There's nothing I like more than to explore humanity's ever-tangled relationship with good and evil - both in the world, but more deliciously, within ourselves.

And that's what makes the Netflix miniseries Arcane so brilliant—so utterly heart-wrenching and addictive: its ability to show us how love and hate, good and evil, triumph and failure all swirl together in this messy goup of existence (not unlike Shimmer 🤔).

It’s a story where nothing and no one is simple.

(And want even more brilliance?

Each season plays with these themes in different ways.

Season one? It’s about tearing everything apart. Relationships, alliances, cities—it all crumbles.

Season two? It’s about trying to put those pieces back together… but not without a few shards slicing your fingers in the process.)

🚨spoilers ahead—proceed with caution! 🚨

The Core of the Story: Humanity's Messy Duality

At its core, Arcane is about choice: You can’t escape the anger, the pain, or the beast within you, but you can decide how much power it gets to have over your life.

It’s about how even the best parts of us—love, ambition, loyalty—can morph into weapons of destruction when pushed too far.

Every character wrestles with this idea, and the show doesn’t let any of them off the hook.

• Vander and Silco are two sides of the same coin. Both want peace for Zaun, but their approaches couldn't be more different. Vander tries to compromise; Silco embraces revolution. Yet, both are willing to sacrifice others for their vision. Silco's love for Jinx, however, makes him one of the most complex characters, capable of both profound love and ruthless ambition.

  
  

• Jinx is heartbreak wrapped in chaos. She sees herself as a grenade, doomed to destroy anyone who dares get close. But that’s what makes her so tragic—she doesn’t want to hurt people; she just doesn’t know how to stop. Despite her chaotic violence, we feel immense empathy for her because we’ve witnessed her pain.

  
  

• Ambessa Medarda is a mother haunted by an impossible choice. To atone for her decision, she’s willing to do anything, including pulling Piltover down around—while her daughter fights to protect the very people Ambessa puts in harm’s way. Their relationship is a masterclass in how love and guilt can twist us in knots.

  
  

• Victor and Jayce embody the constant push-pull between logic and emotion. Victor’s desperation to "fix" all the pain in the world drives him to sacrifice humanity for progress. In contrast, Jayce realizes that free will, conflict, and imperfection are what make life worth living. It’s messy. It’s aggravating. And it’s beautiful.. Without those tensions, we become passionless automatons.

  
  

Family, Love, and Revenge: The Messy Ties That Bind

If Arcane does one thing brilliantly (and it does a lot of things brilliantly), it shows how relationships—familial, romantic, or platonic—are never black and white.

They’re as messy as the people in them.

Take Vander and Silco’s brotherhood, fractured by betrayal but still bound by shared history.

Or Silco’s love for Jinx, which is both tender and manipulative, proving that even the “bad guys” are capable of deep, complicated love.

Even minor characters reflect this theme:

• The shimmer addict took shimmer just to feel strong. For once.

• The scientist who created shimmer was willing to unleash hell to bring back his love.

• And Ambessa, driven to revenge by a loss so profound it leaves no room for rationality.

  
  

At every turn, the show asks you what you would sacrifice for those you love? And when does love cross the line into something darker?

The answer isn’t clean, but that’s the point.

“I’m the Dirt Under Your Fingernails, Cupcake”

This single line, which ends the series, perfectly sums up the point Arcane was trying to get across:

You can never completely rid yourself of the pain, the anger, or the darkness within.

But those things don’t have to define you, either.