How Does TRAUMA Affect IMMORTAL Characters? (HEIMERDINGER Analysis) | ARCANE
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
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Magic changes the course of Heimerdinger’s life, and changes the course of Runeterra’s history as well by leading to the founding of Piltover. But his extreme views on safety, his lack of concern for the lives of his own citizens (including his own friend Viktor), and his fearful sheltered upper class lifestyle all raise concern that maybe Heimerdinger didn’t deal with his trauma in the healthiest way. Immortality causes character traits to reach extremes they ordinarily wouldn’t be able to for lack of time. With Heimerdinger, all the rules of writing immortality come into play in balancing the two sides of his central dilemma: is this a wise leader or a frightened trauma victim?
0:00 - PTSD
2:41 - Mental illness in fiction
5:48 - Immortality = Over-development
8:08 - Heimerdinger’s Solution
9:35 - doggy
12:13 - Immortality Rules #1-7
15:21 - The Parallel
17:57 - Immortality Rule #8
19:52 - 30k! (& plan)
Heimerdinger’s BROKEN Characterization - • Heimerdinger's BROKEN ...
VIKTOR Video - • Why ARCANE's Character...
MARCUS Video - • How a GREAT Show Uses ...
JINX Hero/Villain - • Is Jinx a HERO or a VI...
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Heimerdinger was so afraid of war that he focused on preventing the weapons of war instead of preventing the causes of war
EXCELENT take!
Exactly, you summed it up perfectly
He was fixed on what he could do as a scientist, understandable that he would struggle against the technology for war than the social aspects
@@eprot6170 huh, I guess so. He def stepped out of his lane to design & build a city. Somebody had to greenlight Piltover's waste management system of polluting Zaun. Whether he proposed the idea or not doesn't matter because he's on the council since practically day 1 and never prioritized a fix. Nobody can do city planning without taking into account social issues.
Imo the wars between Zaun & Piltover are his fault for making a 💩 government and making 💩 governing decisions. The more I think about it, due to his immortality, Hiemerdinger is like the embodiment of the broken system that failed to govern.
Perfectly said.
Not to mention, simply because we are triggered by something doesn't mean we have PTSD. It's a natural response to trauma. The severity of It's influence in our daily lives is what makes the diagnosis.
@Arfael Ragnarok Fenrisulfr yeah, either MAYBE once Heimerdinger had PTSD, probably closer to when the event happened, but he learned to cope due to so many years passing so his symptoms no longer qualify PTSD. Or, he never had PTSD and was acute stress when triggered before, and again, the intensity fading with so many centuries passing. Of course, trauma is trauma, so memories can still popped up when prompted but as he is now, definitely not PTSD
I kind of feel like we are forgetting that trauma is just a part of life and living beings. Like you say, being triggered by something doesn't mean PTSD, it's a normal thing. Heimerdinger has lived for so long and he is the founder of Piltover, of course he will have lived through traumatic things. At the end, processed traumatic memories are there for survival purposes, so the brain can protect us and warn us for the next time it happens something similar.
Exactly!
@@hsanchezisidora Agreed. Although since it is such a "normal" thing to have trauma, it's often hard to distinguish when we should listen to our trauma and when we shouldn't.
@Explore imagination Define creativity very true, recently I saw a video about why with CPTSD, you can't trust your gut instinct. And they talked about that distinction on trauma and our percieved reality. Trauma many times distorts a reality
"One often meets his fate on the path he takes to avoid it" - Master Oogway
I think you mean Mimir - God of war 2018
Oogway is the chad of good life lessons
@@linkmaster253 Kung Fu Panda 2008, bye
People love to meme it but Master Oogway truly did have some impactful quotes
"i don't know..." - Master Oogway
Oh, and regarding immortality and memory. I always found it wierd that no one ever calls out that memory gets distorted with time, that it fades, or shifts based on new beliefs, or have things added. Like, if eye witness testimony is suspect within a few days, what would centuries do? That's another point towards "Just Scared" because his beliefs distorted his memories (either by possible exaggeration or by focusing on just the bad and minimizing any good)
Agreed! There's also the multiple instances of memory being distorted or otherwise different from the actual events in Arcane itself. Take Mel's painting. We see the necklace strewn about with blood around it, but the details in her painting aren't as clear. Or Vi's flashback at the dinner, seeing Cait's face with a more intimate remembrance. Or Jinx with her 'rewritten' scribbled memories of Vi when they were kids. They use memory as a tool and it's brilliant. :D
Vladimir, a champion in the League of Legends universe, has this if you'd like to look at his stories.
You do have a point. That may even be the resend whey the magic user that was in both of his flashbacks seem to have two different colors of magic surrounding them(one was a light blue and the other was a fire like red/orange)
Yeah but we also have to take into account that Humirdinger is biologically wired differently, there's a good chance his memory works a bit differently and perhaps remember things more clearly since time works differently for him. But yes beliefs and emotions would definitely skew The view on these memories.
This is something that I've explored in depth with my primary character, they are human who is cursed with immortality but are still otherwise human in every other way, over time their conscious mind literally erases massive chunks of their memory simply because the human mind was not meant to last so long. They're smart and they know this fact when they discovered they were immortal, and they have a strategy to deal with it to not lose their humanity, they pretended like they weren't immortal they lived as if they were going to die, they lived in the moment and completely changed their life every decade or so in order to not stagnate. Though they eventually forgot to do this and ended up losing their mind for over an entire century...
Human minds weren't meant to last so long
I think having Heimer team up with Ekko is even more meaningful if you watch Ekko's introduction video. "if you can't make the most out of any given moment, then you don't deserve a single extra second", plays really well against Heimer's immortality
Absolutely. Ekko is the perfect character to pair Heimer up with.
@@midgetwaffles8635 I think a storyline where Heimer dies to save Ekko would be good.
@@keithbos4506NOOOOO9OOOOOOOO999OOOOOOOOOOOOO9090000OOOOOOO00OOOOO
@@keithbos4506Yeah, it would also be cool if the Topsiders and Zanites would soon make peace but Hiemerdingers death causes the conflict to continue.
@@keithbos4506
Heimer cant die by normal means. You have to call in some specialists.
I think Heimerdinger can be summed up in just a few key moments, and all of the are in the undercity:
When he turns his back on the dying man but proceeds to make something for the innocent child
When he gives that child a toy, something to make it happy, but not something it needed to help it survive
When he questions the design of Ekko's hoverboard, his main critique being that there are "safer" design choices
I think it goes a step further than that. Because when he's critiquing the hoverboard he does so with the perspective of an optimal environment. But the lanes are not an optimal environment. The air is thick with pollution. So thick that the design of the board had to be changed to adapt. Something Heimerdinger can't do
@@elevate07 Damn. Thats a good take.
This reminds me of quote Dooku made on Yoda, who is in a very similar circumstance to Heimerdinger:
“No being can wield that kind of power for centuries without becoming complacent at best or corrupt at worst. He has no idea that it's overtaken him; he no longer sees all the little cumulative evils that the Republic tolerates and fosters, from slavery to endless wars, and he never asks, 'Why are we not acting to stop this?' Live alongside corruption for too long, and you no longer notice the stench.”
Love this quote.
And sometimes it’s as much “I don’t know *how* to fix massive problems” in addition to “should I bother trying, if my work will be undone within my immortal lifetime?“
dooku is not a reliable source
@@jasonskeans3327
He is if we’re talking about his beliefs.
Besides, if you’d agree with the same words spoken by any other character, then it’s not the sentiment you’re agreeing with, but the person.
@@Zephirite. no one said anything similar also dooku was completely wrong the jedi are federal police in function also reserves for the military they can only help when the Senate or the individual planet ask
@@jasonskeans3327
Eh, someone said Dooku’s not a great source-that’s what I was responding to.
