Arcane Creators Say Season 2’s Biggest Moment (So Far) Couldn’t Have Happened Any Other Way

After finishing the first act of Arcane‘s second season, folks are feeling like the League of Legends show finished them, thanks to the emotional rollercoaster traveled by the three episodes. While there are certainly some elements of the Netflix show that rightfully have long-time fans reeling, not everything is doom and gloom. One of the show’s biggest moments so far has viewers rejoicing in the town square of the internet with a cavalcade of fan art and edits. Its creators have now revealed why Arcane‘s big moment couldn’t have happened in the show’s first season.

In an interview with Tech Radar, Alex Yee and Christian Linke revealed why the show waited until the final episode of its second-season first act to deliver what fans had been waiting three long years for: a kiss between its sapphic duo, Caitlyn Kiramman and Vi. Linke disclosed that season two presented the right moment for Caitvi’s tender kiss, fulfilling fan expectations and providing the characters with what they required as they dealt with their turmoil from the prior season.

“They’ve both just lost something at the start of season two,” Linke told Tech Radar, referencing the messy loss of Caitlyn’s mother at the hands of Jinx. “I think they’re both very afraid of change, too, and they have that moment in episode three where they’re still holding onto those things that have slipped away from them because they’re starting to tread down this dark path [of seeking revenge on Jinx].”

Linke continued: “In the wake of what Caitlyn’s lost, Vi can sense there’s a fragile trust in this relationship they have, and there’s this moment coming up where they’ll both have to decide how they’re going to be when they’re staring down the barrel when they find and fight Jinx. It’s a fragile moment, the calm before the storm, and they’re both thinking ‘this may be the last moment we’re going to have together.'”

Caitlyn and Vi in Arcane. © Netflix

Caitlyn and Vi, often doted upon with the ship name “Caitvi,” are inarguably the most popular pairing in Arcane. At the center of the posh and femme officer Caitlyn’s team-up with the brute and butch street fighter Vi is a relationship built upon trust. This trust grew more profound as their respective hometowns, Piltover and Zaun, prepared to wage war with each other. Their whole deal is very Romeo and Juliet-coded. Before the two can have a moment alone together, Arcane‘s first season ends on a destructive cliffhanger, which sees a war between Zaun and Piltover as all but inevitable.

Likewise, season two, picking up directly off the destructive heels of its first season, gives the pair very few moments to find comfort with one another as they’re thrust into yet another daring mission: to apprehend Vi’s sister, Jinx, and bring her to justice for her act of terror. That is until episode three, when the two share a kiss after Caitlyn promises that she won’t change like everyone else in Vi’s life has. While things don’t end hunky dory for the two post-smooch, that didn’t stop the moment from being all the more tender for fans who have religiously rewatched the show’s previous season combing their every micro-expression for an extra morsel of romantic chemistry between the two.

CAITVI 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭#Arcane pic.twitter.com/aIcxMlinQK

— netflixbrasil (@NetflixBrasil) November 9, 2024

“In that moment, Vi is making a big commitment to Caitlyn by choosing her over Jinx,” Yee said, about their kiss. “And I think that’s ultimately why Caitlyn takes the lead.”

“It feels wrong not to give a shout-out to [lead writer] Amanda [Overton] at this point,” Link continued. “The relationship between Caitlyn and Vi is something that fans have carried for a very long time, and we knew it was something we wanted to bring to fruition. Amanda really championed that cause and a lot of the specific mechanics of that dynamic she had a huge part in.”

It should be noted that Overton’s past work includes being involved with shows like Apple TV+’s Severance and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Like Arcane, the aforementioned shows also prominently feature queer romances.

amanda overton giving us severance yaoi, godzilla related yuri and arcane yuri… the power she holds pic.twitter.com/Fzt0EXTIPX

— Dani 🌱 (@linesinmotion) November 13, 2024

Another interesting tidbit into why the show waited until season to for Caitvi’s kiss was animation studio Fortiche wasn’t confident it could pull it off effectively with the artistic technology it had at the time to do the moment justice.

“Interesting tidbit: I actually spoke to Bart [Barthelemy Maunoury], our animation director, about the kiss last week,” Linke said. “He was asked the same question and he later told me if we’d written that last season, the animation team wouldn’t have been able to do it well because they weren’t technically capable yet.”

“So, he thanked us for not doing that!” Linke jokingly added. “He said ‘I don’t think we would’ve done a good job. We couldn’t have done it in season one’, so it was interesting to hear that it wouldn’t have been possible from a technical standpoint, even if we’d have wanted to do it.”

Going by all the 4k stills and gifs proliferating social media and Caitvi’s most ardent shipper, Netflix’s Brazilian X/Twitter account, going ape shit, it’s safe to say that folks are jazzed that Fortiche and Riot Games waited until season 2 to give Caitvi their big moment. In fact, the moment was so big that Netflix wasted no time grabbing Vi and Jinx actors Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell for the first episode of its Arcane behind the scenes show, Afterglow, to react to the kiss.

“We know that they see each other and they understand each other, and they want that intimacy but it’s obviously very difficult for them to have given the circumstances that they’re in,” Steinfeld said.

She continued: “The dialogue before that says it all. Vi’s in a place where she’s lost everything. She’s lost anything and everything she’s ever felt seen or close to. The only way she has any of it left is through Caitlyn, and she’s now asking a lot of her, asking her not to change given what she’s now going through. I think it unlocks a newfound vulnerability. There’s such a pay-off. It means a lot. ”

Folks will have to tune in to the next batch of Arcane episodes this weekend to see if Caitvi’s rocky romance survives the second act of the smash-hit Netflix series’ final season.

Arcane season two, act two premiers on November 16; act three arrives November 23.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.