Arcane does a thing that I wish more media would. It doesn't write women. It writes characters who are women. It's a facet of who they are, but it isn't their identity. And they don't focus on that part more than they focus on the core traits. And I love it.

Something kinda specific-but I love, LOVE that women in the show *scream*, They *cry* they sob & panic in such a human way & it’s never played in a ‘pretty’, fetishized way. They also get the snot beat out of them, they fucking fight like humans fight, not in a ‘sexy’, voyeuristic way

Arcane just makes you forget that there is a gender issue in the first place. It comes so natural that you forget to think about the whole thing. It’s phenomenal.

As a black girl- Mel was quite literally the best animated black woman I have seen so far.

The genius thing about Caitlyn's shower scene was that it's different from most shower scenes in that it just wasn't... sexy? There are no objectifying angles, every time we see her in the scene she's weirdly (yet believably) hunched over, we're basically shown only three parts of her body: extremely tense shoulders, her bleeding wound, her exasperated face. The point of the scene isn't to show us she's attractive of objectify her, it's to a) show that she's extremely tense and frustrated and b) create a parallel between her, in water, and Vi, under the rain. As you said, the center isn't her body, it's her as a character. The viewer is forced to feel what she feels to the point where you don't even think about her naked boobs or whatever

The underlying reason why Arcane can get all these female characters right is that the story has a lot of them. Female characters make up half the cast, almost as if half the population of humanity is female or something. It allows them to do so many things without overloading any single character. No one character has to be the "science one" and the "caring one" and the "fighting one" and "crazy one" all in a single package.

The thing is one: Arcane is TRUE. It doesn't talk about "men", "women", "children", "adults", it talks about PEOPLE. They made a great, great job in these. I hope every future serie script (not only videogames inspired) will take notes from now on.

Something you missed: Caitlyn is of upper class who have the luxury of being soft on people. She has the option of showing mercy on an enemy who would possibly come back and try to kill her. Vi does not. Caitlyn has the luxury of long range weapon tech, while Vi must slug it out with bits of metal strapped to her fist. Caitlyn has the luxury of honing accuracy, while Vi has to beat through by sheer brute force. It is not a matter of feminine VS masculine, but rather haves VS have nots. They highlighted this in the show.

Also, I like how Mel is a very skilled and somewhat antagonistic manipulator, who, if you think about it, never RELIES on her physical beauty to manipulate others. It’s definitely there, but in the background. It’s an auxiliary skill that she uses as an extra layer of insurance while relying on her conversational skills and political pull to get what she wants. And even then, she isn’t promiscuous, she didn’t “sleep her way to the top” she uses her beauty in the way most traditionally attractive MEN use their looks. People just sort of, trust her, assume she knows best without any real reason.

As a woman I loved seeing Vi get beat up so much, usually even "fighter" women don't get decked in the face like that. It was weirdly refreshing. And Vi constantly getting the shit kicked out of her is a strong contrast to Jinx almost never getting touched in fights. The one or two times Jinx gets physically hurt, it's a big deal.

Mel; a strong, black, complex, nuanced female ORIGINAL character. Can't be Disney.

I LOVE the “lack of stigma in fantasy world” in any type of media. It is my absolute favourite. I think it does more for representation than having a minority character’s only struggle be bigotry. Visualizing a world where there isn’t a standard for femininity or masculinity, and where sexuality isn’t so heavily defined is so fun and it demonstrates a world I hope we get to eventually

A really small detail that I absolutely loved, loved, loved to see: Jinx has painted nails. Whenever I saw them, they made me remember, in that moment, that she is more than a chaotic mess: she is just a girl. At some point, she just sat down and painted her nails like many of us do. It added so much dimension to her character.

Idk if someone's mentioned this, but I also really like Cait's shower scene because of the way it frames her. She is not shown scrubbing at her shoulders sensually, and there's no long shots of her legs in motion- she is braced against the wall, thinking about her fight with Vi and the camera focuses on the blood from her leg mixing with the water. The focus in this scene is not on her (evident) sex appeal, but on her contemplation and consternation over her relationship with her friend (cough future lover cough). I just really enjoyed that, and also how the only time someone is really framed all that sexually is Jace's money shots. Ambessa's nudity is a show of power, Cait's a show of vulnerability, and Jayce's is to frame how Mel sees him- sssmokin'

Writing women characters well, doesn't require making poor male characters. Arcane avoided that trap. They did a GREAT job writing this series.

