Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode Six, Decoy Review: Best Episode of the Show?

Upon starting Episode Six of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Decoy, I was quite excited to see where it would go.
The trailers teased that we would get the face-off teased between Tanya and Mikel, along with Zettour fighting on the front lines.
Well, after watching Decoy, I can say that it more than lived up to my expectations and may very well be my favorite episode of the show.
The episode begins by revealing Weiss thankfully survived his injury from the Federation mage, but said mage is now being yelled at by Mary Sue, who wants to hunt the rest of Tanya’s men down.
This and Mary’s actions later on in the episode continue to prove she has learned absolutely no patience from her prior battle with Tanya.
As for Mikel, I am surprised he seems so loyal to the Party, considering they sent him and his men to gulags.
Tanya is rightfully concerned about the Federation resorting to bringing these mages back, though she does have a funny reaction to Weiss’ injury, “How could you let someone from that volunteer army shoot you down?”
Way to be empathetic Tanya, although I suppose that is not in your skill set.
With Tanya’s forces surrounded, Zettour enacts the next part of his plan, changing the decoy from Tanya to himself.
Taking Grantz for protection, Zettour goes to rescue Tanya’s forces, hoping to draw the enemy to him, thus giving Tanya the chance to escape the encirclement and then team up to take their foes down.
Given Tanya’s past track record for misunderstandings, I would not have been surprised if she misinterpreted Zettour’s plan, leading to a military disaster.
If there is one skill Tanya does have, though, it is her military mind, and she quickly deduces Zettour’s scheme, going to aid him.
She also has Visha act as bait for Mary Sue by pretending to be Tanya.
While Tanya has a strong military mind, Mary Sue appears to lack a brain entirely, and I expect Tanya will use her recklessness to her advantage even more in the future.
Unfortunately for Tanya, Mikel is not Mary Sue, being smart enough to track her down, and so the anticipated fight between the two begins.
What follows is a fight with a great blend of 2D animation and CGI, with the latter going by so fast and being intercut with multiple 2D shots that it all flows together nicely.
With Tanya being delayed by Mikel, Zettour and Grantz find themselves on the ropes, and Zettour proves why he is the second-best character in the show, next to Tanya, demanding the Empire’s flag be risen so the enemy knows he is there.
He even goes as far to allow Grantz to help Tanya, leaving him defenceless.
Zettour reasons that if he, a high-ranking general is killed, it might shake the leadership up enough to show them how dire the war has become.
“The corpse of a soldier must be put to the best use it can,” Zettour says, with two head wounds. “That’s what war is all about.”
In the end, Grantz’s help allows Tanya to break through Mikel’s defences, forcing him to withdraw.
As for Zettour, he and Tanya end up back-to-back on the battlefield, gunning down their enemies in one of the coolest moments of the show.
For a moment, I thought Zettour was really about to die.
His death certainly would have been a wakeup call for the Empire.
But I am glad he is sticking around, and I hope we see more instances of him on the battlefield in the future.
Overall, Decoy was a fantastic episode and definitely the best of the season.
Hell, I would even argue it’s the best of the series so far, with its great action and epic moments from Tanya and especially Zettour.
I am very curious to see if any episode in the rest of the season can top this one.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode Five, Unlucky Draw Review: Misunderstandings Before the Battle.

I have been enjoying the Second Season for Saga of Tanya the Evil.
That being said, the last few episodes have been focusing more on the logistics of war, rather than the actual combat, so I have not found much to talk about (which was why I skipped talking about Episode Four).
Well, Episode Five, Unlucky Draw, brought back the promise of action, along with the funniest scene of the series up to this point.
Picking up in the aftermath of Rudersdorf caving to the high leadership’s demands to continue the war, Zettour has been transferred to the front lines, while Rudersdorf remains.
I am surprised the two still seem to be on good terms, given how angered Zettour was by Rudesdorf’s decision at the end of the previous episode, but Zettour could just be pretending and now playing the long game.
No matter his plans, he is not the only one dealt an unlucky draw this episode, because it is upon his arrival that Tanya first learns that the war will not be ending soon, and then unintentionally talks Zettour into using her as bait for their next operation.
This is the scene I said was the funniest of the show yet.
Tanya’s constant exaggerated expressions and absurd obliviousness to the obvious never failed to get a laugh out of me.
“I don’t know who he’s referring to, but I feel sorry for them.”
Seriously, Tanya, how do you not know after all that has happened that you are Zettour’s trump card?
It gets even worse for Tanya because what she and Zettour do not know is that there is a spy in the Empire, passing on information about the Andromeda mission.
My money is currently on the not-Italian officer who has been observing Tanya.
And it would not be a Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two episode if we did not get one scene reminding us of Loria’s disgusting lust for our protaganist, right?
He orders Tanya captured alive and we once again get a gross close-up of him licking his lips.
I have to wonder why they decided, of all shots, they chose that one to be animated so well?
I certainly would have rather seen that animation effort put into the charging soldiers, rather than the use of CGI, although its current state is far from bad.
Once the battle begins, Tanya sends Weiss to deal with the artillery, resulting in an explosion which hilariously sends Tanya flying.
It is not all laughs though because, right before the credits roll, Weiss is struck and severely injured (potentially even killed) by Mikel.
Looks like we will be getting the fight between him and Tanya teased in the trailer and OP next episode.
Speaking of, the promo for that episode promises a lot of action, with even Zettour getting involved, so I am quite hyped for that.
Back to Unlucky Draw itself, the episode ends after the credits with a brief gag of Uger telling Rerugen a dirty joke (which we do not hear) only to be coldly rebuffed.
It is a nice bit of humor which will probably be our last for a few episodes, given the action promised for the next one.
Unlucky Draw is another solid episode which delivers on laughs and a gripping cliffhanger.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two, Episode Three, Well-Intentioned Mediator Review: Logic vs Emotion.

Episode Three of Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two begins with narration from our titular anti-hero.
Tanya begins the episode, titled “Well-Intentioned Mediator,” by describing a minor skirmish in the war.
The way this incident was just brushed over so quickly makes me wonder if it was a storyline from the Light Novel that was skipped over.
If it is, though, I am not too bothered by it, considering I still understood the story.
The “Well-Intentioned Mediator” of the episode is the kingdom of Ildoa (alternate universe Italy), which attempts to bring a peaceful end to the war, for their own benefit of course, since ending the war will net them a lot of praise.
We get some foreshadowing to how this plan will fail with the following meeting of the Empire’s General Staff.
Zetour is open to Ildoa, although cautious, while Rudesdorf is hostile, sending Rerugen to observe their supposed ally.
Ildoan Virginio Calandro extends his country’s offer as negotiator, to which Rerugen repays by sending him to observe Tanya.
Ah, yes, the perfect way to make a man regret his life decisions.
Rerugen has his own concerns, however, because he is now taking credit for Tanya’s military success.
He need not worry though because now Tanya has someone who can take the fall for her actions while still owing her.
As for Calandro, Tanya makes a good first impression on him, joking about her small size making her harder to hit.
This impression expectedly does not last, however, because it is soon Calandro’s turn to witness Tanya master the art of technically-not-a-war-crime strategy.
Tanya’s cutesy acting turns terrifying when she has a residential area, including a church, bombed with artillery.
The haunting music playing over the scene adds to this impression.
Typical Tanya misunderstandings follow, as she attempts to assure Calandro that she will accept the generals ending the war, only for Calandro to interpret this as her and the rest of the soldiers prioritizing national interests.
Hearing Tanya’s following inner monologue got a big chuckle out of me.
“I got the war observer to understand that we Imperial soldiers are normal people,” she says, right after we got a scene of said observer giving a terrified report to his commanding officer.
The constant misunderstanding field Tanya emits will never stop being funny.
As per usual, Tanya thinking the war is about to end practically jinxes her, as proven by the arrival of Ugar.
It is here that we see the return of the logic vs emotion theme.
Back in Season One, we saw emotion win over logic, with the Empire logically viewing their enemies beaten, never suspecting they would give in to the emotional motive of revenge.
Now, faced with the logic of ending the war before more are sacrificed, Ugar, Weiss and other soldiers are struck by the emotional drive to keep fighting in the face of a peace they view as no better than surrender.
Even Rudesdorf feels this way, going against Zettour and continuing the war, starting Operation Iron Hammer.
I expect we will learn what this operation is next episode.
Overall, “Well-Intentioned Mediator” was another solid episode.
The highlights for me were expectedly the Tanya scenes, which had plenty of humor, while also showing why she is to be feared.
Season Two’s quality is still good and hopefully that will continue with Episode Four.

