Entertainment

Arcane Act II: Whirlwind of emotions, understanding

It’s like an emotional check-up!

Published

November 15, 2021

MJ Jucutan

Arcane

Act I: A treat for every League of Legends player

Act II: Whirlwind of emotions, understanding

Act III: Gobsmacking finale

This article contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.

URGH. That’s the last screech I let out in front of my Samsung The Serif TV when I was hooked watching Arcane’s Act II. It was the sound of frustration from someone who wanted more.

The second act progresses the series with world-building scenes, side stories, and the foundation for that one big finale. Instead of scattered introduction from the first act, Arcane gets to expand the lore for every champion and significant character in the story.

We got glimpses of the characters’ lives and what they’ve become after the time jump. But I’m not going to spoil you with the fun that you can discover while watching Arcane. Instead, let me share with you all the emotions felt.

Processing deaths and loss

The element of grief is prevalent in the story’s major characters. They say time heals everything, but not with grief — or at least for those who didn’t process them well.

For Powder, Marcus, Vi, and even Caitlyn — losing people can take a toll on your mental health. Similar to our waking reality.

The pandemic has taken the lives of some of my friends. Even parents and families of colleagues and loved ones. And I would admit: I haven’t even processed my emotions fully. I barely gave myself time to cry and surrender to the void I’ve felt.

Arcane presented the reality of grief and mourning. Even though you seem fine on the outside, and even if you look like you’ve already moved forward, the void is still there until you ought to address it properly.

Marcus and Caitlyn remembered Grayson, the enforcer killed in Act I. While Marcus sees Grayson as a good woman, he continued her path but became severely corrupted in the process.

Caitlyn, on the other hand, remembers fond memories with Grayson and how the enforcer helped her believe in herself and her skills as an excellent marksman even at a young age.

For Powder and Violet, the circumstances are different. Powder became a madwoman in the streets of Zaun, working for Silco as Jinx. But she’s a harrowing account of trauma and broken inner child.

Everywhere she looks, she gets haunted by her memories: Accidentally killing her friends, hurting her family, blaming herself for being abandoned.

She became unstable caused by her guilt. And she badly needs a therapist. But I’m sure she’s going to shoot and bomb anyone who’ll try to get her treated.

Vi spent years in a locked cell, treated like a dangerous criminal that needs to be isolated. After being released and traveling back to Zaun, her memories started haunting her. However, Vi is embattled with repressed emotions, and sometimes, it gets the best of her.

Arcane presented how loss and grief manifest differently in those who were left in the living.

Relationships are tricky

Arcane magnified relationships — business, platonic, romantic, and sexual connections — throughout the second act. Jayce, who’s stepping up to be the next shiny thing in Piltover due to the progress he’s making in the city, realizes he has to be careful.

Being in the public eye and the brain behind the innovation, everyone can be his enemy or an ally.

This is true even in waking life, where we need to play our cards right. When gaining status and power, depending on how you deliver and present yourself, you can choose your friends and foes.

With the help of Councilor Mel Medarda, Jayce got investors to back his Hextech research and even gain the favor of other Councilors. This helped him establish dominance in the Council and got support when he pushed for Heimerdinger’s retirement.

Concurrently, Jayce and Mel Medarda are knocking boots. After a vulnerable moment was shared, the two ended up kissing and having sex — sharing a passionate night while Viktor collapsed due to his illness while working on the Hextech.

Though Jayce slightly felt torn between his friend and his girl, Mel Medarda asked Jayce to spend time with Viktor and to put him first. The lady knows the code: bros before hoes.

Not all reunions are worth celebrating

Vi and Powder got a tearjerker reunion. Though I got real emotional, the reunion was cut short when they were attacked by the Firelighters — a gang that Jinx ambushed earlier in the second act.

If Taylor Swift could sing in Arcane right now, it would’ve been “All Too Well”. Especially that line “you called me up again just to break me like a promise” because that’s how Powder probably felt. Once more, Vi is leaving her again.

On another note, Vi saw how much Powder has changed. Years of being in survival mode had turned Powder into Jinx the madwoman. Or in the game’s data, “The Loose Cannon.”

There were no exchanges shared regarding how much they’ve changed, but their eyes and facial expression have shown the disconnect between the two sisters. Separated by fate, ripped by strife, torn by the events that changed their life.

Arcane Act III will premiere on November 20, 2021.

Entertainment

1st teaser trailer, details for Death Stranding Isolations series unveiled

Animated series to debut on Hulu on Disney Plus

Published

October 31, 2026

GadgetMatch

A new teaser trailer for the upcoming Death Stranding Isolations series on Hulu on Disney+ has been revealed.

The upcoming animated series is set to debut in 2027. It is set in the world of Death Stranding immediately after the game’s protagonist Sam reconnects the continent of North America via the Chiral Network.

The series will tell a completely new story separate from that of the video games. The narrative will focus on a young man and woman as they set off on an adventure.

As America is reborn from the ashes, the renewed connections that bind it together bring about new and unforeseen consequences.

In this tumultuous new landscape, there are some who walk a different path to the one chosen by Sam and his Bridges comrades.

One is a wise old man who connects people through a method that defies all reckoning. There is also a female soldier ensnared in a cycle of war and destruction.

