How the animation of ENEMY works || ARCANE / Imagine Dragons music video analysis 

Imagine Dragons now has more in universe lore than Shaco

If my calculations are correct, a 40 minute arcane episode breakdown is going to take at least 17 hours. Can't wait !!!

Skyen on his way to explain what smear frames are for the 53rd time

Something I found telling in the video: when Jinx starts to lip sync to the lyrics, adult Jinx sings the sentence "spare the sympathy", while the little Powder sings "oh, the misery. Everybody want's to be my enemy". And those last words are clearly painful for her (she closes her eyes, clenches her eyebrows...)

In Vi's "punching lesson" scene, if you play the video with the music, the beat perfectly syncs with Vi's punches; but it's slightly off-beat with Jinx's punches

"even if the show isn't good, I'm gonna love it" And then the show proceeds to be fucking amazing

I love how at 52:55, you can slowly hear TB just losing it to the expression that Ekko has on his face. Like he wants to nerd out and talk about the animation but he just can’t resist acknowledging how funny that section is.

Him laughing at ekko will never not make me laugh 😂😂😂

I just love how he thought that Milo was gonna become a villain and I can just imagine him watching him die

nobody talking about mylo being "the secondary villain" XD poor mylo got so much hate in this video

19:36 The character to the left of the scene is a Chinese word, “仇”. “仇” has multiple meanings in different situations. If translating it into a verb, it means “to hate” or “to resent”; a noun, it can mean “hatred” or “enemy”.

you deciding to call young Powder Jinx somehow caused me emotional pain (after watching the whole series of course)

Riot: Releases 3 Minute Musik video T B Skyen: Oh boy i guess its time to make another 1 1/2 Hour video

I absolutely love Ekko’s “cool music video poses” during JID’s verse. He’s trying to look so tough, as if we didn’t see him trip over his own feet like 90 seconds ago 😂 I love him!

1:23:56 she looks so sad and tired I like that everyone looks kind of tired and messy because we're used to mainstream animation, characters are always flawless except for specific moments when plot demands them to not be flawless. I think that it gives a lot of personality to the animation

I think it's also important and interesting to note exactly what lyrics both adult jinx and kid powder sing along to. At 1:25:55 you can see at the same time her eyes flash pink she mouths the word "sympathy" with the lyrics, which indicates to me that even as she puts up the front all she wants is the sympathy/love/understanding from those she cares about the most (Vi, mainly) and why she (slight spoilers) clings so hard to silco. Additionally, when they do the multiple layers of faces she does the main line of the song "oh the misery, everybody wants to be my enemy," which indicates that even as a child she felt often that people were more likely to hurt her than help her and that she *wanted* to believe the best in people and their kindness but often times this ended in her misery and pain.

i like the character design of the enforcers, the helmet covers their face and hair, hiding everything that makes them human or relatable or recognisable, it makes them scary and hard to empathise or see as people. the way their uniform is so exact and symmetric reflects how piltover strives for perfection

God. I fucking love MMA and Boxing, and that left hook from Vi looked so insanely powerful. It was BEAUTIFUL. Every motion was so precise and lifelike, like more precise and lifelike than real life it’s insane. It’s like the platonic ideal of a brutal hook

As a ex 3D animation student - your videos should just be played in animation classes. I love how you break down everything and explain camera movements and how the mood and feelings are achieved through angles and movements, you make it make sense so easily.

We should do a Drinking Bingo for Skyen's videos, and empty our glasses when "motion blur" or "squatch and stretch". You Drink the whole bottle when we start with the frame rates

I know its a meme, but I hope skyen never stops talking about the basics he talks about. I don't tire about his passion about frame rates, dutch angles and anything else he talks about frequently. I love it. Thanks Skyen for your passion and efforts as always

I like how in the scene where the guy with the eyebrows is messing with the Krug, Vi and the big guy are both, like, watching for people, being protective. It's clear that they're the two oldest, and they're the ones doing the protecting. They're making sure that nobody comes by that could potentially hurt the three kids while they're having fun.

