Attention, fellow Arcane fans: Riot knows of our anguish at there still being about three and a half months left to wait for season two’s November launch, and has seen fit to keep us going with another little crumb of a teaser. Behold: about 50 seconds of not very much happening.
Spoilers for Arcane season one ahead.
Honestly, I’ll take it. Even just this little glimpse of Heimerdinger and Ekko infiltrating the University of Piltover (perhaps to steal some vital Hextech?) is a lovely reminder of the show’s wonderful animation and performances. Heimer scampering around, making a performance out of his attempt to sneak, while hardened street kid Ekko brings up the rear looking vaguely embarrassed—it’s a little encapsulation of how full of personality these characters are, even if we don’t get to see them really do anything other than a bit of banter.
Presumably after meeting towards the end of season one, the two are now working together—though whether Heimerdinger is fully on the side of Zaun in the conflict, or just trying to prevent as much loss of life as possible, is unclear. At the very least he seems unwelcome at his own university. Was he ousted following his eviction from the Council? Or is he just being careful not to let his peers see him up to mischief?
Heimerdinger and Ekko made for a fun pairing in season one, contrasting Ekko’s scrappy inventing with Heimer’s academic approach, but it was pretty brief. This clip suggests they’re an ongoing duo in season two—it’ll be fun to see their dynamic explored more fully. Perhaps Heimer even helps Ekko create his iconic League of Legends gear and gadgets, yet to be seen in the show.
Thankfully one short clip isn’t the only thing to tide you over, either. GKIDS has announced a Blu-ray of Arcane season one, allowing you to give it a permanent place on your shelf rather than relying on Netflix to stay solvent. You can get just the disc, with some cool new cover art, or a steelbook edition with art of either Jinx or Vi adorning it. There’s “3+ hours of bonus content” included, but that is a little misleading—it includes the Bridging the Rift documentary already available on YouTube, which is about 2.5 hours on its own, though there are also brand new “scene breakdowns of iconic moments from season one”, which could be interesting.
If you’re feeling particularly flush with cash, there’s also a collector’s edition featuring a load of extra goodies. Weirdly, they seem particularly geared towards tabletop RPG fans—beyond the fairly standard art cards and exclusive box, there’s a set of Hextech themed polyhedral dice, a fabric map of the city, and even a poster that folds out into what suspiciously looks like a GM screen. It’s certainly making me want to go back to the idea of running an Arcane campaign with Blades in the Dark…
With all that, we should at least be able to hold out until the next trailer hits, right? I hope so—I’m dangerously close to getting my fix by actually playing League of Legends, and no one wants that.
