Analyzing Arcane’s BEST Scene 

Hearing Jinx say, "are you real" was absolutely heartbreaking. She knows she's so far gone, she can't tell hallucinations from reality and she can't even feel joy at Vi's embrace until she can confirm Vi isn't another hallucination. So terribly sad.

I think that he scene is memorable because it shows that JINX reached out to VI and was willing to reconnect as sisters and try to form some type of relationship. However, Both of them want the IDEALISED version of their sisters with Jinx wanting Vi to love her unconditionally like before and Vi wanting 'Powder' to return

"is there anything more undoing than a daughter?" One of the most powerful lines in the whole show for me. I love that scene, I love silco's character arc.

My favorite is is very popular pick: the agni'kai with Zuko and Azula from Avatar the Last Airbender. It's a long awaited fight between siblings throughout the entire series, and when it finally happens, the music number makes it instantly hit you that this isn't a triumphant battle scene- its a tragedy that two siblings have been pushed to the edge and split apart by an abusive family and legacy.

Concretizing example: Mulan, THAT scene, where we go from "A girl worth fighting for" to an entire town razed to the ground. We see Mulan mourn with the doll, something so small but incredibly momentous, representative of all the loss around them. I'm real surprised you didn't mention it! We have happy to devastated, loud singing to silence, bright and colorful to black and scorched, the doll as the small thing that stands out--a real punch to the gut overall.

Jinx remembering Vi saying "wherever you are, light it up and I'll find you" absolutely broke me, this scene brought me to tears because it showed how she kept that flare in a box all those years just in case Vi was still out there. She always wanted Vi back which is why she kept the flare. But she also knew that Vi could be dead like everyone was saying because when she saw Vi again she immediately asked "are you real?" Everything about this scene was incredible

The thing that kills me in this scene is the score. Guns for Hire is a banger, and it kills you emotionally. Not to mention all of the audio is cut out. Meaning we only focus on the music plus the characters. It's brilliant and heartbreaking.

Another note about showing Marcus: Not only is the brief scene a separation of Piltover and Zaun.... he was the one to separate the sisters. He took Vi away from Powder. The audience has been hoping for the sisters to be reunited and here we are shown the guy that tore them apart. It adds to the emotional overload as it helps remind us of the divide, and we resent and hate him for it.

What I love about Schnee is that because of him, Arcane never truly leaves. It has been too long since I've watched it (currently occupied with Fargo (it's so good!)) but thanks to him the emotions and the connection to this masterpiece aren't fading away but strengthen because of his top tier analysation!

19:16 Something I noticed here is that the "bad cliffhanger" strategy was actually used in Arcane, at the end of episode 2 when Vi is about to turn herself in. The scene is set up to make us expect it's the Enforcers walking into Benzo's when it's actually Vander, but they don't reveal this until the next episode. But while this would be an example of a "bad" cliffhanger, I think it actually works because of the three act release schedule. If episodes 2 and 3 had been released a week apart, the fake out may have felt cheap. Instead, it was used to make us keep watching until the end of episode 3, which is the episode where *everything* changes. So in a way, I think even the "bad" cliffhanger was used effectively as a way to add connectedness throughout Act 1 and hook people in for the rest of the season.

The best part about it is that the show tricks you into believing Vi won't get there in time because of all the chaos in her way, but she manages anyway. And it hits so much harder because of that.

The fact that I found my father listening to Arcane songs and he never actually heard of the show was the moment it hit me that this show’s songs are masterpieces.

i wish i could watch this scene for the first time again. an absolute masterpiece.

Those "Levels" you discuss at the start perfectly applies to the Bomb scene and the Alleyway scene to go with it. Powder starts the scene completely ELATED that her bomb finally worked after so many times failing. But then we realize it caused all this misery to go with it. And that thing was a TOY before Powder turned it into a bomb.