Well, a correct translation of the enemy to russian would be "враг" while "противник" is more of an opponent but, overall, yeah, pretty much

Ah yes my yearly intake of Skyen talking about "animating on 2s/1s"

Listening to Skyen talk about Mylo is surreal, I can't decide if it's funny or sad.

I like how you're explaining the animation in detail. These are things that most non-animators don't really know (it's fine, I don't think they're required to), and most of them underestimate or misjudge the time required for an animated work whenever they hire someone for a personal project.

I loved the fact that she gave the monkey the exact same two turns and pat on the head to get it going like she does in the get jinxed video. I put both videos side by side to see how close they got it and it’s almost perfectly synced.

Skyen saying Mylo will surely betray them everyone now : oof

My absolute favorite thing about the marketing of Arcane is the back and forth between Jinx and Vi's perspectives. In a score to settle, the scene is entirely Jinx-centric. You get a good look at the DEEP trauma she has regarding Vi. It is one of the most shaking scenes of a PTSD flashback I have seen animated. And you get a very vivid view of their relationship and how things stand. But then the official trailer came out and we see Vi's side. You see her reminisce about her time with her sister when they were younger. You see clearly that she still very much loves her Sister and does not consider them to have fallen out. Its an almost Idealizistic view of their relationship. Then we have the Enemy Music video and we are back in Jinx's pov. Once again she is confronted with the weight of her trauma and you see the beginnings of her mental breakdown. I really love the part where JID comes in and we transition away from actual scenes from the show and into more "Music Video space". To me this definitely feels like a dive into the literal psychology of Powder as she is grappling with(and to an extent losing to) her demons. Then we come back to the Final trailer and it is once again at least partially from Vi's point of view. You see that she is desperate to reunite with her sister and does at least in part feel responsible for what has become of Jinx. But we never see in the trailer Vi take ownership of the abusive aspects of their relationship. It is all very optimistic and heroic. The marketing of the show does an amazing job of characterizing these two through the scenes they associate with them... and I just love it.

I agree to the many other comments: I looove your breakdowns with all the love and enthusiasm for details so much, BUT please don't harm yourself. Take care of yourself! I suppose that everybody around here is fine with waiting a few days longer as long as we know that you are fine.. Tons of love and appreciation for you and your work! ♥️♥️

Just wanna express my appreciation for that you managed to so easily switch to they/them pronouns once you wherent sure about the gender og Jid. I wish everyone could be that respectful. Other than that, you made me love animation even more, and I did't think that was possible.

TB Skyen puts out a whole 1 hour 1/2 animation analisys in a few days while my prof takes a whole month to grade a 4 question quiz

In the scene with the bug coming out of Powders mouth, powders eyes are shut, which can be symbolic of ignorance. The flash of Jinx we see her eyes are open. So whatever the bug represents, losing it taught Jinx a valuable lesson, or opened her eyes to some "truth" from her perspective. This is an amazing video breakdown.

So, there have been lots of comments about Jinx's eyes changing from blue to purple as an indication of her insanity. However it really struck me in this video (and to an extent in previous videos) that young Jinx has grey/silver eyes. Any time they do a close-up of her face, she very much does _not_ have blue eyes. However older Jinx _does_ . So I'm wondering if there are really two stages in Jinx's evolution from Powder. Silver to Blue gave her power. For example, the massive parkour jump between buildings in the trailer, or very nearly matching Vi's performance on the arcade machine. But something (or someone) pushed her beyond finding that level of power acceptable, and she wanted _more_ . And 'more' drove her into purple - insanity.

The cop's helmets to me look like Prussian helmets, especially with those little thingies on top. That sais a lot about them as well, as Prussia was a militaristic, surpressive country.

I'm real late coming to this, but having watched Arcane going on thirty or forty times, it's real nice finding someone who cares about this show as much as the creators and I do. Love the detailed analysis of every little moment. I can't get enough of this show and the animation and you are feeding my addiction

Fantastic insight into the different techniques used to create the visual effects!! I learnt so much and you've actually managed to keep me actively engaged through this movie-length analysis. Keep up the great work!!