And lack of Republic permission never stopped Anakin or Obi-Wan from disobeying orders to take action. Hell, they even got away with it, as long as they got results.
I have to say that I am impressed that Arcane brings so much to the table to discuss, and it's a little sad that all this can't be done with other shows and movies. But this is fascinating and I'm so glad I found your channel.
You don't get material like this so often. Personally, I haven't felt this level of connection in the opening season to animation since Avatar, including Korra!! I'm so fascinated on what's to come next season!
There's a level of intentionality with this series that's just off the charts, it's really insane. Even with other stories that are really deep where there's a lot to talk about, it's not at every level of detail like this.
@@connor_obrady i love ATLA and Korra but i must say I think Arcane even does this much better for the one season we got of it.
Probably because its budget was much much larger than its contemporaries
@@schnee1 Arcane didn't win all 9 Annie Awards and a Lumiere Award for show. The excellence of this series is widely acknowledged and can't be ignored if you like well written and well executed stories ^^
It is actually pretty good because he remembers the incident of the World Runes in the past. He knows that if a person uses a world rune they can destroy an entire country i.e Brand, who Heimerdinger is flashing back to.
He knows world runes once they evolve enough, they become sentient and make people hallucinate the past and tempt them to use that. Once he saw Viktor developing something that can potentially become that he became concerned.
That's also the reason ryze i hiding the runes so that doesn't happen again
@@jonatanjensen2649 Is Ryze the mage that saved Jayce and his mom? He looked similar to the dude in the "Rise" music video
@@TwitchyTopHat1 The dude in the rise music video is faker, a real dude. The mage in the show isn't ryze.
@Arfael Ragnarok Fenrisulfr Ryze doesn't give out runes willy nilly. Ryze doesn't need runes as a catalyst to cast magic. and Ryze isn't the only mage in Runeterra.
@@TwitchyTopHat1 Ryze is very understanding and composed. He probably didn't expect a regular child to synthetically generate magic in the future. In fact he ran through a forest of one the trees that are key ingredients to Petricide, the magic absorbing stone of demacia made of the bark of the tree and ashes of dead mages, to transport either world rune information or a rune itself. As a mage, its like running through a cloud of poison gas because the trees sapped his stamina in the cinematic. He is definitely a man of dignity and of his word.
Isn't it kind of possible that Heimerdinger is BOTH wise and scared?
To me it seems that he has qualities of both at the same time and that they aren't or don't have to be mutually exclusive. Which is part of what I think is his arc and his personal conflict, that in a way he's self sabotaging because these two facets of him are always getting in each other's way.
I don't know if this made sense, it's not a very developed thought. But I guess I hope that I can hear what you think about it
I remember a piece of lore about Yordles that they are all somewhat self-defeating. For example, Veigar aspires to be the Grand Master of Evil, but everything he does ends up helping people. Tristana wants to help people but is extremely destructive. Perhaps Heimerdinger seeks to learn from the mistakes of history only to end up repeating them.
Wise means that you can always turn situationon to your adventage and also profiting others. Some of his advices are good like warning about magic and hexcore. But he acts hypocritical and sits in his mind. That makes him being unconvincing and detached from raw reality.
I think I understood you. What I think is no matter how wise you are, once you experienced or saw something, it's hard to open yourself up to some other outcome. That's how the brain works, it registers information so for the next time something similar happens, the brain is prepared to predict it and act upon it. To me that's why he's fixated on his ideas. Cause at the end he's a living being, everything he can really rely on is in personal experience.
If he’s both, the council still has to buy into one idea to decide whether to trust his decisions about war, or not.
i completely see your point of view. I liked the analysis, but didn't really agree that we should have to pick wise or scared (or maybe that was kind of the point).
Wise isnt this all-encompassing trait. Wise person can be afraid and biased and won't be wise about everything.
And I think being open to changing his mind after being doubted by everyone shows a real wise quality that people overlook.
I think Arcane was subverting people's expectations on immortal characters. I dont think he was inhuman and awe inspiring, he seemed realistically out of touch but still able to learn and grow.
didn't notice the parallels between jayce and hemierdinger's visions until now, jayce sees this larger than life figure that used his powers for good and saved him, while heimerdinger sees this powerful monster who doomed entire populations
This reminds me of two things. 1) Power is neither good, nor evil. It just is. It is in the hands of those who are good or evil that it reveals what it can do. And 2) Power corrupts is a lie. Power merely allows the corrupt to reveal who they truly are. If power truly corrupted without fail, then nobody could be trusted to lead a nation. But there have been good people who used their power to do great things.
Wait-THAT’S THE SAME MAGE?!
@@Zephirite. It's not. The destructive one is Brand, the life-saving one is (possibly) Ryze. But definitely not Brand, as he is an aspect of fire and destruction.
@@Kronos_88
Okay, thanks.
That would’ve been fascinating, though-the source of Heimerdinger’s fear inspiring his student-turned-usurper.
@@Kronos_88 I very much doubt it's Ryze. Ryze saw firsthand the destruction that the World Runes can cause when his master was tempted to use one; he then swore that he would NEVER wield that power himself, for fear that he too would be corrupted. The only times we've ever seen him interact with the Runes is to contain them.
say what you want about Heimer, but he was right about the Hextech Gemstones not being ready for use. Just one of them got stolen and 5 episodes later it was used to blow up the Council
biggest bruh moment
And had he not been kicked out of the council, he would have been there when Jinx fired her rocket.
@@aloevera3317 That's a very good point actually. I wonder if he'll experience survivor's guilt in s2
He's also not wrong about the heart. He tried to warn them to destroy it and saw the first signs of corruption within Victor, but Victor and Jayce were too desperate to listen.
It's only after Sky's death that Victor understands what he meant, and when he tried to destroy it, the thing took his power from him as a threat.
Hiemerdinger does know what he's talking about. But he is out of touch with the world. And he wasted too much of his time because he has so much of it. It stopped him from fighting corruption within the council much faster and stopped him from connecting with the undercity.
With his new friendship with Ekko, hopefully he will have time not only to reflect, but to reconnect with the world. I think him and Ekko's meeting will be a great influence on both of them.
@@ChasehaWing Not only that, he also warned about the inventions having to be tested, they were made with the aim of helping with mining, but not even 1 week after they were created, Vi uses the gauntlets as a weapon, Viktor will use the laser beam as a weapon too, and Jayce created a weapon using his own technology.
In the end, Heimerdinger was right, accelerating the development of technology and putting it in people's hands without proper research is dangerous. The atomic bomb is the best example of Heimerdinger's warnings.
I was really glad that Heimerdingers Arc (for now) ends with him being humbled by Ekko. Because I felt actually pretty disgusted with him when he returned from the undercity and he was like "Well, I wanted to help, but they didn't like me" It showed how _little_ Heimerdinger understood about humanity, but also, his own City. His People, the people he was supposed to protect. We don't really get a history, but i would love to know how the difference between the undercity and Topside became this stark. Because Heimerdinger is not a classist Character in generla, so I highly doubt that Piltover was built with this Classsystem in mind, meaning, it had to have developed somewhere in the last 200 Years. So that begs the question: Did Heimerdinger see it, but A) do nothing or B) tried to do something and it failed? If so, how hard was his try, because if his little excursion is a hint of his hard work towrds the betterment of the City, my faith isn't that great. Or did he just completly miss that turn? Looked up from his book one day and it was like this, because he had spent the last decade in a library or workshop, wotking on some interesting Project?
Either way, he has very clearly failed his City at the point Arcane takes place, and I am glad that it is a Character like Ekko, with his mixture of hope and resignation, that may bring him closer to humanity
@Arfael Ragnarok Fenrisulfr czcams.com/users/shortsX41LRWL_x4U?feature=share
My guess is he just never visited the undercity in the past 200 years. The way he talks about science and time makes it seem like a few centuries could pass by for him in a relatively short amount of time.. Human civilization developed too quickly for him and he didn't even realize the problems were there until it was too late.
