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Why 'Arcane' has such a chokehold on queer women explained
The Sapphic ladies are loving this very queer animated series.
Hit animated series Arcane has Sapphics across the internet in a chokehold, and we can see why!
Between getting a canonically Sapphic love story — with a sex scene that has everyone talking — to seeing main character Vi binding her chest to fans being thrilled that the characters were designed for a queer female gaze, Arcane is the stuff Sapphic dreams are made of.
But what is the show about, and just how much does it lean into the queer lady love?
The steampunk fantasy animated series Arcane, which premiered back in 2021, is set in the League of Legends universe. Over the course of two seasons, the story of estranged sisters Vi (voiced by lesbian fave Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Yellowjackets star Ella Purnell) has been explored with the backdrop of the utopian city of Piltover and an impoverished community called Zaun.
Piltover enforcers kill Vi’s parents, and she is later separated from her sister and sent to prison after a heist goes badly, only to be released years later by a recently dismissed enforcer named Caitlyn.
The first season gave plenty of reason to believe that both Vi and Caitlyn were queer and had the hots for each other. In one scene, Vi asks Caitlyn whether she prefers men or women, and we later get to see Caitlyn looking uncomfortable talking to men but relaxed around women. Vi also tells Caitlyn, “You’re hot, cupcake.” Queer ladies everywhere were swooning!
Despite a palpable chemistry in season one, fans were disappointed that the two didn’t share an onscreen kiss, but this all changed in the second (and sadly final) season of the show. On November 23, the final three episodes aired, bringing Vi and Jinx’s story to an end and giving fans some much-needed confirmation that fan-favorite ship “CatVi” is canon.
Having Sapphic characters on any show is always a treat, but fans really love Arcane because, despite being based on a video game, these characters are drawn and shot with a queer female gaze in mind instead of making the women on the show into straight male sexual fantasies.
In episode eight of season two, Vi visits her sister Jinx, who has been arrested and tries to break her out of prison. Sadly, Jinx tricks her sister and locks Vi in the jail cell before leaving on a suicide mission. Caitlyn shows up, telling Vi that she knows she could come and try to help her sister. “Sorry to say, you’ve grown a bit predictable,” Caitlyn says before crashing their lips together before the two begin to undress each other while making out, and then the scene turns a little NSFW.
Sadly for Sapphic fans, the scene was originally meant to be even more explicit, but it was “dialed back” after the creators got a complaint. Release the extended version!
Too bad there won’t be a third season, but we’re glad the two Sapphic love birds finally got their spicy ending, and it didn’t turn into a “Bury Your Gays” situation like so many shows that came before it.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
