From the creators of League of Legends comes an animated series about the origins of two iconic League champions—and the power that will tear them apart. Every legend has a beginning.
This tv show contains 93 potentially triggering events.
a character has a very complicated relationship with their loving but very flawed adoptive father, who in some ways made their life much worse. they feel a mixture of devotion and frustration toward him.
many adult antagonists in the show are willing to physically fight and even kill young children. it’s also mentioned that a young boy was left overnight with a foot stuck in a gutter after he fled police- the cops saw it and decided to leave him there with no attempt to help. children are manipulated. the character mentioned in the other comment is not intentionally abandoned, at least long term.
purple vials called the shimmer = fantasy steroids, make people hulk out and over time warps them physically (like huck, shown episode 6) or gives them brain damage (like is shown with decker in episode 6). also addictive.
a fantasy animal is experimented on and has its life artificially extended despite having a lethal condition that causes it a lot of distress and exhaustion. its quality of life doesn’t seem to be a priority at all.
In episode 1 they introduce the cat, then off it at the very last scene. TLDR of the last scene, Kid that started the street fight snitches on Vi and the gang. Head bad guy says plans have moved up and has Henchman 1 show him a potion that gives creatures super strength and demonizes them. Then they chuck the cat in with a rat that got fed the potion. Cat dies. If you're sensitive, I'd just read this summary and then skip the entire last scene.
Silco is introduced with a hairless cat that acts like an affectionate pet. At the end of the episode, he puts the cat in a cage with a rat for an experiment. The rat is injected with a serum, undergoes a violent transformation, and kills the cat.
a young man is pressured/perhaps outright forced into taking a drug, he at least initially seems uncomfortable/scared. a teenager is drugged (?) into unconsciousness via a cloth over her face.
We see several flashbacks of two men where one tries to drown the other. This is a crucial part in an antagonist's backstory. I believe in the first episode there's also visual references to this?
The scenes in question are often shot in a chaotic way to stress the tense situation.
Not exactly, a group of teenagers try to steal from the main group of younger kids which results in a fight, the younger kids win but all participants are left with moderate injuries. A young child is chased after a teenager but remains unharmed.
a young woman is approached by a stranger who gets uncomfortably close but that’s all, she ends up fine. wrt the second comment- i do believe the guy is a young adult and he never expresses discomfort but the age gap may still make some upset.
there is no actual cannibalism but (spoilers) there is a scene in episode 9 where jinx leads vi to believe that she killed caitlyn and turned her into a dinner dish but it is quickly revealed that caitlyn is alive and unharmed (somewhat)
someone’s arm is blown off, no blood just a silhouette; many times throughout the show people drink or inject a purple liquid called shimmer which gives them very abnormal functions; surgery is performed on someone and their veins are very pronounced while this happens
teenage kid is knocked unconscious with a plank during a group fight.
Vi has her mouth covered and becomes unconscious.
Usually during fights, characters will appear to be falling in and out of consciousness.
A girl very briefly tortures her father figure in episode 7. Description of the scene, spoilers ahead: He needs to take a medication applied via syringe that she is shown to have helped him with before. Believing he has lied to her, she pokes him twice in the face with it, visibly causing pain. The scene only lasts a minute and the torture aspect is relatively mild, but it could still upset some viewers.
Multiple blades are shown throughout the series, but they're often deflected during battle or knocked away before it could be used.
Vander is stabbed by Silco.
Not a stabbing but close enough, Mylo is impaled.
Vi is stabbed in the stomach (?) by a mechanical arm.
I assume the above comment refers to Jinx and her crop top. Thankfully, Jinx's character is portrayed as tragic rather than seductive in any way; it seems she just happened to choose clothing without a midriff.
SPOILER The last episode of season 1 also ends on a cliffhanger that makes it likely that several main/important characters might be dead by the beginning of S2.
loss of family members is a major plot element. spoilers ahead ——— multiple parents die, as well as siblings, and mothers are shown upset over the loss of their children.
At the very beginning of episode 1 two children see their biological parents die. While the deaths are not explicitly shown, we do see a body. SPOILERS AHEAD: The same children later see their adoptive parents die as well, at the end of episode 3 and episode 9.
sort of. a child talks about missing her favorite toy, which was taken and thrown within sight but unable to be retrieved. another child makes explosive weapons resembling toys, and at one point gets frustrated/upset and damages one.