I like the detail that when vi hits that chair while discussing with jinx you can see a drawing of the eyebrow kid sinisterly smiling over them, as if that discussion that stress over vi was premeditated by him in some way, as if he enjoys that. Also the chair that vi hits reveals a grafitti of a skull, probably indicating that the impulsive acts of violence of vi cause her to kill someone? Idk but it feels very calculated and i love it

never thought Skyen describing Jinx hugging VI would make me cry so much

the wind up monkey hits SO DIFFERENT after arcane act 1

39:52 Theory: This symbolizes Ekko (who, at this point, everyone thinks is the Firelights leader) and the Firelights, whose story as a hero/vigilante began in response to Powder's fall to the criminal underworld

I just recently discovered skyen. And I don't know about this man's voice but he somehow makes me want to listen to him and waste 1 hour of my time just to hear him fanboy over a music video. I even finished his League Character ranking and that's about 8 hours long...

So I love that you caught that on 48:55 with the knee buckling, but she didn’t jump; she kicked her own feet out from underneath her center of gravity and had to catch her self on one leg. It speaks a thousand words of volume how much detail went into movement for that shot. For those who don’t know, when you kick you change your center of gravity from your hips to your chest this allows you actually kick. Problem is now you’re off balance going backwards. When you leave your leg locked or long it doesn’t take any of your weight or momentum, so with the momentum of the other foot, the center of gravity going to your chest and you weight being turned sideways your leg will just pop right up off the ground and you’ll quickly find yourself in the air. The way you counter that is just bending your leg and lowering your body’s center of gravity. If you watch powder kicks with a straight leg, which causes her to kick her own legs out from underneath her. Which to me is just another metaphor of how unstable and insecure she standing on her own two feet and fighting in general

It's really cool seeing this now............now that we've seen what was done. HOLY SHIT!!! This show has fucked with me like no show I've ever seen. I get emotional just hearing conjecture about the characters. If Arcane isn't a masterpiece, I have no idea what is. Edit: Literally think the animators should win some best acting awards.

TBSkyen: calls this kid that is pretty small on the screen "Captain Eyebrows" Me: Why is that that "Captain Eyebrows" Then: 33:37 Me: Oh...

I’ve been to two imagine dragons concerts. At one, their second stage was only 20 feet away from my seat. That’s HOW imagine dragons moves when they play. That’s how Dan and Wayne and Dan and Ben move when they play their stuff and it’s just so good (ok so Dan Reynolds has more movement but still)

1:23:00 I kind of interpret it as Powder giving her self into Jinx and then realising that she imprisoned her innocent younger self into this villain that took over her conciousness.

53:00 absolute gem to hear this laugh

Also in the last scene b4 they zoom onto the monkey, It is the same shot from before the song played but this time Powder is gone. (Indicating only Jinx remains)

1:07:51 I just noticed the KDA reference on the singer's face, cool detail Anyway great video as always!

1:23:07 I love how Jinx purses her lips while she's falling

I’ve been obsessed with this music video ever since it was released - I replayed it so many times, in slo mo too. Imagine my joy when I saw there was an almost 90 minute video analyzing it! Loved your commentary, you’ve got a new subscriber. Cant wait for Arcane

Skyen loosing its over Ekko’s expression at 53:18 made me laugh so hard it’s so good

I've been waiting for this video for so long lol, excited to see the things you point out!

I kinda love how skyen in his confident loveletter to the MV just as confident says stuff like "eyebrows is going to turn evil" and "the firelights are actually mechanical" without any doubt while being completly wrong about it xD. Lovely video. edit: maybe the firelights are mechanic, but I don't think we know, much more likely he confused them with the butterflies

Love how at one point you barely talk about the animation technics and just focus on the visual narrative arc because that aspect of the video is also sooo well done. Can't wait for Arcane to break our hearts.

After Arcane that group to the right of the bigger kids are the kids that end up working for Silco as adults.

I kinda hate how everybody just went full EYEBROWS BETRAYAL as the ultimate truth.

I know you'll probably never see this but I really hope some of the animators working on this watch your videos. Your energy and analysis is so entertaining and energetic and I love watching these videos.

