So first video was taken down 2 hours after being set to public even though it was uploaded as private for a full week before being public. I appreciate all you being here, and hopefully this version of the video will be able to stay up on youtube.

Another point is how realistic the fights are. A lot of fight scenes in other media often resemble a dance, each blow thrown with grace and precision, which is definitely cool but not how fights go in real life. They are brawling, using their surroundings, thinking on their toes. Mylo smacks a dude on the nose with his wrist, Vi banging Sevika's head against the wall to disorient her, Jayce just barely dodging the chemtank's blade and getting his cheek cut. So many little details that makes the characters feel more human.

The first fight scene between the kids is really amazing too! Honestly, this show deserve every single award and praise because it can't get better than this. Thank you for the content!

Also the first fight shows how Jinx made the exact same moves as she did as a child, showing how she never really grew up, and Ekko anticipated jinx’s movements and ultimately won

The thing I liked about the fight scenes were that they struck a perfect cord between flashy and brutal, usually when you see a really flashy fight it makes it harder for you to tell what's going on and as a result ends up making the fight hard to watch. When you see a really brutal fight, it ends up draining the colors out of it and making it really ugly as a result. But in this show, the fights are flashy and brutal, the show makes this beautiful yet brutal artform of characters fighting. I wish more shows, especially Western shows had this variety.

I'm kinda surprised you didn't mention the legendary Zuko vs Azula (vs Katara as well) fight, without a doubt one of the best in cinematic history

"Not a single frame was wasted in the making of this first season." Amen to that. Arcane is a masterpiece.

A really great and really subtle detail that a lot of people miss is how the way that the blood is portrayed on Jinx's teeth mimics the small gap between them that she had as a child as well.

I also think something you said before in the women writing one applies here. The idea that the character has to actually TAKE a hit and be hurt. Like I can only watch so many movies where people topple buildings fighting and don’t even get hurt or it’s one guy Vs 50 others and again, won’t get hurt. You see these fights tho and like they take breaks, they exhausted and hurting and that adds WEIGHT, it feels real.

on vis fight in episode 3 - dude dude DUDE YES !! what you said about her not using her environment and instead just going at it directly is so true!! but it also made me think BACK to the fight between ekko and jinx. before, the two of them trained under vis direction but they lacked her finesse. sure, maybe it was their age but you got me thinking that maybe it was bc her approach wasnt compatible with either of them. jinx is a ranged fighter which is p much the OPPOSITE of vi. she heavily relies on her gadgets to gain the upper hand and as soon as she lost the distance between her and ekko, the fight was over. i think thats why she always won against ekko before since not only did she have both the weapons and the range (both complimenting her aim), but ekko mimicked vis approach and attacked straight on. what made the difference in their last fight on the bridge is that ekkos a more seasoned fighter now whos developed his own strengths and strategies instead of relying on someone elses that werent suitable for him. in each case, neither ekko or jinx can brute force their way through with their fists like vi. i think seeing them confidently engaged in a fight when they were once both liabilities before adds to this scene being so satisfying

Tbh Sisters vs Fireflies must be my favorite. The way they knock them from their boards is just 10/10. And if that wouldnt cut it, that one moment when Jinx evades getting killed by tilting her head slightly to the left. How much more badass than this can you get. This is just one of my all time favorite moments regardless of Series tbh.

Ekko v Jinx *might* be the best animated fight scene of all time. It certainly give Zuko v Azula’s agni kai a run for its money, and that's HIGH praise

You know. I don't know much about the studio behind Arcane. But I do know that they are behind many of the music videos and other short animations for riot. I think their knowledge and time working on projects like that (basically fitting a lot of key information in such short time while also making it memorable) really helped the studio towards their whole "no wasted frames" vibe.

A small point about Jinx's opening line during the Ekko fight - The Arcane creators planned on having Ekko try and save Jinx sometime as kids before Silco could fully influence her, though we clearly see how that played out. If the creators had kept in that small story plot the sting from her mocking line; "Ooooh look who it is! The boy Savior!" would have easily been considered the first punch IMO. It sets off the rest of the fight so brilliantly I wish they fleshed out that single line more.

It probably just me but my theory is Jinx actually didn't intend to kill Ekko. My theory is she probably pushed him out before the explosion and it's just Jinx literally taking her own life as at that moment she knew she's alone. Vi left her again. Silco betrayed her (atleast that's what she believed at that moment) and her best of friend is hurting her. I interpret that scene as "s**cide" yet I don't see anyone interpret that scene like I do.

As super eye patch wolf said, a fight scene should be a conversation. It should be telling us something about the characters and their ideals/motivations.

