In recent years you’d have to be living under a virtual rock to be unaware of all
the criticism Hollywood gets for making woke movies.
Some of the most popular IPs have been criticized by fans, many even going as far as saying
the filmmakers ruined the franchises by making those films both political and “woke”.
Those on the side of “wokeness” would obviously disagree, and they’d probably
define that term a bit differently than those that hold the opposing viewpoint.
I can see the merit in wanting to show a more diverse cast and to represent a greater diversity
of cultures and backgrounds.
I’m not here to argue against that, but I do think if your goal is to make a piece
of entertainment that checks all those “woke” boxes AND be something that most people love,
you can’t go wrong taking a look at Netflix’s Arcane for notes.
Now, To be upfront, I have played only probably 3 hours total of League of Legends.
I’m not unfamiliar with the genre or the game itself, but It’s fair to say that going
into Arcane, Jinx was the only character I had any real familiarity with.
So this assessment isn’t colored by a love for the source material.
I’m only talking about what’s on screen in Netflix’s Arcane and how they, in my
opinion, perfectly executed what all proponents of wokeness and diversity in entertainment
purport to be about.
To start, we gotta look at the cast.
Many big franchise films and television shows these days almost have to have a perfectly
diverse cast.
Now obviously this is animated, and for the sake of my sanity, I’m not even going to
look at who voiced these characters.
But just by looking at what we saw on screen, I’d say that Arcane checks all the boxes
if someone out there is keeping track for some reason.
You have every type of human race as well as gender representation and even a little...dog?
Mouse?
What the hell is Heimerdinger anyway?
The reality is that the race or gender identity or sexual orientation of these characters
basically doesn’t matter at all.
They are so much more than their identities.
So much more complex than this and that’s how it should be.
I think that’s where the anti-woke people have a point.
Silco isn’t the main antagonist because he’s a white male, and Vi isn’t a hero
because she’s a strong woman.
These surface level traits have very little to do with the choices they make.
Sure these are aspects of their character you can’t get around, but to me, if their
gender or race or sexual orientation is something you list off when you talk about who they
are as a character, that’s just a poorly written character.
Everyone watching gets to see someone on-screen that looks like them, that’s great, but
more importantly everyone watching gets to forget about that as soon as they hear what
these characters feel or watch them make choices.
Who they are as characters are so much more important than their identities.
Side tangent real quick though, a point I have to make.
All of these characters, as far as I know, were originally designed with these aspects
in-mind.
The video game versions are all the same race/gender/whatever.
It seems like people are generally more ok with the diverse cast when they were always
diverse.
I hear a lot of these complaints come about when characters are race or gender swapped
during the adaptation process.
I can kinda see where people who have a problem with this are coming from, but honestly, I
am so tired of hearing about either side’s position.
These conversations give me literal cancer as they are so unimportant to the actual piece
of work that’s being created.
Your cast is diverse?
Great!
We need more of that.
Retroactively announcing that a character is gay via a tweet after the fact feels really
dumb.
Stop patting yourself on the back for these kinds of characters, it just feels virtue-signaly,
I’m looking at you Disney.
Like have you ever read those cringe r/iamverysmart posts where guys post on facebook about how
smart they are?
That’s what this feels like.
Create diverse characters, then write them so well people forget they are diverse.
That’s the whole point right?
Obviously if a character is struggling with external forces that would only apply to their
particular race/gender/identity that’s a different story, but usually those types of
stories aren’t being told in big fantasy worlds or superhero movies.
I won’t go as far as to say they shouldn’t be, but typically people don’t go see bang
bang smashy smashy in hopes of a riveting sociopolitical tale making arguments about
intersectionality.
Know your audience is all I’m sayin.
Now a big talking point I see from the woke crowd is that there needs to be more female
leads.
Well Arcane has two main ones, and hot damn they are badass.
Seeing both Jinx and Vi do their thing is really fun to watch.
These women are definitely strong physically, but you know what Arcane does that so many
other films fail to do?
Arcane breaks the hell out of these women.