This scene is so good, and it's my absolute favorite. I've always found Mylo represents the negative voice in Jinx's head, so the fact that his ghostly image is screaming in that part tells me that the negative voice is louder to Jinx than the more hopeful one Claggor represents. It paints this picture that she doesn't believe she will see Vi again but there is still a bit of hope left. It depicts the conflicting emotions she must be feeling in that moment, and it's really heartbreaking but visually stunning. What I love most about this scene though is that Jinx literally has lived with this idea that Vi abandoned her, and even though we know that's not true, SHE doesn't know that at this point. She probably thinks Vi hates her for what happened, and at the very least, blames her for the deaths of Mylo, Claggor, and Vander. We then get the part with Sevika flat out lying to her about why Vi is looking for her because she says Vi is looking for the stone and replaced Jinx, which we know is not true. And we, of course, have the fact that Silco has also told Jinx that Vi betrayed her. With all of this in mind, Jinx STILL uses the flare Vi gave her. She chose to believe Vi would keep her promise to come find her. With everything she knows to be true (no matter how false it all is), she has no reason to believe Vi would care enough to find her. But she places her hope in that one promise because she wants to see her sister again. And then we get the reunion, which is so satisfying and heartwarming. I love the moment Jinx hears Vi speak. She's so cautious about turning because what if it isn't real. All the anger disappears in a second and everything about her becomes soft. She's in such disbelief. And we, the audience, get what we've been waiting for with this reunion, and the characters do too. But it only lasts a few minutes before it's all turned upside down, which just makes it gut-wrenching to watch. This is all just my personal take, but this is why I love this scene so much. It's just sooooo emotional. Thank you for continuing to post about Arcane! I really enjoy all of your analyses, and it makes the wait less painful! XD

"Are you real?" Dude, I didn't even realize that disconnection between how Vi understands it and how we do even though I still felt it. You put your finger on such interesting details, I love it. Makes me appreciate the show more each video you release.

Completely different medium... but this is how Musical Theatre as a whole _works_ It's the entire theory of "If your feelings are to big to talk, sing. If they're too big to sing, dance". It's how all MT songs are built up and make sense. Every song in every musical is, in and of itself, a Level 9 moment, particularly with showstoppers and eleven-o-clocks. You go from a scene that's usually quiet and unimportant to a sudden big emotion that evolves into this massive musical number and suddenly everyone's dancing along to the character's emotional state. It's beautiful and it gets me everytime.

This is when you realise ALL the work that has been put into this show. Arcane’s truely a masterpiece!!!

Curious how there's a skeletal fish in the background as Jinx lights the flare, giving us a looming foreshadowing of Silco's influence on her even during this supposed moment of reunion between the two sisters - then solidifying it as Jinx reverts to her manic/deadly self (the self Silco created) and making Vi realize how far gone her sis is and that she'll have to take all of Silco's empire down to get her back. The eye crashing down - the Eye of Zaun "blinking" - in a moment of distraction is not enough as Silco resurfaces more vicious and unhinged than ever before, also reminding us he'll do anything to keep Jinx - and keep her the way she is.

The Guns for Hire scene is the one scene that genuinely never fails to make me cry. I cried throughout multiple times during this show but that scene hits me so hard on an emotional level that if it ever just crosses my mind I'll instantly start bursting into tears😭

The emotional part of these scene is that it's this massive outpouring of feeling, but my favourite part of the construction is how it maintains tension. Like Jinx, you aren't sure whether Vi will be re-united with her. When Jinx pulls that flare, Vi is in the worst possible position, at the bottom of a pit, injured and cornered by Silco and some of the shots throughout seem to indicate that Vi might not follow the flare. So that moment after the flare is exhausted when you see Vi standing behind Jinx is a massive emotional gut punch

This scene is fantastic, but the whole ending from Vi waking up to the tea party to the missile hitting the window is 10/10. One of my two or three favorite scenes in anything ever.

The ending of Episode 9 with "What Could Have Been" is just perfection. The entire season build up to this moment, and then at the very peak... a sudden silence and the credits start to roll. When I first watched it I was left speechless, but with so many thoughts and not knowing where to start. What I like about the Guns for Hire scene, is that before Jinx pulls the pin on the flare, you can already hear the instrumentals of Guns for Hire quietly. But then Jinx lights up the flare and the lyrics kick in and it's just so beautiful. Arcane is just beatiful. I love this show! Although I had a really hard time understanding this video. Most of your other videos are rather simple and easy to understand while this one had a lot of technical jargon that was really difficult to comprehend. At some parts I just watched the video like: "What are you trying to say? No, like genuinely. Like what the fuck does that mean?" (Kudos if anyone got that reference)

Hm interesting, so if a bad clifhanger is "the door opens, the character sees who it is and is shocked, but we don't see the person, the credits roll" then is the ending to episode 2 a bad clifhanger? :D it ends with Vi waiting at Benzo's shop and the door opens, we see her eyes widen, then it cuts to black; we only find out that it's Vander in the next episode. The definition kind of leads to believe that it should be a bad clifhanger but it isn't because we expect that to be the enforcers but Vi's shocked reaction makes us excited to find out if we were right or wrong? Maybe it's more built up with emotions, the montage and the music? What do you think?

one scene that always break me is from "good will hunting" when Sean ( Robin Williams ) tells : its not your fault. You can see the change in the face of Will ( Matt Damon ) and it just takes you along.