@Arfael Ragnarok Fenrisulfr IMHO heimerdinger is what people mean when they say "Intelligence without wisdom is nothing more than stupidity that looks smart." which applies to a lot of people in the world these days. Look at all the academics running amok in the US these days, they have intelligence but without wisdome they are nothing more than screaming children complaining about their unrealistic world views upon the regular people who may not have the academic training that they have but have the wisdom learned from actually experiencing what's happening in the world.
The good thing about heimerdinger is that now that he has met with ekke, I feel like he will impart some of his intelligence to ekko, while ekko shares his wisdom to heimerdinger. Heimer's arc was not fleshed out in season 1 and neither is ekko's arc. I have a feeling they might have more fleshed out roles in season 2 as riot loves to set things up for the future.
@Arfael Ragnarok Fenrisulfr I think it comes down to this:
immortality kind of sucks, it basically severs all connection you have to everything around you as everything that isn't you or some other immortal thing is simply temporary, it also completely destroys any motivation you have to do anything because since you're immortal you have literally infinite time to do anything.
@@HomerAndRoe Just to be clear, I have no issues with academics, I do have issues with academics who are detached from reality and push their world views upon others. First hand experience with my ex-coworkers from the school I was teaching in. And yes there are still a lot of great and sane academics out there.
Psych major and licensed counselor, I have to thank you for these discussions. The idea of having traumatic episodes but not PTSD ir having breakdowns but not psychosis is rarely talked about on social media
While yes all of his fear not fully justified but for those who dont know, the past tragedy he is remembering(The Rune War) is really cataclysmic. In fact, it near destroying the whole Runeterra. So, from other's perspective, sure he is too eaten by trauma. But in his eyes, it is obviously justified after seeing suuch horrifying near-apocalypse.
it was an apocalypse lol, the rune wars killed basically everybody
The Rune Wars were so bad IT AWOKE A DEMON OF SUFFERING
Actually, I think there's a dual significance to Ekko's watch ticking at the end of his scene with Heimerdinger. Not only are we seeing that Time is moving forward (a significant element of both Ekko's influence over the plot and his imminent mastery over Time), but also that Heimerdinger is no longer stagnant.
For the whole series he the Donger has been stagnant in the narrative, content with how things are and adverse to major or immediate change. Now, he has been ousted from his pedestal and, in a way, rediscovering what made him fall in love with Science in the first place. Thus, he is slowly moving away from a immovable and complacent member of the corrupt government and towards an almost unstoppable pursuer of Progress and innovation with potentially unchecked glee!
A nice bit I noticed in Arcane has to do with Sevika. The entire first season, her choice of smokes was cigarettes. In the last scene of season 1 when we see her, she is lighting up a cigar. Silco's choice of smokes. She is also lighting up this boss choice of smokes with a lighter that belonged to another boss, Finn's. At the point she is trying to light up the cigar lines up with Silco's chair. I think it implies that (we logically assumed already) is that Sevika will be the next boss of the lanes. Leading Zaun(edited, was before Xion) against Piltover.
I think you mean Zaun.
Actually Amanda Overton has said she was willing to give one minor "spoiler" on season 2, which is that Sevika will end up Quitting smoking. Food for thought. Quitting leadership of Zaun? Changing leadership to be more healthy?
Or... She _failling_ to light up the cigar that whole scene implies she will faill to be the next boss.
I personaly believe she wouldn't try to be one at all, since she's one of action and the present, not politics and the future.
But let's see
@@Eelanos Yes, thank you. Idk why I was thinking about Xion.
@@Let_Toons I like your insight.
It's important to address though, that this childish and overly-innocent approach to everything is common to all Yordles. They may be really good at things like science, magic, inventions or even kombat, but it's all like playing hide and seek to them. Think of Smurfs who are able to make somewhere in the real world their home - forever, because they are immortal - that's pretty much it.
They're not technically considered fey as far as I can tell in Runeterra lore, but they're very strongly connected to the trope of fey. They have another world they live in that's got a weird relationship with time and is very pretty and natural-looking. They're ageless but also childlike. They've got personalities that are exaggerated versions of ordinary human traits. They're intensely emotional to an exaggerated extent, but also potentially callous and heartless in their obliviousness and otherness.
Also yordles passively embody traits from the region they live in. Almost to a comical extent
Kled is unrefined Noxian battlerage
Kennen is a mysterious and magical ninja
Poppy is stalwart "duty and honour! For Demacia!" Embodied
Vex is very depressive and gothic
Heimer reflects the society he's a part of to a comical degree and values intelligence and progress over most things. But its also kind of masturbatory and self indulgent (Heimer talking about the other scientists who's inventions never worked is a key example. I don't think what Heimer is saying about him makes any sense: but it makes Heim *feel* clever when he says it: so he does)
@@ettinakitten5047 Yeah they're definitely not Fey bc Lulu's pixie companion is literally a small fey creature
@@suppmydiff3257
Could be different types of fey
@@ManiyaVinas They're hobbits mixed with dogs. If you call that a far creature: knock yourself out
"Heimerdinger lives in a comfy crib he has created, which is devoid of any magic that scares him. He sees the technoledge as toys, and is blissfully unaware of the politics around him powered by mortals' survival instincts"
Your analysis made me understand Heimerdinger by heart - first time I've felt it so strongly for someone. Until you told me this, I knew him by head, knew his motives and flaws, but when you said this I for a moment felt his emotions as if i was him.
Great analysis and thank you for letting me experience something new.
I know lol's lore, Heimerdinger's fears are extremely justified, both the rune wars and the void were very horrible to the world. However, he could simply help Viktor and Jayce in their projects, making it better and safer, instead of leaving it all on their hands for another decade while Vikto is rapidly dying.
This is a good argument in favor of the avoidance theory. He doesn't even want to help the potential weapon get to a usable state. I suspect he wants to avoid its existence for as long as he can.
@@Juliana-du3kk I'm not even talking about weapons, Heimer was thrilled to see hextech evolution. However, he saw 2 young adults, one with a big dream and an even bigger desire to make it true and the other was wasting away everything second passed, and his answer for their call to help was "keep it going for another decade or two" as if Viktor was gonna make it soo far.
Before the Void, before the hextech weapons, Heimer already was denying them help. Imagine what could have happened if Heimer was like "Dude, that's a world changer right here, I can't let this two young ones do everything by themselves without help and supervision"
All of Runeterra would be united by an utopian cosmopolitan society.
Hextech was already there, it already worked, you can't go back on technology, once we can build it we can make it again. Hextech weapons was inevitable, but if Heimer helped before Viktor started getting Voidy...
Something about Heimerdinger just struck me. When they are voting him out, Jayce is saying something like "You will thank us later" or something like that. And he truly will, because if Fishbones isn't super powerful and would only destroy the council, they technically saved him. Also Heimerdinger being a Yordle and so angry is just hilarious.
Heimerdinger was probably my favourite character in Arcane mostly because while I agree that like Markas he was his part of the city personified, he more represents the good parts than the bad (not that he doesn't also represent some of the bad) he was almost childlike in his love for science and cultural events. He was also the least corrupt member of the council and while hesitant, really tried to keep up to his code of honour even when magic was becoming involved. MOreover, when he did go to the poor parts of the city, he did try to help to the best of his ability with trying to cheer up a child and later joining Echo. Heimerdinger is an odd character though, since he's not really an earthy person (someone whois very consistent in mood and thought, this is the type of people most imortal characters are portrayed as), he's not overly passionate, adaptable, or even free spirited. Heimerdinger is like classical music: old, dramatic, complex, and foundational, but also comforting, familiar, and patient.
