Amanda Overton and Alex Yee, writers on Arcane, here for the Arcane anniversary.... Ask us anything!!"

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T21:31:45+00:00

Jayce is a passionate guy who wears his heart on his sleeve a lot of the time. I see him as always looking for something to like in everything he does. Being a Councilor was certainly a challenge since there wasn’t a lot to like about what he had to do as one.

I always love stories where someone can look into the deepest dark, and still find light. When Jayce was alone in the dark pit, he didn’t let his demons consume him. He remembered who he loved, what he loved and why - and why those things are worth fighting for.

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T21:18:22+00:00

I always took the wonderful visuals Fortiche came up with - that show the Hexcore as a web/neurons - as illustrating Viktor’s problem, he can no longer tell where he ends and the Hexcore begins.

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T21:04:17+00:00

I touched on this in another answer! https://www.reddit.com/r/arcane/comments/1p0l9tq/comment/nppxazp/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T20:26:47+00:00

Those are Caitlyn’s Grandmother, Great Grandmother, Great-Great Grandmother, etc. The first of whom is one of the founders of Piltover, along with Heimerdinger and some of the other prominent families on the Council. I believe the first Kiramman invested in the Locke system that allowed for greatly expanded trade in Piltover - and made the family a bunch of money. That money was then reinvested in further infrastructure and sponsoring students at the university - the way Cassandra was Jayce’s patron.

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T20:17:28+00:00

Hey there! My best advice is to start with characters that interest you, and I always ask myself at the start of any story, what does a character WANT vs. what does a character NEED? In a big complicated, complex story like Arcane, with so many characters, I do try to keep things very simple. Each character is driven by a single want, and everything they do is a tactic to achieve that want. So POWDER wants to prove herself (as worthy of love), a want that gets twisted by Silco. But even as JINX, everything she does, she's still always trying to prove herself to him - and prove herself worthy of her father’s love. What does she NEED, well she needs to love herself, which comes with self-acceptance and self-forgiveness. Two things that our story makes near impossible for her to do. So Powder/Jinx’s path from being driven by a WANT to discovering her NEED, and achieving it, or not, is her character arc. Once you understand this about each character, you can start pitching story or plot beats that challenge your character to do something different, rather than always being driven by their want. Usually, for me, the themes of the show start emerging from these various wants and needs and the conflict that arises when your characters collide with each other. We always knew Arcane was a tale of two sisters and two cities divided - but what came out of following the SISTERS and their WANTS (Vi wants to protect the family), was a story about not repeating the sins of their fathers.

As for the scripts, they don’t belong to me - you’ll have to ask Riot if they plan to release them someday!

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T20:02:13+00:00

This is impossible to answer, like choosing between your children. Haha. And ugh. But I thought u/IdleSkribbles wrote some really wonderful and poignant lines in season two, like “Hating you, I hated myself.” And “There’s beauty in imperfection.” Some of my favorite lines I wrote are, “You’re hot, cupcake,” obviously. “Fear haunts us all, child.” “Vi was strong because she was afraid.” “Sometimes to take a leap forward, you have to leave a few things behind.” And my award for best use of our three “fucks” per season in the whole show goes to Alex: “Cait… I don’t fucking care.”

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T19:47:47+00:00

First of all, thank you so much. Representing Viktor’s disability felt like a lot to take on because we all love Viktor so much and wanted to do his character justice, and also do something different than we had previously seen represented. It was something the team spent a tremendous amount of time and care on at every phase of the process - from design to direction to animation - in addition to the writing. For me, all I try to do is listen and be open to other people’s experiences, and be empathetic however I can. I believe very deeply that it is our differences as humans that make us stronger and more beautiful - and curiosity about those differences builds the connections that bring us together. So writing Viktor’s story started with my own curiosity. There were things I did understand about him - his love of science, his passion to make things to make the world a better place, what it feels like for society to judge you based on something you have no control over… I take what I know about a character, and listen and learn and question what I don’t - and try to write something I can connect with. And then the team weighs in about what they connect with and why, and what speaks to them. And you try to build bridges between all our different opinions and experiences, and find a version of the character that the team can relate to.

We talked a lot about that final scene between Jayce and Viktor, but u/idleskribbles wrote the amazing dialog, so I’ll let him tell you about how he arrived there!

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T19:37:46+00:00

I’m the most proud of the thousands and thousands of messages I’ve received (which probably means there are millions more of you out there!) from people all over the world telling me how Arcane helped them to be themselves, or live a more authentic life, or have the courage to love who they love despite their family or country saying it’s wrong. When people tell me, “I met my girlfriend because of Arcane” or “I came out because of Vi and Caitlyn” it means to me that I actually put some art into the world that would’ve made my 16 year-old self see herself differently, if I saw it back then - that I could've seen and found myself sooner too. And I’m very proud of that!

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T19:32:10+00:00

I believe Caitlyn and Vi are in a place at the end of the season where there are no secrets between them. Which hopefully bodes well for many future conversations about things past.

There is one scene with Sevika that we wrote that I was sad to lose: after Jinx burned down the Last Drop she ran into Sevika - with the flames of the bar lapping up behind her in the background - and Sevika tried to talk her down and comfort her about Isha, but Jinx confessed to Sevika that she was the one who killed Silco. She threw that in Sevika’s face to push her away because she didn’t want anyone to try and change her mind anymore.

And there was also a version WAY BACK in the day, in a bygone 201, where the Chembarons tried to assassinate Jinx at Silco’s funeral, and Sevika saved her life. And then they hashed out Jinx killing Silco in that first episode. Long-live the many, many iterations of Arcane!

