeky", others will have to judge how close i'm getting. :) Definitely some of those AoT vibes, who am i rooting for? who are the good guys now again? And i might just be a bit in the same mood as when i go defend that Rod Reiss. I've "only" watched the 6 first episodes and i've might been a bit influenced by my thoughts one the second arc, and felt not enough people... problematize past behaviors of characters like Jinx... and Victor. But as a proud Gabi stan i'm not beyond forgiving past, slightly problematic, actions. :P
Christopher Pettersson
2024-12-06 10:45:33 +0000 UTCApologies, that makes a lot of sense! Hahaha!! I think it was a "lost in translation" moment on my end, so thank you for clarifying that for me! I forgot English wasn't your first language; no worries! Thank you for being kind in your explanation! I feel like Arcane takes me back to AOT days where everyone is human and making mistakes and backed into a corner, and we the viewers all are "choosing sides" based on who we have more empathy with - I'd love to play devil's advocate, but I realize I'm very biased myself haha! With my background in conflict resolution and mediation, I'm more the pacifist "restorative justice" person that would want Jinx to get some rehabilitation, but apparently Piltover and Zaun aren't hiring. ;) But I agree with you that I'm more on Vi's end, even if I try to play a little Devil's Advocate for Jinx these next few episodes (I'm only to Episode 5, though). So we can talk more when we get to that, of course! ;) Thank you for the reply!! Viva la red shirt!
Romaniablack
2024-12-05 22:28:57 +0000 UTCYou know....he is our disaster himbo! :P Thank you for the comment!
Romaniablack
2024-12-05 22:24:57 +0000 UTCThere was no "do it" in my "open eyes" statement, so definitely not meant as command, more as an... observation? Different perspective? I'll just blame english not being my first language with our own... miscommunication. :P Yeah just some semantics, for me with all that has happend between these two a major conflict seems... appropriate. That might not quite be the right word and in the real world any non violent solution would be preferable, but here we want some drama and to me it seems well grounded. I guess i also depends on where one wants everything to end up, if one wants Vi and Jinx to make up, Jinx to be wholly rehabilitated and redeemed (figuratively and literally) the conflict one would want would be different. I'm more on Vi's side here, and definitely more on the side of all those red shirts i've been talking about, so yeah, Jinx should go to prison for life. Sure, not Stillwater but something nice and modern, focused on rehabilitation not punishment, but still.
Christopher Pettersson
2024-12-05 15:09:59 +0000 UTCJayce casually poisoning the undercity, that's my goat ;)
AnNaNN
2024-12-05 09:57:35 +0000 UTCI agree, this was a really enjoyable climax for the first arc! I rarely listen to modern music, so it’s nice to hear some “newer” songs! 😛 Yeahhhhh, Jayce really overlooked that, didn’t he? Lots of progress, but maybe not as much hindsight, haha!! But yes, it’s easy to get lost in the hype and innovation! It’s easy to get narrow-focused! That’s a great way of putting it! The series does an amazing job of revealing how both sides have reasons for what they’re doing and whether you agree or not, you can see the sides at work. Yessss, Ambessa’s actions are devious!! And Ambessa likes isolating people to exploit or manipulate, so I totally agree! It’s such great antagonist behavior, especially with someone like Ambessa that has some layers shown to us over the course of this season so far! I would agree about that with Ambessa not worrying about Mel, but I would be interested in knowing her thoughts now that Mel has “vanished!” But dang…Vi is not the best at coping, this is true! I agree, we don’t know the full time frame, but I suppose that’s not what matters in the long run of things. I definitely want Vi and Jinx to be able to talk and work things out but this series doesn’t look like it’s going to give us nice things! One can HOPE though! I agree, this was a great episode and I’m super excited for next week’s! Thank you for the comment!