I do like your video and think you are correct for the most part, but I think you did get one thing wrong: when he says that it should be ready in about a decade, I think this is him genuinely trying to put in an effort and get over his trauma with magic. Heimerdinger is immortal and therefore patience is his biggest strength. During the presentation of the gaughtlets and the laser the gaughtlets rattle and shake almost uncontrollably and the laser misfires; while both technically work they are both clearly not yet ready for public use or even all that safe. I'm pretty sure that the estimate he gave was based on the data he had from other inventions he and others made along with the magitech developments from there along with extra testing time to just be safe and idiot proof them. He's an immortal character, while he himself is incredibly patient you also have to be patient when dealing with him
I dont know why people dont point out that Heimer was there from the begining of Piltover. The poverty and injustice in Zaun was done under his 200 years rule. I find it hard to believe he was "blind" and didnt realice what type of city he was building.
Maybe not literally blind but understanding why such unjustifiable poverty and strife happens can really make a difference. I think he just ignored it, assuming it cant be all that bad. But then saw that he was wrong, but also Ekko proved to him that people werent poor bc they weren't trying. He saw the same thing in Ekko that he saw in Jayce when he discovered the hoverboard. And then even more inspired by how Ekko was building something good around a ruin like he did. He first needed to relate to them to see them as like him.
Which it is cruel and he did fail the city bc he didn't uplift the whole city, but I think he failed bc he didn't realize how bad it was. Also worth noting that the show doesn't explicitly state that Zaun was always that bad. Maybe it came to be bc of pollution that the founders didn't know would happen.
I think it's a literal display how disconnected people can get, especially at the top. Like how national leaders don't even know the costs of food or other necessary supplies since they don't do their own shopping. It's kind of like that. Heimerdinger is not only the founder of the city, he's also the leader, and on top of that he's the top scientist. On top of that, Zaun has been getting progressively worse. It didn't start out this bad at the very start, obviously. It accumulated over those 300 years. Imagine somebody telling you for dozens of years "yeah people in Zaun are complaining". Eventually you stop caring, because it's always the same and doesn't SEEM to get worse. As long as he himself doesn't get influenced by it too much, he doesn't understand how bad it really is. It's very hard to imagine somebody else's life when you're living in a completely different world and never come in contact with those others basically. That's what happened to Heimerdinger.
Considering his mindset, I _do_ believe he could be genuinely blind to it.
Like schnee says in the video, him founding this city is basically an attempt to make a big cocoon for himself where he can hide from the things that scare him and live in bliss amongst the inventions that bring him glee. His entire focus is on progress and the immediate suffering of mortals isn't even something he's capable of registering. He just sits in his little ivory tower focused on science never even looking towards the undercity because that's what he built the city in order to have the luxury to do. Then combine that with the fact that even if he hears about the suffering of the undercity all he'd think is 'Well with time all this will eventually get better so there's no reason to pay it any mind." He gets to play at being politician because he's the founder and because he's this fountain of first hand knowledge, not because he's actually equipped to be that person.
I love how, even 4 months after, there's still so much to talk about Arcane, that people haven't talked about yet.
Yet Necrit and other lore enthusiast doesn't want to talk about them because for them "it's not canon". Like it's still part of league but they have no capabilities on picking up these nuances in story telling. Maybe because they only feed off negativity? Especially Tbskyen and the emo girl.
@@Vizible21 That's not the reason. The reason is because season 2 is not out yet so everything that was needed to talk about the lore was already done. I'm pretty sure that Riot will reconciliate all the lore from the different mediums since they have shown to be willing to do that but they can't update it right now because it will spoil future seasons of Arcane and that would be bad for the people that want to enjoy the show.
@@Vizible21 claiming Skyen thrives off negativity is laughable. Dude absolutely showers things in praise: WHEN THEY DESERVE IT.
Which is the key here
Being negative and having actual standards for what you consume are two very different things
everytime i watch your videos, i feel like i understand Arcane better and it makes me love the show even more
I am curious about what are they gonna do with Heimidger (i cant write his name right) in the second season. I hope he's gonna be more revelant than before.
They’re probably going to introduce ziggs. Yordles as a species are influenced by the society they belong to, like it literally effects their personality.
Heimerdinger is the yordle ingame that represents piltover.
Ziggs represents zaun hence he’s a chaotic crazy inventor that loves explosives more then people. He also canonically used to work with heimerdinger so they kinda NEED to interact
@@Crazygamergal *potential spoilers alert*
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I wonder how Heimer will transition to an enthusiastic hextech turret maker in s2.
@@TheDarkstar3601 because he’s no longer living in the uptight piltover 🤩 the more chaotic zaun is definitely going to start to get to him after awhile! Honestly the way a yordles environment changes who they are is a perfect excuse for some psychological horror (I mean just look up the yordle veigar who was a slave to an evil monster which turned him into an evil monster)
@@Crazygamergal that's the huge part of "yordle" lore that's missing in the series. And I get it, it's hard to put that in the story. Maybe that's why they avoided it to not make the series even more complicated but it's one of the most important detail of how Yordles work in Runeterra. More example would be Poppy- a heroic and patriotic Yordle which Demacia is all about. Skarner a very aggressive yordle in Noxus. The most important example is Veigar- this wanabee villain but fails to be one who was tortured by Morde.
@@Vizible21 hate to be that gal but… the yordle of noxus is kled not skarner. Skarner is a brackern😅
Id be really interested in a video about the relationship between jayce and Viktor. I know you did a video about arcanes rule of loneliness where you mentioned their relationship but I'd really like a deep dive, just because I feel they're very different but also similar at the same time.
This is such an important perspective on applying real-world concepts to fiction. When I was in university, I tried to decisively debate that the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' was schizophrenic because he embodies so many characteristics of schizophrenia. I didn't understand my professor's insistence that 'fictional characters do not have real illnesses' at the time, but I came to understand it in a literary context. Like you said, all of these symptoms are just characterization. You cannot expect to interpret a fictional character in the ways you interpret real human beings.
I am "a real German psychiatrist" and of course they can have disorder, illness, diseases of body, soul or Spirit of ego, id or superego, of their skin, brain, bones or g
Thanatos and Eros. There are billions of way. I would ask you to write someone random (write possible things on cards from height and weight to osteomyelitis, prion disease or various ages) and step by step make a "Statue" on paper and give it a shem ham forash - First let you creation act and work in various Situations, before you will starrt writing. Auf Wiedersehen ich wünsche alles Gute und viel Glück
@@lamaahruloma4270 You can write that a character has a disease, sure. You can say a character is insane or whatever you want, but are they actually insane? No, they are not real people and they're not limited by being a human being. They are figments of imagination. For example, if I told you that my character is able to fly despite being a wingless human, then that is that, he can fly, correct?
But he does not fly like an airplane or helicopter. I do not consider aerodynamism when I write about him, or thrust, buoyancy, etc. He just flies because I say so. That's because it is a depiction of something, not actually that thing itself.
Similarly, when I am writing a mentally unstable character I can pretend to know how a mentally unstable person would say or do things, but I cannot say for certain that is what they would do/how they would be. I am depicting a disorder without any necessary respect to the rules of that disorder. Just because my character has rabies does not have to mean he is unable to swallow. Because he doesn't have rabies, he is imaginary and so are his rabies.
@@SkimoStories That's phillosophy and I know very little about "dead humanities". It's just kind of fun and with all respekt what else? Sometimes I like to read Greek Philosophers like Neoplatonics.
I must say, when I was writing character with some kind of human being with such kind of issues, I was focusing on a depiction of a psychiatric disorders or diseases. Where are the differences of writing a book on psychiatry and belletristik painting of a case of a schizophrenia or neurosis?
