The Tragedy of Belonging in Arcane

Artifact Analysis 2

Ashley Cortez

At the end of Arcane Season 2, Vi is left standing at the edge of a world she no longer recognizes. Her sister is presumed dead, and with her goes the last tether to a past that was already slipping away. 

Photo courtesy of Fortiche / Riot Games Inc.

Piltover was never home, but now, even Zaun is unrecognizable, having become stripped of the people, places, and details that made it hers. The tragedy of Arcane’s ending is not just Vi’s personal grief with the loss of what was left of her family, but the larger realization that ‘home’, or the memories, culture, and sense of identity, has been changed beyond recognition.

Through the lens of class, culture, and power, we can see that Vi’s displacement is a reflection of a broader question addressed throughout Arcane: What does it mean to belong when the world you once called home no longer exists as you remember it?

Vi was born into Zaun, raised in between class struggles and the threat of war, forced to learn resilience and survival at a young age.

Photo courtesy of Fortiche / Riot Games Inc.

But as Arcane makes clear, social divisions don’t just happen, they’re created. In the book Cultural Theory and Popular Culture by John Storey, he writes, “...The introduction of class is also an introduction of the idea that social division is humanly made and relates explicitly to how a society is organised” (Storey, 141). Zaun and Piltover were never just separate cities, they were shaped by a system that actively produced this separation, fueled by the Council, defining who belonged where and who held power. 

"...They've got plenty, while we're down here scraping together coins,"

Young Vi puts it this way when talking about Piltover, way back in the first season, following it up with, “These are our streets, someone should remind them of that!” (Arcane, ep. 1). She’s a product of Zaun’s marginalized class, and is deeply entwined with the social divide between Piltover and Zaun. 

But by the end of Season 2, the world Vi knew is no longer the same. The culture that once gave her belonging has been fractured during her time away. The people and places she knew have been killed or changed. Even if the structures of Zaun remain, they no longer truly mean anything in a way Vi remembers.

Photo courtesy of Fortiche / Riot Games Inc.

As Storey writes, “...Material objects are always more than signs, more than symbolic representations of social relations” (Storey, 240). The bridge where she fought with Jinx, the alleyways where she grew up, the old hideout her and her friends planned heists, all of these places still exist, but they’ve been stripped of their original meaning. The physical remains of Zaun are still there, but they are no longer hers.

Photos courtesy of Fortiche / Riot Games Inc.

The end of Vi’s story isn’t just about loss, it’s about power. Storey writes, “...Materiality is mute, it does not issue its own meanings, and it is therefore always made meaningful by human agency entangled in relations of power” (Storey, 249). Meaning isn’t inherent in a place, it’s shaped by the forces that control it. Zaun isn’t the same place Vi knew due to the power struggles that have defined it. The fight against Piltover, the chaos of war, and the destruction of the Hexcore have all contributed to an unfamiliar environment. Vi, who once felt like Zaun was core to her, is now living in Piltover, and likely finds herself disconnected from the very place she called home. 

At the end of the day, home isn’t just a place. It’s the little details that make it yours. When those are gone, the concept of ‘home’ no longer exists. That’s the true tragedy of the show: even if Vi returned to Zaun, it would be like revisiting your childhood home only to find that everything that made it warm, familiar, or comforting are all gone.

And without Jinx, it’s even worse. Sure, Jinx was dangerous and unpredictable, but she was also familiar. She was someone who shared Vi’s memories of childhood, someone who could validate that the past Vi remembered was real.

Photo courtesy of Fortiche / Riot Games Inc.

Arcane ends with Vi left in a world that doesn’t have room for her. She’s not part of Piltover, and the Zaun she knew has been erased. And maybe that’s the worst part, realizing that the place you long for isn’t there anymore. Without her sister, Vi is truly alone in her grief, in an unfamiliar place, with no one that gets that kind of loss.

Citations and Disclosure

*In this analysis, I found myself really into Arcane and the messaging behind it during my rewatch, especially how Vi's ending connects with the main themes of class, culture, and power. While I didn't necessarily connect to all chapters of the Storey book I've read so far, what really clicked for me was how Storey explains social division and how material spaces hold a lot of meaning. I related to this post while writing it a lot, as I have also lost my parents (though not in a similar way to Vi) and my childhood home. Writing this piece let me connect to Vi's experience in Zaun, and how the place that used to define her likely no longer have the same significance. I also thought it was really interesting how Arcane portrays the power struggle, and how much I was able to connect to the Storey book. What I really wanted to explore was how Vi's loss of home speaks to a larger theme of displacement that I think is really central to Arcane. The show might not be solely about her personal grief, but the grief of the two nations, and how systemic changes strip away meaning from important spaces, and I thought that was really compelling. No AI was used in the creation of this work.

Works Cited

Storey, John. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. 8 ed., Routledge, 2018.

“Welcome to the Playground”. Arcane. season 1, episode 1, Netflix, Riot Games Inc., 2021.

Arcane, Fortiche / Riot Games Inc., 2021 - 2024, season 1 & 2, Netflix [Photos]