Vi's showdown with the goons might be my favorite fight in the whole show. It isn't as flashy as some of the other fights, but it's so tense and grounded. And given the nature of the fight (the bridge, the gauntlets), it really feels like something Vi can pull off. I've seen a lot of people online talk about how "there's no way a 14 y/o girl could fight those guys." I feel like what those people don't realize is that 1) fighting is 90% technique, and 2) whatever handicap Vi has because of her age/size is made up for by the gauntlets.

11:15 I would say, an even more underrated fight is right after Vi and goons, Vander vs goons and shimmer after that. In that scene, you get much more of a sense of "what's at stake" and... tbh the buildup is 3 full fucking episodes basically. maybe it's the kind of (early) father mentality inside me, where a person abandons all the morals he has tried to show another person, so they can "make a final stand". Both fights bring the same message, but Vander's fight puts a lot more emphasis on "Fight only for what REALLY matters". That's how I see it, and please use this if you want, cause I'm not, and nobody else is, apparently (unfortunately).

I like the fight because big girls go pow pow

Only gripe about the Ekko Jinx fight is that Ekko and Powder never even had dialogue in act 1. It is an obvious inference that they would have played together as kids, but Arcane is so concise in its writing that we only got to see them interacting in the Enemy music video

Hot take: Even without fights, Arcane is still 10/10

I love how even in the anime shenanigans they pull with Vis new gloves, everyone is still susceptible to physics. Best example is in the first Vi vs Sevika fight where Vi gets ragdolled into the ground and u can see how her legs are just lost in the followthrough of that motion :D I like it most when fights get vile and 'brutal' (meaning more serious/aggressive in mood rather than actual bloody) at a point, doesnt matter if it started out flashy or not, I enjoy when everyone who gets involved has to take a hit and that everyone (even the established badasses or even the faceless goons in other media) puts in real effort to win this and if someone doesnt there better be a good narrative reason for this °-°. Another thing is, Arcane paced its fights really well with mixing realistic/grounded movements with flashy stuff like Ekkos bullet dodge into the ground and pound or Vis air twirl against the chemtanks and back to the boxing movements; and most importantly, they knew how to work the camera with focus on the action still being readable, action A _visibly_ leads to B and so on :) It got my hopes for action scenes back up

This really makes me appreciate Arcane and my favourite fight scenes even more. One that has a special place in my heart is the one from the movie Troy, Achilles versus Hector. That fight will always stick with me

5:02 I know right. No one appreciates this trick enough because it's overshadowed by all the other cool stuff Kakashi does. Even by shinobi standards, remembering the position of a kunai in the air as it goes up and altering its trajectory with your HEEL as it falls, that's some hall-of-fame shit.

I think the absolute best part of the bridge fight, if you know the game at all... When time rewinds, the fight takes EXACTLY 4 seconds. I went through and checked many times. A wonderful music video for over 30 seconds, time flip, it was four seconds like his ultimate.

Man.... now listen... I've never in my life seen a better scripting and writing on a specific topic on a specific TV Series... Just wow. You are effing amazing. Just the way yous speak and tell the story makes me want to listen more and more... YOU.ARE.AMAZING and I mean it. Thank you for such great reviews... As once a wise man said "...You're perfect". Keep on doing what you are rn!

I am reminded of the fights in AtLA. The somber mood of the Obito vs Kakashi fight is something it shared with the Zuko vs Azula fight.

Obito vs Kakashi.. finally 😭 everybody talking about Naruto vs Sasuke.. I'm here talking about how Obito vs Kakashi was a visual storytelling masterpiece..the flashback cut was perfect.. it will always be my #1 fight scene in anime or anything. Thank you for giving it credit..♥️

Great to see it back up! Rewatched it to help recover those views.

My favourite fight scene is Amity against Hunter in the 9th episode of season two of the owl house. Not only because of the awesome animation and music but because these characters are, as Hunter even says earlier, very alike. Both grew up in toxic or, in Hunter's case, straight up abusive environments, where they were taught that nothing they do will ever be enough, but they keep trying. Amity keeps that mentality into her realationship with Luz, feeling like she has to prove herself to be an "awesome girlfriend", and believes instantly what Hunter says about it, that Luz probably doesn't feel that way about her. And Hunter even tries to bury himself alive before the fight starts, saying that because he failed on the mission he was on in the episode, he has no hope of ever regaining the trust his uncle, emperor Belos, supposedly has in him. But what I love the most about the scene is that Hunter wins by using the same manipulative techniques Belos uses on him, on Amity. He starts what he says to her with: "You're strong, and I'm tired. If this continues, you'll probably escape", and continues to threaten Amity's girlfriend of whom he knows Amity wouldn't put in danger because of earlier interactions with her. This just shows how dangerous manipulation really is, and how victims like Hunter sometimes learn to use it without realising fully that they are being manipulated. It's pure art to me.