Saga of Tanya the Evil Season Two: The Most Adorable War Criminal Finally Returns in July.

I have reviewed a lot of anime on my blog.
If I have learned anything in the process, it is that time plays a big part in my opinion.
I will often look back at a positive review I did of an anime and wonder, why did I rate that one so highly?
Not to say that my opinion of these anime have turned negative, but I would say that some of them are not as fantastic as I once thought.
However, there is one anime that I enjoyed and continue to enjoy whenever I revisit it, which is often.
That anime is Saga of Tanya the Evil, and it follows the story of a Japanese salaryman, cursed by a supposed god to be reborn into another world.
Now a little German girl named Tanya, the salaryman must survive an alternate universe World War One, where mages fly over the battlefield.
The anime has a lot of great qualities, the best of which being the titular Tanya herself.
She is a compelling character with her strict mindset, constant hilarious misunderstandings, and rivalry with the god she calls “Being X.”

Tanya’s constant mental battles with Being X were a highlight for me in the first season.

After finishing the anime, I was eagerly anticipating Season Two.
So, I waited… and waited… and waited…until it felt like we were never going to get Season Two.
Well now, in 2026, we finally have our first trailer (that is not just old footage), along with a release date.
The trailer begins by showing that Season Two will pick up from the movie.
Tanya has been gifted a full combat battalion by the military branch; despite the aneurysm it gives one of her superiors.
We get a brief look at all of the characters, including those in Tanya’s squad, two new communist characters and, of course, Tanya’s human rival Mary Sue (yes that is her actual name).
From there, the trailer goes through a series of fast animations, teasing what is coming.
We see Tanya engaging in an air battle, what looks to be some sort of demon and, most disgusting of all, Loria licking his finger.
Loria is based off Lavrentiy Beria, one of Stalin’s chief enforcers, who was definitely a sexual predator and probably also a serial killer.
Given that he obviously has nothing good planned for Tanya, I think we can all agree to pray to Being X that Loria receives a painful end.

I hope Tanya eventually strikes the same fear into Loria that she does to this pilot in the trailer.

But the highlight of the trailer is Tanya’s crazed expressions.
We see these insane smiles while she fights and tells her troops to prepare for war.
It will never not be funny to see hardened soldiers terrified by a little girl who they constantly misunderstand.
Case and point, the final shots of the trailer are everyone looking horrified as Tanya puts on her little girl voice and smiles sweetly.
To be fair, the last time Tanya used this voice was to trick her enemies into thinking an attack was not coming in a way that would avoid war crime charges.

Knowing that, Tanya’s soldiers being afraid of this face is completley understandable.

It will be both interesting and terrifying to see how Tanya schemes her way out of such charges in the new season, now revealed to be airing in July.
I will be watching day one, and plan to review each episode weekly.
Hopefully Season Two can live up to the first and, if we do get a third season, we will not have to wait as long.

Hazbin Hotel Episodes Seven and Eight Review: The Radio Demon’s Master Plan.

My biggest issue with the first season of Hazbin Hotel was the pacing.
It often felt like important events and character moments were skipped or rushed because of the limited eight-episode runtime.
So, after learning the second season was also eight episodes, I was concerned the issue would repeat itself.
Well, after seeing the final two episodes of Hazbin Hotel Season Two, I can happily say that I was wrong because the pacing this season has been great.
The penultimate episode, “Weapons of Mass Distraction”, follows up from where “Scream Rain” left off, with Lucifer being lured into a trap set by Vox.
Lucifer is immediately captured with the use of Angelic weaponry, but he is more antagonized by Alastor than Vox.
It is quite humorous to watch Vox’s captives have more beef with each other than their literal captor.
Not only that, but it leads to one of my favorite songs of Hazbin Hotel, “Brighter”, which fully reveals Vox’s backstory.
In life, Vox was named Vincent Whittman, a weatherman so envious of those around him that he killed again and again to reach the top.
Eventually earned a cult-like following, this all culminated with him giving a speech in a pool, ranting about being “baptized into a new era of entertainment.”
Overlooking the pool are dozens of suspended TVs, which turns out to be a rather poor decision design wise because one of these TVs falls and crashes onto Vox’s head, killing him and sending him to hell for his murders.
Vox’s death is both gruesome and ironic, considering his hell-form has a TV for a head.

It is also a deserving end considering all the murders he committed in life.

It also may explain how Vox became so powerful in Hell because, when the TV kills him, it also electrocutes all of his followers standing in the pool as well.
So, when Vox arrived in Hell, he already had a group of loyal followers to use.
Through this, we can see that Alastor is actually right in his understanding of Vox.
He always has a desire to be “brighter,” never satisfied with what he has, but relies on others to gain his power, whether that be his followers or the Vees.
We see this with him hypnotizing Angel Dust into publicly bad mouthing the hotel and supporting the Vees.
He uses this event to unveil his weapon, powered by Lucifer, which he fires at Heaven, destroying Sera’s barrier.
Although terrifying for Heaven, it was funny for me, what with the shot of Peter being spun around when Vox’s weapon punches through the pearly gates.

This moment got a good chuckle out of me.

Vox gives Heaven 24 hours to surrender, and the turmoil this causes leads into the episode’s second song, “Live to Live”, where Pentious advises Sera on her next move, with a great callback to last season’s “It Starts with Sorry.”
While this is happening, Vox continues to fall into Alastor’s trap, further distancing himself from the Vees, and is also manipulated into inviting Charlie to his party.
Following Vox’s invitation, Emily arrives to help Charlie, and the group formulate a plan to rescue Angel Dust and stop Vox.
Baxter is key to this plan, and more than willing to help, showing his role in the season.

I think Baxter’s characterization is a little wonky, since his initial goal of proving the hotel wrong has been completely brushed aside, but it is not a big deal.

