Arcane showrunner reminds fans that they "always will" listen to feedback, as long as it doesn’t overpower their vision: "At the end of the day, nobody asked for Arcane"
Nov. 28, 2024Christian Linke doesn’t mind the criticism
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Arcane showrunner and co-creator Christian Linke recently responded to a few disgruntled fans on Twitter, reminding them that their feedback and the Arcane team’s creativity have to coexist.
Linke, in oneTwitter reply, told a fan that he “always will” heed viewer demands, “but, at the end of the day, nobody asked for Arcane. We made [the show] because we had the vision for it. So it’s a delicate balance.”
At the moment, some Arcane fans are aggrieved by Vi’s role in season two. Some take issue with Cait and Vi’s incandescent romance, which was sometimesshamelessly steamy. Others feel that, outside of this romance, Vi wasn’t as central to Arcane’s plot as she was in season one.
“I’ve read that criticism,” Linkesaid on Twitter. “It is true that season two had other characters occupy more screen time. As writers, we were interested in these characters. I really don’t know what else to say.”
In ourinterview with Linke, he similarly acknowledged frenzied fans' issues with Arcane — its finale, in particular — but confidently dismissed them.
“How much do I want to play into the narrative that is going on?” he wondered.
Based on his unperturbed Twitter replies, Linke appears uninterested in debating fans on what they believe about Arcane and what he knows his team accomplished. That said, he also seems to appreciate Arcane’s most fiery fans.
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“The alternative (which I have always been much more afraid of) is that nobody even [cares] enough [to complain],” Linke said inanother Twitter reply. “Despite it all, it’s great that we have these conversations. People are invested.”
Arcane creator issues a 500-word response to clear up rumored behind-the-scenes issues amid negative fan reaction to season 2: “It would have been great to have more time… but we didn’t have it.”
Ashley Bardhan is a critic from New York who covers gaming, culture, and other things people like. She previously wrote Inverse’s award-winning Inverse Daily newsletter. Then, as a Kotaku staff writer and Destructoid columnist, she covered horror and women in video games. Her arts writing has appeared in a myriad of other publications, including Pitchfork, Gawker, and Vulture.
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