Moral of the story: the more women you have in your show playing different roles, having different motivations, positions, opinions and personalities, the easier it is for you to escape making bad women characters.

"Arcane empowers women, but not at the expense of men." BOOM. And there you have it... THE best summation in a single short sentence of how women are written in this show and should always be. Well said...

As a wise man once said “Don’t write FEMALE characters, Write female CHARACTERS.”

A video game adaptation has no right being as nuanced and well written as Arcane was.

Even as a female writer, I find this analysis and advise very eye opening. Just a lot of ideas i hadn't even considered previously.

Arcane makes me feel like I'm seeing a world where sexism simply doesn't exist. And that's so relieving when you are used to it all around you. I'm glad you pointed that all out

I do have a comment on the fridging of Sky. The scene where Victor spreads her ashes over the Undercity adds a different element to her death that we don't see with most other examples of fridging (and I do absolutely think that Sky was fridged). Victor says that he doesn't know where she would have wanted her ashes spread, and that changes things. Sky wasn't just killed without character development to further Victor's character development from the audience's perspective; Sky died without character development to further Victor's character development from *Victor's perspective* too. Victor feels the same injustice for Sky that we do; he's torn up that he never really got to know her, and she still sacrificed herself for him - so much so that he is willing to attempt suicide presumably out of some sense of giving Sky her due. Most fridgings are purely non-diagetic - we, as the audience know that the character died only to advance another character's story, but the characters in-universe treat the dead character as if there was much more to them. This fidging is both non-diagetic, *and* diagetic. Sky's death isn't just needless and tragic because we as the audience didn't get to see her as a person in her own right, it's needless and tragic because Victor didn't get to see her as a person in her own right either... and he's devastated by that fact. Yes, Sky was fridged, but Victor, the man she was fridged for, *KNOWS* that this is the case, and his actions for the rest of his arc are coloured by this knowledge. Victor spends the rest of the show basing his decisions on the fact that a woman he barely knew died so that he could continue living and become a "better?" person. This meta-fridging gives a very different reading to the event. In that way, even Benzo is a clearer example of straight fridging than Sky is.

"She's a character with an amazing story, so who cares about the trope." Nailed it right there.

One aspect I appreciate about Powder is that she DOES show very subtle signs of "Jinx" early on. For example: Go look at the scene in the first episode where she first tries using a homemade bomb against the boy chasing her. Besides loading the thing with nails, notice how she doesn't try to get away while her pursuer is distracted by the explosive. Instead she stays to watch with a hint of eagerness. We get a similar situation when she blows up the warehouse in episode 3, where being thrown backwards by the explosion is portrayed as a moment of bliss. Even as Powder, her fascination with explosives resembles something akin to fledgling pyromania.

Holding women accountable for actions you’d condemn or dismiss in a man is important thematically, character wise, and avoiding favoritism. Obviously bias is an unavoidable factor, but pausing to ask yourself “How would I feel about this if a character of another gender was doing it?” is a great way to avoid pitfalls, and examine personal bias.

I haven't seen anyone mention this, but I love how the show didn't shy away from showing Vi eating in episode 5. They didn't make it dainty or cute, but let her be sloppy, which I don't believe I've ever seen portrayed in a woman definitely refreshing.

As a woman who grew up as the oldest sibling/ cousin (my cousins and I are close) it was great to see someone like Vi. She’s strong and takes no crap from anyone, but she still has a heart, still just wants to protect the people she cares about. I related a ton to her. I’d go through hell and back to protect the people I love and seeing someone like me mindset wise was amazing

My favorite detail is Caitlyn's father being the source of her compassion and empathy. I love this video. It puts to words what we all saw in Arcane.

As a lesbian I always see lesbian relationships being inserted into shows for “inclusion” that feel super unnatural and only used for “representation”. I also see lesbian relationships having one woman have the “man role” and the other woman having the “female role” in a relationship. But with arcane the relationship between Vi and Caitlyn is not just an after thought. The relationship is not heteronormative or unnatural. It’s important to the plot and it feels real. It is so refreshing as a queer person to get a deep queer relationship that isn’t just dropped in for “diversity”.