While not necessarily a cliffhanger, the scene that broke me down the most and probably one of my favorite scenes was near the end of episode 3 where Powder releases the Hextech Crystal contraption to try and save Vander & Co. You have this great feeling of praying and hoping that her machine will work, followed by this explosion of excitement and promise as as it actually does. But then you're met with a slow tear down as we watch in horror as the negative effects of the explosion fall like dominoes. The second that I realized this wasn't just going to take out the villain in the scene I was covering my mouth and holding my breath, hoping that things would be ok. Then seeing Powder smile with pride that her invention worked as she fell while her friends were brutalized by the very same thing, just added to the heart-wrenching pain I felt about the entire scene. I was probably crying "No no no no no!" the entire scene and feeling this comforting sorrow for Powder who wouldn't even realize what would happen until after the fact. This was only compounded when she sees Vi and excitedly approaches her, completely oblivious to what had transpired. I thought the emotional build-up and release then subsequent reversal of emotions was so incredible in this scene.

The flare was my fav scene too. The interesting thing that WASN'T mentioned is that this "concretization" almost perfectly describes a motif. A representation of a feeling within a story element. These motifs don't have to be small things, like the mentioned achilles heel, or the ring of power, but they can also be dialogue, music, objects, people, animals, ANYTHING. Think of how emotional it feels when the avengers theme plays, or when Inigo Montoya says "you killed my father, prepare to die," or when we see the girl in red in Schindler's List. These symbols are established to represent heroism, revenge and innocence, so that when stories interact with those elements a second/third/fourth time, we feel what they represent. The flare is a PERFECT motif for the loving sisterly relationship. We understand EXACTLY what Powder is hoping to accomplish. It's not a trap or an ambush, it's because she longs for her older sister. And in lighting that flare, we feel the love that the sisters share. And then Arcane shows Mylo and Clagger, the two biggest motifs of her trauma, and we feel Powder's pain and guilt. And this shows us, in the most effective way possible, that this is a cry for help. And then we feel the anticipation and relief of Vi both seeing the flare and finally getting to Powder up on the tower. And finally, to cap off everything, Powder drops her current life, represented by the gemstone, and fully embraces her sister. This scene is such a rush of emotions because of all the setup with its different motifs (plus the banger music). The story hits us over the head with all the possible symbolism to make Vi and Powder's reunion emotional. And it succeeds. Perfectly.

the "are you real?" line is so powerful. Also i have this feeling that when jinx FIRST ever started having the hallucinations, she probably also saw her sister alot. Now we dont see the transition of powder/jinx starting to have the hallucinations, but it kinda makes me feel like shes had hallucinations of vi coming back to her, but powder not realizing that shes a hallucination. So then she gets her hopes up to then be disapointed that shes not really there.

That scene moved me to tears and this is a great breakdown as to why it did. Also what made it really tick for me is that from Vi seing the blue flare and being dragged away by cait (who doesn't know about this flare) until the very end of this we don't know if they actually do reunite. There is so much anticipation, we know Jinx is reaching out and Vi does see it, but until the very end we do not know if Vi is actually heading for Jinx. We do not see it, which makes the end of the scene and the hug so satisfying because it just releases all this tension and emotion and buildup from the scene.

I love that this scene is almost a parallel to her burn it all down scene in ep 9, only its a scene where she choses powder not jinx. Everything goes quiet even the music stops for a second and the only voice she can hear in her mind is vi. Its not a scratching whisper or a taunt, but her sister reassuring her. She has a little hesitation moment where she has time to think, and she choses vi. The difference is ofc it was ruined by Caitlyn and the firelights but its still just a cool powder moment and it gives "what could've been" so much more strength because you know they were so so close. edit: i know this is super late im rewatching all your videos because i love them so much thanks for making awesome content

Ella's Purnell is a HELLUVAN actress and she's been cast in the new Fallout series. I'm cautiously optimistic about it because it's got her and Walton Goggins..

