The Last of Us and Arcane are two critically acclaimed adaptations of radically different video games, yet both tackle the same story and emotional hook. Arcane is based on League of Legends, a game that is classified as a MOBA, or multiplayer online battle arena. This means that there is minimal story within the game itself, with most of its characters and world-building being done by supplemental material. By the time of Arcane season 2’s ending, the Netflix animation was one such piece of supplemental material that took characters from the video game and crafted an engrossing story around them.

The Last of Us, on the other hand, is the polar opposite of a MOBA. The game is entirely story-driven, telling one of the most cinematic stories with the most well-rounded characters in video game history. HBO’s The Last of Us adapted this game almost exactly, keeping large elements of the original story and character arcs intact. Regardless of their differences, Arcane and The Last of Us are counted as two of the best video game adaptation TV shows of all time. Moreover, the radical differences in source material did not stop both shows from telling the same story.

Arcane & The Last Of Us Are Two Fantastic Video Game TV Shows That Explore The Cycle Of Violence

Different Source Material Still Results In The Same Themes

The story that both Arcane and The Last of Us explore is the cycle of violence. This is not necessarily uncommon for a lot of big stories, but the connection here is more interesting given the extreme differences in source material. As alluded to, League of Legends has relatively little story to go off, with Arcane‘s characters being based on archetypes but fleshed out beyond that. The show centers around a class war between the nations of Piltover and Zaun, the former a wealthy city of progress and the latter its destitute undercity.

While the show takes on much broader themes and messages as it goes on, it boils down to the idea of humanity and whether it can be “perfected.” One of Arcane‘s prominent characters, Viktor, wishes to perfect humanity by removing all of the things that cause war, violence, and hatred via magic and forming a hive mind. Eventually, the message of the show is that imperfection is necessary and is what makes humans beautiful. The cycle of violence happens, and will likely always happen, due to the strong senses of love, friendship, and family that cause the aforementioned tragic realities of life.