If I wanted to know if a drawing of orange or its belletristik depiction is a real orange or not, then I would use Mathematikal logic. A basic high school education.
Is a drawing of woman a woman? No. Nor a Photography. But you can often teach anatomy with that. Of course you have styles that are making it harder - there you can sometimes teach about psychiatric issues of the author.
@@SkimoStories You can write about an Apple without knowledge or respect towards botanics.
@@lamaahruloma4270 sure, but then if you eat the word apple writ upon the page, does it nourish you? No. Because it's not an apple. It's a representation of an apple, it does not matter how red, juicy or flavorful you describe it as being.
When I watched Arcane, I had noticed Heimerdinger was always very cut off from the world below. And from the values of mortality. Like when he told Viktor and Jayce to keep working on their new tools for another decade, like it was no problem at all. While he was right, that really revealed a lot about his character. He doesn't take the mortality of others into consideration. A decade is a lot of time out of a human's life. Like we only get around 7 to 9 of them in our lives if we're lucky. Which is actually really scary to think about. Our lives are really short.
This was just something I saw while watching this show but I'm a science student who's going to get a PhD in chemistry this fall and I definitely see the child like fascination that Heimerdinger exhibits both in myself and in other scientists. That is just something you see not necessarily a symptom of trauma. It really helped me connect to Heimerdinger as a character and made me love how he is written
Because your a scientist, not a politician. Which is a good thing.
Heimerdinger really is an interesting character. I'm in agreement with everything you said in the video.
Heimer also encouraged me to take a look back on the time line of Runeterra. I honestly thought the Runewars was longer ago in Runeterran history, but it's actually only a couple hundred years.
singed said: "nature has made us intolerant to change"
i love the diferent aproaches diferent characters have to death on arcane ones running away (victor), others ignoring it (heimer), others are afraid of the injustice of deads (jayce), others are using it to reach their goals (silco), others are fightning it (singed), and jinx dosn't give a fuck, she's selfdestructive and destructive with her envoriment.
"The wise man neither rejects life nor fears not living."- Epicurus (the GOAT)
Thanks Dr.Schnee! A Psychiatrist who works in a prison is a pretty brave career path 😄
Definitely gonna check out Anne Rice's work, you've got me interested!
Epicur was a goat in the way that he was loud, annoying, mostly self-serving and focused on vegetating, even if that meant eating waste and drinking alcohol. Also probably could give you a headbutt if he didn't like you
Great analysis on a character like Heimerdinger, and him being both character and setting was something I didn't even pick up on. Also the way he and Singed are similar in not fully or willing to understand the others around them was actually something I quickly picked up and with Heimer the prime example of how his everlasting trauma causes him to view the trauma of others as minor issues of sorts is evident with Bolbok (I know a character who is incredibly minor), when the topic of the arcane comes up during the trial and Heimer says he is the only one who understands the dangers of magic it came off as if he literally forgot or was not listening to when Bolbok just moments prior informed Jayce and the audience that the arcane contributed to an ethnic cleansing of his people, a trauma that makes him more than capable of understanding the dangers of the arcane as unlike Heimer whose trauma deals more with how the arcane primarily affects others around him and therefore his psyche, with Bolbok the arcane poses a legitimate threat to his life, he saw others like him killed (something that Heimer cannot relate to due to his immortality and the fact that Yordles aren't endangered).
Also as you stated already his immortality makes him view things like science and politics as things akin to hobbies, he doesn't really invest all of his energy into them especially with politics which made him incompetent in the role he assigned himself as Head Councillor, he may mean well but his negligence due to seeing issues that have impact on mortals as pastime meant that the divide in Piltover went unchecked, a seed became a forest of weeds yet with each problem that appears and contributes to the Undercity's oppression he tends to talk rather than take action and even with that he only ever talks about problems when Topside is affected because he may not be invested in these issues as much as he may perceive himself to be.
That's enough rambling from me, really enjoyed this
One thing about Vampire Media I've seen used or at least hinted at many times is the "immortal obsessions". In the case of people who were turned into Vampires, they often carry personal baggage into immortality; obsessions, grudges, traumas, unfulfilled/impossible dreams, worldviews, opinions, beliefs, behaviors, prejudices, etc. For instance, a guy who was about to get married becomes obsessed with the idea of forming a family and having kids, even though he's sterile as a Vampire, or a veteran soldier that sees war as the only way of life worth anything and has strong opinions on how it should be waged (i.e. Ratko from Castlevania). And often, this immortal baggage takes precedence over everything else in their lives, even their own better judgement, survival and even sanity.
Of course, Heimerdinger's race is born immortal rather than turned, but that's also something that carries over. Immortals, be them Gods or something else (i.e. Vampires, Time Lords, etc.), simply refuse or are unable to see through the eyes of mortals. Their immortality and personal experiences defines their entire perception of reality and morality, to the point of willful childishness and selective obliviousness. They will ALWAYS see themselves as more righteous, more justified, more knowledgeable, more perfect in every way. Take the most obnoxious elders you know, the most arrogant and selfish know-it-all types, multiply it by centuries or millennia, add magical abilities AND Political Authority. The concerns, needs, priorities of others, even the most reasonable and essential ones, is always less than worthy for them. They internalize a form of solipisism, where everything MUST meet THEIR standards at all times, no matter how impossible and unfair those are.
That isn't exclusive to actual immortal characters, of course. People that take on larger-than-life roles (real or imagined) suffer from this, such as character acting as heroes (i.e. Batman and Superman) or members of powerful and ancient institutions (i.e. the Jedi Order). They think they know what's best for everyone, everytime, and they will always react violently to any attempts at questioning or rebellion, often hypocritically and disproportionately. Artificial lifeforms created with a specific programming can also suffer from this (i.e. AUTO from Wall-E or Ultron.). There's this incessant desire to forcibly embalm the world, force it to forever conform to their point of view and force everyone in it to submit to it, either actively and directly (i.e. violently via military might) or indirectly and passively (i.e. manipulatively via social indoctrination). There's an absolutist sentiment of entitlement, like THEIR worldview is divine commandment, ESPECIALLY if they're some kind of divine being, and nothing about the realities of the mortal world and its losses matter compared to their grand vision and incomprehensible plan (i.e. both Sauron and Gandalf want Middle-Earth to conform to a "intended vision"; Sauron wants the world to submit so he can make it "orderly", whereas Gandalf, the Istari and the Valar are enforcing the will of Eru, which means the world loses all its magic and the Elves have to submit to the will of the Valar and abandon Middle-Earth entirely to go live in Valinor, with very few to nothing of the marring caused by Morgoth and Sauron really fixed).
They are the "visionary heroes & messiahs" of their own story, which oddly enough is quite similar to the whole "Madness Arc" you discussed in another video, only stretched out, subtle and long-termed.
You know I have ask an ChatAI write an goddess character appearances and ask it to give me a suggestion of portraying her personality. This is just a rough draft of her character and personality.
+ She is the Goddess of The Void. She is the ruler of the Void for countless eons. Her main character revolves around maintaining balance of the universe. She is embodiment of change of the universe, thus her character is unpredictable and she embrace the mystery of every being in the universe. The most important thing of all is that she has neutral view of mortal beings, no superiority complex nor disdain for them. Another thing is that she will not intervene helping any mortals, not because they are foolish. It is more that because she has suffer a traumatic experience of helping a mortal races in a far away galaxy. Long time ago, she has a optimistic ideal of helping mortals become powerful being. She witness a war and save that races from extermination. They grateful to her and she teaches and mentor them in the power of the void to help reach enlightenment. However, They become emboldened and have a superiority point of view is that anything they do is justify because they want to prove to their goddess that they deserve her loves and recognition in the name of greater good. They participated genocide across the universe to prove that they only deserve her only love . Thus, they betrayed her because they realize that they can do a better god as the new ruler of the universe. Because of that, she is so furious and wipe them out and leave no single traits of their civilization cosmological timeline. Therefore, she become detached of mortal and have non intervention policy from that point on. She has become cold and far ruthless in hiding her past mistakes, thus she exterminates those that study the power of the void herself. Ironically, she believes in free will of all being in the universe to have the right to defend herself. She respects those stand up for themselves , rather than wait for her salvation.