Everything you said about how musicians act is soooo true.

TB Skyen: Makes an hour and a half video on how the animation in the video works. Me who has watched the video repeat ably on loop: "Animation look good, look pretty, me like!"

O boy, its a big one :O - thank you for the video and all your efforts skyen. I look forward to digging into this across the evening :3 Stay safe and take care x

You know that you have a gift, right? Talking about mostly technical issues in a job that hardly a few people of your community may be really familar with (my suggestion, appoligies if this is wrong) for 90 minutes straight (maybe just a little curved) and giving these people the feeling that they were entertained?! If this is not a talent, that many teachers and trainers are envious about then I don't know!! Actually after seeing many of your breakdowns i somehow have the feeling that now I really know something about the animation job. 🤔 Sorry, this must have happend accidentally cause it was clearly not my intention.. 😆😆😆

One hour and a half for a 3 and a half minute music video. Skyen, I fear for what the full Arcane series is going to do to you but that won't stop me from waiting impatiently for your videos about it xD Hope you will be able to do them exactly as you wish, what with Netflix and their heavy hand regarding copyright >.>

There was a reddit post about the bug out of her mouth being a reference to a famous photograph.

You're making me feel like I should try animation and I'm not even consistent with drawing. 😄 I love this detailed analysis!

That was very interesting and made me realize how much effort they put into making these videos and this awesome series, thanks!

18:53, Yea its russian for "enemy", read: "Pro-teev-nee-k" (really emphisise out those eeee's, same kind of sound as: "eeek!! a mouse!!!")

52:52 timestamp for Ekko’s iconic face

Part of the reason jinx isn't getting the same power in her punches that vi is in that scene is that she's pulling her power from her shoulder, whereas vi is pulling from her feet and her core, hence why jinx is flailing around (and moving very chaoticly, bc she isn't anchoring herself to the ground) and all vi's movement is very precise and thought out Edit: Ekko is doing the same thing!! Except when he does it he's never even pulling from his shoulder, he's pushing his whole chest in. If you do that it sets you way off balance, which is why he ends that scene like he does, scrambling to get his balance back

I feel like you would be a good teacher because of how thorough you are in analyzing, yet your commentary and excitement of the video makes it fun to watch!

my guess as to why theres so much going on in the beginning scene is that this song, and that first scene before the music kicks in will be present in the actual show. thats my hope anyway.

When Vi punches the weight is in her fist , but she doesn't move. Where I'm contrast Jinx whole body moves with her punches. Same as when she using her guns. She really is a small am frail girl. Not not built like her sister to be a fist fighter. But she has a sharp eye an a great shot as well as brilliant inventor beyond her years. But in a world they live in people like Vi are held higher an praised more while Jinx seen as weak. When in reality she not weak just fights an can help in different way. When Jinx walk, jumps, fights, running, and just everything she seems to just fwail about. Constantly on on tip toes like a pixie cause she just so tiny an light. Everything including her own movements just carry her with them. Which is great in contrast to how much destruction she causes in future. An how brutal a shot she is

I love how the monkey is a call back to get jinxed

Milo being bad in the trailers was such a good misdirect. also the bug is a firelight right? you know the ones on the bridge which blew it up in and nearly killed Ekko and Jinx

I was randomly searching for videos related to Arcane and stumbled across this. I am BLOWN away with the quality of perception and analysis! I love everything about this. Cheers, subscribed.

1:09:02 this guy is literally so respectful 😭 love you man i love this analysis this is how i think i think like in english class lol

so after the animation, i have some ideas about jinx. For me, it seems like she can't separete what's real from her memories. She remember VI teaching them how to punch and then playing with ekko, and her emotions look too strong to be simply a memory, it's like she's experiencing that again. When she argues with VI, it seems like she's confused about what's happening and her memories of playing with her sister. So, I think that, before she went totally insane, she couldn't seperate all the bad things she witnessed in Zaum, and to seek refuge, she created her Jinx "persona". Also, on the bridge to the chorus, the way they worded "tell you you're the greatest, but when you turn they hate 'us'", it looks like adult Jinx is justifying her actions to Powder. What are your thoughts?