When you talked about favorite scenes, one of those I remembered was this and the fight between Jinx and Ekko on the bridge reminds me of it too. Has several similarities.

in the underrated fight, having it happen on the bridge as a spatial limitation makes the camera work look so good as Vi has to bulldoze them almost one by one in a linear fashion.

When you said “think of your favorite fight scene” I paused the video and thought for a second. I was like “anakin vs Obi-wan, but I don’t really see how there’s limitations there.” Then i unpaused the video and got explained where those limitations are. I just thought that was funny.

This was actually very helpful to me as I’m trying to study what makes a good fight scene, to write one myself.

To be honest another great animated fight scene regardless if you like the show RWBY or not was Yang vs Neopolitain on the train towards the end of Volume(Season) 2 I think it was Chapter(Episode) 11. Just the absolute showcase of Force vs Momentum and how the two can really contrast the fact that you don't have to be the strongest fighter or really even land a hit to outclass and outsmart your opponent and beat them

I really learnt a lot from this video - thank you very much!

Amazing video! I even teared up a little.

Juxtaposed Flashbacks in a fight scene are so beautiful for me. The Kakashi vs Obito is miraculous in that regard alone, on top of the choreo

A year late but I just gotta say how much I LOVE the Vi and Sevika fight in the last drop. There were so many good fights in the series and it's impossible to choose just one favourite, but I don't think I've ever seen a fight between two female characters that is as brutal and gritty as the one between Vi and Sevika. I love the whole feel of it, a brawl in a bar and with the music choice in the background, it's a real standoff and I always look forward to seeing it. I never get to see a fight like that with women.

I was here. And I'm about to refresh to see if me being here even mattered at all. Whatever happens, I really enjoyed this one because I'm trying to make a game and all this discussion about fight scenes and such really jived with my current head space. Thanks for the video. :) Edit: I refreshed and I'm still here.

One of the biggest things for me is how relatable they make the fighting…. They’re not all supermen with unlimited stamina they all get easily exausted and their movements get progressively sluggish. Just like perfect protagonists make for boring/unrealistic people, perfect fights/fighters make for boring/unrealistic fights…. We can’t and could never relate to these people, so we can’t emotionally understand.

Dude, you're amazing at these types of videos! I love love love watching them because you make such good points in them. Gush, I just loved it! (Btw sorry for my bad english :)

As someone who is currently an learning 3D animation in college right now, and who has every intention of founding an animation studio/company and creating his own series with the same quality of writing and animation as Arcane someday, this video is abso-fucking-lutely phenomenal and incredibly in-depth. Entrepreneurial ventures aside, just as an animator, I want to absolutely be a character animator focusing largely on fight choreography. Monty Oum is a massive inspiration as to why I want to achieve aforementioned goal, but while his style showcased his masterful understanding of camera work and character+environment=adaptability, the fight scenes were always a bit on the flashy side (not a bad thing, of course). Hence why I think Arcane has some of the best fight scenes regarding a more grounded perspective, as well as visual storytelling (something the series does so flawlessly it’s almost cheating). The weight paired with the emotion, the emotion paired with the stakes and the stakes paired with blood, sweat, tears (and saliva) made each fight scene in Arcane a gruelling yet rewarding one. I’m definitely taking notes from this series, you’d best believe me. When I write my own series (and as I develop the characters presently right now), I’m taking into consideration the beauty of storytelling that Arcane represents from multiple facets.

Another masterpiece

Great video good analysis i love fighting scenes so much. My personal favourite Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris .That fight music, judge-spectator cat, arena almost everything catching me.

Anakin vs Obi-Wan was my favorite fight scene I thought of when you asked haha

Mr. Flying Walrus, I like how you reply to comments. Very nice to see thnx!!

it’s always gonna be a good day when you start ur day w/ ur coffee.. and a Flying Walrus vid. Hell yeah. ☕️

I remember the first thing my older brother said about episode one, “That was an awesome street fight”

Hey I know you your not going to see this but thank you for showing and explaining this I love your videos.I want to make my own show/anime and this helps so much with writing characters thank you 🙏 ❤️

One of the first fight scenes I fell in love with was the food fight in RWBY.