The newfound confidence of the hotel results in the final song of the episode, “When I Think About the Future”, which calls back to multiple songs sung previously in the season, before setting up the big finale.
That finale, “Curtain Call”, kicks off with the hotel crew going through their plan to stop Vox, free Angel from mind control, and show everyone that Pentious was redeemed.
Two things, though.
First, it feels like a scene was skipped over where the characters realize Angel was brainwashed, since in the final scene of Episode Nine they were confused about him siding with the Vees.
Second, I still find it pretty convenient that Pentious is not allowed to leave Heaven.
They just say he is not allowed to leave and provide no reason why.

I just wish they would explain *why* Sir Pentious cannot leave Heaven.

At Vox’s party, Baxter attempts to provide a connection with Heaven to show Sir Pentious’ redemption, while Cherry and Husk go to save Angel Dust, and Charlie distracts Vox.
The plan quickly goes awry because, although Baxter is hilariously able to silence Vox, Velvette and Nifty fight around him, while Cherry and Angel Dust are ambushed by Valentino.
The fight quickly grows, and Charlie is unable to get a signal to prove her point, leading to the best scene of the finale.
Vox mocks her and, in his moment of triumph, orders her to admit his power.
Unexpectedly for Charlie, Alastor chimes in, using their deal to force her to admit that Vox is the strongest sinner in Hell.
This breaks Alastor’s contract with Rosie and, to top it all off, Vox celebrates his victory by landing his hands on Charlie, breaking his contract with Al.
Alastor’s laughter as Vox falls right into his trap was great to see.
You can see how he perfectly planned all this right from Episode Four and it went off without a hitch.

Vox and Alastor’s rivalry has been a highlight this season.

And if you thought the fight between Alastor and Vox in that episode was hype, you have not seen anything yet.
Watching the two old friends turned rivals fight at full strength is greatly improved by some top-notch animation.
The budget for Season Two clearly went up after Season One’s success.
Vox predictably needs help from his giant robot shark, but this allows him to get back to his weapon and shoot wildly at Alastor.
This has the unfortunate side effect of decimating Pentagram City with an angelic blast, killing many sinners for good.
So, Hell’s entire population just saw their supposed savior annihilating a bunch of them.
Yeah, there is no coming back for Vox’s reputation after this.

As Alastor predicted, Vox really did lose his marbles in Act Three.

Even the Vees are sick of Vox’s antics because, after their respective fights, they stop him from blowing them all up just to kill Alastor.
Valentino rips off Vox’s head before attempting and failing to leave with him and Velvette.
Say what you want about the Vees, but they do care about each other.
Well, Valentino and Velvette do at least; not sure about Vox at this point.
However, while Vox is finished, his weapon remains.
For a moment, it looks like Emily is going to sacrifice herself to save Hell, but this is thankfully instead used to build into the final song of the season, “Hear my Hope,” where all of Hell’s overlords band together to stop the explosion.

Admit it, we all thought Emily was going to self-sacrifice at first.

“Hear My Hope” is a hopeful, and emotional song with two interludes.
The first sees Lute and Abel arrive, and the former attempt to get her revenge, only to be stopped by Abel in a moment of character growth.
While this moment is well sung, I kind of feel like it needed a little more build up, and it kinds of just feels thrown in there.
The second interlude of the song is far better, and sees Rosie confront Alastor, who threatens to let everyone die unless she fixes his staff.
What is interesting to me about this part is how Alastor says, “You’ll watch them die, unless you do,” making it seem like Rosie cares for Charlie and the others.
This adds more layers of mystery to Rosie, of which I have seen a few theories about.
One such theory is that Rosie is Lillith in disguise, which would retroactively make her talk with Charlie about Vaggie in Season One a lot more emotional.
Although, if Rosie is Lillith, then that raises the question of who the Lillith in Heaven is?
But that is just a theory.

Rosie fixes Alastor’s staff, and the two join the circle, along with Velvette and Valentino, much to Vox’s dismay.
The power of friendship puts an end to the explosion, saving Hell.
From here, Lucifer pulls himself from the remains of the weapon, Sir Pentious proves his redemption to Hell, and Angel Dust decides to go back with the Vees because he believes he is a danger to the hotel and his friends.
I originally did not like how Angel was playing very little role in his own rescue, but it seems like they are setting up an arc for Season Three here, so I will reserve judgement on that.
As for the Vees, Valentino has had to become the face of the organization.
Speaking of face, Vox is still just a head, and I think it would be pretty funny for him to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
He has had his time in the spotlight, but man did he ever shine brighter.
The writing team quickly proved me wrong with how much of a convincing threat Vox would prove to be.
For next season’s antagonist, I am pretty confident it is going to be Alastor, based on things Viziepop has said.
It makes sense too, what with Alastor having no more strings, and being free to do whatever he wants.

Alastor’s official villain arc may be about to begin.

Back at the hotel, it sees even more success, but for the right reasons this time.
Surprise, surprise, Vaggie has also kept her name but dropped the E.
Blitzo would approve.
Still, I am glad that this storyline did not take up as much time as I thought it would back in Episode One.
The final scene of the season sees Lillith finally call Charlie back, ending on yet another Lillith cliffhanger.
Hopefully, Season Three will arrive sooner than Season Two did, and keep up the quality.
Overall, Season Two was a vast improvement over the first.
The pacing, animation and songs were so much better.
Speaking of the songs, I am currently planning to do a top ten list of my favorite Hazbin Hotel songs.
So, you can expect to see that in the next few weeks or so.

Hazbin Hotel Season Two, Episodes Five and Six Review: Holy Animation, Batman!

A few weeks back, Hazbin Hotel gave us one of its best episodes with “It’s a Deal.”
Well, I am pleased to say that Season Two continues to exceed expectations with Episodes Five and Six, “Silenced” and “Scream Rain,” both of which have standout factors that place them above other episodes.
“Silenced” has the best animation of the series so far, and “Scream Rain” is easily the funniest episode of Hazbin Hotel yet.
Episode Five begins with the musical number, “Bad with Us”, which is used to depict Vox going around to recruit other Overlords for his plan to attack Heaven.
The song has a few humorous moments, like Vox’s attempts to recruit Carmilla, embarrassing both Valentino and Velvette.
It also shows off the extreme talent of Christian Borle, as he sings through multiple different musical subgenres to appeal to different Overlords.

It makes so much sense that Vox was a cult leader, given how convincing he can be.

Meanwhile, at the Hazbin Hotel, Charlie is desperately trying to get Emily and other angels’ attention, leading to Vaggie asking Lucifer for help.
It is here that we get the perfect explanation for why Lucifer lets the sinners do as they please.
It is revealed that, since Lucifer being in Hell is a punishment, he is unable to harm sinners, meaning he has had to watch them abuse each other for thousands of years.
This explains why he was so nihilistic back in Season One.
It also answers my question of how Vox would be able to take over Heaven, since I figured Lucifer would try to stop him.
However, just because Lucifer cannot harm sinners, does not mean he is unable to bluff them into thinking he can.
At the same time, it is revealed that Emily and Sera are actually watching Charlie, but Sera has doubts about helping, unsure how she can make up for what she has done
Pentious provides both good advice and a pretty great callback when he tells her, “A wise woman once told me, ‘It starts with sorry.’”
About Pentious though, I do find it strange that Sera and Emily did not bring him with them when they decided to appeal to the Sinners.
You would think seeing one of their own redeemed might sway some of them?
Unfortunately, Pentious is still unable to leave Heaven for undisclosed reasons, which does feel a little too convenient.