Not going to lie it is absolutely amazing to me how much you read out of the character designs and stylistic choices. Like how you called that Vi's friends are going to die because of the joyful way they are portrayed in??? I wish I could borrow your brain and expertise, great stuuuuuuff

that wind up monkey has a whole new meaning after episode 3...

I’m pretty sure 40:00 is a reference to the photo “Boy with June Bug” by Gordon Parks. It looks a lot like it. It’s very cool

No cap, when Skyen said "and something that runs on 10fps is like..." the vid cut to a honkai impact 3 ad, and I don't know why it's so fitting.

There's a minor detail that i really found very interesting about the video. The flashy portraits of jinx (1:23:47) at the end I assume represents her stages to arcane series and imply different emotions. We have jinx as: a kid who is worried and nervous, a toddler is angry and upset, and finally as an adult is about sadness. I found this so cool and I can't wait for the series

Please don't ever stop doing these. Every time I see a new League video come out, (especially the music ones) I always get so excited knowing that you're going to analyze it. This video was amazing by the way!! I can't wait for the next ones :)

Japanese and Chinese have very similar script. Japanese has three different script types: Kanji, which is inherited from China, used for adjectives, adverbs, verbs, and nouns; Hiragana, which is used for different grammar words; and Katakana, which is used for foreign words and is basically a version of Hiragana that has been slightly modified to make it be easier to make words from a phonetic language instead of a syllabic one. 僕の名前はブライアンです。 Boku no namae wa Brian desu. 僕 = one of the many, many kanji referring to the self. Different words are used in different situations depending on who you are and what your relationship is to the person to whom you are talking. の = a Hiragana character that, when used like this, shows possession of the thing after by the thing before. 名前 = kanji meaning name. は = one of three main "connector hiragana" used in Japanese. I honestly still need to study more to truly know the difference and which one you use where, though. ブライアン = My name, Brian, in katakana. Bu ra i a n. Skyen, by the way, would be スカイエン su ka i e n. です = The rest of the sentence before is a thing. ではありません would be the way to say that it is not, by the way.

Skyen talking about his love for smear frames is one of my favorite things

I have work due for tomorrow and was stressing out a lot, this exactly the type of content i needed to get re-inspired!

Pretty sure the person getting beat up in the alley is the same character from the group scene where Vi was teaching punching - the one off by her/them self behind Ekko, not fully part of either group.

Important note about the wind up monkey and it's metaphor; the monkey isn't just wound up and then set loose. It gets papped on the head first in both this and the initial Jinx music video (which is a lovely piece of continuity). So in the metaphor of Jinx, she's going to get wound up and wound up, until all of that tension is just simmering under the surface and then someone will come along and give her a little push, deliberately setting her off.

I'm so glad to meet another animation nerd and just tear up when you see their expressions and HOW FREAKIN BREATHTAKING IT IS GEEEZ

One hour in and he didnt talk about animating on twos :D was quite relieved when it finally hit^^

1:07:51 That's Akali's mask! Pretty cool easter egg. And an amazing video analysis as always 🙌❤️.

this show is gonna hit me hard

What I think is neat about the Mylo fucking with the krug scene where Ekko pulls the prank on Powder is that all the while, Vi is focused outward and vigilant, posing, but also probs keeping an eye out for the others while they all chill there for a minute.

This was such a good analysis! I watched the music video afterwards to see it normal speed, and man I wouldn’t have caught over half the things you mentioned if I hadn’t watched your analysis. The tiny details that are easily missed if you don’t look for them!

btw, it was confirmed that vi didn’t push powder when they were talking, her gesture just frightened powder and caused her to trip

I love the detail that the lead singer of Imagine Dragons has a microphone attached to his shoulder, which is connected to the speaker on his chest by the glowing green wire.

Did I call 1.5 hours? I did. Time to put on some tea, get a blanket and get ready for the hype!

I do art and design in college and we had to talk about a 3d animation and I talked about this

58:24 ,,, i live in Sinaloa, Kids (yes in plural) have been murder here for doing that to the cops, don't know how to feel about it honestly