Arcane showrunner reveals which death hit him in the hardest in season 2: "I just feel like more should've been said"

Nov. 26, 2024

Christian Linke has opened up on that explosive series finale

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The series finale ofArcane season 2saw Vi, Ekko, and more go up against Viktor’s gloriously evolved minions, as Zaun and Piltover joined forces to save humanity from being wiped out. Given the all-out war, it’s hardly surprising that some characters didn’t make it to the end credits and now, co-creator Christian Linke has revealed which death – or deaths, more accurately – hit him the hardest.

“To me, the Jayce/Viktor ending, to a certain degree, feels unresolved,” he admitted onthe latest episode of Netflix’s Afterglow. “Even though there is, like, an understanding for them in the end. I just feel like more should be said and they should’ve experienced more together, but we’re not given that time.”

In ‘The Dirt Under Your Nails’, Jayce returns to Piltover and begs anyone who’ll listen to join him and fight Ambessa, who plans to use Viktor’s “enlightened” disciples as soldiers, to save Runeterra. As Caitlyn and Vi lead the defense against Medarda’s Noxian army, Jayce tries to destroy the Hex Gates – but his plan is interrupted by Viktor in his final form, who subdues everyone with a wild rune.

Everyone but Ekko, that is. Whizzing into the Vault on his hover board, the youngster and his time-looping device crash into Viktor, allowing Jayce to talk Viktor round – and the show to reveal that the hooded mage Jayce encountered as a boy was actually Viktor from the future, starting him on a path to save him from himself. “I thought I bring an end to the world’s suffering. But when every equation was solved, all that remained were fields of dreamless solitude. There is no prize to perfection; only an end to pursuit. In all timelines, in all possibilities, only you… can show me this,” Viktor tells his former partner.

Working together, the pair destroy then the wild rune, vanishing in the process.

So they’redefinitelydead? “Are they alright? No,” Linke laughs. “I would say that they have disintegrated. They decide that they will face the consequences of Viktor’s glorious evolution together; that is unfortunately their end as well.”

While it may be curtains for Jayce and Viktor, Jinx’s fate is a little more up in the air. While Jayce and Viktor were having a heart to heart on a trippy astral plane, Jinx and Vi were fighting off a feral Vander. When it looks like the beast is going to kill an injured Vi, Jinx intervenes, knocking Vander off a very high platform and seemingly sacrificing herself with it.

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When asked by the producers whether Jinx could still be alive, voice actor Ella Purnell coyly replied: “We don’t know. We’re going to leave that up to interpretation.”

Arcane is streaming now on Netflix. For a more in-depth look at how it all wrapped up, check out our breakdown of theArcane season 2 ending, or scroll through our picks of thebest Netflix showsfor some further viewing inspiration.

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.

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