How (NOT) To Write Madness | Arcane vs Game Of Thrones

#LeagueOfLegends #Jinx #Daenerys

Arcane's and Game of Thrones' climaxes are nearly identical moments for Jinx and Daenerys respectively, but this pivotal scene of "The Bells" failed for Game of Thrones and "What Could Have Been"'s finale worked spectacularly. Why did Dany's madness arc fall short? What goes into a good "burn it all down" moment? Drawing on lessons from Arcane in addition to Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Midnight Express, and other great madness arcs, there are commonalities we see in how these extreme character moments are brought about. Game of Thrones had so many tools to draw on that it failed to properly utilize: the death of Rhaegal and Viserion, the crazed lore of Targaryen history, the mythology of Old Valyria, and obviously the shrinking but still impressive cast of characters surrounding Dany in her final episodes. Using Jinx's arc as a model, we can give the Mother of Dragons the great fiery end she deserves.

-- MORE VIDEOS --

Support me on Patreon:

Read my comic Minor Champion! NEW Chapter here:

Follow me on Twitter!

Business email:

0:00 - The questions
2:20 - What I've been missing w/ Jinx
5:52 - Rule #1
8:25 - Rule #2
9:21 - Rule #3
10:57 - Rule #4
12:08 - Rule #5
13:24 - Hitler (Rule #6)
15:30 - Rule #7
16:39 - Rule #8
17:26.- Rule #9 (Abby's Levels)
20:39 - Rule #10
21:28 - Rediagnosing GoT's problems
27:20 - The Fixes
41:23 - tribute to my teacher

[schnee]

Had to reupload due to a copyright thing! Sorry for the delay! Enjoy the vid!

[ThePlayer]

The craziest part about Arcane is that they created all this amazing story for a character that up until that point was just "funny psycho girl we all love"

[meghapradeep]

Another thing about jinx is that she seems like she never stopped being a child. She has all the qualities of a child, but with all the hope sucked out. Her imagination, creativity, the way she speaks, and the way she conducts herself. However, they haven't used this to create sympathy, in a "she's still a child underneath all the trauma" kinda way. Instead, they use this to show her madness. She is always surrounded by her imaginary friends, to a point that it haunts her. The weapons she uses can cause extreme destruction, but to her, they're toys. Her brain, in moments of distress, thinks in scratches that look like drawing's she would make when she was younger. She seems like she died at the moment Vi left her with silco, and is now some ghost of her past self. The scary part is not that she's a different person than she was earlier, it's that she's way too similar in all the wrong ways.

[BadAthisOMG]

jinx's voice acting is also phenomenal. sometimes you can close your eyes, and imagine what's on screen solely from the way lines are delivered.

[bigj]

I think this is a good way to frame it.

When Jinx blew up the Council, fans went “No Jinx! No!”

But when Danny destroyed Kings Landing, fans went “Why Danny! Why!”

We know why Jinx did what she did, and that’s what makes it more tragic, we can see her pain and desperately want to help her, but as the audience we are helpless.

When Danny destroyed Kings Landing, fans could see that they were trying to paint her as mad, but it didn’t come off as genuine because the trigger moment and buildup wasn’t there.

[moonieland]

I loved how they portrayed Jinx's psychotic break. It never felt like it was a means to an end, but rather Jinx finally letting go of Powder and fully becoming Jinx.

[miggycaro]

“A Netflix animated show based on LoL characters handled and wrote madness better than the HBO live action adaptation of GRRM’s ASOIaF series” is a sentence I never thought I’d say.

But here we are.

[alihughes]

Tbh Jinx’s “madness” never left the sympathy & empathy phase for me - I think that’s part of what made her character so brilliant. Like frankly she should be terrifying considering the power she yields & how little control she sometimes has at where that’s directed….but weve seen so much of the process of her gradual decline that it feels understandable & we see her so weak at times so I just feel sympathy

[moonmun]

I was honestly surprised when Danny did not go completely mad when her dragon babies died. Like, imo, that would have been the best tipping point. I would have gone ballistic if that was me considering what she and her dragons went through lol

[logondash]

Jinx is THE BEST depiction of what psychosis is like. She is never sane, but tries to hide it. The writers navigate around her psychosis, and her story follows as a natural consequence of her mental disorder.
Daenerys is whatever mood the writers feel would progress the story.

[Noveltea]

I love the insanity that feels logically sane. You can understand why the character did all those things, it makes sense, it’s even reasonable to an extent. Yet somehow the logic starts to contradict itself and that’s when you realize the true depths of their madness

[Zypheit]

One thing concerning Jinx's madness: We see the scratches over top of people's faces in the very first scene where Vi is leading her as Powder across the bridge looking for their parents. She's got her eyes closed and is singing but the scratchy scribbles are still there briefly. So it was there, in a minor capacity, for a very long time.

[peachii]

not to get deeply personal in a youtube comment section, but as someone who does experience both auditory and visual hallucinations as a result of ptsd, i just LOVE the way they portray jinx's. i can't explain exactly how, but they nailed it, they conveyed the feeling perfectly. i'm fully convinced that somebody on the writing team has experienced hallucinations, it's just too accurate.

[Ramonerdna]

Avatar the last Airbender also did madness right, even with a short timeline. Azula had a few scenes to herself where she was obviously losing her sense of self and had many dialogues with her two identities, they also showed a CLEAR diversion from her usual organized meticulous behaviour...(unkempt hair, being afraid of her own staff instead of strategizing to keep them in line).

Your suggestion of having the two dragons die, be the Dam Breaking trigger was a very good one, especially since she viewed the dragons as her children

[meghapradeep]

I think Jinx saying "Powder fell down a well" was also a parallel to silco being drowned by Vander. Powder falling out of the building and Silco being drowned are both turning points in their lives and and both are associated with a betrayal from an older sibling who was also a role model.

[edenmckinley]

I gotta say, Daenyrys manifesting her insanity through wearing dragon scales and collecting dragon bones and being obsessed with fire is brilliant and terrifying. I also love the new empire idea, it gives Daeny a goal.

[ZettaPrime]

I love that line “It’s celebrating trauma, It’s beautiful doom, it’s DOUBLE BUNNY.”

[AkuTenshiiZero]

The thing about Jinx is that at the start of the show it's kind of a mystery how she would become the psychopath she eventually becomes. But they show that even as a child she was already mentally unstable, it's just that nobody really knew it, and they illustrate this by showing her instability only when nobody is around to see it. She didn't really change, rather a part of her that was always under the surface slowly grew and expanded until it overtook her.

[Creaform]

One thing arcane did right is madness does not equate to failure and personal destruction.
All other examples of madness you show, the character "falls" into madness, but Jinx rises into it, achieves apotheosis through it.
Dany could dream of a great second valaria, kill half of kings landing... and then build it. She could rise in her madness to become the greatest player in the game of thrones. She could build the 400, 000 seat stadium, the 2x colossus, all on a strong foundation of ash.

We cheer for Jinx because, at the end of the day, she furthers the plot toward where we instinctually know the world of Arcane is going.
GOT should head toward a world where someone win's the 'game of thrones' but her madness prevents that realization rather than resolving it.

[lucasm]

I think Danny's problem is the fact that she shouldn't be mad. Like, during the series they kept telling us that “oh she is gonna be crazy” and it's just cheap. When Cersei got mad I thought they would do an inversion, the mad one is actually not mad and the one who shouldn't be mad, is mad. But no, they just went whit the cliche