Just replace Lute with Pentious and I think this whole scene might have gone a little better for Charlie.

The angels travel to Hell and Charlie convinces them to go with her to apologize at one of Vox’s rallies, a decision which I am sure we can all agree was an excellent one with absolutely no chance of backfiring, just like every other decision Charlie has made this season… right?
At Vox’s rally, we potentially see the beginning of Alastor’s plan, with him goading Vox into pushing Valentino and Velvette to the side in favor of himself.
Vox’s show is quickly interrupted by Lucifer, however, kicking off the second song of the episode, “Vox Populi.”
The first half of the song is a Lucifer solo, which is great, before Vox takes over the song, exposing Lucifer’s weakness to the crowd, going so far as to even bring up Lillith to his face.
It is here where we get our first showcase of excellent animation, with the camera panning around Lucifer circling an unimpressed Vox.

The animation during this song is the best of the series.

Following this, Charlie and the angels arrive, but Vox is able to quickly turn the situation against them, which Charlie really should have expected at this point.
Vox certainly does not have to try hard, what with Lute calling him demon filth (seriously, why did they bring her?), the angels apologizing for genocide with gift baskets, and Sera revealing her true form and stating demons like Vox were the reason she approved the Exterminations.
Vox uses this to build into the final song, “Vox Dei,” a short number but probably my favorite of the episode for the sheer aura it provides Vox.
I will admit that at the beginning of the season I had my doubts about whether Vox could be a threatening antagonist, but this episode more than convinced me.
The animation for this scene is once again amazing, with another panning shot perfectly showing Vox’s threatening presence.

I apologize, Vox. I was not familiar with your game.

On top of that, it is abundantly clear that Vox is meant to represent extreme right-wing rhetoric in media, given his statements of “manifest destiny”, “make Hell great again”, and “I’m the furor (führer)”.
It is not subtle, but it is definitely effective, both on the viewer and the angels, who flee, leaving Charlie alone.
She returns to the Hazbin Hotel, infuriated with her father and Vaggie.
It is here we get the long awaited calling out of Charlie, with Vaggie pointing out how she is making things worse by not listening to her and engaging with Vox.
Seeing Charlie finally be called out was both a great moment from Vaggie and a worthy conclusion to another really good episode with stellar animation.
Following “Silenced”, we move on to the funniest episode of the series so far, “Scream Rain.”
The episode opens similarly to the last one, with Vox attempting to convince Carmilla to join his cause.
He enlists the help of Velvette to do so, who delivers the most totally not fake apology of all time.

Wait… you mean this smile ISN’T genuine?

In the end, Vox does convince Carmilla by leveraging her daughters’ safety.
As for Velvette, if last episode saw Valentino souring towards Vox, now it is her turn.
Vox belittles her and he did not even need to feel inferior to Alastor to do so.
Back at the hotel, Charlie and Vaggie are still at odds but have to work together after word of Carmilla supporting Vox spreads.
They go to confront her together, leaving Nifty in charge, since Husk quit because Alastor is no longer there to force him to work at the hotel.
Afterwards, we get our first song of the episode, “Love in a Bottle”, which sees Husk return to his old ways at a casino, winning again and again, until he eventually loses and falls into a drunken stupor.
The song is both catchy and sad, what with Husk’s spiral.

Plus, hearing Keith David sing is always a win.

Meanwhile, upon Charlie and Vaggie’s meeting with Carmilla, we get the first of a few great laughs in the episode, with Carmilla complaining about “lesbian drama” while Charlie shouts at her for helping “the TV man!”
We also get a surprising look into Vaggie’s past when Carmilla reminds her of her time with the exorcists.
Through brief flashes, we see Vaggie and another exorcist recruit being mistreated by Adam and Lute.
It looked like whoever this other exorcist was, they were close to Vaggie.
Even stranger is the appearance of the exorcist woman.
They all look alike, with the same hair coloring and facial features.
It makes me wonder if this was a deliberate choice by Adam or something else?
Before we can get answers, the scene transitions to Husk again, where he is shocked to see Angel Dust singing in drag at the casino.
Husk’s shocked “Angel!?” got a good laugh out of the me, and the following song from Angel, “Losing Streak” is so good it makes a few of the sinners in the audience question their sexuality.
Unfortunately for Angel, Vox has plans for him, which we see when he requests his time from Valentino.
Both he and Velvette diss him for using them, to which Vox attempts to lay on the charm until, of course, Alastor starts goading him again.
Seeing Alastor spin in the chair to reveal himself got another big laugh from me, and the idea that he and Velvette were just gossiping about Vox is very humorous and already inspired multiple fanarts.
As for Vox, Alastor triggers his inferiority complex again, and he tries to force Valentino to comply.
This ends with the funniest moment in all of Hazbin Hotel for me, when Valentino storms off while speaking in Spanish, Vox makes a racist remark, and Valentino responds, “I’m from fucking Flordia!” and then decks Vox in the face with a glass.

Sadly, this humor would not last long. Just ask Angel.

While hilarious, this scene also pushes Alastor’s plan further.
He has spent the past two episodes manipulating Vox into pushing the other Vees away, and it definitely seems to be working.
I would not be surprised if Velvette and Valentino betrayed Vox in the last two episodes.
How this will tie into the rest of Alastor’s plan remains to be seen.
While Alastor’s plotline is still ongoing, Charlie and Vaggie’s fight is thankfully resolved this episode, when Charlie realizes the error of her ways, and goes all out on an apology by making a romantic setting for her and Vaggie.
This culminates in the last song of the episode, “Easy”, which shows how good Vaggie is for Charlie because, when she gets overwhelmed, Vaggie soothes her back to calmness.
Well, “calm” is probably not the right word considering the whole song is pretty much a substitute for Charlie and Vaggie doing the do, proven by it ending with the two of them in bed.

I am glad see Charlie changing while continuing to get closer with Vaggie.

The episode goes from one couple to a potential one, cutting to Husk and Angel talking in the aftermath of Angel’s performance, where the two further connect, before Angel has to leave for a job.
It is here that the episode goes from funny and feel-good to depressing, when we finally get the scene of Vox hurting Angel from the trailer.
A big twist also happens here because Vox reveals that he has been hypnotizing Angel into spying on the Hazbin Hotel, which is how he knew numerous things, such as the fact that Lucifer could not hurt him.
Vox now plans to use him to make Charlie kill herself somehow, but we will have to learn the details on how this will work in the final two episodes.
Another interesting detail are the eyes watching Angel when he enters the apartment.
These eyes have been seen throughout Hell, but this is the first time the show has deliberately focused on them.
They do not seem connected to Vox, so I am interested in seeing what the explanation is, although I think this might be foreshadowing for future seasons.

Angel Dust is not the only factor is Vox’s plan though because we see him imitate Charlie’s voice to draw Lucifer in, planning to use him as a power source for something.
Vox’s plans are going to come to their climax soon but, with him pushing aside Valentino and Velvette, Cherry and Husk’s suspicions about Angel’s location, and Alastor’s currently unknown plan, I think it is pretty safe to say this will all blow up in Vox’s face in a spectacular and satisfying fashion.
We will know in an hour, when the final episodes of Season Two drop.
As for Episodes Five and Six, they are both great, with excellent animation and hilarious moments.
Season Two has exceeded my expectations so far, and I hope the last episodes will not disappoint.

