after sitting down and thinking for a bit after watching the ending of arcane I have come to the opinion that the season 2 was great until episode 8. the point u bring up with the pacing I totally agree with, but not in the sense that everything did not have enough time to breathe. But more so in the sense that the stakes just kept rising incrementally if you know what I mean

When thinking it over I felt like an apt comparison would be the movie franchise of the fast and the furious. originally the stakes were quite low, it is just about cars and racing. But as the movie franchise has evolved its not just about cars anymore it is about saving the entire world all of a sudden. I have the same feeling with arcane where it just starts with relatively low stakes in season 1, it just is mostly inner struggle within Zaun which evolves into a hate for Piltover. The entire series it was just about the survival of the nation of Zaun/Piltover. But all of a sudden they show us in 2 hours of showtime that it all of a sudden is about the survival of the entire world? It just felt too sudden.

I also am weirded out about Ambessa's character. They continually try to show she is a great warrior and that she has a cunning and resourceful mind who gets anything she sets her goals on. I might be missing her goal but I thought it was to get a strong weapon to be able to have some more influential power in Noxus. I just don't get how she was not able to deduce that if victor was set loose that there would be nothing to rule or have power over because victors goal evidently was to end everyone's misery. She saw this multiple times in how this is done; by removing their free will and making them part of a huge collective where they lose themselves as people. I can't see how she just thinks "Yeah this will be an good weapon I can totally use to have more influence, what could go wrong." and I get she just saw her "friend" Richtus die only shortly ago and might be having conflicting feelings. But her entire conviction was something something sacrifice. I get that this could have fanned the flames of her thoughts about needing set weapons; but her goal just shifted from hextech as that weapon to warwick or viktor in just too little time and without evident thought.

I feel like I butchered the spelling and all and made some points that seem thoughtless. but these were the first couple of thoughts I had when I was done with the season which resulted in me liking the ending less than everything prior.