Another very important thing for a fight is rhythm. And the second point (about cuts) kinda means the same thing, but I actually mean it in a more broad sense. Because it's not only about camera, it's about power dynamic and flow of the fight: not making it too short or too long and not interrupting it unnecessarily (looking at you, Imo vs Sakura...). The fight should flow seamlessly, so it's easy to follow. It's also not a bad idea to fit a fight into a structure. For example, into a 3 act one: introduction, punching with building up to climax, then climax (usually with a big shift in power) and then - finale. Now, this is just one example, but keeping a structure - any structure, - in mind when you write a fight scene is great, because otherwise the fight might feel samey. It's not bad to think of it as a curve with rising and falling tension. In the 3act it all builds up to a moment with maximum tension, but you can play with it. Anyways, great video!

Hands down my favourite fight scene is meruem vs netero from Hxh. It checks every box from this video.

Despite the audio edit being seriously bad for this video, I really enjoyed it. I don’t know most of the Manga references, but I was with you and got it anyway. I found all of the fights in Arcane moving. I actually cried when Jinx fought Echo and became Powder again.

Team wise vi and jayce are the best melee team, couple vi and caitlyn because there the only ones left, and hero wise ekko and caitlyn are the unsung heroes.

This got taken down when I was 2/3 through it. Happy to finish it! 👍

One thing for sure is that Arcane is relatable in any way possible... It's not just how good the fight is but the steps getting to that fight scenes are pretty much relatable. Damn this movie's good af...

"Not a single frame was wasted in the making of this first season." => I'd rather wait 5 years for season two than have them rush even a little due to season 1 success. The raised the bar so high because it was a deliberate labor of love. I worry the corporate shimmer will get them.

You my guy get a sub

The best fight scenes I've watched since Daredevil!

"I'm surprised you didn't talk about ( insert fight scene ) "

Galo vs Lio at the start of promare is one of my favorite anime fights.

the fight in utopia s2 ep1 really sticks out to me becaus instead of doing really good fight choreography they make it brutally realistic becaus none of those to characters have any fighting experience so theyre just randomly punching and grabing eachother wich makes sence cus one of them is a scientist and the other is use to hurting people with out them being able to fight back beautiful fight scene

yo that thumbnail banging

The Ekko vs Jinx scene, besto battle 🛐🛐🛐

Yes

1:40 my deepest respect

Talking about steaks and limitations, one of my favourite fight scenes is Sean Rogan vs Spade's goons. Set Up: Sean (early 30's) and his 13 year old son are trapped in a house by kidnappers. The room is dark and they're scavenging for anything that can be used to improvise a weapon. Sean knows they can't both get out, but being the father he is, his goal is to diatract the henchmen long enough for his son to get away. He knows there are allies looking for him, but he doesn't know if/when they'll find them and isn't willing to wait. They manage to find a mop, some cleaning chemicals, and the son finds some coat hooks. Fight: Once they're ready the kid hides as Sean tries to call for some if the goons to come to the room, and jumps them as soon as they enter. Sean had always been a brain over brawn guy, and that reflects as he takes on 3 or 4 men with a mop handle as a makeshift staff. He blinds one guy with a The bottle of bleach, and gouges another guy's eyes with the coat hooks. The kid gets out and hides while the dad stalls until he'll arrives (much easier to do knowing he only has to watch himself and not his son)

Holy shit, i only just know noticed: Ekka vs Jinx. He didnt win by simply improving from back then. he "won" the exact same way as when they were kids. He won because he wore a plate that blocked the shot. Both jinx and he remebered there childhood. She was fully aware that she was going to lose, yet still did it like powder. Jinx expected to lose the fight, and maybe wanted to end it with the grenade from the start. WOW

Kekkai Sensen, Mob Psycho, Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, etc. Man, those shows had all the memorable fights.

I was just looking for videos explaining how amazing fights are done. I started by looking for analyses of my all time favourite battles - rewatched vs Zabuza and Kakashi vs Obito (even though I've seen it hundreds of times already), then I thought "what about Arcane? I watched it recently and it was great" - came here and what I see? Kakashi vs Obito, what the hell xD

Great video. Also, If you haven't seen it I recommend Arcane's BEST Fight Scenes & WHY (Arcane Analysis) by Xiao Long Media.

I always felt weird about the Jinx and Ekko fight. They have no spoken dialogue between each other before their fight, and their only interaction before that point was a separate UKposts video from Imagine Dragons. It's implied that they do because they ran in the same group and they turn into kids and act probably how they did when they were younger, this still always stood out to me.

Walrus: Think of your favorite fight scene. Me: Anakin vs Obi-Wan Walrus: A good example is Anakin vs Obi-Wan I agree

Fights in action shows or movies should ALWAYS tell a story at the same time like musicals do with their music numbers. Pirates of the Caribbean 1 actually does this really well. If you write "they fight" in the script and that's it it's probably not a good fight

Cool walrus.