The funniest part about the “archer woman” trope is that a war bow requires a huge amount of body strength to be used

Arcane is literally a masterclass in writing characters. Every character is perfectly executed with their own struggles, arcs and goals.

One of my favorite relationships that was explored in Arcane is the dynamic between Jinx and Cait, and while it isn’t really gone into deeply the “younger sibling and older sibling’s partner” is a dynamic that a lot of people understand, especially between sisters where the younger sister idolizes, looks up to or depends on the older sister. Personally, as a younger sister who has an older sister when I was younger I felt like I needed to compete with my sister’s friends and boyfriends for her attention, and although it’s obviously very different I think it’s an interesting thing to allude to and I hope to see it explored more later in the story.

This may seem strange but I also really appreciated that the women looked very different! They had different body types owing to their different experiences/jobs (you know, like everyone does). They also had different faces!!! Which is extremely basic but shockingly hard to come across in animation for women regardless of style. While male characters often can have different nose shapes and body types, in designing female characters, most studios will just change hair and eye color (and maybe breast size) on the same attractive but bland frame. I think Arcane's approach really helped visualize the diversity within the female cast and made them actually feel like their own characters and not variations on each other.

One thing I'd like to add to you point about Mel's agency is that furthermore she never once actually takes away Jayce's agency either. He's still free to and makes his own decisions along the way, for better or worse, which is another neat subversion of the archetype she's introduced as - women of her position and persuasion tend to be controlling, but she is not. He's her partner and not her puppet. And I just love that so much.

Honestly, when the show came out I was crying TEARS because I finally got to see well written women on screen. As a woman myself who could never identify with most female characters since childhood, I found it so refreshing and I hope that future films and series take Arcane as an example.

I’m not an entirely feminine girl, and I think Arcane has good balance in female characters. There isn’t just *one* kind of woman, they have individuality and genuine good writing and portrayal. You have your macho women like Sevika and Vi, outcasts like Cait, Manipulators like Mel, and finally blue haired pixie maniacs like Jinx. I think Arcane has one of the best women portrayals that I’ve seen, it’s one of my favourites.

As a woman I was honestly astounded with the fact that I loved EVERY SINGLE female character in this show. Every single one. That NEVER happens. It's so frustrating seeing women constantly fall under these tropes you spoke about so succinctly. The fact is, you can't take any of these women from the show without ruining it. They are all integral to the plot and I love that so much. The variety of women as well was fantastic. The only thing that did make me hesitate was Mel's story. I love the whole "really smart woman using her brains and beauty to manipulate the hell out of people" but that almost always ends with the woman falling in love with a dude and then getting stupid. I'm concerned that could happen here. But so far she hasn't fallen into that trap. Hopefully it stays that way. Also, even though Cait got a shower scene, the way it was depicted was tasteful and didn't give off creepy vibes. All in all, I am so pleased with this show and I really hope other writers take note. This is how you do it, people!

As a woman who isn’t feminine it was super refreshing to see multiple, well-written masculine women on screen. And masculine in a way that doesn’t feel like they’re just a re-skinned male character. So good.

Arcane isnt just one of the best animated shows in recent years, its one of the BEST SHOWS EVER MADE. From the story to the characters, representation, animation and art style and much more, every single thing about Arcane was handled with so much care its ASTONISHING

Just watched Arcane recently (yes, I'm late to the party), but the thing I picked up on initially is that each character carries themself differently. They way they walk/stand and gestures when talking, those all play into how a character is received by the audience. Most of what we say is nonverbal, so when there is attention paid to the nonverbal element in the show, instant success! None of the characters were static and you could see it on one of the the most basic levels of communication. Even live action movies fall short in this area, so a fully animated series is incredibly impressive to me. 10/10

I know Marcus is a throw away character for the most part but my favorite line of his is how when asked about Greyson he simply describes her as “A good woman.” It surprised me when I heard it because I’ve heard “he’s a good man” a million times in film. I had honestly never heard it the other way and was surprised by how refreshing something so small could feel.

As a Black woman, I think it's also really important to get that one of the reasons Mel is so revolutionary is that we rarely get this type of representation, ever. A Black woman, a beautiful woman with power and who wields her power with cunning, who gets to be soft and feminine, and to have agency, whose choices impact the narrative in important ways, who is complex, sexy and falls in reciprocated love and is *not punished for it or any of these factors in the story*. My first watch of this show was filled with anxiety for her because I was so used to being disappointed by shows but Arcane surprised me at every turn. Amazing analysis. Thanks for this!

