Arcane season 2 act 3 finally vindicates fans by confirming a major League of Legends theory

Arcane
(Image credit: Netflix)

Arcane season 2 wrapped up with the release of act 3 yesterday, and it also confirmed a major fan theory that players of League of Legends had.

If you've not finished the show yet, I'd advise you stop reading, as there are major spoilers for episode 7 and beyond coming up.

Arcane is based on the popular MOBA League of Legends. The show has taken a lot of creative liberties, changing up the lore whenever it likes so as to not confuse newcomers. While this may not be ideal for die-hard fans of the game, they should be very happy with act 3 as it draws on Ekko's actual in-game ability to help him save the day.

In LoL, Ekko's abilities rely on his Z-Drive (Zero Drive) which allows him to manipulate time to get an advantage over his opponents. As noted by Dexerto, in Arcane, Ekko, Jayce, and Heimerdinger are transported into an anomaly and sent to a parallel universe during act 1. They're absent from act 2 and make a triumphant return in act 3, episode 7.

In this new universe, Ekko goes to the site of the heist in season 1 and collects some Hextech that he finds embedded in the walls. After some tinkering with Jayce's acceleration rune, he discovers that he can jump back in time by a maximum of four seconds, the same amount of time that he can in the game. This confirms a fan theory that we'd see him invent the Z-Drive in the show.

In case you've not finished act 3 yet, I'll spare the details of exactly how he ends up using the Z-Drive, but it's a cool inclusion for fans of the game.

Once you've finished Arcane, you should check out some of the best new TV shows out in 2024.

Issy van der Velde
Contributor

I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.