At the end of episode 3 a character kidnaps a young girl but suggests it is to protect her. At the end of episode 6 two main characters are knocked unconscious during a fight and kidnapped by their assailants. About halfway through episode 9 a main character wakes up to find that she and two other characters have been kidnapped and tied to chairs.
in response to the “silco’s a clown” comment: he’s not an actual clown, it’s a joke because they do not like the character or think his actions were questionable. there are no actual clowns in arcane
the enforcers have been shown as aggressive and cruel, or often more passively enabling brutality and inequality. some attempt to change the system from the inside, but are met with intense resistance including violence from their superiors.
a young character is incarcerated for years, facing violence and neglect from guards (discussed, not directly shown on screen) and isolation from their family/community in general. there are scenes inside the prison. the harm this caused to the character and their loved ones is a major plot point.
in a manner of speaking; a character goes by an alias as a result of an ongoing identity crisis, while another character always calls them by their birth name.
mildly early on- a child having a breakdown hits her own face a few times and a character under the influence of a dangerous substance crushes a glass vial in his bare hands, drawing blood quite possibly accidentally. see other comments for other instances.
a character who struggles with likely ptsd and psychosis traits is violent sometimes. she is portrayed sympathetically. + honestly i’d say she isn’t the only character with mental health issues in the show. many of the characters are shown in fights at some point.
Jinx has an unspecified dissociative disorder and two distinct identities but misses some of the diagnostic criteria for DID. Still, I’d say proceed with caution.
It’s difficult to unravel Powder/Jinx’s psychology, there are solid arguments to be made for a range of neurological conditions, some innate (like autism) and some acquired from trauma. Suffice it to say, she is almost definitely neurodivergent and she is, at times, shamed and mistreated for traits and/or behaviors that are often associated with autism.
twice, characters seem about to jump from a high ledge, but they do not go through with it. one character may have intended for a grenade to kill both their opponent and themself.
Vi loses her shit on Powder at the end of S1E3 after discovering that Powder's bomb is what killed Vander. Jinx has a breakdown at the beginning of S1E4, where she loses mental control and fires her weapon randomly after seeing someone who resembled her sister.
nobody outright says it, but it may be relevant to know that in episodes 2 and 9 two characters stand on high ledges with suicidal intent. however, before they can jump, both characters are interrupted and neither are hurt.
The episode begins with an underwater scene, it appears to be calm but repeatedly cuts to intense fighting scenes taking in water, sound effects include screaming/yelping underwater and the sound of water splashing, moving, bubbling, etc.
Best to skip or mute this scene if you're sensitive, personally it was the sound design that made the scene feel so convincing/real.
id just like to add to the comment above: during the situations where jinx is upset by their relationship, it is quite obvious that shes upset because she is an enforcer / feels as if shes being replaced. it is thankfully not misleading
An antagonist tricks a female protagonist into believing her kidnapped girlfriend has been butchered, only to reveal that said girlfriend is alive and unharmed.
Noticeably, is the number of people of color present. There are many women in lead roles and even important minor roles. The body diversity among the female characters is also praiseworthy. They don't suffer "same face syndrome" like many animated movies/series have (à la Frozen). There are thin women, bulky and very muscular women (ex. Sevika), young women and old women. All are portrayed as complex characters.
Not explicitly, but a lot of YouTube reactors get creepy vibes from the relationship between an older man and his quasi adopted daughter, so it could ping a sensitive viewer as incestuous.
There is a sex scene in episode 5, relatively discreet. No frontal nudity shown, all that is clearly revealed is a man's bare back, but sexual activity is clearly displayed. No view below torso, and scene is interrupted repeatedly as the show switches between two story segments in bursts. Doesn't last very long and as of yet it isn't referenced more than once.
a character is diagnosed with an unnamed terminal illness in episode 5 and spends the rest of the series coping with and combatting it. theyre shown to cough up blood a few times prior
One of the prominent characters has a physical disability and an unnamed chronic illness. This is discussed fairly frequently in relation to his character.