Arcane is something that I feel has made everyone happy, which is hard to do. There is no sense of forced diversity, the women aren't painted as incapable or annoying, but the men aren't painted as toxic or emasculated. Everyone regardless of their gender expression, race, sexuality, etc, is written perfectly, represented properly. Wherever you come from on the political spectrum, wherever your social beliefs lie, Arcane manages to right everyone with equity in a way that doesn't step on toes, and it has made some of the most beautifully relatable characters.

I've never felt like a girl from a very young age. To the point of questioning my gender and if I would want to be a boy. However at some point I felt like there's nothing wrong with my body, or my gender, so there's no need to want to be a boy. This thought occurred when I was in third grade, and since that point, I've been doing my own thing by liking both masculine and feminine things. I feel like I've related to each of the characters at some point of the show, but especially Vi. Throughout my life I've been in typically masculine environments where there are a lot of men who feel like they need to test me like I need to be worthy. But on the other hand, there have been many men and women who like me not because I'm a woman, but because I'm me. Whenever I saw media in which a woman is in masculine environment, she's either such a try hard and never asks the guys for help, or she's stupidly good at it on the first try. You 100% got that point down in the vid and I'm so so so glad you mentioned it. There's hardly any characters that are so much like me as the characters in Arcane.

The ability to "show don't tell" is perfect. Take Captain Marvel for instance: Were constantly told she's "smart and funny and strong" and how she needs to "control her emotions" but we don't see ANY of that. Arcane shows all of it by the tiniest things like small expressions that show more than any narration could. Also, I think Jinx used her tiny attractive "little girl" traits as a manipulation. When Silco was mad at her for killing enforcers, when he was mad at her for allowing the shipment to be destroyed, and when Kaitlyn had a gun on her....she disarmed them by turning on the "I'm just a cute innocent little girl" to take them off guard. It was brilliant.

It's so rare to see written women as human beings who have thoughts and personalities of their own

Not only did they write a huge cast of greatly written female characters, they were ALL unique.

one thing I loved about Arcane (which I didn't really notice I loved until watching this video) was how Vi and Caitlyn had what could have been a very stereotypical "oh they're gay but it's ok because one is feminine and the other is masculine" type relationship, one commonly used to "justify" homosexual relationships by making them compulsively heterosexual. obviously, irl, there are many gay relationships where one is more feminine/masculine than the other and that doesn't diminish them, but media tends to take that as "ok here's how we can involve gay characters without rlly making them gay". yet, like with everything else, Arcane handles Vi and Caitlyn's relationship PERFECTLY, by not doing some cliche thing where Caitlyn is very submissive to Vi or where Vi has to save her or even where Caitlyn has to be Vi's moral compass. Instead, they neutralize by showing how Jace is very submissive in his own heterosexual relationship and they focus on character first by making the whole relationship not "she's basically a guy and she's a girly girl" but "no she's tough and has more traditionally masculine traits because she grew up in the Undercity and most ppl there became tough and she's more pristine and has more traditionally feminine traits bc she grew up in PIltover" and even THEN their characters have so much more to them than just that.

I am so happy that Mel is _allowed_ to show her sexuality. Not only is she the one that initiates with Jayce, it is immensly clear that she is the only one who _can_ initiate. I always got the deep seated feeling that if Jayce had initiated, she would have rejected him, just on principal. Hell, we kind of see that in the "don't loose your Nuts" scene. She makes advances and Jayce makes a small move to initiate - and she puts a very firm, but not unkind stop to it. Not an "I don't want you" but "I'm not doing this _right now_ " And what is even more refreshening: _Mel doesn't get punished for having Sex_ . So often female Characters are directly or inderictly punished by the story after having sex, _especially_ if they enjoyed or initiated said it. The most aggregious is of course horror or slasher movies where it is usually the virtious virgin that is last girl standing, while everyone who has even thought about sex for an instance gets killed, but it happens in other media too. But Mel is allowed her sexual agency, which she does indeed use to at least push Jayce into certain directions. I hesitate to say manipulate, because this implies that her goal was something that benefited her while harming him and I never get that feeling. She does want an outcome that benefits her, but not really at the cost of someone elses happiness or success.