Hazbin Hotel Season Two, Episode Three and Four Review: Reveals, Action, and… Anime?

Hazbin Hotel’s second season started strong with its first two episodes.
Now episodes three and four continue the formula of the second being better than the first.
“Hazbin Hotel: Behind Closed Doors” is still a lot of fun in its own right, though.
The episode begins with Charlie in mid-freakout over Emily’s reveal that Sir Pentious has been redeemed.
But, if you thought that Charlie’s spiraling would halt because of the good news, this is unfortunately not the case.
If anything, Charlie spirals more, making bad decision after bad decision, which only furthers Vox’s plans.

Hopefully, Charlie has learned her lesson about the media after these two episodes.

I have seen some people complain that Charlie is acting out of character here, but I honestly do not see it.
Charlie was shown to be an emotional wreak in Episode One following Pentious’ supposed death and, given her personality, of course she overcompensates when learning he is alive in Heaven.
This is most likely part of an arc for Charlie, which we will see resolved by the end of the season.
Unfortunately, Vox and Velvette are quick to take advantage of Charlie’s character flaw, marching into the Hazbin Hotel at Charlie’s invitation, ready to blacken her name again.
They get ample opportunity when Charlie announces Pentious’ redemption but, as we suspected, she is not believed because she cannot prove it since Heaven is in lockdown.
Charlie decides to redeem Angel Dust, ignoring his warnings about the Vees.
This leads into the song “Speedrun to Redemption”, where Charlie attempts and fails to redeem Angel by following Pentious’ example.
The end result is her staging a fake rescue, with Husk tied to train tracks while Angel plays the hero.
As for Charlie herself, she plays the diabolical mastermind, Danny Do-Bad.
Watching Charlie play at villainy was so over the top and cringeworthy, but oddly enough to such an extreme that it became funny.

Vox turns the scene potentially deadly by interfering, leading to Angel actually having to try and save Husk.
Vaggie finally gets through to Charlie, convincing her that Angel Dust needs to be redeemed his own way, but this builds into Vox revealing Angel killed his dad, which was the sin that landed him in Hell.
In a similar moment to when Valentino assaulted Angel in Season One, Charlie’s demon form begins to emerge, showing just how much she values her friends.
She even manages to get under Vox’s skin, maintaining that she believes anyone can be redeemed, even him.
As for whether Vox actually will be redeemed in the future, that is going to take a lot of work given his many sins and current actions.
Charlie’s storyline is not the only one this episode because we also follow Cherry deciding to stay at the Hazbin Hotel.
Given the romantic tension between her and Pentious, Cherry is hit the hardest by the news of his redemption, going to Baxter for information because he used to work with him.
It is here we learn that Baxter was the one who helped Pentious create the Egg Boys, before Pentious took them away to protect them from Baxter’s experiments, and to continue his feud with Cherry.
This builds into a song between Pentious and Cherry, reflecting on their many battles titled… “Piss”?

Leave it to *Hazbin Hotel* to title a love song “Piss”, I guess.

In the aftermath of Vox’s hit piece against the Hazbin Hotel, we see many residents returning their keys to leave, while Cherry takes a key, telling Angel she intends to stay .
I look forward to seeing her and Pentious eventually reunite and how their relationship will progress.
“Hazbin Hotel: Behind Closed Doors” is another solid episode, but it is far exceeded by Episode Four, “It’s a Deal,” which I would go as far to say is not only the best episode of the season at this point, but the best of the show so far.
The episode follows two central storyline’s, Charlie and Alastor’s the first of which is the funnier of the two.
Charlie continues to underestimate how badly Vox and his minions can shape a narrative, planning to go on live tv with Nifty to try and change the hotel’s image.
It is here Charlie talks with Katie Killjoy who, of course, does everything she can to paint Charlie in a bad light, including making it seem like she wants Sinners to be killed.
As a last resort, Charlie calls on Nifty for help, and we get out first Nifty solo song, “Clean it Up.”
Not only is this song really catchy, but it is also hilarious.

The first half is Nifty talking about how disgusting the hotel is, which she views as a good thing because she loves cleaning it.
The second half of the song is sung entirely in Japanese with an anime style, and it is here where Nifty talks about the actual good qualities of the hotel.
What makes this funnier is that Charlie asked her to “help differently” and Nifty interpreted this to mean singing in another language.
If Charlie had just let Nifty keep singing in English instead of interrupting her, everyone would have understood the good things about the hotel.
Although, there obviously have to be some sinners who speak Japanese, so it would be pretty humorous for a bunch of them to show up at the hotel because they understood Nifty’s message.

I did not expect an anime style song in *Hazbin Hotel* but I am glad we got one.

As for Nifty believing in Charlie’s dream while thinking Sinners are trash, it makes her even more endearing.
In fact, I would go as for to say that Nifty is my favorite character in Hazbin Hotel at the moment.
She always gets a laugh out of me, and it is for this reason I love her more than Alastor.
This is not to sell Alastor short because he is also fantastic in this episode.
Alastor has barely been present in the last three episodes, so I was glad to see him finally get a focus here.
After another spat with Lucifer, Alastor decides to quit the hotel, and goes to tell Rosie the good news.
Too bad she wants him to stay at the hotel, and he has no say in the matter because she is his soul owner.
Yes, the big mystery of who owned Alastor’s soul is revealed to be Rosie.
The two seemed like genuine friends in Season One, so I did not see this coming.
It changes the whole context of Alastor bringing Charlie to Rosie for help.
We also get a reveal of Alastor’s backstory, like we did Sir Pentious’ in Episode Two.

I did not expect an Alastor backstory this quickly, even though I asked for one in my previous review.

Alastor was a radio broadcaster and serial killer in the 1930s, who was mistaken for a deer by a hunter and shot.
However, before his death, he made a deal with Rosie for power.
In return, he would do some unknown job for her.
What this job is, we still do not know, but it is safe to say it has something to do with his presence at the Hazbin Hotel.
While answering the question of who owns Alastor’s soul, this twist also raises a bunch of questions about Rosie.
Who is she really, and why does she want Alastor to help Charlie?
Whatever the reason, I would wager it has something to do with why both Alastor and Lillith disappeared seven years ago.
It was also revealed this episode that the Exterminations also then, so something big happened seven years ago that we are not yet privy to.
Angered about not escaping his deal, Alastor then comes up with an unknown plan, leading to him confronting Vox, Valentino and Velvette.

Nifty and Husk also get involved, but the fight ends with Alastor making a deal to be Vox’s prisoner, so long as Vox does not lay a hand upon Charlie.
What follows is a barrage of humiliation for Alastor, with Vox dragging him throughout the city, bragging about defeating him.
Whatever Alastor hopes to gain from this, it has to be worth the humiliation because there is no way he would subject himself to it otherwise.
Perhaps Charlie’s deal to do him a favor will come into play again?
But even though Alastor is Vox’s prisoner, he still gets under his skin more than anyone.
We get another flashback, this one proving that Vox and Alastor used to be friends.
Or at least that is what Vox thought, because the moment he suggests a partnership to Alastor, the Radio Demon laughs in his face, calling him pathetic and weak.
I never thought I would feel bad for Vox, but Alastor’s rejection was so cruel it had me temporarily forgetting how terrible of a person he also is.