One thing I love about Arcane is that the story is always moving. Some movies have great storylines but are boring to watch because they are moving too slow. Arcane keeps moving while still not confusing the audience too much, pausing only to build suspense but not for too long. One thing that annoys me a lot about movies are long flashbacks that aren’t significant enough to be taking so much time on, Arcane didn’t do this at all. The flashbacks keep up with the pace of the story, not unevenly switching between fast and slow, speed changing when it makes sense. Even in slower scenes, the story is always progressing, adding to the understanding of what’s happening. Slow flashbacks can be so unnecessary, look at how ekko and powder’s relationship was portrayed in mere seconds. But if used correctly, slower scenes can add so much to a story, such as vander’s death. It wasn’t really that slow, I probably could have thought of a better example but oh well. Arcane uses their slow scenes to build up feelings of tension and dread and realisation. When vander died, I might be wrong but I bet most of us were shocked that powder caused it and were both curious and dreading how vi would react when she found out it was powder. Pls correct me about this, I’m not at all an expert and this is probably inaccurate

im pretty sure the emotional power in this scene was too powerful I haven't recovered as of yet :)

I'm pretty sure the VA for jinx British accent coming through wasn't intentional but The fact that it did realllllyyy makes that scene feel serious And love her for that

Seeing Jinx pull the smoke signal is my FAVORITE SCENE.

I absolutely love your detailed analyses of Arcane, every video makes me experience Arcane stronger than the times I've watched it, it's insane! Love your constant output but do take care to not burn out. Loved the Mermaid as well, would love to see an on screen adaptation!

My favorite level 9 scene is the very end of Adventure Time. Because, in my opinion, Adventure Time is an incredibly character motivated show. So the last thing we see has to be the characters we have grown to love so much continue their lives in this crazy and wacky world.

Couple scenes that could qualify as a number 9 came up to mind: Django's revenge, the very end øf Whiplash, Ahsoka vs Maul and the Clones vs Mandalorians

9:30 The flashes of scenes also builds tension because of the context it brings us about events happening elsewhere at the same time. The bullets going in the barrel in particular is a scene that tells us Vi and Caitlyn are going to face danger if they try to cross the bridge. Marcus is lying in wait for them. Those bullets could be for them. So we get worried about where Vi and Cait are going. But we realize Vi saw the blue smoke and we wonder if she’s going to follow it. To our relief, she was able to.

This scene gives me chills every time I see it

The accent slip could have been silcos paranoia coming out through Jinx. She spends time with him, and my accent varies depending on my mood because of who was around me growing up, and how they reacted in different scenarios.

One scene that really gets me is the end of the Speed Racer film, when he's finishing the final lap. It's a CGI overload, throwing scene after scene with you, reminding us of just how far Speed had gone to overcome his challenges and not only destroy Royalton, but win the Grand Prix, with lots of loud music and noises, only to suddenly stop on an image of his tires melting and sounds faded out. Then it's just the sound of him breathing, and as he slowly takes his helmet off, the sound gradually returns and it's celebration time. I love it.

Hearing Jinx saying "are you real" again after finishing the show months ago still instantly got me with watery eyes goddamn it. The whole video you are just here explaining how good writing comes to life and then Jinx comes around and just says 3 words and destroys everything 😭

I'm so glad someone is finally talking about this scene.. it's so good and woodkid smashes it out of the park with the score

FIXED AUDIO + higher res version: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HbEB7ew4lcc.html NOTE: If you're curious about the Ep2 cliffhanger acc. to Sanderson's paradigm: ru-vid.comh_1X8hSDMl0?feature=share Hey everyone! Had some weird issues with both audio and video when uploading this. Might be able to fix it through youtube, but if not, I'll at least upload an unlisted version of the vid that's louder and has higher resolution. Either way, should be fixed by the end of the day, check back if you had issues with either. My apologies! Update: Made a short about my take on the ep2 cliffhanger since so many of you were asking about in the comments, linked above. Let me know what you think!

Thanks for walking us through the good vs bad cliffhangers. It actually gave me an idea for a story I've started collecting ideas for. I'll be sure to revise this again when I get there ❤

Dune has lots of level 9 scenes: the hand in the box scene, the Harkonnens' attack scene, the vision paul has before the sandworm almost eats him and Gorny scene, and probably a lot more.