+ She is also Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge, thus her knowledges make her rather pessimistic, however she believes that mortals could reach enlightenment and wise being by promotes self growth and self acceptance. Thus, she neither forced her own point of view on them respect their own pov no matter how misguided they are in pursuit of their goals.
@@paulminh3525
You're basically describing virtually every God in mythology and pop culture, and the self-contradictory rationalization countless people keep preaching to justify them being assholes or monsters.
"Oh, they're neutral to mortal, they're not malicious. Oh, look, they also look down on us and feel the right to arbitrarily exterminate people who do things they don't like for whatever reason, but that's okay cause they're Gods!"
One point I was to add about mental illness *_in fiction_* - fiction doesn't show all moments of life. We don't see these characters eat every bite of food, or hear every shower thought they have, or watch them every time they pee. A diagnosis is made based on all moments of life, not just the interesting parts that serve a story. Some people have some symptoms sometimes and other symptoms at other times / in other situations & contexts.
Another (wider) point I'd like to add about *_mental illness_* - even in the real world when you consider all moments of life, real people don't always fit so neatly in the little boxes the DSM has. Even if you aren't a textbook example of a certain exact diagnosis doesn't mean you're fine and/or couldn't benefit from any help. The weird thing about mental illness is that it isn't strictly an illness in the sense that there is not a pathogen, there is not a simple single cause, like with the common cold. Even when functioning in a drastically different manner, a brain is still a brain (assuming you aren't like Phineas Gage that is; I actually have an uncle with a similar wound from a gun shot who acts in a similar fashion), the organism as a whole is still simply trying to survive. I personally agree with Dr Bessel van der Kolk that many of the neat little boxes in the DSM aren't that useful because trauma is way more complex than that paradigm allows for. But even if you like the DSM, I think we can agree the sear size of the thing alone supports the notion that mental health is deeply complex, and basically all of us could use at least some help or advice or at bear minimum a friend to talk to at least sometimes.
How are you so articulate with this stuff? Like honestly, how do you even find this stuff in the show? Amazing analysis! It's like a talent of yours👏🏾fantastic
The thing about heimer is afraid is that the only time that he felt that he could lose his life was during the rune wars and I think he don't wanna feel that again
I wish a bit more credit was given to the effects of /others/ dying even if he himself won’t die. The event was traumatic largely in part to the death of those around him by the sounds of it? So clearly it does effect him, he is capable of empathy.
He engages with things differently, but he’s not fully removed from the impact. To him, someone having a shorter life is sad, but they’re all short. He must be accustomed to people dying so quickly that compared to the possible annihilation of every person in the city, it’s something that might be easier for him to swallow compared to those who don’t have to face this half as often
As someone with ptsd, I can confirm fear is masked with anger. It takes alot to not angry for any emotion really.
I think ptsd Is developed by the brain training itself to avoid death.
This kind of "thinking" we call trauma is only present in being that can physically die. Hes immortal yeah, but what would happen if I cut his head off?
if you could be killed, but still not die. I dont think trauma disorders would develop. because there is no fear. just a thought.
@@DathoxUdictus As another person with it I dont doubt they could develop trauma from the sheer emotional reaction in that moment, although maybe not so much from situations threatening their own life, but perhaps from seeing other people die in front of them like Heimerdinger did, and feeling utterly helpless in that moment. Also, Heimerdinger still clearly feels fear, whether he can die or not.
Viktor makes Heimerdinger soooo frustrating. He’s like a ticking clock in the show, a physical reminder of time passing and the society around him decaying. And Heimerdinger just IGNORES IT in favor of “safety” and the knowledge that Jayce’s negative involvement in politics might not have happened if Heimerdinger had interfered less is excruciating.
You got some amazing deconstructions of how this show is made.
Genuinely stunning and so helpful. Keep up you good work
You show and use Elrond to exemplify some of your points, but I honestly think you could've used him more to illustrate how to write immortals. In fact, most of the Elven characters in LotR serve as character studies of what immortality means. Elrond is 5000 years old by Frodo's time, and through it all, he's seen every seed of hope in mortal humans squandered and spent, he's seen them stumble in their moment of victory only to reset back to disaster. His reaction has essentially been to become, to put it bluntly, quite racist.
He's seen ONE HUNDRED generations of humans come and go and be seduced by promises of power, and fall to infighting, and he pretty much thinks he's got them nailed down. So even offering advice to mortals is, at this point, not really in his interest. He knows that advice is often mistaken or misused, and even if humans should temporarily claim some sort of victory against Sauron, it'll inevitably turn sour at some point. If not now, then maybe in a hundred years. A thousand. To him, it doesn't really matter.
We also see Galadriel have some of the same reaction. Even if the Ring is destroyed, she knows this mortal world is slowly getting away from her. Psychologically, Tolkien seems to have argued that immortality eventually gets to some kind of overload where the immortal becomes unable to find motivation or positive sensory input to justify one's life. Elrond and Galadriel both know that they're in Middle-Earth on borrowed time. Their ancient minds can't quite keep up with the changes to the mortal world, it seems Tolkien is arguing, although he puts in a lot more poetic language. It seems all elves reach this state sooner or later. "Weariness" is the term used in-universe. On the one hand it feels like there's no new experiences to spice up life, and on the other hand, the world that's there is evolving away from them, becoming so alien that it can't really resonate with them anymore.
I'm almost tempted to make a comparison to dementia. Not that Elrond or Galadriel are forgetting things: that's the thing, their minds are filled with the memories of millennia and millennia and compared to that immense abyss of time, it becomes harder and harder to introduce new events from the present.
So, ultimately, Elrond does not ride out with the Fellowship, and neither does Galadriel, though of course they both end up fighting, and they indeed have fought in fairly recent history, still clinging onto some measure, some scrap of - if not optimism and hope, then at least some sense of duty and stewardship. A sort of resigned sense of responsibility leading them to take on the Necromancer in Dol Guldur and to stave off Sauron's armies during the War of the Ring. But they both know this isn't their world anymore. It can never be that. You can't step out into the same river twice, and they have stood in the stream for A LONG time. So they mostly keep to their own small words in Lothlorien and Rivendell, attempting to preserve some sense of stability and continuity, "a memory of Elder Days" as Tolkien puts it, using "soft power" to influence events in a positive directions, urged by more focused (one might say obsessive) agents like Gandalf or maybe their children.
Long story short, point is, Elrond is a fascinating character. Older to Frodo than Abraham would be to us, knowing that every victory turns sour eventually, seeing heroes blip in and out of existence in the blink of an eye with little to show for it, but he is still trying to force some good into the world, even as he knows that this world is turning into something unrelatable to him. One last attempt to put things right for the new heirs of middle earth before his motivation, his worldly energy is spent.
Keep in mind that the Maiar, of which Gandalf belongs, are also a kind of immortal spirit, and that Gandalf represents the opposite of that same coin. Rather than an immortal who is weary of the world, he's an immortal who sees things as they are and says "Let us make what we have do what we can with it" rather than anticipating something beyond the capabilities of the individuals he gives guidance. He never fails to believe in others, but he also never fails to see their flaws. In that instance, Gandalf has much greater wisdom than Elrond or Galadriel.
