Arcane Season 2 and The Last of Us Part 2 Share This Parallel

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 6, 2024 24 Views 9 Min Read
Arcane Season 2 and The Last of Us Part 2 Share This Parallel



Key Takeaways

  • Themes of vengeance and cycle of violence drive both Arcane and The Last of Us Part 2.
  • Ellie and Caitlyn both share the death of a parent as their motivator for revenge.
  • Arcane and The Last of Us Part 2 convey that the cycle of violence only ends when one finds the will to walk away.



Throughout its two-season run, Arcane: League of Legends explored many common themes in complex ways, such as sacrifice, class disparity, trauma, and love. One aspect of Arcane’s story bears similarities to another complex video game story,The Last of Us Part 2.

On the surface, Arcane and The Last of Us Part 2 couldn’t be more different. One is an animated series adapting Riot’s fantastical world of Runeterra, bringing its beloved champions to life in a stunning animated format. The other is a dark and violent story set in a grim post-apocalypse that has been overrun by fungal zombies. However, looking closer at the stories and characters of The Last of Us Part 2 and Arcane, there are actually quite a few themes that both titles explore.

Mel in Arcane Season 2

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Caitlyn and Ellie Seek Vengeance

Spoilers for
The Last of Us Part 2
and
Arcane
Season 2 are ahead.


The most obvious theme that The Last of Us Part 2 and Arcane share is the quest for vengeance. In Arcane Season 2, Caitlyn vows to get revenge against Jinx for the death of her mother, which occurred as a result of Jinx firing a missile at the Piltover council champers. In the opening three episodes of Arcane Season 2, Caitlyn’s vengeance is remorseless and overrules everything in her life, including her relationship with Vi. It also leads her to step up and become Piltover’s Commander, a title she uses to endorse martial law and oppress the people of Zaun for Jinx to be found.

In The Last of Us Part 2, Ellie goes on a very similar journey. In the opening of the game, Ellie witnesses the death of her father figure, Joel, at the hands of Abby. Ellie makes a vow of revenge and follows Abby to her home in Seattle, where she begins to kill everyone in her quest to track her nemesis down and make her pay. The loss of a parental figure is a motivator that Caitlyn and Ellie share as characters. Both characters also share other similar traits as they are both optimists when their respective stories begin, believing in the hope for a better future. But personal trauma drives them down a dark path.


The Cycle of Violence in Arcane and The Last of Us

The exploration of the cycle of violence is at the core of The Last of Us Part 2. Ellie’s mission of revenge begins with Abby killing Joel, but for Abby, the cycle started with Joel, who killed her father. While the cycle of violence is not the only theme that Arcane explores, it does operate similarly to The Last of Us Part 2. Caitlyn’s cycle of violence began with Jinx killing her mother, and for Jinx it started with Silco’s death (an act she committed but as a result of the actions of those in Piltover), and before Jinx, Silco’s cycle began with Vander attempting to kill him. All the characters are connected in an endless cycle of killing and grief that threatens to have no end.


How Arcane and The Last of Us Resolve the Need for Revenge

Arcane and The Last of Us Part 2 ultimately find their resolution to the cycle of violence in a similar place. The Last of Us Part 2 sees Ellie go to extreme lengths to get retribution for Joel’s death. She kills countless people, including those closest to Abby, but in the end, Abby spares Ellie’s life, choosing to break the cycle of killing in her life. Ellie doesn’t come to the same resolution until later after she’s tracked Abby to the ends of the Earth and forced her to fight to the death in hand-to-hand combat. But in the final moment when Ellie has the chance to kill Abby, she chooses not to, realizing that this act will not bring Joel back and that she will only be contributing to a cycle that she is a victim of. She spares Abby and, at that moment, also breaks the cycle.


Arcane comes to a similar resolution with Caitlyn and Jinx’s arcs. In Act 3 of Arcane Season 2, Caitlyn finally has the chance to enact revenge on Jinx, despite Vi’s pleas that her sister has changed. Upon visiting Jinx in jail, Caitlyn offers Jinx a chance to account for her actions, desperately wanting Jinx to justify her own mission for vengeance. When Jinx submits, allowing Caitlyn to enact her revenge, Caitlyn finds she no longer has the energy for it. Her desire for vengeance has consumed her for too long and led to her hating herself. Caitlyn walks away, coming to a similar conclusion to Ellie that enacting vengeance won’t bring her mother back.

Jinx Also Breaks the Cycle of Killing

Jinx has a much more overt conversation about the cycle of killing with an apparition of Silco in the same episode. “Killing is a cycle. One that started long before Vander and me, and it will continue long after the two of you,” Silco tells her. Silco reveals he thought he could break free by killing those who held him captive, but then he admits the cycle only ends “when you find the will to walk away.” Jinx enacts this in the very next scene. When Vi arrives to break her sister out Jinx avoids committing herself to Piltover’s war and instead locks Vi in the cell, keeping her from coming after her. She walks away from her sister because she believes herself to be the cause of the cycle and thus by removing herself, she can keep those closest to her safe. This also ties into Jinx’s final moments where she sacrifices herself to save Vi and then walks away from Piltover and Zaun altogether.


The cycle only ends once you find the will to walk away.

Arcane and The Last of Us Part 2 both present effective explorations of the idea that violence and vengeance are a neverending cycle and that the resolution is to walk away from it. Each story’s characters learn this at great personal cost, but in the end, they each find the strength to break the cycle.

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