How Arcane Uses Setups and Payoffs

Arcane uses setups and payoffs in ways that continually blow my mind the more I think about it. I am a sucker for good writing and setups and payoffs are a cornerstone of this. Look I just like Arcane ok?

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Merch!

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Twitter - @A_FlyingWalrus
#arcane #setups #writing
00:00 Introduction
00:20 Sponsor
01:18 The Setup
02:49 The Firelights
05:20 Arcane Goes Further
07:44 Everything Connects
09:56 Closing Thoughts

[AFlyingWalrus]

Also I've stopped being lazy and started wearing it every night and have noticed I sleep considerably better with the mask on.

[mrgreenpickuptruck]

Whenever I try and sell this show to people I do so by saying "everything matters, nothing they do is a waste"

[mrgreenpickuptruck]

The extra bit for the pay off is that the mechanized firelights is actually a new smaller way of Jinx weaponizing someone else's inventions. Just like the original monkey bomb with the hextech stone.
She stole the mechanical bugs when she went to cause chaos during Progress day. There's like... a 2 second scene at the top of Progress day of a tall gentleman in a top hat showing off the mechanical bugs

[SegalsCareer]

I thought jinx stole the mechanical bugs when she went to piltover. They were part of the progress-day toys entertaining kids. which then goes back to jinx's toys are now corrupted from something innocent to someting explosive.

[Isvoor]

More setup and payoff: Marcus grabbed Powder's braid at the arcade in Episode 2. Powder made the shooting range target chomp down on Marcus' arm. Powder later blows up two arms from two people: Sevika (ep 3) and Marcus again (7). Marcus also blew up his arm (and more) in his own fantasy when Silco gave him a grenade. Damn all these arms.

[rolletroll]

Arcane is one of the too rare stories when the more you think about it, the more brilliant you find the storytelling. Usually this is quite the opposite.

[dvklaveren]

We also see the butterflies during Progress Day, suggesting she stole a crate of them on the way out of stealing the crystal.

[Mermzies]

This is one of the reasons why arcane is such a satsifying watch, it basically rewards you for paying attention and being curious about the story whereas other shows build something up (sometimes even a very major looking thing) but never follow up on it.

Well, that's just one reason on top of the amazing graphics sound design story telling lore and everything

[trevormyst]

I love the "What could have been " soundtrack in the background

[MurderousEagle]

Had a discussion about this back when the episodes came out. It's a very modern form of tragedy, working past ancient Greek version. There's no great person brought low by an action. There are just people, making understandable decisions that in a large sense, lead to devastation. Another good example of this is book one of ASoIaF, what happens to Lord Stark.

[DarKraf]

The biggest setup of all I feel was the tension that was constantly built up throughout the 8 episodes between jinx and jayce(+the council). We even see Silco and Vi meet Jayce and subconsciously wonder "hmm i wonder why Jinx still hasn't come across Jayce yet even though they're already merging all the other character arcs one by one". All of that tension and ambiguity created between Jinx and Jayce, in a way the face of Zaun and the face of Piltover, built up so sneakingly but perfectly, all that tension to be beautifully broken by Jinx's rocket towards the council finally bringing Jinx and Jayce(+the council) into one arc and leaving us stunlocked on the perfect cliffhanger

[shakirmorgan]

Gotta say, one of my favorite smaller moments of setup and payoff is when Powder revisits the training simulator and shoots the crow, then later when she's seen working on learning the hextech, she's used that crow's feathers as bookmarks.



ALSO: The theme of crows has been an integral metaphor for Powder's transformation into Jinx.
When Powder shoots the crow, it's an allegory for how she deals with her mental trauma, when Powder hears the crow, as she's fixated on Caitlyn after reuiniting with Vi, it's in the same vain as how Jinx has attempted to quell her mental distress. She tries to silence it. Then, finally when Powder has Vi, Silco, and later Caitlyn at the table in the building where Vander and her friends died, she lets the crows be. A small bit of foreshadowing of how Powder later reconciles with herself by choosing to become Jinx permanently.

[kag]

This was by far my favourite part of Arcane. Everything: every backstory, philosophy and motivation, character (both main and side), every contraption made, every word uttered, it all has knock-on effects somewhere else in the story. There are too many to list and yet all of them feel logical and satisfying. There were so many moments where I'd watch a scene and my mind would flashback to the moments before. So many character reveals, no matter how small, were so shocking simply on the basis they were people we'd met before even if they were just mentioned in passing. It all comes together in a story with so many branching paths that all have definitive starts and ends. I need to watch this show again, it is the perfect example of how to tell an amazing story and make the best use of your characters and their interactions.

[Nickknows]

Listening to all set ups and payoffs remind me so much of American Beauty and how all the different characters stories link together so deeply

[WorldWeave]

Basically everything in the show is a setup or a payoff…there’s probably a lot of shows like that…but it’s always interesting when they’re drawn attention to

[McTrcK]

Season 4 of stranger things reminded me of Arcane. Different story lines that are tied to eachother. Huge setups and payoffs leading to epic moments, while still having time for the small character moments.

[masonchapple]

Arcane is the perfect tragedy, where at any given moment any character could have done something different to change the outcome, but to have done anything else would go against their character, meaning that in the end what ended up happening was the only truly possible outcome.

[Dilligff]

The initial mechanical firelight actually appears at the beginning of Episode 4. It was a mechanical butterfly made in Piltover. Jinx has a talent for reverse engineering things and then weaponizing them, which ties to the discussions of hextech being turned into weapons if it gets in the wrong hands.

[bdariamihaela]

Absolutley everyting in the show is either a setup or a payoff or both

[CrimPEClimbing]

That is somehow one of the best pieces of writing advice ive ever heard.
Well played friend.