When we see the hallucinations of old friends like Claggor or Benzo showing up behind Jinx in this moment jam packed with emotion, blue smoke everywhere, so many different cut scenes, Claggor and Benzo are pictured so clearly. It's odd, considering the fact that all of Jinx's prevous hallucinations have been messy, manic, scribbled over, etc... but not now- Now it's like we're finally seeing it how Jinx does, the raw emotion from the blue smoke finally being lit, sparks flying everywhere, adding onto all of the overload of feelings we're getting. We now see that Jinx finds her hallucinations as real as real life- and we can finally see with our own emotions how they torment her, instead of just thinking she's crazy because of these hallucination's messy nature.

I love the segment on cliffhangers, especially your mention of Brandon Sandersons take on it. The difference between a good cliffhanger and a bad cliffhanger is a bad cliffhanger leaves you saying "Wait... What happened?" and a good cliffhanger "Wait..! What happens!?"

I think one of the most emotionally powerful moments for me is Encanto, and this movie yo-yos from happy to sad so quick and adds more and more weight until you're sobbing at the last song where it all pays off. Especially the scene where Mirabel is talking with her cousin and sucking it up that he may just get her fate but still not wanting it because she loves him more than the pain she feels herself, and it explodes out during Waiting for a Miracle like it should in a musical. Its literally perfect and I'm glad I have this to measure just why something gets me crying like a baby or extremely hyped when its exciting

I still get hit more by final episode of act 1. It's just so much more visceral. Besides the amazingly shot explosion to show how each character was irrevocably changed, coupled with the fact that we know they had a chance to get away had Powder not intervened, we have the moment after. When Powder finally realizes how utterly she fucked up. That specific moment when you know you've done something you can never take back, that this is now your life full of consequences, and you have to live it is just... so... breaking.

I loved Vander's last stand. The thing that made arcane so amazing is the sheer quantity of masterpiece scenes.

My 2 favorite emotional scenes are in the same show called Violet Evergarden, one is episode i think 6 or 7 when Violet jumpes over a lake, and the other in episode i agein think 8 when she has a emotional moment. I recomend Violet Evergarden to everyone, it has story, characters and animation you will not regret watching it

I think another reason they showed us marcus on the bridge is because during the scene we are so engrossed in the sisters' story that we forget that there are other factors and stakes outside of them. So when they show us marcus, we remember "oh shoot, i forgot about this disastrous plan that Jayce is doing!", before the scene drags us back to the sisters. I think what this does is adds a layer of anxiety and distress that is introduced with Marcus before being pushed to the back of our minds as we watch Vi and Jinx, and what this does is it sets the tone for their reuniting. Its not just pure happiness and joy, there is an undertone of fear and anxiety that things could go wrong at any moment idk if i explained that well

Never realized this before-Jinx's tattoos are of smoke.*THIS* smoke. She's using those tattoos as a way to call out to Vi to be found.

I get chills from just hearing you talk about these scenes jeez. Time to go watch Arcane for the 100th time lol. Great video :)

now I love Guns for Hire even more. I can't tell the amount of emotions I feel when I listen to it - I'm very sensitive to music, it is basically my oxigen, I get too emotional the instrumental is heavenly heavy. Woodkid vocals reverberate softly, but you know it is loaded with sadness, deception, despair, begging...the chorus lyrically consists on some kind of advice, warning, sad news, accusation, shame...what is going on? and then when woodkid says "go play with your blocks", he shows some kind of acceptance, or even a try to rush his interlocutor to do what they're about to do, whatever it is - betray, give up, have his last chance to be happy or whatsoever. he's feeling the whole event with all his five senses. the scene and the song retrofeeds themselves with exponential wealth of elements and meanings. I could talk about it a whole day long. is just too much TOO MUCH, i love it so much

a HUGE emotional scene that comes to mind is the end of the clone wars s7, the very last few scenes of the finale episode. the mood shifts from 'relief-of-surviving-a-starship-plummeting-through-the-atmosphere' to 'mourning... everything.' the camerawork goes from fast-paced action shots to slow pans across the wreck of the starship, the music slows to something somber, and the audience takes in the clones' graves. it's SO quiet. we're not just mourning their deaths--but also the death of the republic, and everything we as viewers have come to know as "the clone wars." and then when ahsoka's lightsaber hits the ground to really drive the finality of it all home, and the music comes back in... literal goosebumps. love your videos btw, really amazing stuff :))

ngl, i also loved the end of the first or second Episode were Silco takes powder in. like the whole thing with the happy to sad shift of powder, vanders death, vi being taken away and the song, oh. my. god! i love it! everytime i hear goodbye i think of that scene in an instant, you just KNOW you made a good scene when hearing the first notes of a song brings back the sad feeling of the scene it self

I think that the part of the guards walling up the city is there to remember you that there's still problems outside, that even though the story is centered on the sister's reunion, the world is still moving, it's moving fast and hard. The stackes are getting higher and higher. That adds to the build up.