It is also pretty funny to think of how hypocritical Alastor is.
He judges Vox for needing the Vees while he conveniently forgets he owes his power to Rosie.
Back in the present, Vox attempts to regain control through the song “Don’t Your Forget” (itself a reprisal of a song Rosie sung with Alastor earlier), which references Season One’s “Stayed Gone.”
The episode then ends with Valentino saying the two should just screw already.
While you could cut the sexual tension with a knife in this moment, unfortunately for Vox, Al is asexual.
Kidding aside, Episode Four is definitely my favorite of the series so far.
It reveals a lot of Alastor lore, has great action, and funny Nifty moments.
What more could a Hazbin Hotel fan ask for?
Season Two has been great so far, and I hope the quality can continue later tonight with Episodes Five and Six.

Wednesday Season Two, Part Two Review: A Satisfying Second Half.

Well, I got around to reviewing this late, didn’t I?
I thought that the first part of Wednesday’s second season was a good beginning, and I began the second half with fingers crossed that the quality would continue.
Thankfully, by the end I was satisfied.
That is not to say the last four episodes do not have their downsides though.
Part Two picks up with Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) in a coma, where she learns that Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie) is her new spirit guide.
Upon awakening, Wednesday now has to deal with her, the escaped Tyler Gaplin (Hunter Doohan), and her vision of her best friend Enid Sinclair’s incoming death.
For starters, I will say it was good to see Gwendoline Christie again.
Sure, it is pretty convenient for her to be a distant relative of Wednesday, but any excuse to have her back is good enough for me.

Kind of wish they did not spoil her return in the trailer though.

One of my big criticisms of Season Two’s first half was the lack of focus on Enid, considering Wednesday’s entire goal was to save her.
It felt weird that most of Enid’s time was spent on a romance with a character who is so boring his name escapes me.
Unfortunately, that relationship is still there.
Fortunately, the focus is brief and Enid’s friendship with Wednesday takes center stage again.
This is best shown through a body swap episode, which gives both the acting of Jenna Ortega and Emma Myers time to shine.
They do excellent jobs of portraying polar opposite characters trapped in the other’s body.

Emma Myers does an especially good job of depicting Wednesday’s mannerisms.

However, while I was glad to see Enid and Wednesday’s friendship receive focus again, I did not really like how the second half of the season developed Wednesday’s vision of her death.
It felt kind of handwaved, with the prophecy switching at multiple points throughout the season to the point that it felt of little consequence.
Still, for all the negatives of this half of the season, there are plenty of positives.
The Barry Dort (Steve Buscemi) storyline unfolds nicely, the humor still gets a laugh, and there is even a dance scene to rival Wednesday’s in Season One, this being between Enid and Agnes (Evie Templeton).

Who would have thought after the first half of the season that Enid and Agnes would share a dance?

Agnes remains a highlight, with her receiving plenty of development, making her by far my favorite addition of the season.
Also improved from the first season are the twists, with them being unexpected and lacking annoying red herrings.
This makes Season Two easily better than the first for me, overall.
While there was still an annoying love triangle, it did not take as much of the focus, and the mysteries were not incredibly transparent.

After seeing both halves, I definitely prefer Season Two.

The upgrade makes me hopeful the show will continue to improve with its third season, especially because Season Two seems to be leading into it well because of a few cliffhanger storylines.
Although, as I mentioned in my review of the first half, the inevitable long wait will be annoying.

Hazbin Hotel Season Two, Episodes One and Two Review: Magnificent Music Returns.

I found the first season of Hazbin Hotel to be an enjoyable but flawed season.
It had fun characters and fantastic musical numbers, but the pacing felt especially off.
With the show being a success, I hoped it would convince the bigwigs to greenlight more episodes for Season Two.
Unfortunately, we are stuck with eight again this season.
To be fair though, that does not necessarily mean the pacing is doomed, since Viziepop could still find a way to craft a completely concise story with eight episodes.

We will have to wait for the rest of the season to release before we find out if the pacing will work.

As for Episodes One and Two of Hazbin Hotel Season Two, they provide a decent start to the season, which has me excited for the extra six.
For starters, I actually like how these episodes were structured together, with Episode One showing Hell’s side of the story, while Episode Two shows Heaven’s.
That being said, Episode One “New Pentious” is definitely the weaker of the two.
In the aftermath of the Hazbin Hotel fighting off Adam’s Extermination, the hotel has received lots of interest but for the wrong reason.
Instead of demons seeking redemption, like Charlie hoped, they are all there to kill angels.
Well, almost all of them.
A demon named Baxter joins the hotel, hoping to prove his hypothesis that redemption is impossible.
He is quite similar to Pentious, leading to Charlie constantly calling him that, since she is still grieving her friend.
As for Baxter, we do not get enough of him for me to really judge if I like his character or not.
And then there are the hotel’s regular residents.
It was great to see Charlie, Vaggie, Alastor, Angel Dust, Nifty and Husk again.
My favorite of the bunch this episode was absolutely Nifty, with her newfound fame for killing Adam being pretty humorous.

Never change, Nifty, you murderous gremlin.

On the other hand, Vaggie has a subplot with her trying to figure out a new name for herself.
I am absolutely convinced this storyline will just end with her choosing to keep the name Vaggie, so the subplot already feels predictable.
That being said, if it does ends in a different way I will withdraw this criticism.
What I will not be withdrawing is my complaint regarding a specific joke concerning Angel Dust.
Back in Season One, we saw how terrible Valentino treated him, so to see a slapstick joke of Valentino repeatedly abusing him felt really out of touch.
On the subject of the Vees, they seem to be stepping into their roles of main antagonists this season, especially Vox.
The TV Demon intends to use his control of media to manipulate Hell’s populace into turning against the hotel and rebelling against Heaven.
This storyline has a lot of potential with its topical relevance to the problems of today’s media.
I am also curious to see how Vox intends to take over heaven.

To be honest, I cannot imagine the Vees lasting long against Lucifer, let alone the high-ranking Angels of Heaven.

We see one such Angel at the end of the episode, Emily, who arrives to quickly tell Charlie about Sir Pentious’ redemption before leaving.
Charlie screams in response, ending the episode.
Her learning that redemption works may seem like a good thing, but one key detail is that Charlie was the only one who saw Emil.
It is also later revealed Sir Pentious cannot leave heaven.
Therefore, I can see Vox twisting Charlie’s boasting about Pentious’ redemption to be a lie, turning the populace of Hell further against her.
But we will have to see.
Now that I have the story content of the episode out of the way, I will discuss the musical aspect.
“New Pentious” has two musical numbers, “Hazbin Guarantee (Trust Us)” and “Once We Get Up There.”
“Hazbin Guarantee” is my favorite of the two, with a great contrast between Charlie failing to get clients with her songs of hope, and the Vees succeeding with their manipulative lies.

The Vees are easy to hate because of how they use and then throw people away as if they were things.

As it stands, “New Pentious” is a good episode, but “Storyteller” is even better.
I will start with the songs this time; Episode Two having three of them, “Like You”, “Sera’s Confession”, and “Gravity”.
Going from weakest to best, “Like You” does a good job of showing Pentious’ situation in Heaven, and how he just wants to get back to his friends.
“Sera’s Confession” succeeded in making me invested in Sera, due to the exploration of her moral conflict.
But by the far the best song is “Gravity”.
This number was teased a while back, and you can absolutely see why it was chosen to advertise Season Two.
Lute’s rock ballad with a hallucinated Adam is incredible to watch and listen to; already being the best song in the season thus far.