I also love that you can clearly see the fighters having muscles. I hated seeing women fighters who looked fragile and thin like a stick. It was always hard to believe they are actually strong. That´s one aspect I really love about Vi, aswell as her nose looking like it has been broken at some point. THAT´S how a fighter like her looks like!

Arcane gives me such bisexual panic, all the characters are written so well and are attractive in their own ways both physically and for who they are as people I hope that one day we can reduce stigmatization to the point where the world of Arcane is a little more realistic. not asking "are you gay or straight" but asking "do you like guys or girls? (or both)"

LOVE the way Arcane writes women. There’s so many different types of women and they’re all represented in really interesting ways. Way to go, Arcane!

This might sound kind of strange but I love the way they do the noses for all of the characters in Arcane, like not all the women have those dainty noses and not all the men have those sharp larger noses. It’s really nice and super refreshing to have a show where they have that type of diversity and are willing to throw out a lot of the social norms we see all the time

What I found really interesting about Mel's relationship with Jace was that she also doesn't totally take away his agency - which is another trope of female characters. She manipulates many of the other characters in the story, but she only asks Jace to help her, and ultimately the decision is totally up to him.

This show was something precious to me because it showed my father, a traditionalist, a world where the sexuality of a character was apart of their life not the whole focus, that in many other stories comes across as preachy. We could talk about the complexity of the plot and the goregous animation. This wouldn’t had been possible if he felt ostracized by the story. It’s a great example of the world we’d all like to live in together. Accepting. Complex. Triumphant.

If it continues on the trajectory it currently is, Arcane is going to end up being one of those generation/era defining pieces of media. I have yet to find where it fails to hold up to even micro-fine scrutiny from a writing perspective. _This_ is the representation and empowerment we want to see.

The fact that they made the most badass fight scenes in the entire show (and in any show, personally) be between two badass women, and not get too hung up on their gender, is really telling in how well they handled their female characters. It blows my mind that this show isn't being talked about more...

One loved is that arcane had a black female character, who was in a position of power, but wasn’t viewed by others as a try hard,bossy, or “angry”. And we got to see her relationship with her mother, a rather complicated one(with a few toxic traits), a type of relationship that many females have with their mother(especially with mother-daughter relationships of black and brown women). While watching her scenes I could really relate with them.

"what character should we build around this boob" im ded 💀

I felt that largely the show was so good because it focused on personality and what was going on inside. You FELT the characters. You FELT jinx's psychosis. The fight scenes weren't just cool fight scenes. They all had a purpose or feeling. Part of the regular masculine woman trope is they don't focus on that because it's wEaK but in this show they did, and it made every character real. All of them felt real because they focused inward, not just on the outside action.

As a straight white male, Vi was my favorite and most relatable character - regardless of gender and sexual orientation, she was also the biggest sibling in a group of 4 kids. Having grown in the same position - the oldest of 4 - I could feel this part of her character was so well written and represented that I sympathised with her every step of the way. I hope modern Hollywood takes note and realise that we could connect with characters on a deeper level regardless of their gender or sexuality.

Just as men are different from each other, so are women. Arcane went through various nuances of femininity and masculinity with both men and women, and that's how they got this astonishing result. By the way, I loved that sexuality isn't a thing there. Caitlyn's mother wasn't surprised to see a girl in her room, and Jinx talked about Caitlyn being Vi's girlfriend as if it was no big deal. Some LGBT characters don't have a personality at all, so it's nice to see a show that didn't put LGBT people just to claim it representative.

it’s so satisfying for someone to not only write relatable women but also for you to put it into words exactly what’s happening . Being able to understand exactly what I want to see in characters is going to help me write characters the way they deserve to be written.

