Arcane Season 2’s Ending, Explained

The third and final act of Arcane Season 2 is out on Netflix, essentially ending this chapter of the League of Legends story. The final battle for the fate of Piltover and Zaun left the main cast irrevocably changed, so here’s the ending explained.

How Does Arcane Season 2 End?

Much of the setup for the final episode of Arcane comes in Act 3, Episode 7, which shows what became of Ekko, Heimdinger, and Jayce when the wilde rune that grew from the use of the Hexgate transported them early in the season. After the chaotic and tragic events at the end of Act 2, the first episode of Act 3 features Ekko and Heimdinger in a reality where Hextech and the Hexgate were never developed. In contrast, Jayce is sent into a world where he and Viktor’s dream for Hextech is fully realized, though not in a way that Jayce expected.

In both alternate realities, the pieces are set for the final conflict, with Ekko developing time-travel technology and Jayce realizing what he has to do back in his reality to save humanity. As it turns out, the developments that he (specifically a Hexcore-transformed Viktor at the beginning of season 2) strived for would only result in mass death and destruction. With the tragic events of Act 2 now fully explained by Jayce and Ekko’s side adventures, the penultimate episode of the series is all about the battle lines being drawn.

Ambessa, a secondary antagonist for most of the series, reveals her true intentions for power in the final two episodes, using her army combined with Singed’s shimmer-powered soldiers to storm Piltover so that Viktor can use the Hexgate, in turn giving Ambessa endless soldiers and power. If anything, Arcane‘s ending is about transforming the core cast of characters into recognizable champions from the video game for one last hurrah.

Surprisingly, these sometimes rushed story beats and developments work well in two ways: for long-time League of Legends fans, you finally get to see characters like Viktor transform into something very similar to their video game counterparts, and for those only familiar with Arcane as a series, they see characters they’ve grown attached to grow into something else entirely. The series’ final episode spends most of its runtime on one final battle, with Piltover and Zaun uniting against the common enemy of Viktor, backed by Ambessa and her Noxian army.

Related: Arcane Definitely Needed Another Season

What Happens to the Main Characters of Arcane Season 2?

Arcane Season 2’s endings are all about providing a definitive conclusion to the story arcs of the characters within the show while also being open-ended enough for continuation in another series. The concept of the wild runes and their abilities to displace characters throughout space and time is used multiple times for crucial characters. The first instance of this is Heimerdinger at the end of Episode 7, who sacrifices himself so that Ekko can return to their timeline. While we don’t explicitly see Heimerdinger’s death, the character disappears and is never seen again for the rest of the series.

The same can be said for Jayce and Viktor, whose deep bond ends up being the resolution to the series. In a twist of fate, it’s revealed that the mage who saved Jayce as a child was a Viktor from another possible future, attempting to stop the Hextech development from causing the destruction it does due to Viktor’s endless need for progress. Realizing the error of his ways, Viktor and Jayce use the rune that Jayce was gifted as a child that set the whole thing in motion to shut down the wild rift anomaly, and they, too, disappear.

Jayce and Viktor’s resolution was set in motion by Ekko, who uses his time travel device in a last-ditch effort to stop Viktor. Ekko is one of the few whose fate remains unambiguous as he survives the battle and the series’ events. Vander, whose suffering and transformation into a wolf-like creature resembling a League of Legends champion was a focus of this season, had all of his memories wiped away in service of healing and empowering Viktor. Vander was officially gone by the end of Episode 8, leaving only a mindless husk battling Vi and Jinx in the final episode.

Speaking of the two characters at the heart of the series, Jinx and Vi aren’t given much to do within the broader conflict. Instead, the overall theme of forgiveness is reinforced by the sisters setting aside their differences and coming to each other’s aid. After the dust settles and Viktor is dealt with, the beast that was Vander nearly kills Vi before Jinx seemingly sacrifices herself to save her sister. It’s a tragic conclusion before a time skip sets a new status quo.

Arcane ends with Sevika joining the Council in Piltover as a Zaun representative, Mel leaving for Noxus after killing her mother Ambessa, and Vi and Catlyin living together. However, the series finale’s last scene features an interesting moment of Caitlyn investigating where Jinx “died,” leading viewers to believe that she may have survived when throwing herself and Vander’s body down the hatch of the Hexgate.

Overall, Arcane Season 2’s ending is all about forgiveness being the way forward. While many League of Legends characters seemingly perished, most fates are open-ended for a possible continuation in another series, as the series co-creator made his intentions clear that Arcane was only the beginning. There are more projects still to come.

Arcane is streaming now on Netflix.