Eru always did say, that Man possessed a greater gift than the Elves. The ability to die, with their victories and outlooks on the world intact.
Only so many times can you watch people fall into the same traps over and over before you just don't care.
@@randomperson-up5vt Like I brought up, Gandalf still retained caring, and he's seen as much as Elrond. It's a mentality thing, not an events thing.
Just came here to say I love the way this comment is written. Beautiful language!
Been loving your vids! Super well written and thought out, and pumping them out with consistency! Amazing, take a break whenever you need it bud
Tfw Arcane is so loaded with detail that analyzing each character takes longer than rewatching the whole show
18:54 One little detail I found cool which adds to Heimerdingers character is when he picks up Echos board and comments how the pitch is wrong as he was not accounting for the atmosphere the fissures produced (which Echo brings up just after correcting him). Not even accounting for the fissures in his analysis of its design, showing he doesn't acknowledge the fissures as a problem.
I have CPTSD, a result of continuous sexual trauma for 4 years in my teen years. While watching Arcane, I found more connections to Jinx than anyone. The hallucinations, flashbacks, volatile emotions, feeling unsafe at all times, sleep disturbance (look at her freakin eye bags), desperation for safety (aka her latching onto the first person who offers that to her), etc. One thing I also recognize with her as that she dislikes/is uncomfortable with expressing her trauma responses and looks down on herself for it, while Heim uses his trauma/experience as a guiding force for himself and his city. Just different levels of integration I suppose? Dunno, cool vid.
A fantastic take (as always) and I love how you incorporate parallels between Arcane and other great movies and tv shows when discussing these incredible topics. The correlations between these stories and their hard core topics just prove how relatable they are to us in every day life.
I understand the issues with Heimerdinger and the fact that he overly fears magic and underfears tech. He fears the tool and not the user. That being said, was he entirely wrong in his fear. Jayce and Viktor didn't really understand the forces they were tampering with. Jayce has the opposite problem. Both characters have correct perspectives in balance. If they had worked together to find a common ground, things could have gone better for all sides.
Heimerdinger had good reason for his decisions, but a better approach for him would be to study magic and technology cause he didn't understand the principle that once something exists, you can't unexist it. Many people have tried to do that with different things, but it fails because it requires much more blood and destruction than anyone can hope to do without omnipotent power. Heimerdinger tried to hide from his trauma when he should have looked to stare it down and understand it so he could stop it and better identify what was dangerous about it. This is obviously hard for anyone. I think this is the crux of the problem and I don't necessarily believe that his longer lifespan would have changed this problem. The only thing it really changed for him specifically was him seeing the resurgence of his "arch-enemy."
This is really a masterful analysis of immortal characters - both their historicity & their responses to trauma. I'm really liking your channel.
I'm really looking forward to the video in two weeks. Thanks for all the amazing content, it's really helping not only scratch the arcane itch but also makes me appreciate the show and all the hard work that went into it a lot more.
I really like your deep dive analysis of this series:)
Very impressive video! I think it really helps deconstruct Heimerdinger as a character and a narrative archetype.
Something I like to compare his relationship to the arcane with is nuclear energy.
Like people alive today read in the papers decades ago how nuclear bombs first came about and killed thousands upon thousands of people in an instant. We’ve seen superpowers on the brink of nuclear war, we’ve seen devastating nuclear power plant accidents that render vast tracts of land around them uninhabitable for thousands of years to come.
But also, we NEED nuclear power right now! The world desperately needs to move away from fossil fuels and Nuclear power is a viable option, a necessary option, despite its potential destructive capabilities, because if we don’t go green soon, environmental disaster will cause human suffering on a scale most people can’t even appreciate right now.
Heimerdinger is in a position where he has established a status quo that is comfortable for him, so comfortable that he spends years not looking in the eye the suffering going on right under his nose, he even acts surprised when Jinx attacks ”How did it come to this?” is a statement of profound ignorance. And given that it’s right under his nose, it’s willful ignorance. It takes him being kicked off the council, to watch powerlessly as those threatening to uproot his status quo take all his power away from him, that he finally heads to the Undercity to look in the eye what is happening, what he’s turned a blind eye to all this time. He knows they were suffering, as he says he went there to offer his assistance to them, but when he can’t avoid it any longer, when he does come face to face with it, his conscience can finally take charge of his actions.
Maybe we don't. I do not want to talk much. Just check Tesla discoveries and inventions. Btw Viktor is inspired by Tesla
@@finezyjnafantazja2495 the hell are you talking about?….
I think one thing being severely overlooked here is that Heimerdinger isn't someone who has read about nuclear weapons and is scared of it, to the detriment of nuclear power efforts today. In this analogy, he's someone who directly lived through either Hiroshima or Nagasaki, or course he's traumatized. There's a reason that in Japanese entertainment, nuclear waste only destroys or creates monsters, while in American entertainment, toxic waste gives super powers. Now apply that to a setting where not only was there the equivalent of Hiroshima on a near global scale, but it happened multiple times because of mortals; humans, abusing magic. The Rune Wars was a near apocalypse that Heimerdinger lived through.
This was a very entertaining dive, love it and hope you continue!
Looking forward to the longer video. I’m confident it’ll be worth the wait.
G-d, this show is so good.
BTW so cool that you made a Georgia Dow callout! I love both your channels' Arcane content so much!
Awesome vid man, you deserve way more subs.
i like your videos on how you break things down, they really help me on how i think about characters now
Dude. I freaking love your videos. Watched Arcane in one sitting, was amazed by the animation and the characters. I knew that there was more to the characters. After finding your videos the same day I finished Arcane, you opened a new whole, complex and interesting layer to the story and the characters. Absolutely love it. Keep doing what you do.
LOVING the references to LOTR, Doctor Who and Star Wars! Some of the best, also some of my first introductions to immortal characters!
Can't wait to see what mysterious topic you have coming next 😄
You know this just reinforces the idea of the tragedy and the butterfly that Viktor will become 🦋 I have to say though that when you have a great mind and a body that constantly fails you and your time is so limited it's no wonder 🤔 what would happen to a person mentally then top that with the fact that we know where he comes from yeahhhh .... Glorious EVOLUTION all the way
I really love these videos, and it's so cool that your dad is helping you with these character analysis! I've very much enjoyed your videos on Arcane and I can't wait to see what your surprise is going to be! Thank you for taking the time to make and share this content, it's been a joy to listen to. :)
Herm's change is very interesting when considering how he is in the game, and how that's likely the endpoint of his character. Making a full 180 from all this caution and diving headfirst into boundless experimentation.
You should've taken Qilby from Wakfu as an example. His immortality is so well made and was portrayed in a way that makes so much sense
He's both wise and scared. They can coexist. For example Gandalf is very wise but is legitimately scared of what the One Ring could do to and through him if he were to take it up.
Really liking the videos. Take your time with them so you dont stamp out the enjoyment you get out of it.
So I've always been into writing 'immortal' characters, and I found your analysis really interesting and I hope I can introduce stuff like this into my writing. This was the first video I got from you out of random and I'm glad I visited. You talk really quick and you don't really stop, but I didn't feel irritated or overwhelmed by your delivery, which I think is a really good quality.
The characters I usually write are either immortal by time travel shit (death meaning nothing, something like a time loop) or people who are infomorphs, like androids and robots (your consciousness is put into a viable body upon death, if that happens at all).
Looking forward to more stuff man
Arcane being out for 4 monthis now, and still having this much topic to discuss about just shows how fantastically well written the show is
Heimerdinger was my least favorite part of the show, and I think that was the point. There's nothing about how he looks or acts that would turn the viewer off to him since he appears wise and cute. But then you realize that he's been in charge of the city since the beginning but basically... did nothing to help the Undercity until it was too late
Same with Marcus, a character you can hate but also understand is written well. If I lived through the apocalypse that was the rune wars like Heimer, I would act like him too. Probably scared af of magic and will think like heimer (only contemplating the death of close friends). Since so many people died in the rune wars heimer probably views the problems in the undercity as something minor that will be fixed in a few decades.
you are also overlooking another level of this tragedy for him.
