“The Cities of Oil and Water”
A Story of Oppression and Redemption,
Arcane and The Right to Claim Social Equality
By Zeynep Bıyıksız and Fatma Selina Demir
Arcane, the Netflix Original action-adventure TV series created by Christian Linke, was released in November, 2021. The series is an adaptation of the video game “League of Legends”. Even though it is an animated TV series, Arcane still deals with some series topics, many of which are directly related to human rights. The show is mainly about the tension between two cities, Piltover and Zaun. These two cities represent the two radically different parts of the same society. While Piltover represents the higher class, whose population is filled with higher class aristocrats, Zaun represents the struggling poor, who are left to live in this underground city with horrible conditions. Even the geographical positions of these two cities are situated according to their difference in status. While Piltover rests on a hill, Zaun is built underground and they are not allowed to cross to the surface. This is the first example of the class distinction in the series. The conflict starts as Zaun tries to gain their independence.
There are several violations of human values and rights in the series. Those people who live underground have no access to the privileges that they have above. They have no proper access to food or medicine. They are not given a second chance in society. They are not given any jobs, therefore, most of the population in Zaun are forced to be criminals so as to survive. They are left with no chance to redeem themselves. Such neglect is a violation against the very basic rights of a person. Even their air is so intoxicated that they get sick from it. In order to get better, they turn to the only medicine they have, which is a substance called “shimmer”, which alters and damages their brain chemistry, eventually turning people into monster-like creatures. Through the use of this medicine, the ruling group in Zaun is able to manipulate and dominate people according to his wish. He turns this medicine into a biochemical weapon so as to brainwash people into working for him. They use brute force, fear and this chemical to establish dominance.
Even though the series is a product of fiction, it can be said that the problems that we encounter are still relevant today. With the advancing technology, it is quite possible for strong countries to create biological weapons or diseases with the purpose of controlling mass populations. Even though the last use of a biological weapon goes back to the 18th century, with Russia sending plague-inflicted corpses through the walls of Tallinn in 1710, there is still valid fear of such weapons as they can be highly deadly. Not only can they be used as a deadly weapon, they also can be inflicted discreetly through the invention of new viruses. The biological weapons and medicines are really powerful devices for countries to claim and monopolize dominance. It would benefit them both materialistically and strategically. The shimmer in Arcane is used for similar purposes, therefore its resemblance to biological weapons is uncanny. It criticizes the use of biological weapons for the sake of establishing dominance or ruling people.
With its controversial topics that are mainly about the oppression towards the poor and the toxic dominance of the aristocrats, Arcane’s narrative touches some important topics of our today’s world. Arcane criticizes the higher class and their abused power, along with the lower class and their solutions to this oppression. Similar issues are seen in today’s world in many countries. Arcane shows what can go wrong with such systems, and it tries to warn us before we get there.
