Introduction

Arcane is a gold mine. There is a bunch of topics I want to write about, and it seems every day I find a new theme, concept or detail to discuss. Sometimes, it feels like I'm reading too far into things or making my headcanon out of nothing.

Here I'm discussing one such misty concept, the "arms race", as I call it, or the uncontrollable and unavoidable war escalation with crafting weapons and making dangerous scientific progress. It's related to two other areas of speculation of mine, the aftermath of Jinx's rocket and Silco's objectives, which I will mention here but delve into more in their own post.

With the arms race, I am referring to the fast scientific progress, the strained diplomatic relationships and internal state of affairs, the political drive and the supposed need to defend oneself, all leading to factions building up their military capability, in strength and in means. In our own history, this evokes the cold war and the buildup of nuclear arsenals, but I believe we can use the same ideas with warfare evolution during the two world wars, even to as early as the Napoleonic wars and its contemporary conflicts. Humankind has acquired the means and become quite proficient at blowing itself up in gruesome fashion.

I'm not making an argument here, especially not against scientific progress. If anything it would be against war and violence. Rather, I'm exploring the presence of the concept in Arcane, which is related to the sad fact that science gave us ever more terrible weapons. Please share your own feelings about if you noticed these things in the show and if you expect to see it, or similar ideas, developed in the next seasons.

Finding evidence in Arcane

In Arcane, I started thinking about this when considering the aftermath of Jinx's rocket at the end of season 1, calling it a nuke as a shortcut. We don't have much as a scale of destructive power, except for what Jinx herself has done, and for Heimerdinger's memories of mages waging war. The rocket could be an incremental upgrade over Jinx's other explosives, or it could be much more powerful, from a conventional missile to a nuke.

Then, I started noticing a few lines and moments here and there, that I find are distinctive of media and discourse about the arms race and weaponry evolution. The best examples are in the actions and words of Mel's mother, as she pushes forward the creation of Hextech weaponry and explains that weapons can't be unmade and that they are always used; meanwhile her daughter answers with wanting to prevent war, to avoid Piltover becoming a testing ground before being burned to the ground.

In my opinion, Arcane covers and hints at a large range of themes. Here are several general ones, which are relevant to our topic, named with way too few words for conciseness: violence, politics, tragedy, progress, choice, consequences. Among those, the arms race can be an idea emerging from circumstances, a device in the story, or a deeper theme that is waiting to be developed.

The following sections are the various items I noticed in Arcane and the evidence for it.

Impending doom and war

The arms race occurs in a climate of uncertainty and fear. Factions expect that their adversaries will want to crush them.

The story is tragic and fatalistic, there is an ominous atmosphere.
It feels like a prelude to actual war, and displays characters and factions being either pacifists or warmongers.

Warnings about power, Arcane, blind science

There are signs of danger, and some people will give warnings. More often then not, they are pushed to the side, as they prevent rushing forward fast enough.

The whole progress and responsibility issues, between Heimerdinger, Jayce, Viktor and Mel, even Grayson, Marcus and the rest of the Council.
[S1 E2, Jayce's trial] Heimerdinger: "I've seen this power in the wrong hands. It corrupts, consumes, lays waste to civilizations."

The folly of men

People play with powers bigger than themselves and barely know what they are doing. They are unwise and reckless. They lock themselves in their ideas, create their own problems, and fail to realize what they are doing.

Mad scientists: the doctor, Viktor, Jayce. Maybe not particularly mad but ambitious, reckless and unsupervised.
Vi and Caitlyn, being isolated before taking in the reality and being horrified of what they see, between Jinx, the state of the undercity and Jayce advocating for war.
Generally, people trying to do what is right, making big mistakes and dealing with the consequences.
[S1 E2, investigation after the explosion] Viktor: "What happened here?"; Jayce: "Science, I guess."
[S1 E9, Vi and Sevika fight] Vi and Sevika fight with their new cool weapons, which appear to be quite powerful, even causing a blackout. This one is probably more for rule of cool though, and Sevika should have been turned into dust at the end if they wanted to hammer a point home here.

The supposed necessity of weapons, as means of terror, or possibly of mutual assured destruction

The argument that weapons are necessary as a mean to defend oneself, to protect your freedom, to dissuade others from fighting you.

[S1 E3, Silco's speech to Vander] Silco: "I just need to scare them. The only way to defeat a superior enemy is to stop at nothing."
[S1 E7, Silco and Jinx arguing about Vi] Silco: "You have to complete the weapon."
[S1 E9, Mel and her mother argue] Mel's mother "If there is a chance Hextech can be weaponized, we must have it."

The inevitability of progress and of weapons being used, and the impossibility of undoing it

If progress is possible, someone will do it at one point. Better it be us. Once it's there you cannot remove it.

If something is created, it will be used in some way sooner or later. Weapons are not meant as decoration and are always unsafe.

[S1 E3, breaking into Heimerdinger's lab] Jayce: "This technology, it's real. And no matter what happens here, it's going to change our world. We should be the ones to lead it."
[S1 E3, Powder breakdown] Powder did not understand what she did, creating a weapon and killing. She will never be able to undo it.
[S1 E8, Mel's mother arrival] Mel's mother: "Your Jayce Talis has turned his eye to Hextech weaponry. Weapons can't be unmade and they are always used."
[S1 E9, Jinx's rocket] Jinx fires what is essentially a long range missile at a civilian target in Piltover.

The means of annihilation

Violence, war and creating weapons, even with good intentions and as defensive measures, will hurt and kill, perhaps you and everyone else as the same time.

The cycle of violence and hatred, the unrestrained violence, notably with Jinx, Vi, Silco, Jayce.
Violence getting out of control: fist fights and ineffective grenades are replaced with bloody slaughters and devastating bombs.
[S1 E8, Mel's mother arrival] Mel: "War isn't our first and every recourse. I sponsored Hextech to protect the city, not burn it to the ground."
[S1 E9, Mel and her mother argue] Mel: "Piltover isn't your testing ground."
[S1 E9, Jayce and Silco negotiating] Jayce: "Today, I got a glimpse of what war between us might look like. I'm trying to save you from annihilation."

Afterword

In the end, most of the evidence is minor or relevant to other themes. This is also something I just haven't seen discussed yet. So, the arms race may be just a minor theme, possibly just something that emerges from the larger themes at play. In any case, I'm wondering if this will be explored further in Arcane later seasons and if other people picked up on this in season 1.

What are your thoughts?