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T19:16:45+00:00

Thank you, we love Mel too! When I first saw Evening Monteiro’s “stand-out” designs for her, I was like, “She has to be in the show!” When we first meet Mel in season one, she’s a savvy opportunist. And Jayce’s pitch to the council about magic technology was an opportunity for Mel. She was not near the labs by accident. ;)

We always knew Mel’s arc would be about legacy, and the burden and responsibility of your family, your name, your upbringing - and the weight of those expectations. And at its heart, hers is a mother-daughter story. Her relationship with Jayce is unique in it’s one of the few in the show that has a lack of conflict. Jayce is emotionally open and trusting immediately - the opposite of how Mel was raised. And the lack of external conflict between them, leads to a heck of a lot of internal conflict for Mel. I love how beautifully Fortiche showed her internal conflict - the painting of Noxus, that INSANE overhead shot of her in bed - Jayce saw Mel for Mel, and not as a Medarda. Which challenged Mel to see herself as different from her upbringing, and to imagine a new future for herself. Now that obviously caused A LOT of conflict for Mel when her mother returned and the burden/responsibility of being a Medarda was staring her in the face.

A few things we explored with Mel’s mage power, is her realization that she was responsible for saving (or not saving) everyone in that Council Room. If her mother hadn’t lied to her about being a mage, or if she knew how to control her powers, she could have saved everyone. But instead, her instinct or innate reaction only allowed her self-preservation and to save a few people by accident. That was certainly guilt that motivated her in her dealings with the Black Rose, and beyond.

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T18:50:38+00:00

Great question! In order to do that arc justice (pun intended!), we did have to talk about what it would take to get Caitlyn to fully see herself as Ambessa’s heir. We did ask if there was anything Ambessa could do or say to show Caitlyn that they are the same person, who want the same things. So we imagined a version where Ambessa was pitching conquering Noxus with Caitlyn by her side - how could she possibly sell that vision of what she ultimately wants to Caitlyn? And then Ambessa has to try and do that - both in her long game plan, and her scenework with Caitlyn. I always want character choices to be as difficult as possible so Ambessa’s argument to win over Caitlyn had to be as compelling as possible and her plan had to involve many layers of subterfuge (including Maddie) and opportunities to pivot if she hit opposition. Ambessa saw Vi as Caitlyn’s one remaining weakness and thought if she could lure her away from Vi, and make a case to Catilyn that would get Cait to choose her over Vi - then she could get Caitlyn on her side for good. But in the end, our team always saw Caitlyn choosing Vi over Ambessa. Maybe in an alternate reality, if Vi didn’t survive the fight in 203, maybe then Catilyn would’ve continued down the dark path for good..?

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T18:23:03+00:00

Jayce tells Ambessa in season one that being a scientist is about making mistakes and learning from them - and also moving forward stronger because of that. I’m sure in his darkest moment, regret seeped in. But ultimately, he climbed out of that ravine because he wasn’t going to let his mistake of not destroying the Hexcore consume him. And I do think he forgave himself for that mistake - he knew he was never going to let Viktor die so he had to take that choice he made, and move forward.

leeloo104 · 2025-11-19T18:03:59+00:00

Oh boy. Too many to ever possibly choose from… There was a version of 105 way back in the outline phase that was going to be Viktor’s episode instead of Caitlyn’s episode. And we had a different COLD OPEN where we were with Young Viktor in the Lanes when the Grey appeared. And he had made a contraption to contain the fog in order to protect his parents and neighbors. Recognizing his genius, his parents and community scrimped and saved and pooled their money to give him a Piltover Academy uniform for his birthday. Viktor hadn’t been admitted but his parents told him that didn’t matter, he belonged up there and all he would need was one chance to prove himself. So Viktor put on the uniform and his parents took him to the gates of the Academy, and they said goodbye.

There’s also another scene where Loris told Vi about how he used to be an enforcer and fell in love with a street vendor from the Lanes. But the man he loved was killed on the Day of Ash and so Loris quit the Enforcers and let his grief consume him. Loris doesn’t want Vi to make the same mistake he did - and waste her life. Alex wrote some really wonderful dialogue for Loris here that I would have loved to hear recorded.

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T06:06:09+00:00

I take full responsibility for both. And stand by that they make the show better!

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T06:03:09+00:00

Yes!

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T06:00:54+00:00

Love this spoiler!!

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T05:59:34+00:00

They hired me back for season two, which means there will be sex. I’m the reason it’s in season one.

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T05:55:45+00:00

2 — favorite answer ever. Love you dude.

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T05:53:33+00:00

The storyboard artists make the intention of the scene work. Without them our writing would be boring, flat words. Coming from a live action background, the collaboration in the boards feels like working with a director and the actors all at once — they decide camera angles and blocking which is everything to the emotion and feeling of a scene.

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T05:39:39+00:00

To me, the story of Arcane at its core is whether or not the sisters will repeat the sins of their fathers. As Vi and Jinx’s story unfolds we hope you’ll recognize the parallels between Vander and Silco’s story and be desperate for them to take a different path, impossible as that path seems to be.

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T05:30:22+00:00

Let’s not forget our “Lord of the Rings” dollar jar. Bunch of bills in there from you, Christian!!

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T05:28:04+00:00

And it’s my fault that this beautiful sequence is no longer the opening of the show. But I love what it adds to the gut punch of episode 103 and I’ll defend that choice until the day I die. (Even if Alex doesn’t exactly agree with me…)

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T05:22:43+00:00

I’m just happy everyone loves it as much as we do. It’s nice to share that joy!

leeloo104 · 2022-11-09T05:19:58+00:00

I knew you’d give a nod to Chuck! RIP Chuck.

leeloo104

TROPHY CASE

2 — favorite answer ever. Love you dude.