arcane spends the first season highlighting how brutal and unforgiving the piltover occupation of zaun is its objectively and cartoonishly evil there are almost no redeeming qualties for it but it all shifts when jinx does the piltover equivalent of 9/11 and the messaging shifts from brutal occupation and conflict to the characters not being able to cope with trauma so they now commit facism
jinx and zaun are constantly shunned by the show while caitlyn and piltover are so quick to be forgiven
but in the end its okay because they find a common enemy and obviously the biggest enemy is collectivisim
the show is so hilariously amercian and lib it is not even funny
caitlyn gets to win the girl but jinx gets so guilty that she tries killing herself multiple times and ends up faking her own death and escaping her only family
i am genuinely so fucking pissed
I really like this essay on this phenom in media:
https://redsails.org/the-swerve/
That fits very well in this example. The cathartic storyline would clearly have the main characters team up and defeat the city on the hill and the main characters who had to defend the hill would have to feel bad about their actions. Can't have (a) the poors rooting for heroes or (b) anything to make watching-cops from questioning their loyalty to the empire.
can't have people get any ideas about change