The acclaimed second season of Netflix series Arcane may not be easy to explain, but in some regions fans had a completely different experience while watching it. Not through subjective interpretation, but tough censorship.
The variously censored results could safely be described as hilarious if in one case they weren’t so annoying and depressing.
This is how Arcane Season 2 was censored: The Case of China
China is known for chopping up films and series – especially when they depict same-sex affection. So neither escaped Prison sex scene between Vi and Caitlyn nor the tender moment between the two in the censorship season finale. While in prison you simply moved on to the next scene early, in the second case one of the characters was retouched more poorly from the respective shots.
The hair-tearing result looks like this in comparison:
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But the censorship doesn’t do anything with pure ones LGBTQ content stop. In season 1, Ambessa Medarda’s androgynous lover was already removed from the Chinese version of the series. However, in this case, the censorship does not come from Netflix, as the streaming service is not available in China. Arcane will be released on other streaming services there.
This is how Arcane Season 2 was censored: The Case of Iran
The censored Arcane version from Iran is a little more amusing (and even more complex). There the bare skin of the characters was covered with digital pieces of fabricwhich is incredibly noticeable even under normal circumstances – and then you see that a character is even wearing a black T-shirt in the shower.
A Redditor put together a few examples for us:
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It has to be said that this “censorship” in Iran is not like it was back then in the TV sector, when the respective regions edited from the state. Netflix provides these censored versions themselves rather than simply not releasing the title in some regions.
You could send a signal with this, but of course the streaming service makes more money if it bows to the anti-queer guidelines of authoritarian states.