Arcane doesn’t pull any punches, literally, just because these characters have vaginas.
These women are allowed to be flawed and broken and it makes them so much more than just strong
women.
They have been through tough times, they’ve developed really strong needs and desires,
and as audience members, we care about them.
We care about them not because they are women, but because they feel like living breathing
human beings.
A lot of times I hear arguments about strong women being role models for little girls.
In the context of entertainment, I’ve never really fully understood this.
I mean there are much better places to seek role models, but I guess it’s not really
my place to make assessments about those kinds of things.
What I can tell you is this, if I had a daughter, I’d want her to see a woman who’s been
broken and knocked down and to see that woman get back up again.
A woman that pursues her goals, and cares for those around her despite all the odds.
Not a quippy emotionless cardboard cutout.
That’s what I see in Arcane at least.
Specifically from Vi.
She fails time and time again, but at the end of the day, she will stop at nothing to
save her sister from what she’s become.
That’s really cool to me.
That’s the kind of woman I want to see more of on-screen.
You wanna see more female leads?
I’m all for it, just don’t go easy on them in the writers room.
Writers gotta torture their characters narratively to make them great.
No one gets a pass, it will only do those characters a disservice.
Another thing to mention about these awesome women is that they don’t put down their
male counterparts nor have a general distaste for the men in general.
I’m sorry to say but when you write characters like this, it sort of alienates half of your
entire audience and makes it really hard to get into the story.
That’s not to say that you can't write characters who are this way, but typically you don’t
want to make the hero of your story sexist or racist, unless of course, the point of
the story is for them to overcome their bigotry a’la Dallas Buyers Club, great movie by
the way.
(For those that don’t know, that movie is about a bigeted homophobe who learns the error
of his ways via some real, REAL narrative torture thanks to the writers.
I highly recommend it)
The women, and men, all have conflict rooted in philosophical and ideological differences.
Their conflict extends far beyond bigotry.
As audience members, the drama comes from seeing both sides of the conflict and somewhat
agreeing with both sides.
Or at least seeing where each character is coming from.
It’s kinda meta when you think about it.
On the one hand, people who want more diversity in films have a point.
There should be more diversity.
I don’t think most rational people would disagree with that, but when it comes down
to the details, and HOW that should be accomplished, that's where the disagreements begin.
In that same vein, all of the characters in Arcane have their own beliefs and they usually
have really unique perspectives on why they believe those things.
For example, Jayce wants to harness the power of Magic because it saved his mother and he
believes it can save people, but Heimerdinger has lived so long he’s seen what magic can
do and the destruction it can cause.
There’s conflict between them.
Or Vander, who refuses to fight back when Zaun is being terrorized by Enforcers.
Despite Vi calling him weak and everyone being angry with him, he refuses to fight them and
even brokers a deal with Grayson in order to ensure that his people will be safe.
At no point are any of these characters expressing characteristics that would suggest they are
good or bad based solely on their diversity metric.
They all have incredibly complex belief systems rooted in backstory that informs who they
are.
That’s what makes them interesting.
That’s what makes them fun to watch.
At the end of the day, it’s unfair to expect your film or show to do well just because
you tick some diversity box.
If a filmmaker has a genuine, sincere desire to show more diverse characters on screen
I’m all for that.
I just think that when you approach storytelling from that position it’s really challenging
to tell a compelling story.
It’s the same thing when action movie writers start with cool set pieces and try to force
character and plot around what is going to look cool on screen.
As audience members all we care about is how the characters make us feel.
Can we relate to them, can we understand where they are coming from, do they make us want
to be better people or do they make us feel like we should feel shame for not being born
like them.
That’s not an enjoyable experience for anyone.
For those of you who haven’t seen Arcane and are still with me, I highly encourage
you to check it out on Netflix.
I’ll admit, It was slow for me at first, and I had to give it a second try after some
hype from my friends but it’s a really great show and the filmmakers deserve all the praise!
But what do you think?
Would you even consider Arcane to be a woke show?
Let me know in the comments down below, and keep it civil please.
I will not hesitate to ban you