Representation of Violence, Revolution and Social Change in the Online Series Arcane: League of Legends

Abstract

This article examines the dramatic narrative model of the animated series Arcane, which was a significant success with a wide target audience. The author identifies the main characteristics of the narrative model: a variety of interpretations, thematic diversity, a complex and contradictory conflict tangle, ambiguity of characters’ motives, and active inclusion of elements provoking the audience into the figurative system of the series. Emphasis is put on the complex and polemical topic of revolutionary violence — both its positive and negative sides — addressed in Arcane. This theme is the basis of the mythology of the series, in which an important place is taken by a polemical attack on the contemporary media, which offer a traditional and very simplified interpretation of revolutionary phenomena in the world. On the one hand, violence is presented as an unambiguously negative change in culture and society, and in the narrative it boils down to a harmless brawl. On the other hand, violence is naively portrayed as a predominantly positive phenomenon that can justify almost any changes in social, political and other spheres. In Arcane, social struggle takes on special significance: it represents the only way for the characters to form and maintain their own identity.

Keywords

• animation
• revolution
• violence
• totalitarianism
• streaming platforms
• drama
• character
• conflict