Moreover, there is a boy who seethes with rage at the absurdity of his life, and a girl who chose to sever all ties with the outside world. Fate has other plans for her, however, and chance encounters see her launched headfirst into a world she does not recognize.

Death Stranding Isolations is written by Tow Ubukata (Activator, Bone Ash, Project Darkness) and directed by Takayuki Sano (Jujutsu Kaisen 0 – The Movie, Attack on Titan The Final Season).

The series is animated by E&H production (NINJA KAMUI, BULLET/BULLET, the Magic Knight Rayearth Television series 2026) with original character design by Ilya Kuvshinov (Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, The Wonderland).

The series is executive produced by Hideo Kojima and produced by KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS.

Entertainment

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 now streaming, Cyberpunk 2077 update coming

Edgerunners returns to Night City

Published

October 21, 2026

Rodneil Quiteles

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is now streaming on Netflix, with all 10 episodes available to watch. CD PROJEKT RED and animation studio TRIGGER have also announced a new update for Cyberpunk 2077, bringing content inspired by the anime to the game.

The Edgerunners 2 Update (Update 2.5) launches on October 22, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. A Nintendo Switch 2 release will follow shortly.

Edgerunners returns with a new cast

Set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 tells a standalone story through an entirely new cast of characters. The series follows a veteran edgerunner, a young cinephile, a chrome-obsessed delinquent, and a Snake Nation netrunner as their stories explore vengeance and redemption in Night City.

Director Kai Ikarashi leads the new installment, with Kanno Ichigo serving as lead character designer. Masahiko Otsuka returns as a collaborator, while Bartosz Sztybor serves as showrunner, story writer, and producer.

Both Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 are available exclusively on Netflix.

Cyberpunk 2077 gets a new update

CD PROJEKT RED announced the Edgerunners 2 Update alongside the anime’s premiere on October 20. The free update will introduce new items and features to Cyberpunk 2077, including content inspired by the new series.

The update launches on October 22 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. CD PROJEKT RED has yet to announce the Nintendo Switch 2 release date beyond confirming that it will follow shortly.

The studio will reveal more details during a special episode of REDstreams on October 21. The broadcast will air on Twitch, YouTube, and Steam, with official patch notes scheduled for release on the same day.

Entertainment

Now Playing: Clayface

Finally, a supervillain story worth watching.

Published

October 21, 2026

GadgetMatch

The thing about supervillain movies is that they rarely let their villain be a villain. From Venom to Kraven the Hunter, they’re contrarian dreck that reframe a mass murderer as a “misunderstood anti-hero” who’s overshadowed by a corny do-gooder. Boo hoo. Thankfully, Clayface got the memo to not do that, even if it came pretty close.

Clayface reimagines how rising actor Matt Hagen becomes one of Batman’s most (literally) monstrous enemies. Here, Matt is horribly disfigured by gangsters then abandoned by his friends. He finds hope in Dr. Caitlyn Corr’s genetic experiments, but loses his body, mind and soul as her miracle cure enables his worst impulses.

Basically, Clayface is everything Joker failed to be. It’s a sympathetic origin story for a twisted Batman villain, but it doesn’t make excuses for them. If Joker scapegoats Arthur Fleck’s madness and anarchy on the nebulous enemy that is Society the way an aimlessly rebellious teenager would, Clayface throws all the blame and consequences on Matt — and Matt alone.

I like how Matt’s story is a tragedy of his own making. He wasn’t always evil, and he really was wronged by scum. Worse, his identity is cracking, which is a bit of psychological torment that I wish the movie dwelled on more. And yet, he always had a way out. He just keeps choosing the cruelest and greediest options instead.

This is the kind of agency most supervillain movies — or any movie about a juvenile anti-hero fighting The System, really — lack, but Clayface has an abundance of. There was a moment I thought that the movie would still side with Matt despite everything he’s done, only for him to cross a line. In the end, he can only blame himself when he loses everything and everyone.

However, I was let down by Clayface’s violence. There’s blood and guts, alright, but they’re too inconsistent. For every morbidly satisfying disemboweling or close-up of a nasty scarring, there’s a moment where the movie cuts away from these too early. I lost count of how many times Clayface jumped to the next scene before really letting blades sink into flesh, or how many of Matt’s kills were done offscreen.

Minus the pivotal deaths, the kills are also not as diverse as I’d hope from a killer powered by Play-Doh and imagination. It’s just variations of stabbing and bludgeoning. My issue isn’t a lack of brutality, but that this reluctance to push it further or just show it gives the well-built tension a lackluster payoff. A movie about superpowered revenge in one of fiction’s vilest hellholes should be more depraved and creative.

To be fair, this is more the fault of the movie’s constraints, not a lack of skill or thought. Effects cost time and money that Clayface clearly didn’t have a lot of. This would also explain why Matt is limited to identity theft not by molding himself, but via clever camera work. For what it’s worth, I see and respect the smart workarounds the movie found to deliver the dread.

Still, I like Clayface. It’s the rare supervillain movie that’s self-aware and honest about its darkness. It humanizes its villain, but commits to their monstrosity while rejecting forced redemption. It’s also a grisly thriller that works on its own merits, yet complements DC Comics’ latest growing cinematic world. That said, Batman can’t arrive sooner to beat Matt’s melted face in.