Highlights

• Arcane features a small percentage of beloved League of Legends Champions, with the story mostly centered around Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn, Viktor, and Jayce.
• The supporting cast consists of other well-known Champions, contributing to the overall narrative of the series.
• The rankings of the Champions in terms of likability, interest, impact on the story, and character growth will be discussed and reevaluated.

In Arcane, quite a few beloved Champions from the League of Legends MOBA have shown up. Sure, it's a small percentage compared to the 160+ Champions in the game's roster, but still. Obviously, the story is mostly centered around characters like Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn, Viktor, and Jayce, but there are a good handful of other well-known LoL Champions that serve as the supporting cast for this series.

So, it seemed like a good idea to go over all of them and rank them from best to worst in terms of how likable or interesting they were, what their impact was on the story of Arcane, and how they grew (or devolved) over the course of the first season.

Updated December 13th, 2023 by Jacob Buchalter: With the second season of Arcane in the works for November of 2024 (at least at the time of writing this), there's excitement in the air as fans are reminded of just how good the first season of this show was. Sure, there likely won't be a huge surplus of new Champions in Season 2, given that most of it is likely to take place in Zaun/Piltover again to finish off Jinx and Vi's story. But, League fans often forget just how many Champions hail from this region such as Renata Glasc, Dr. Mundo, Janna, Blitzcrank, Urgot, Zac, and Zeri (and that's not all). So, let's go over all the Champion inclusions in the first season of Arcane again to see if the rankings still hold up all this time after it first came out.

10 Warwick

Technically The Beast Of Zaun Isn't Even In The Show...Yet

Let’s start things off with a bit of a fan theory that's all but been confirmed at this point, and this theory all stems from that last little hint at the end of the final episode of season 1. It’s almost assured that Vander will come back at some point as Warwick, as there have been many parallels drawn between him and the Uncaged Beast of Zaun. That said, because Warwick hasn’t shown up yet, in the furry flesh, it's not really fair to put him anywhere but at the bottom of the rankings.

That said, Vander was an incredibly interesting character in his own right, especially given that this well-known Jungler's past has basically been a mystery up to this point.

9 Teemo

More Of A Storybook Legend Than An Actual Appearance

Next up is a Champion that doesn’t directly appear in Arcane, but is one of the only ones to ever get referenced directly outside of just actually showing up. Of course, this is Teemo, the loveable little mischief-maker Yordle assassin. There are two primary examples of references to Teemo in Arcane.

One is the Poison Puffcaps of his that show up next to those caged Kurgs in the first episode, and the other is the image of Teemo himself in that children’s book Silco’s goon is reading when they're invading Chief Police Marcus' home. Obviously, because he doesn’t actually show up in the show at all (as of yet), Teemo just barely passes Warwick, but still, the little references to him are all pretty great and it's very likely that a certain other Yordle who loves explosives will appear in season 2.

8 Singed

The Perfect 'Mad Scientist'

This doctor working with Silco doesn't really directly call himself 'Singed' at any point, but the closed captions of sure do spoil it anyway. After the explosion at Silco’s warehouse, the doctor is now bald like Singed, he’s obsessed with Shimmer (AKA Chemtech) like Singed, and he’s likely the one who will turn Vander into Warwick, as Singed basically did in his origin story.

That said, for one of the most toxic (literally) characters in LoL, Arcane has done a fantastic job of making Singed more understandable and giving him an actual character arc, so much so that he's becoming a fan-favorite character in all of season 1.

7 Heimerdinger

Adorable & Well-Meaning, But Not Much Else

Here’s the thing, Heimerdinger is basically part of the main cast in Arcane, and he does a fantastic job. He’s intelligent, has a great voice actor, adds a lot to specific scenes, and is just straight-up adorable. But, in regards to his actual impact on the events of Arcane, or his character growth, they’re both pretty lacking.

Heimerdinger serves as the voice of caution to everyone in Piltover, be it Jayce, Viktor, or even Ekko. He doesn’t exactly change his approach at any point, contribute to anything himself, or make any big decisions. He’s adorable and well-meaning, but his reputation makes more of an impact on the events of the show than he does. This makes sense, given that he's a super genius Yordle who has lived for quite a long time, but it would be nice to see him get a bit more unhinged like the in-game Heimerdinger or at least switch up his tactics.