I really like Silco and Jinx' relationship. There are several important aspects: Father - daugther; Boss - scientist/assassin; Trauma survivers - betrayal and rebellion. So Silco "adopts" her after she received a lot of trauma due to killing her loved ones, confirming her fears and than being rejected, even punched by the one pillar in her life that has always been there: VI, who tried to shield her from the bad parts of life - Bridge after rebellion, freeing Vander. So now she has to entirely depend on Silco and is immediately isolated. He sees the utility she poses and encourages her research - for his job (everyone fears her) but also tries to shield her (Hexgate, Progress day), which encourages her to do anything she wants. She doesn't think about the consequences of her actions and becomes more erratic, tortured by her past she deteriorates. Now Silco sees that he's losing reputation within undercity, piltover is after him and he has to get Zaun to be able to fight back. So he tries to "fix" her by doing what he thought fixed him. For him the betrayal is a trauma but it made him "harder", manipulative, intimidating, cunning (evil smart) and made him overcome his weaknesses. But this wouldn't help Jinx, her trauma is from accidently hurting everyone because of good intentions and throwing away that trauma and embracing a hard-boiled side isn't viable. She has been trying to repress her trauma for a long time and this won't help. In the end he tells her that she's "perfect", which would normally be reassuring but in this case only reinforced her bad tendencies. If she doesn't confront the consequences of her actions and only tells herself that she's right she will never be able to find peace with herself.

Also Mel has so much depth ya know? She has an arc, she learns to remember mercy. Most women in this role pretty much end up like her embessa. They are treated as scary and heartless in the story, and I think this plays into the fear of women being in power. Women in power aren't hard workers who you should respect, they are scary, and must be heartless. But they gave Mel a heart. Also I kind of have what you might call a hot take when it comes to the strong girl archetype, I think people are mad because it's a woman who is strong and they think it's all about feminism and therefore and has no depth, when in reality I think there are just as many men characters like that. It doesn't mean they're good characters, but it's not bad cos its a woman, its just bad, but that's nit a feminism problem, thats a trope problem. So yeah.

Arcane's portrayal of women felt like a breath of fresh air to me, the women felt like people. Thank you for making this video!

I’m writing an essay for my University Portfolio titled ‘How Netflix’s ‘Arcane’ succeeds in writing strong female characters: An analysis on how to write women.’ This has been absolutely brilliant in highlighting writing tropes and really deep-diving into the female character’s of Arcane. All your analysis videos in general have been an inspiration but this one in particular has been so helpful, can’t wait to see what you do for Season 2!

I absolutely LOVE that Arcane doesn't just objectify women. Very little takes me out of the immersion of a show like an overly sexualized character (Poison Ivy, looking at you). THIS is how you write women, and THIS is an amazing video.

what’s cool is how usually, in any show or movie that has a lot of women, it focuses on that fact - but arcane doesn’t. it just has the regular balance of women to men that most societies do, and doesn’t make a point that “we included women so we’re cool” or anything. i just love how casual they are about it

The moment I knew Arcane got it right was when Marcus was paying respects to Grayson's grave. I almost NEVER get to see a male character look up to a woman. Literally the only other example I know is Steven Universe where Steven looks up to the Crystal Gems.

I never would've understood how crafty it was writing these characters while neutralizing tropes, i honestly adore how you break down these things lol never stop

It's the agency bit that you talked about that gets me- it's such an important thing when it comes to writing female characters- and characters in general. I have read far too many books with 'strong female characters' who end up meeting all of the blocks and issues you mentioned.

Arcane in it's main roles have: -strong women -gay characters -a cripple -dark skinned characters If nobody new any better it could be assumed that it's just another "Netflix adaptation" trope. Arcane should be presented in a lessons on how to write actual diverse, likable characters.

One of the things I adore about Kate is that she can't do parkour. And it makes sense because while she actually does seem plenty strong enough for it, she has never had a reason to practice those skills before. It's that under city vs over city culture piece. She's intimidated by the heights, doesn't have the dexterity or skills to do what Vi does BUT then she tries it anyway!!! And it continues to be sloppy and painful to watch, but she gets there in the end!. And we know it's a skill cuz when Vi gets hurt, she literally does not have the strength and presence of mind to gauge her mannovers accurately. Another thing I love is getting hurt has consequences in this world. Every fight wears Vi down, injuries kept Echo from getting home and they don't magically disappear overnight! And characters constantly push too hard! The women were allows to get hurt and have it physically effect them. No magic healing without consequences, no hard sidelining a character when she got hurt. They were treated as people first and that was so cool!!!!! Finally, as a only child in a single father household, I can't say how refreshing it was for the dad's to NOT shy away from their daughters! They didn't say "I can't rase this child because of gender!" They were willing and able to step into a parental role, they nurtured and protected their children, and if they were worried about their child, they asked for help. They did it in a way that was true to them! And just seeing those parent relationships were wonderful!!!!

