vi

Arcane

Netflix
Arcane’s central couple for the duration of its two seasons was Caitlyn and Vi, and only in part 3 this past weekend did the show really let them go at it with a jail cell tryst that has quickly become a fan-favorite moment.

But as it turns out, that scene was actually censored from what it was supposed to be, as it was originally more explicit. This is via a Necrit94 interview with co-creator Christian Linke which talks about how it was cut back:

Linke: “This was the dialed back version.”

Necrit: “Woah, it was longer?”

Linke: “Yes.”Necrit: “Because I was like, ‘This is going for a while. Oh it is still going. Oh it is still going!’ And it went for a while. So, you are telling me, originally there was more.”

Linke: “Yes. We got a slap on the wrist. League of Legends is going to be rated mature now.”

Necrit: “Are you ever going to show the original pitch? There is a really cool fandom that would really like that.”

Linke: “It is probably on some French hard drive. Director’s cut.”

It’s not clear whether or not this “slap on the wrist” was from Netflix, which airs the show, or Riot, which runs the T-for-Teen rated game (the latter seems more probable). Either way, this seems like sort of typical western double standards as this is very much an MA-rated series with loads of cursing and violence. But god forbid there’s an extended sex scene between two characters! This would of course hardly be the first project to do something like this, but I know this news has disappointed Caitlyn and Vi fans.

Some have taken that final line about a Director’s Cut to mean that one is actually happening, but I doubt you can read that much into it. Riot and Linke are now moving on to a number of new shows, one of which is already a year into production, so crafting some sort of Director’s Cut of the series is almost certainly not going to actually happen. And this specific scene sounds like it was more of a storyboard rather than something that got fully animated and then cut. But who knows.

Anyway, sort of lame, but it’s not like the final version was that tame, I mean. We’ll see if any other shows push things further.