“Gravity” crushes it, pun very much intended.

Getting back to the story of the episode, it opens up with Pentious on trial after appearing in Heaven.
Things look bad for him until the Speaker of God arrives and gently asks him to tell his story.
We flashback to the 1800s when Pentious was alive and it is revealed he knew who Jack the Ripper was but failed to report him, resulting in the deaths of five more women.
His failure to act damned him to hell, until he redeemed himself by risking his own life to save his friends, exactly the sort of thing he should have done for those women.
I loved the exploration of Pentious’ human life, and I hope we get more for other characters.
Vox was revealed to have been a cult leader in Episode One, but I want to see what made Nifty so crazy, and just what the hell Alastor’s deal is?

Pentious is released after his redemption is revealed, and the episode then follows Emily guiding him around Heaven, Sera trying to decide Heaven’s next move while dealing with her guilt, and Lute planning revenge while being absolutely pissed that Adam’s son Abel got the position of Exorcist leader over her.
The one time nepotism paid off, I guess.
Sera also tells Lute to back off Lillith, and we later see the woman herself ignoring Charlie and Lucifer’s texts, so the mystery around her is still ongoing.
The end of the episode ties in with the conclusion of the previous one, with Emily rushing off to tell Charlie about Pentious’ redemption before Sera closes Heaven off.
Overall, “Storyteller” is the better episode of the two.
It has great character work, especially for Pentious, Sera and Lute, and incredible songs, most notably “Gravity”.
As for where Season Two goes now, the Vees are probably going to stoke tension further between Heaven in Hell, which will lead to some confrontation with Alastor, as seen in the trailer.

The eventual fight between Alastor and Vox should be hype.

Whatever comes next, though, whether it be good or bad, I have no doubt that we will be getting more excellent songs to jam to.
I already look forward to hearing these musical numbers when episodes Three and Four air next week.

Arcane Season Two, Episode Nine, The Dirt Under Your Nails Review: An Ambiguous End.