I have been WAITING for this one to crop up in your long-form or short-form content.

I can’t think of a level 9 scene rn but I _do_ have a level nine song, as the world caves in.. it’s SUCH a good song, it takes ANY emotion it’s being combined with and turns it up to 11. And I mean ANY emotion, devastation, happiness, anxiety, etc. it can make anything incredibly emotional. The lyrics, the rise in the pitch and volume, it just swells and swells and swells in such a beautiful way. It’s such a devastating, powerful and fulfilling song all at the same time. You should check it out if you haven’t already :)

Just dropping a comment to say I read your short story and loved it! Fantastic use of parallels, and the ending reminded me of (slight spoiler) Neil Gaiman's masterclass where he talks about coming up with new stories by taking a classic trope or tale and putting a fresh spin on it. Really good work. I love to write myself just as an occasional hobby, so I really like reading short stories from other people and learning how to improve on my own work through them. Thanks for linking it!

Currently on my like 10th rewatch of Arcane and I posted about this scene last night on my FB...and then opened my youtube and saw this video today. Out of all your videos I've never seen this one, and you put into words every single thing I loved about it.

Would the Forbidden Friendship scene from How To Train Your Dragon count as a level 9 scene? Montage, starts with fear and ends with companionship, and the music is just amazing. More emotional than in-your-face impactful, but still

For me I guess the finale of Avatar S1 when Aang goes into Water Spirit mode and destroys the fire nation fleet really ticks most of these boxes/levels. Pure goosebumps every time.

I would argue that when it comes to the small objects, it doesn't have to be small objects, it can be large objects. I'd argue it's actually less about the object and more about something that can be used as a symbol of the person or the relationship or whatever is happening in the moment. This can be anything from a tangible object to a phrase that meant something (usually something they've said before or a saying shared between two characters). A grand piano could be a symbol to someone that is meaningful and can have a similar impact, an action/image like wrapping your hands with bandages could be a symbol. Habits, something familiar, something meaningful. So yeah, I'd argue it can extend beyond just a small object and your argument can apply to all these other things as well, some adjustments for each individual type of symbol would need to be made but similar arguments can be made.

The ending of Titanfall 2 is one of my favorite story moments of all time. I would absolutely classify it as a level nine. The build up, the emotion changes, the sensory overload, BT being amazing, it all makes it an amazing ending to one of the best games of all time.

Mufasa's death scene from the Lion king - definitely level 9 scene. The stampede, scar's betrayal, Simba's grief, the tiny roar that sets it off - omg I love that scene.

everything everywhere all at once has a scene that this applies to so well

The Brandon Sanderson quote reminded me of the ending of one of the Percy Jackson books (don't ask me which I don't remember also spoilers for that book), when Percy gets called to the tree because there's an unconscious girl. There's suspense, they talk in quick, back and forth dialogue, Percy is so confused and everything is so chaotic in his brain, he doesn't know who this girl is meanwhile everyone else is frozen in shock, not doing anything and Percy doesn't understand why. Then he realizes before she says it. "My name's Thalia. Daughter of Zeus." AND THE BOOK ENDS????

talking about the opening a door and only the character sees, I think nimona left this one really well, it showed all the characters we meet just before balister opens the door, and he is really shocked, roll credits - obviously there's more to it but compacted I think I explained it well enough

The Dr Who cliff-hanger is the best cliff-hanger of all time. Literally hanging off of a cliff being the meta-joke to remind the viewer that it's not real (it is also a kids show btw), and the only cliff-hanger I've ever seen where I've been SMILING after watching. I've not seen the episode, but if it was a particularly dark and depressing one, think of how powerful that sudden change in emotion can be, and how it could emphasise those negative emotions in a way that "just add more depression" could never do, just like you said in the video

Amazing analysis. Thanks for this astounding work.