Arcane does such an incredible job of portraying authentic, genuine, unique expressions of femininity, and in so many ways. It's been a while since I've seen a show where the women really stood out as women to me, not because of things they did, but just because of who they are. My mind always goes back to that moment where Vi comes back to the Undercity for the first time, and as she sighs, her eyelids flutter ever so slightly, and her face softens. That's not something she does for anyone. It's a moment nobody sees. But something about the way she relaxes and allows her emotions to overcome her, even if she has to do it in secret, is just so perfect in a moment devoted solely to her. And it's the way it's framed, too. I think that something great about it is that we see the "female gaze" being used in so many key moments like this. It resonates in a way that's so beautiful to me, and so rare. Also, while I'm here... the way you handled this topic was amazing. It's so refreshing to see a male creator put so much thought, research, and genuine, open-minded willingness to learn into a video like this! Your take on it as a writer is fantastic (I audibly gasped when you mentioned Jinx's tattoos - they're Vi's flare?!), but I can tell that you also worked really hard to explore this through a female lens, even if it might not be familiar to you. 10/10

"what sort of person shall we craft around this boob" is now my favourite line

I just absolutely adore how Jinx wears a very sexual outfit but isn't sexualized by the camera/men/the show ☺️☺️❤️❤️ that type of stuff is so rare. She gets to just exist in the clothes she wants and how she looks doesn't become her personality

Not even only women, Arcane nails representation in general. They have a diverse cast and it's all done organically in a way that makes sense in the world and story. There was not a single moment where I felt like a character was there for the sake of ticking off the diversity box. They're written to be nuanced characters and they exist to portray humanity. Whatever "woke" type of trait they have is just part of the many facets within themselves rather than being the sole purpose of their existence/personality, whether it be for race, sexual orientation or social class. Amazing job they did!

I adore your style of video and speaking. I often find that video essays have a tendency to slowly meander about but you speak in such a concise not-*too*-fast way.

my favourite thing about the characters in arcane is that they're not emotionless. A lot of 'strong' female characters have no emotion and always acts tough, whilst Vi who is arguably the toughest girl on the show, she isn't just one emotion. She gets upset and happy, it's so refreshing to see a character who is extremely powerful and cool not be a stone wall. She is also just a very caring person and she has great motives and reasons as to why she acts the way she does. Arcane writes their characters so well.

I'm so glad you talked about Jinx in relation to the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope and said you don't see her being portrayed that way. I *still* see a lot of young guys say that Arcane's "unhinged"Jinx is hot and that they want to date her and it creeps me out so much. In my opinion the show really shows her to be still very much a child, to have a stunted Psyche and severe mental illness and even the thought of dating someone like her seems so predatory and wrong. She needs help, not your wiener...

"Get hurt" is SO important, I've thought a lot about why Rey and Captain Marvel just didn't appeal despite being me, as a woman, being really excited to have strong female protagonists. They never seem to actually get injured. Some of that is action design that doesn't sell the impacts of fight, but it also comes across as hand-wavy "oh they're just too strong to get hurt" without actually convincing the audience of that. This is broadly a Protagonist problem, regardless of gender; they've got Plot Armor so we can't break them too much. But it's so satisfying to watch someone get back up again after being seriously beaten down; they aren't just strong, they're truly determined, and that's what makes us invested in their victory.

I teared up during Vi's part. You explained her so well. thats why she's my fav and comfort character. as a masc woman this is exactly why i love arcane! 💜

I like how arcane gave us those storng characters that were talked about in this video whom just happened to be woman. Like their all personality isn't just being a woman/black/lesbian/masculine; They treat those characters like every other characters without making it a big deal, and accepting it as the norm which is great in my opinion (:

I would add that Arcane writes it's male characters just as well, and they compliment eachother a TON. The characters gender isn't emphasized unless it makes sense, and I LOOOVE that so much.