Before starting the final episode of Arcane, I was excited but also nervous.
I am sure we have all had instances where there is a show we are really enjoying but then the ending drops the ball.
While I mostly doubted this would happen, I was still concerned the conclusion would be a little rushed because it felt like some things were glossed over in previous episodes, most notably the Piltover and Zaun conflict.
Thankfully, Episode Nine, “The Dirt Under Your Nails” is a great ending for Arcane, which opens the door for more stories set in this world.
Sure, I do think the finale would have benefitted from having more scenes but, overall, it is still a more than satisfactory conclusion.
“The Dirt Under Your Nails” begins by showing the disturbing direction of Jinx’s “break the cycle” comment from the previous episode.
She cuts her hair, burns down the Last Drop and then attempts suicide by triggering one of her bombs.
We can only watch in horror as the explosion begins to eat away at Jinx in slow motion, until that motion thankfully rewinds with the arrival of Ekko and his Z-Drive.
I remember screaming, “Ekko, you bloody legend!” when this happened.
What follows is a thoroughly depressing sequence of Ekko continuously trying to talk Jinx out of killing herself, only to rewind every time he fails.
With every attempt, he is more injured from the explosions and Jinx heartbreakingly notices this so attempts jumping at one point, so she won’t hurt him.
Ekko is finally able to get through to Jinx, talking to her vaguely about his time with the alternate universe Powder.
“No matter what happened in the past, it’s never too late to build something new. Someone worth building it for.”
The depressing scene ends on a thankfully hopeful note with Jinx considering Ekko’s words.
This scene was honestly one of the hardest to watch in all of Arcane.
Watching Jinx attempt suicide over and while Ekko kept desperately trying to save her delivered gut punch after gut punch.
And to think Ekko would have probably never been there to save Jinx had it not been for the alternate version of Powder teaching him to not give up on her.
Following the final opening of the show, we see Vi, Caitlyn, Jayce and Mel planning for the final battle in Piltover.
The plan is to hold the Noxians off, thus buying enough time for Jayce to disable the Hexgates before Viktor reaches them.
This proves difficult when fighting an experienced warrior such as Ambessa, especially when she is aided by Rictus’ magical runes.
However, she does provide a target for Piltover’s forces, as a Noxian corrupted with Shimmer brings out Viktor’s cocoon to bring him to the Hexgates.
Loris tries to shoot the egg, but he is quickly killed when the Noxians break through their defenses.
Speaking of Loris, I have to ask what exactly the point of him and the rest of Caitlyn’s squad were?
With the exception of Maddie, they’re all pointless, especially Loris who just acts as Vi’s friend for a few episodes before dying.
Getting back to the fight, Caitlyn uses the Grey to provide cover, giving her team the chance to blow up Viktor’s cocoon.
However, the bomb has been sabotaged by Maddie who is a Noxian spy, as predicted by many.
“I did appreciate your warmth,” she says, as she is about to put a bullet in Caitlyn’s head.
Damn, that’s cold.
It also makes it incredibly satisfying when Mel deflects the bullet using her magic, killing Maddie.
What’s even more impressive is that Mel did this behind a closed door before making her dramatic entrance.
Her dramatic entrance has nothing on Jinx’s though, who arrives with brand-new drip.
She also flies a hot air balloon constructed from her old hideout and even has a soundtrack to hype up her and Ekko’s arrival, with “Come Play” acting as their hype train.
Jinx’s smoke bombs act as cover for Sevika and the other Zaunites (who Jinx and Ekko convinced to help off screen), and they ambush the Noxians.
This gives the Piltover/Zaunite team enough time to blow up Viktor’s cocoon… only to learn he has long since left it, proving this attack to be a diversion.
At the Hexgates, Jayce is confronted by a full transformed Viktor.
His design is especially intimidating, with his messiah-like cloak, runes floating around his head and, of course, his mask now being his actual face, with the remains of the old one still being visible.
At the same time, Viktor’s avatars arrive on the battlefield, turning the tide again, as they infect most of the Piltovan and Zaunite forces, including Sevika.
This leaves Caitlyn and Mel to face off against Ambessa.
She proves to be unstoppable with the runes she has, so Caitlyn removes them at the cost of her eye.
This allows Mel to send Ambessa to the world of the Black Rose, where she is immediately captured by the mysterious sorceress who inflicts a fatal injury.
However, Mel intervenes, rebelling against the Black Rose’s control.
The sorceress seems surprised by this but, honestly, I don’t know what she expected.
She admitted to killing Mel’s brother and even murdered her friend right in front of her.
In what world would she ever trust them?
If they wanted to recruit her, they should have gone about it in a way that made them seem much less insidious.
After rescuing Ambessa from the Black Rose, she passes in Mel’s arms, her dying words being, “You are the wolf.”
And so Ambessa dies, defeated yet content in her daughter’s strength.
It also seems that Ambessa’s forces become loyal to Mel after her death, which is interesting in its implications about Noxian culture.
Did Ambessa leave orders for them to follow her daughter in the event of her death, or do they follow her simply because she had the strength to defeat Ambessa which Noxus values?
The Noxians may be out of the fight, but Viktor and his avatars remain.
This, sadly, includes Warwick, who has had all humanity stolen from him.
It is truly tragic to see Vander, nothing more than an animalistic shell of his former self, fighting his own daughters.
Their fight, leads to Jinx crashing her balloon, knocking Ekko unconscious.
As Jinx and Vi prepare to fight Warwick, Jinx tells her sister, “I’m always with you, even when we’re worlds apart.”
Meanwhile, Viktor harnesses the power of the Wild Rune, and levitates himself to the top of the Hexgates, passing Jinx and Vi.
He then uses it to begin his “glorious evolution” of connecting everyone, whether they want it or not.
This includes Ambessa’s forces, proving she really was out of her depth when dealing with Viktor.
Vi, Jinx, Jayce, Caitlyn, Mel, Sevika, they are all being absorbed into the glorious evolution and no one can stop it… except for the Boy Saviour.
Ekko rushes in on his hover board, wielding a broken piece of clockwork.
Quite fitting, given his time travel ability.
It is an ability he uses to its full potential here, using the Z-Drive to avoid the attacks of Viktor’s avatars.
That is until Ekko is stuck in a situation where four seconds is not enough.
Left with no other choice, he pushes the Z-Drive to its limit, going even further back in time to throw the device in Viktor’s face, where the Wild Rune explodes outwards.
In doing so, Ekko allows Jayce enough time to convince Viktor to stop, saving everyone.
Ekko definitely lived up to the title Jinx gave him of “Boy Saviour,” not only saving Jinx from suicide, but also saving pretty much everyone else in the world as well.
He is absolutely my favorite character of Act Three, which is a massive step up since he barely featured in the season’s first two Acts.
Inside the dimension Viktor resides, Jayce shows Viktor the horrible outcome of his glorious evolution by embracing him.
Through this, we also see the identity of the mysterious figure who rescued Jayce as a child: Viktor himself.
“There is no prize to perfection” the future Viktor tells Jayce. “Only an end to pursuit.”
Yet another fantastic line in this fantastic story.
I had heard the theory of Viktor being the one who rescued Jayce and to see it confirmed was great.
Usually, whenever time-travel and alternate universes get thrown into the mix of a story, it gets messy, but Arcane uses it perfectly.
The rules of Ekko’s time travel and the buildup to Viktor’s reveal allowed the story to flow without breaking any suspension of disbelief.
It is through Jayce wanting his partner back, Viktor learning what the consequences of his own actions will be, and seeing the ingenuity Ekko developed without the glorious evolution that convinces Viktor to stop.
However, this is not an act he has to do alone, for now that Jayce has his partner back, he is not letting go.
In a brilliant, dazzling sequence of animation, Jayce and Viktor finish their work together, putting an end to the glorious evolution.
The two vanish, their physical forms being sucked into a vortex, leaving their fates unknown.
Personally, I feel like this is a fitting end for both characters.
It is not the only ending for a character we get in this finale though because next, much to my dread, was Jinx’s conclusion.
Back when the season got leaked, I was spoiled about Jinx and Viktor dying, so I spent much of the episode praying it would not happen.
But, when I saw Vi standing over a fallen Warwick, and remembered a shot from the trailer which showed her screaming in grief as someone fell, I knew where this was heading.
Sure enough, Warwick wakes up and attacks Vi, only for Jinx to save her and then be left dangling over a ledge.
Warwick is pulling her down, and only Vi’s gauntlets are keeping them from falling.
Jinx realizes their weight will cause the construction to fall, killing Vi as well, so chooses to sacrifice herself.
“Always with you, sis,” she reminds Vi, before pulling the Hex Crystal out of the gauntlet, and falling with Warwick.
Before they hit the ground, Jinx activates one of her bombs, supposedly killing them both.
I say supposedly because I don’t think Jinx is dead.
This is not just blind hope though because there is some evidence to back it up.
For starters, when Jinx triggers the bomb, we don’t see her consumed by the explosion, like we did during her suicide attempt.
What we do see, although briefly, is a purple shimmer blip before the explosion, suggesting that Jinx used her shimmer abilities to get out of the way.
Later, we see Caitlyn inspecting the remains of Jinx’s bomb, while looking over air duct schematics.
This implies they never found Jinx’s body, and Caitlyn is researching if it is possible for her to have escaped through their air ducts.
Then there is the final shot of Arcane, which is of an airship flying away.
At the beginning of the story, Jinx said she would fly in an airship one day.
Along with this, the following “The End” title is in the glitches Jinx sees whenever she hallucinates.
To me, this is all hinting to Jinx surviving the explosion, and then leaving Zaun and Piltover, taking her hallucination of Silco’s advice.
The hallucination told her, “Jinx, I think the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away.”
Well, now Jinx is walking away, or flying away, I guess.
It also works with her earlier statement to Vi, “I’m always with you, even when we’re worlds apart.”
This is all circumstantial evidence, but it’s what I choose to believe.
To be honest, I would be pretty disappointed if Jinx died right after Ekko convinced her to live.
So, yeah, my headcanon is that Jinx survived, and it will stay that way unless her death is confirmed in a subsequent show.
But what about the other characters’ endings?
Well, as I said, Jayce and Viktor’s sendoff is fitting.
Vi and Caitlyn’s final scene shows them together, which is nice.
Ekko’s ending is sad, since he is mourning Jinx.
Mel looks to be heading back to Noxus, with a mysterious multiple-eyed crow following her.
This seems to be suggesting a Noxus storyline will be the next show set in the Arcane universe, which is something to look forward to.
We see that Singed has successfully resurrected his daughter.
I find it hilarious that Singed, the character responsible for at least 90% of the tragedy and conflict in this show, got the happiest ending out of every character.
Finally, there is Sevika, who we now see has a seat on the council as a representative of Zaun.
This, I have issues with.
I do believe it is a good ending for Sevika, but the issue is we got almost no buildup to it.
Sevika had absolutely zero lines in Act Three, and this makes me wonder if she had a storyline that was cut for time.
As a result, there are multiple questions surrounding her ascension to the council.
How was she chosen?
What do Vi and Caitlyn think about it since they fought her numerous times?
Does this mean Zaun has independence now and, if so, how did that happen?
That last question points to the extreme lack of screen time the Zaun and Piltover conflict got in Act Three.
This is my biggest issue with Season Two.
Season One was all about the conflict between the two cities but that fell to the wayside with the threat of the Noxians and Viktor in Season Two.
I understand why but, as someone who was invested in that part of the story, I wanted a better resolution for it.
This is not the only thing I believe was cut for time with the ending.
We do not see Mel’s reaction to Jayce’s death, and Vi and Ekko do not share a single word the entire season.
It just feels like a lot was cut out from the season and it is this that makes me prefer Season One.
That being said, Season Two is still great.
The character work is excellent, the animation is groundbreaking, and I once again teared up at multiple points.
As for “The Dirt Under Your Nails,” it is an excellent finale, even if it feels like it could have used more scenes.
Overall, Arcane has been a terrific experience, and I cannot wait to see the next show in its universe, even if I have to wait years for it again.
To celebrate Arcane, I will be rewatching the show in its entirety.
Once I have done that, I will put out a Top Ten Characters and Episodes List, so be on the lookout for that.
Arcane is an excellent show, and I am so thankful to have experienced it.
Once it got under my nails, I just couldn’t clean it out.