Romaniablack
2024-12-04 23:42:58 +0000 UTCHahaha, look, I had open eyes - I just had shipper goggles on, and will probably the rest of the season, so y’all just have to deal with it and me. That whole “just do it with open eyes” came across a little like “telling me what to do” and the tone of it was a little off-putting, sorry if I misinterpreted. 😛It wouldn’t be a Romania Black experience without excess shipping, as you know from AOT! 😛 “Girlbossing her way into fascism.” Oof. Haha! I mean, I think the Grey as well as the Hex Tech are both bad. You’re not saying anything I haven’t thought of or considered - I’m just having fun with this series with my brother, y’all! And yeah, I don’t keep up with modern music, so this is getting me to listen to songs I normally wouldn’t! I am certain that Vi is using the kid as an excuse; like I said with my brother, she can say all day long she’s going to kill Jinx, but I doubt she ever will. Thank you for the note about Mel’s brother - I’ll have to note that for a future reaction! I mean, (tossing on my communications major and teacher hat) I do think that it boils down to interpersonal communication, but I’m not going to lecture folks on that - I’m off duty and don’t want to crack open a textbook - but narratively, Vi didn’t have time to tell Jinx everything about her decision-making which would involve…communication. Maybe “lack of communication” would be more textbook-appropriate, but it’s still a plot convenience to have Jinx not understand Vi’s decision and all the nuances with it. But I would respectfully disagree and say that there is, in fact, a misunderstanding in the lack of information totally on the table. Agree to disagree, of course. 🙂 And Jinx has had a tendency to be self-sacrificial in season one, so I guess that does check out! Thanks for the comment!
Romaniablack
2024-12-04 23:29:22 +0000 UTCFor some reason, Patreon deleted your other comment and didn't show it, but I wanted to include: That might have been, which is really sad if that’s the case. 🙁 She DEFINITELY has a tendency to be self-sacrificial, which is sad. That is true she has a track record of having bad views of herself and wanting to put herself on the line, and it is sad. Thanks for the comment!
Romaniablack
2024-12-04 23:19:59 +0000 UTCThat’s a really interesting way to look at it! I would say that he might not have just been surprised by it - he follows a trope of time traveler that can impart wisdom but still hopes (perhaps foolishly) that the next generation won’t make the same mistakes - his issue is he realized too late how far Jayce and Viktor got – but yes, let’s not forget that he did try to stop it but I would argue he didn’t just “give in,” they literally kicked him out. I have a little more grace to him because I think that they show how he knows the council is corrupt, but he can’t control them - the council should have just as easily heeded his warnings. I think Jayce can say Heimerdinger was wrong, but uhmmmm…that’s very pot calling the kettle black. 😛Thank you for the comment!
Romaniablack
2024-12-04 23:17:16 +0000 UTCYup, Heimerdinger was right to warn Jayce and Viktor about hextech, but why did he think they were so desperate, why did he let things get to this point when he was in the council hundreds of years? He is nice and he is wise, but when you are just there to warn people and offer no solution to the increasing political tension, oblivious to the corruption around you, what do you expect?
Pancake
2024-12-04 14:07:23 +0000 UTCHeimerdinger carries a lot of responsibility for things getting this bad imo. He's basically one of those Silicon Valley types that every time you bring up a social issues tries to come up with a technological solution. He just kind of watched things get this bad over the course off the entire life of the city, and now seems suprised by it all. At least he did try to stop the development of hex tech at first, but then gave in to the council. His obliviousness to the corruption of the council and the enforcers is pretty inexcusable for a person in a trusted position of power. I remember being sad when he was kicked off the council, and under the circumstances it was bad, but I don't think Jayce was wrong when he said that Heimerdinger had failed to do his job.
Lynden
2024-12-04 02:02:01 +0000 UTCHey you can fangirl over Victor all you want... now just with open eyes. And i did try to make him look as bad a possible as if i was the prosecutor, if i had instead been his lawyer i would have worded the same things differently. :) Ok, now that "big guy" and "fish guy" have been on the strike force and we see "big guy" walk away from Cait girlbossing her way into fascism i do want their names. Otherwise it's a bit harder for me to be invested in the moral choices they're making, because i don't know how consequential they're going to be going forward, i want to know what informs their decisions. So it might be easy to panic over the effects the arcane/hextech is having but how is it really different from everything else they've been doing? They grey and all the other pollution seems way worse at this point. Heck, Silco's eye became that way because he sustained an injury from Vander just being submerged in the river water. Every exploitation of natural resources and industrial development have consequences the question is how to handle and mitigate the effects (unless everybody just lives in caves and lives of the land instead which of course isn't without consequences either) and sure, Piltover (and frankly, Zaun) has been shit at it thus far, but the downsides of Hextech haven't come close to the negative effects of all their other industries at this point. So sure this new development is cause for concern but not worse than all other shit they also should have been concerned about for a very long time. I do like the little music videos Arcane does, even with music i would never listen to otherwise, last episode was just the only time it didn't quite work for me. Not to say Vi was wrong in stopping Cait but i don't think she missed a single shot here (except the one when Vi grabbed the barrel and pointed it into the floor) so she was probably fully confident she could make the shot. And one can wonder how much Vi based her decision on the little kid, because when Jayce killed that kid in season 1 it seemed par for the course for Vi, so perhaps more to do with Jinx than she is willing to admit (even to herself perhaps). They did mention Mel's brother in season 1, it was just a short scene where Embessa told Mel that her brother was gone and it was because he had crossed the wrong man (it think she said "man", could have said "person"). I'm not sure i see it as being miscommunication between Vi and Jinx. Vi joining the very group that killed their parents, beating up people all while also weaponizing the very pollution the underground already have had to struggle with all these years? all true. Jinx being a mass murdering terrorist, single handedly being behind several mass casualty events, one that incidentally also killed Vi's girlfriends mom? also all true. So, miscommunication in the sense that they could "communicate" in a more productive way, perhaps, but not in the sense that there is some misunderstanding between them. I'm not really sure how to interpret Jinx at the end, but it almost seemed like she wanted to die there, perhaps she just wanted "the grey" to be a final FU to Piltover after her death?