Sakura vs Blondie was an absolute PAIN to watch, jesus christ

good video

Arcane has been the single greatest animated show to exist since Avatar: The Last Airbender.

If you like fights, I'd check out Ziamut. He does his own fights but his hits feel really good.

4:58 fanboy mode activated~ and he´s right

"It also doesn't hurt that in all of them they punch each other in really cool ways." I mean, punches kinda do hurt.

speaking of fights you should watch demon slayer, there are fight scenes in season 1 and 2 that will give you hype and adrenaline and it will also make you emotional too

I think attack on Titan is a great example of fighting, yeah sure stuff happens (don't wanna toss spoilers in this comment), but it's always so devastating seeing the characters fail their goals just grounds them to us flesh people. They get back up on the horse and keep trying. Seeing the scouts get a win just makes it so amazing after seeing their massive amount of defeats and moral decay. Intelligence against a superior enemy, like you mentioned. Dread and psychological horror are my favorite types of anime.

7:56 They were called "Firelights" not "Fireflies".

i hate that so many fights in shows are often either 'yeah i punched you and stabbed you 5 times but u only bleed a bit at the nose and have a small cut somewhere so u can sexily wipe away the blood after the fight and maybe wear a bandage around the arm/chest for half a frame later' or just fighting for the sake of getting some bloody/gory shots in (that in the end somehow wont impact the characters anyway??)

I'm late to the party, which means probably won't be seen, but editorial note. Keep in mind the things you stated, especially visual story telling. It's hard to figure out what you think about Ip Man's fight or Legend of Drunken Master. You use the cuts when talking about both good and bad. I 1000% agree with the central thesis, Arcane's fights are a work of art. But you spent a ton of time talking about Naruto for examples, but open and ended with two live action fights that you didn't discuss, qualify or recognize. (I mean I think Legend of Drunken Master is one of the best live action kung fu movies in existence, and Ip man is one of the most recognized.) But are you saying that? Are you saying they don't carry the same concise weight. Either way really enjoyed the video!

Hey you should mention the fight in the boys of starlight, maeve, and the female vs storm front.

I just like looking at Vi's muscles, respectfully of course

1:18 which movie or series does this scene belong to ?

one other things that fights needs is tension a fight is boring if we know that the hero will just win the fight without any troubles

Wait, what is this show? How have I missed it?

Commenting for the algorithm

I love all of Arcane's fights, all of them, except for one. Vi&Jayce vs Chemguards is terrible. It looks good yes, but its execution is lacking. One of the ideas behind that fight is to showcase the superiority of Hextech technology compared to Chemtech. But it doesn't work with how the Chemguards are presented. They're introduced as super human beings, powered by drugs and stuck into exoskeletons. And they absolutely ravage normal Piltover guards, they move way too fast and they one shot them. Reminder that Jayce isn't wearing any protective gear and Vi only has her gauntlets, and while they're strong humans, they're still regular humans. No matter their superior technology, it doesn't matter if their bodies can't keep up. The chemguards are still super fast super powered humans, there is no way Vi and Jayce can tank those hits, they should have gone down after 2 to 3 blows max. That scene pisses me off, it's a massive hole in logic that could have been avoided, in a show that rarely ever fails in its presentation.

What is the song at 2:00

Daaaaaamn walrus you looking sexy bro! Also, I'm not crying. . . Your crying....it's okay. We can cry together. Great video my dude!

I think an example of a fight that has yet to be adapted into TV is Kaz Brekker in Crooked Kingdom fighting against his own gang who at this point have turned on him. It's a fight scene that takes place on a staircase and using his cane (he's disabled, has a limp of sorts) to his advantage. It's a weighted cane specifically commissioned as an unexpected weapon cuz nobody would expect it from him. He's constantly using the his environment and weapon to his advantage in this severely outnumbered situation and it's cool as hell to read about, I hope it's adapted well. The adaptation of Shadow and Bone however, (which combined Shadow and Bone and some of the Six of Crows characters before the first SoC book) however, displayed Kaz incompetently. Spoiler Warning but I was expecting Kaz to fight back against Pekka Rollins and his goons in one of the early episodes after they somehow snuck into his office??? Narratively, that doesn't make sense for Pekka Rollins to do. They nerfed Kaz into being immediately caught off guard and not really putting up a fight which disappointed me greatly.

Arcane is what RWBY should have been

8:50 whats the music ?

Brah you chose Kakashi vs.. Omg omg that is literally the best fight scene ever. Nothing can beat that shit lool