I am a 50 year old woman who has spent most of my life raging against the fact that I was, am, and always will be seen as a "female" and anything else about me, judged relative to that label. When I saw Arcane for the first time, I almost broke down crying. I knew it was because of the depth and quality of the women's characters but I couldn't put it into words for myself. I think I have been buried for so deeply and thoroughly in a woman's reality that I don't even know what the right way for a woman to be portrayed is anymore. I just knew I hadn't seen it yet. Thank you for putting it into words for me. You hit the nail on the head. I hope the folks who write Arcane will continue to be true to these fabulous women.

As a dude who’s sick of hollywoods ‘strong’ female trope, this is extremely refreshing; I’ve always said the best way to write a strong non-feminine woman is to show their pain, rather than hiding it; have them overcome something rather than insisting on doing everything on their own, just cause they can. Hollywood should really take some notes from arcane, and Lara Croft and Aloy, best written non-traditional female characters are always video game ones❤

I think one of the reasons arcane has such good written women is because of the diversity. Every single girl in this show is different. Backstories, appearance, personality, likes, dislikes, habits. They all are basically their own person. It’s as if they weren’t even written.

One of the aspects about the "You're HOT, Cupcake!" scene that makes it more than just 'Hot all along' is that for Cait "I'm an outsider too" it's also the first explicit praise and acceptance from the culture she sees as inherently sincere. Obviously this would be an idealised view of Zaun but for our Enforcer it's the perceptions she has that matters. It's not "Oh, I'm actually pretty!?" it's "The people who don't always lie to get what they want say I'm hot!"

Tbh, there is a big difference with Vi showing strength. It's the fact she LOOKS STRONG, and LOOKS like she can take on someone twice her size. Compared to "strong woman" in other media, that are as thin as a twig, and could be snapped in two, but somehow bench press people.

Splendidly done. I am amazed by the high level of character analysis.

The best part for me is that all the women in the series are good and don't need to remind everyone that they are women every five minutes, so refreshing!

Vi being Vi *shows her throwing a table* I love this

As a women who is planning a novel, I literally took notes watching this, because even I struggle writing women characters

17:27 IT'S (NOT) ABOUT JINX IT'S ABOUT POWDER WE STAY HUNGRY WE DEVOUR

Watching this video, I could've cried because you summed up PERFECTLY how this show is so unlike pretty much every other show I've watched. It has the most amazing cast of women characters in a show that is not JUST targeted towards girls to watch, boys can watch it too and think "man, I want to be as badass as Vi one day". THAT is the beauty of Arcane. The characters in this show felt like actual, whole and entirely complete characters with their own complex series of events that shaped them to who they are today instead of just flat portrayals that don't explain the why behind their actions. It's absolutely incredible.

One of the main characters, Vi, could've been the stereotypical masculine woman who fights and has explossions of rage and is emotionally inmature. But what what we see is a fighter and a caring, assertive, and mature person cohabiting in the same body. It's just a masterpiece of art.

While watching arcane, the way the women were written really stood out to me. I found myself thinking over and over, "Wow, they wrote their women as if they were men!" And eventually I took a step back and realised how fucked up that was. Because arcane didn't write its women 'like men', it wrote its women like CHARACTERS. Women in stories are more often than not written in ways that depend heavily on their gender. They're written as a badass WOMAN, or they're written as a quirky GIRL, etc. etc. Throughout media women's roles in the story are dependent on male character's agency, male character's validation, male characters arc, or if they are independent from men, are dependent on that fact in and of itself. Usually, female characters are written in a way that's specific to women, and their gender plays a massive role in their role in the plot. Whereas for male characters, this is never played up in the same way. When a man is depicted as strong, it's not done in a way that frames him as desirable to a leading female character, or in a way that's empowering a gender. That man is just strong. Too often the attempt to empower women on screen cheapens their strength in comparison to the characters around them. A character should not be strong because of their gender, a character should not be important because of their gender, they should have agency and impact on the world around them regardless. Seeing the women in arcane and my instant reaction being "Wow, they wrote the women like men" is insane. It's insane that removing the gender from the writing of a character made them feel more inherently masculine to me. Because throughout my life, women have always been written like women, and men have always been written like people. And I'm so glad that Arcane managed to subvert my expectations and draw my attention to my own subconscious ideas about women in media.

Extremely well thought out and well written video essay that gave me a new appreciation for the show. Great work man :) The way they dealt with jinx's and Silco's relationship was just really well done.

this was an amazing video essay! i love the setup and flow of it, and you hit the nail on plenty of parts of the show!