Christopher Pettersson
2024-12-03 19:06:20 +0000 UTCOh, this was such a nice climax for this first arc! The song that plays during the fight is called To Ashes and Blood, and is one of my favorites from this new season. Jayce just casually demonstrating how little actual thought he gave to the consequences of Hex tech by not even thinking of Zaun possibly being affected by it is... really proving Heimmendinger's point *lol* I kind of love it, though. How, yes, Jayce was the man of progress, and he opened the way for some incredible inventions and that was exciting; I mean, I remember being so excited about Hex tech being approved way back in season 1 right alongside him, and I think it's easy to get lost in that hype of innovation and possibility. And then everything just starts catching up with him, and the consequences make themselves very obvious. The way you can get so narrow focused on something, and ignored everything that should have been obvious, is a real struggle and the thing that make Jayce both incredibly hilarious by how thoroughly he failed to make things better as he wanted and how human he is in the process. Ambessa using Caitlyn as the head of her militia, or whatever the correct term for that would be, when she is in a compromise and vulnerable emotional state - now also isolated from Vi who gave her stability - and is thus easy to manipulate is devious; specially when you considered that while, yes, Salo is also really easy to manipulate because he wants the power, as we saw with this whole meeting, Caitlyn has actually proven herself to be smart and resourceful and is, thus, more useful than Salo could ever be. Caitlyn already wants revenge - which is something we've already seen Ambessa use to her advantage with the way that she manipulated the Chem Baroness who had her child killed to get revenge for him by attacking the memorial - and that is something that Ambessa never seems to have been able to cultivate within Mel, so she pries it from Caitlyn, and has a solid hold of her from there. I love how we continue to see the inequality between Zaun and Piltover with the whole Grey-thing this episode. Sure, while I don't think that most Piltovians knew about what Caitlyn was doing weaponizing the Grey to hunt for Jinx, I also don't think they ever cared to know what was going on; but the second that the thing they caused and weaponized is turned on them is unforgivable and a heinous act. This coupled with the more resigned, if angry, way that Zaunites just take Piltover doing this is a great, and subtle, commentary on the state of things... and the rising tension. The way we continue to see Vi's very terrible way to cope with change is nice. Considering how she was basically in stasis for as long as she was in prison, and then when she came out everything had changed, to now, with her pleading to Caitlyn to not change, just as she is being changed by her grief is, almost poetic, really. And, truly, how long has it being since Vi got out of prison? A few months? A few weeks? I honestly have no sense of time in this show, but it certainly hasn't been long enough that things are easy to assimilate for her, I don't think. No wonder she says so ferociously she wants to kill Jinx so she can stop sullying Powder's memory and then closes her eyes as Caitlyn takes what she, Vi, believes is the killing shot; or fights Jinx with eyes full of unshed tears and despair. I think Ambessa wasn't worried about Mel not being in the meeting at the end of the episode because she wasn't invited. After all, Salo went to secretly call for a meeting of the great houses and the only reason Mel knew about is because of Lest's tip and her assistant digging for information. Does Ambessa already know that Mel is gone? I'm not sure, it's unclear, but I don't believe she was supposed to be at that meeting either way. All in all, this episode was really intense and a great crescendo for everything.
Alexandra Q
2024-12-03 03:52:08 +0000 UTC
