With Arcane’s second season well underway, co-creator Christian Linke offered Dot Esports an in-depth look at the creative journey behind the show. This included the evolution of Arcane’s story, the challenges of expanding its world, and the complex character arcs that continue to captivate millions of fans worldwide.
When Arcane premiered in 2021, it immediately wowed a global audience—well beyond League of Legends fans—with its stunning visuals, emotional depth, and charismatic characters. The show’s success set a new benchmark for animated storytelling, and the excitement surrounding season two proves the series continues to resonate with its fans. Act One of the new season has already received high praise, but it’s expected the next six episodes will surpass the expectations set by the show’s first season.
In an exclusive interview with Dot, Linke delved into how the characters’ choices will impact and deepen the tensions between Piltover and Zaun, offering fans a glimpse into the challenges and revelations still to come in Act Two.
The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
The first season explored so many themes like trauma, family, power, love. Are there any new themes or underlying ones that you wanted to highlight in the second season?
That’s a good question. I would say for the characters, there definitely are new concepts. I think the question of legacy is an important one, and I think it has been for Vi, for example, but I think that’s a very different perspective and new one for Caitlyn; that [question] has large consequences for Mel and Ambessa, as well. And our characters find themselves in a pretty dark place in this season. So the theme of redemption, I think, is also a big one. “Can you come back from certain things?” A lot of characters will have to ask themselves this: Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn, Mel, Ambessa. Everyone just kind of reacts to this conflict growing, and so it’s difficult.
When I think about the accounts of people that live through war times, I think you find yourself doing things, accepting things, or having opinions that would shock another version of yourself that lives in a different time that doesn’t have the context of the current events. I think we’re seeing this right now… people have strong opinions and tend to be on one side or the other, and they’re very polarized. Being kind of centrist is pretty hard these days.
And so I think there is some of that also in Arcane season two, where you are on one side or the other [of an issue] because the events kind of push you toward these extremes, and it’s sometimes hard for characters to recognize themselves. That is more extreme in this season, for sure.
In the same line of thought, the first season has a good balance between action-packed moments and deeply emotional ones. Can the same be said for season two? Or, since the theme of war and the extremism it brings to the evolution of the characters being on one side or the other, does that put the emphasis on either action-packed moments or emotional ones?
I would say the emotional moments that we have are just as heart-wrenching [as season one]. At least that was the goal.
I don’t know if necessarily there was more visual exploration and invention happening in season two than season one because it was now, “okay, you’ve done it before, you now are comfortable in this space, you can kind of have some bold ideas.” I will say that the for visual extravaganza, there’s more for season two, that’s for sure.
You spoke before about how you wanted to push forward the animation with season two, despite season one being one of the most acclaimed animated shows of the last decade. Is there anything that you would like to share at the moment about the process of improving the animation along with Fortiche?
I think it’s not so much improving the animation; it’s just taking it further. And not in the quality of character animation, but what you can do with animation, with art, with breaking things, and honestly, breaking visuals. You have these glimpses in Arcane season one where we push things past realism and realistic depictions. Even when the sky is red in the end of season one, or when Jinx has certain visions, it’s very stylized. So I would say that we took that further and we lean more into abstract depictions of feelings of moments of emotions.
How much does that tie in with what we’ve seen in the trailers, “a glimpse of the Arcane,” which at the beginning of season one we really didn’t know anything about, and now it seems like it’s a real place that characters can walk into. Does that place tie in with pushing forward the imagination and the boundaries of what animation can do? Does that tie in with bringing fans literally into the Arcane?
I would say that the Arcane, to me, is an entity that matters to every region and really every character, no matter if you are someone who has magical talents, or arcane talents, or devices that are built in Hextech and built on runes, or an entire different kind of magical entity. I think [the Arcane] is our kind of supernatural power that binds together a lot of the different regions.
And so stepping into the Arcane, maybe that is kind of one part of it because it is in some cases… I mean that’s really the question: “Is it sentient or is it not?” It really is a question and not a statement. I don’t want to really spoil things, but the more you lean into it, especially as someone like Viktor, who starts to manipulate his body with Hextech and it starts to affect his thinking and his mind, there is an argument to be made that his mind and his conscious thoughts are changing because of it. So that is really part of the evolution of the role that Arcane even plays, at least in this story.
We know that the fan base of Arcane is incredibly passionate. I was at London MCM today, and I cannot tell you how many of the artists’ booths, the small businesses who have their own booth, had Arcane fanart. I was very tempted to take a picture of all of them and show it to you today, but there were really way too many. How do you balance delivering what fans love with surprising them with moments they hadn’t even thought possible?
I think that’s why this is our job. We can only do that well if we are part of the audience. Otherwise, you just make something for someone else and it’s never going to succeed. That’s really vital, that authenticity. But then, that’s why it’s our job, right? It’s like when Henry Ford supposedly said “if I asked people what they wanted, they would’ve told me they wanted faster horses.” I don’t know if he ever said it, but it kind of makes sense.
You don’t want to give [fans] what they’re asking for, but what would amaze them. And I think that’s really something that we try to keep in mind as creatives. That’s our job: Coming up with things that do both.
Can you talk a bit about Caitlyn and Vi in this second season? Do they face new challenges or shared goals in season two that push them to rely on each other in unexpected ways?
Yes, for sure. I mean, season one, Caitlyn is really a hopeful character that always wants to find the way to work together and work [with] the underground. She sees the underground through Vi’s eyes and they both learn about each other. There, Vi and Caitlyn are the symbiosis of the two sides of the city coming together.
That gets really difficult when Caitlyn leans much more into her family name, the responsibility, and thoughts of like, “yes, I’m from Piltover. I’m a topsider. I need to do certain things now because of what Jinx has done.” And for Vi, that’s pretty tough. But I would say that what drew Vi to Caitlyn was part of that: She was different from the other top siders, she was different than the typical, “oh fuck the Underground, they’re all dangerous and terrorists.” There is more of that thinking seeping into the perspective that Caitlyn has as we get into season two. And so that definitely complicates things.
One last question that is not really tied to season two, but much more tied to yourself. I noticed in your background you have a lot of posters of animated movies. I don’t know if you’ll have a specific answer for this one, but can you share three animated movies that you would like fans to check out before season two of Arcane? Setting aside season one because I’m pretty sure everyone is doing that already.
That’s a difficult one. It’s very different from Arcane, but I’ve been on a crazy trip of all the movies by Makoto Shinkai. One of my favorite movies, probably of all time, and just one that I really love for I don’t know what reason, is called Weathering with You. I absolutely adore that movie. And I loved Your Name, but Weathering with You, for some reason, hits differently. The life in the city and the characters, I just absolutely loved it. And there’s just something, a feel-good quality about that movie that I really admire and love.
Other than that, Miyazaki is amazing. Probably my favorite of his movies is Howl’s Moving Castle. There’s just a creativity that’s really, really inspiring. And as a third one, I would maybe say Your Name, since to me it is just also just an absolutely beautiful movie and really inventive in the storytelling.