Not sure if it perfectly fits but the first flight scene in how to train your dragon the moment he lets go of the cheat sheet and just trusts his instincts is so SO good especially with the them test drive blaring over it.

okay the amount of joy i got from you referencing one piece to explain an arcane scene

This scene is everything.💙 Thank you!

Your short story is amazing-very efficient use of 812 words! I love seeing your writing after hearing so many of your methods and "how to write x" content!

I love your analysis of all of arcane

Literally watching ALL your videos, I wish to one day have a channel like this. Thank you for your content and perspective

This made me think of the formula for musicals with the Act 1 ending song (Nonstop from Hamilton, One Day More from Les Miserables, Defying Gravity, and plenty more) where you get a huge emotional hit plus a montage of several characters and usually a little bit of a cliffhanger before jumping into Act 2.

I'm SO GLAD you made a video on this scene because ever since I first watched it a year ago I have been unable to stop thinking about it. It's actually peak animation, peak musical storytelling, peak fiction. Unbelievable how impactful a single scene can be on a deeply emotional level.

Man, I really adore your breakdowns. They're incredibly insightful. Also, "Are you real?" shattered my heart into millions of pieces

this scene gives me chills and makes me cry every time I watch it it's just perfect

NO CUZ THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED!!! I always wonderedhow do you make scenes emotional, and you explained it PERFECTLY ty you really help me with my stories

Quick insignificant comment: Vi is not angry for no reason. Like you said before, there was so much going on in a very short amount of time: she had just escaped death, faced her number one enemy (who of course got the chance to trigger her with how her sister is better with him), threw a friggin tower down, climbed her way out of a hellhole to escape, had to run for her life (again) and then...that poor guy. He was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

Just re-watched the show and still watching these videos. Ugh so good. So analytical. Much wow.

Cloud atlas being a whole level 9 scene with the explanation is my new favorite way to look at this movie.

21:00 I love that moment because it is implied that she is hallucinating but she heard the firelights.

even though that final scene of the show could never get topped for me moments like these for jinx will always be why i adore her character so much

A scene that shows the build up of emotions and punches you in the gut, and I know it's a bit played out in pop culture by now, but "The Tales of Ba Sing Se"...We know Iroh had loss. We think he's come to terms with it all with how calm and joyful he seems throughout the series. Even earlier in the episode....From happy, typical Iroh to *Wham* right in the gut.

I find it kind of hilarious that when you quoted Brandon Sandersons description of a bad cliffhanger I immediately thought of the end of episode 2. I know it's a shallow comparison (the real twist was Vi deciding to turn herself in), but it was still funny how on the nose it was

I read "Mermaid"... What great writing!! I definitely felt my emotions go through those 5 stages. Such a master at your craft!

I found your videos like 5 days ago and i've been so into it. It fascinates me how much you intepretend out of every little thing. You open my eyes by it and give these moments in said series like Arcane a tons of more flavour to it. Im usually not too good into intepretending things, but damn, i learn so much from you and im so glad i found your channel. Im writing by myself and you help me there a lot of thinking how to make a good one. Wow. Thank you so much

Amazing video as always! I read your story and gotta say the ending line where he is counting her ribs really packed a punch!

brilliant breakdown of a brilliant scene. thank you.🙏🏼

Holy cow, I just read your short story and it gave me crazy chills! Did not expect it to end the way it did at all, and you did a fantastic job of setting everything up and giving depth and feeling in such a small amount of space. Thanks for another amazing video! I've been working through this series and it's clear how much work you put into each installment. Hopefully I'll have some art for you in a few days :)

That walk to Arlong park!!! goose bumps thinking about now, that scene stuck with ever since I saw it

Thank you for explaining the art of building a story. It's not just interesting as someone who enjoys Arcane and the making of TV and film. Hearing a scene broken down in this way, actually makes me reflect on my life. The most challenging moment of my life, hit a lot of the levels you explained. Extreme emotion to extreme emotion, in a short amount of time, in a different space. That moment set the theme for the rest of my life. I've struggled to 'get over it', but hearing at least in a writing context, how high level my change was, kind of helps me validate the pain of what I went through. An unintended side effect, I'm sure, but thank you for that.

i feel like the train scene from spirited away kinda fits this definition (idk if the 9 levels specifically). before it there's the chase between kaonashi and chihiro which is chaotic, and when they get to the train it's so peaceful and liminal, there's spirits of people walking around going somewhere, the background slowly getting darker with the sun going down and the piano. kinda magical tbh