He IS magic.
The yordle are known as a race of 'spirits', creatures closely connected to magic. And heimerdinger himself has become traumatized and terrified of something that is part of his own being.
love your analysis of this show. good mix of writing, psychology, character, animation and genuine love for the show. thank you for all the awesome content. :))
Been watching your older stuff up to this point and it's all exceptional - you're doing an amazing job --- pumped to finally watch the Arcane and Gender vid that I've been accidentally clicking on the last few days lol
Fascinating.
If Heimerdinger suppressed the trauma instead of processing it, perhaps Zaun is the resurfacing of that trauma in self-destructive mannerisms.
In creating a world free from the pursuit of power, Heimerdinger created the need for it in Zaun.
::SIGH:: I'm never going to write a story as good as Arcane. Every video you put out I'm both discouraged and inspired. I really think Arcane is as close to a perfect story as you can get. It's so intricate and balanced and everything is tied to everything else in perfect symbiosis. Your analysis's are *excellent*, thank you for doing them and I'm very excited to see your next in depth video!!
Very excited for the longer form video!
This was a really good video. You've got me seeing things in stories that I never would've seen before. Can't wait for the next one, I'll take your word for it that it's gonna be epic. :)
AS MUCH as I love Heimerdinger (in Arcane) Princess Bubble gum, Marceline and Ice King from Adventure Time each tackle immortality differently and each are (in my opinion) the best representation of how to write immortal characters.
Heimerdinger also has symptoms of C-PTSD.
Regardless, he spends a lot of time making himself feel safe and resisting change. Anything he sees that is a threat to his safety, he reacts violently (much like Jinx) and makes all effort to shut it down and get rid of it. Although, this behaviour is true of anyone who has experienced trauma and hasn't resolved it in a healthy manner.
Love your essays, cheers dude!
The fact that there are so many of yhese videos shows just how much detail was put into this show
Heimerdinger: “hmmm if we use the hexcore and succeed we can save thousands, but if we fail we might kill millions. Best to be cautious.”
Everyone: “scared old man”
@Anton Ego
finally someone who shows heimdinger empathy
I actually related to him a lot in the story, although his approach has it's flaws in general his point is to in fact protect society from repeating terrible actions
You know how in marvel movies, it is customary to have post credit scenes. These post credits scenes acts as a way for the movie to say it is not over, to extend itself beyond the borders of the movie theater. I truly believe arcane has done this but in a more stratified way. The post credit scenes are woven into every frame of this masterpiece and we are literally going to have a field day before we even find it and figure it all out.
I love your videos and the way you talk about characters!
I could watch this kind of content on any show
Love all your arcane analysis!🔥 also video suggestion I’d love to see some analysts of the firefights Mural or the meaning behind the outfit changes (the ones that matter more like Mel or Silco)
My theory is that Heimerdinger (being an inventor) probably did something similar to what Jayce and Viktor are doing but it probably took a very wrong turn. I think in addition to pain he bears extreme guilt and survivor guilt to what he did in the past (it would make sense since he is inspired by one of the atomic bomb's inventor). That's just a theory but it would make sense with how he is acting through the show.
While this is a cool theory, no the rune wars are what bears his fears
I suppose if you didnt know about yordles magical beings before their immortality feels unconfortable and unnatural but how can it be undeserved? It just is natural to a yordle
How can it not be? It's as undeserved as the fact that I can walk and see and hear and many people can't. Sure, it's natural, but that doesn't make it earned. It's just through random chance that I have these advantages over other people I know.
@@ettinakitten5047 because natural things arent earned or undeserved they just are you dont do anything to earn them
So excited for that next video you have planned!
God I am so happy that you are shouting out one of my favorite creators! Great video!
Can you do a video about mystery in arcane ?
Interesting, could you elaborate on what you're interested in?
@@schnee1 like how piltover became the way it is with zaun suffering in such high rate while also economic thriving , piltover council analysis
Honestly, I strongly disagree with your take (it's very well articulated, I just see it differently).
Heimerdinger is both a head of council and a dean of Academia, even just one of those roles would come with a ton of responsibility and judgemental eyes, not to mention managing two. He is reacting with anger, because time and time again his warnings are being ignored and dismissed. Maybe he should've used more brutal and vivid words, but if you were to literally see dead bodies of everyone you care about due to one, easily traced object, wouldn't you be upset when someone was excitedly remaking it right in your face?
Heimerdinger comment about need for additional 10 years of research might be excessive (or not, I'm nowhere near being an engineer), but let's look at what both of the items did during the presentation:
- Atlas gauntlets nearly break, as they reach highest pressure level, while handling the rock. Nothing "scary" but nonetheless a pretty clear sign for me that the gloves are not ready to be used for hours of intense labour.
- Hex claw doesn't have any safety features despite being strong enough to cut through stone like butter. Additionally, it picked up another crystal as a source of power when it was nearby, and started responding to it instead. The only injury was taken by a pet this time, but that ray could've as easily just go straight through Heimerdinger's head.
I don't see how his responses are supposed to be run by emotions - I think it's a basic common sense to not give people tools capable of casually killing them, even when they handle them carefully. "Scared victim of trauma having a violent reaction"? He's barely raising his voice, despite being in a situation where a child (in comparison to his age and experience), aggressively refuses to stop working on something that literally caused countless deaths and suffering across the globe. Yes, Arcane could be used for good, but history tends to repeat itself and Jayce didn't live long enough yet to grasp it, it seems (look at how he reacts later, after killing the child solider). He didn't see enough violence and cruelty to fully consider what harm arcane could cause - he's so enamored with it's potential, he is completely dismissing the risks.
In summary, to me Heimerdinger is far from some overly reactive professor consumed by his fears. He is scared, for a very good reason, but Jayce is the one being stubborn and disrespectful in that scene.
First video I've seen of yours, loved it! A very thorough analysis, the fact that you link to so many outside opinions/content/research is a strong selling point (at least for me) to check out more of your videos!
nice summary of description of a character arc from an immortal's point of view. thank you for your work !
So Heimerdinger shapes *society* around avoiding his trauma, instead of changing his actions.
Because he’s in a position of power, and the scale of the event was larger (destroying a city, not his life).
Heimerdinger knows he’ll survive to see Piltover fall-perhaps being the influencer of progress in order to leave behind this past.
His role in Piltover sort of reminds me of Abuela in Encanto. Both older than any other character we're shown, both basically responsible for building the setting of the story, both good and bad, both well-intentioned but blinded by trauma, both built up as larger-than-life powerful figures and then shown to be vulnerable beneath their strong exterior, and both show positive character growth when they embrace that vulnerability.
you need chillout on making this series, take a nap😂
Gotta love that the vision of the hex core for Jayce and Heimerdinger is Ryze and Brand respectively
I enjoy your perspectives and insight so much, I’m excited to see more on arcane or on other shows or whatever!
Such a good video as usuall, happy for your 30k you deserve it ! ;)
Such an excellent video! Truly inspiring! Thank you so so much
After this analysis, i finally understood why Heimerdinger kinda look familiar, reminded me of someone. Now i see, that he has a lot of similar traits with Albus Dumbldore from the Harry Potter series - an old man with a lot of both political and magical power, who doesn't use this power at all, who just observes things and often blind in one eye, this wise old wizard who just sits in his high white tower of his own righteousness whole day long. Thank you for the vid, briliant analysis.
You're a great story teller & explainer! You'll definitely get to 100k one day, keep up the good work.