6 Ekko

The Most Rational & Understandable Character In The Show

Ekko, AKA 'Little Man', is a character that showed up early in Arcane just to get watchers hyped and then wasn't seen again for quite a few episodes. But, now that he’s shown up as the leader of the Fireflies, he’s become such an integral part of the story.

Without him, Benzo is a much less important character, and Vi would have less info to go on for just about every major development. Ekko eventually gains Chronomancy-type abilities that allow him to manipulate time, as is seen during his in-game moveset, but as of right now, he's just one of the more relatable characters in the show. Season 2 will likely showcase Ekko's true inventive abilities, and his chrono powers. Also, it will probably debut one of his greatest creations, Blitzcrank.

5 Jayce

Piltover's Own 'Tony Stark'

Obviously, Jayce Talis was going to be in the higher-ranked half of this list, being basically the tertiary main character at this point behind Vi and Jinx. Before Arcane, Jayce was just one of the pretty-boy Champions without much character depth (but a surprisingly high skill ceiling). But after Arcane, Jayce is one of the more beloved characters overall and has since received quite a few new skins (likely due to his popularity).

In regards to his actual impact on Arcane, it’s massive. The guy has a big character arc with his rags-to-riches storyline, goes through multiple highs and lows throughout the story, and is now the actual inventor of Hextech overall. Without Jayce in Arcane, the show basically can’t exist, and his brotherly partnership with Viktor is one of the emotional highlights of the show.

4 Viktor

A Reserved Character With A Bombastic Character Arc

Speaking of Viktor, huge kudos to Riot Games for managing to make one of the most robotic characters in League (literally) so incredibly likable in Arcane. Not to spoil too much of what happens with Viktor to anyone unfamiliar with the MOBA, but he does go through a rather drastic change that makes him a lot more powerful.

But, in this animated series, Viktor is also a rags-to-riches scientist, just like Jayce, but with even more hardships to deal with, considering his origins in Zaun. And even more than that, Viktor doesn’t have god-given luck or naturally good looks, he’s just an incredibly smart yet reserved inventor. So, to see him flourish so much next to Jayce, and to get a look at his backstory with Singed, this character has become much more of a focal point for the show than most people likely expected going into Arcane.

3 Caitlyn

The Moral 'Core' Of The Show

Ah Caitlyn, the Cupcake Cop herself. Caitlyn Kieramman was always going to be in Arcane, that much was obvious from the start. If Vi is a central character in this story, then Caitlyn had to show up at some point, given their connection to each other. And, when she first showed up in Arcane, fans liked her, but they didn't 'love' her. She was one of the only ones who still believed in Jayce before his Hextech idea took off, but she was still basically a spoiled rich kid.

But, after the time jump, Caitlyn is by far one of the more complex and interesting characters in the series. Sure, she doesn't seem to be the best with diplomacy, especially with a certain blue-haired misfit, but she obviously cares a great deal for Piltover, Zaun, and Vi especially. It'll be interesting to see how much of a seasoned investigator they make her in season, and it'll be even more interesting to see how her relationship with Vi has developed.

2 Vi

The Boxer With A Heart Of Gold

It’s pretty obvious that the two prodigal sisters were going to be the top two, it just doesn’t make sense otherwise. The story of Arcane is literally about them, and the team at Riot Games has done a fantastic job turning what was originally just a 'punch-girl' archetype character and a 'like Harley Quinn...but' reference character into two of the most complex characters in League of Legends.

Vi in particular is leaps and bounds deeper than what she initially was in the MOBA. In League, she’s just a hard-boiled cop who likes to punch stuff, but Arcane adds so much more to this. Plus, all of her action scenes in Arcane are nothing short of incredible, as Riot has really put a lot of focus on making sure her fights aren’t just all 'one punch and it's over' but rather play out as actual bare-knuckle street brawls with a lot of technique and interesting choreography.

1 Jinx

Arcane's 'Main Character'

Where else could this end but with Powder AKA Jinx? Jinx has always been a fan-favorite character in League, ever since she was released as a Champion back in 2013. But, even back then, fans always compared her to Harley Quinn or even the Joker and never gave any thought as to why she was unhinged.

Well, Arcane dives headfirst into exploring this, and it does it so well. While most people don’t exactly agree with how immediately off the deep end Powder goes, everyone can at least understand it. The transition from Powder to Jinx, her way of approaching problems, and every part where she’s almost coming apart at the seams, are all just so perfectly understandable but tragic.