Arcane, IS THAT character really dead? Only true League of Legends fans know the answer

All the signs seem to point to the worst, but that might not be the case...

Image Credit: Netflix

The second season of Arcane ended with a bittersweet epilogue: some joy, yes, but above all a lot of pain, with a hint of sadness for all the characters who unfortunately did not survive the harsh war between Piltover and Zaun. And while the authors have already started to confirm some great returns in the next seasons set in the world of League of Legends, there is at least one character whose fate is still terribly uncertain... (WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING OF ARCANE!) We are talking about Professor Heimerdinger, a true fan favorite both in the original video game and in the series, where he showed all his wisdom in the role of one of the most esteemed scientists and advisors of Piltover. 

Unfortunately, however, his epilogue was not happy... or was it? Let's recap together what happens to him. After mentoring Jayce and Viktor, in the first season of Arcane Heimerdinger is removed from the Piltover Council and ends up meeting Ekko, thus joining the Zaun resistance, where he seems to be reborn to a new life. In the second season, however, the two are catapulted into another dimension, where the friendly scientist lives for many years, until he manages to reunite with Ekko. At that point, the two decide to rebuild the Hextech starting from some fragments, to create a device that will bring them back to the correct timeline.

However, just when they manage to activate it, a piece malfunctions. Heimerdinger then decides to sacrifice himself to ensure that Ekko can return to his time. He thus exits the machine manually stops the malfunction, and then disappears into thin air. From that moment, he no longer appears on the scene, suggesting to both Ekko and the viewers that he is officially dead. But is this really the case? We will probably never know the truth, because Arcane deliberately leaves the fate of the adorable character up in the air. However, those who know the League of Legends universe well may already have the answer in their pocket. 

The official lore of the franchise, in fact, reminds us that Heimerdinger is a creature of the Yordle race, spirits that usually take the form of small mammals. In the world of LoL, Yordles have a unique characteristic: they do not age in the same way as humans and are technically immortal. This is revealed by Vex in the story The Meaning in Misery, written by John O'Bryan. Here, Vex states that Yordles do not even have the consolation of ending their own lives sooner or later, but on the contrary «they will go on forever, condemned to a stupid, magical and meaningless existence».

It must be said that, canonically, these beings from the spirit realm can be killed, however, when this happens it is only the form of the body they have assumed that is destroyed, while their spirit magically “reappears” in Bandle City, the mystical place where they originally came from. In short, “dying” automatically brings them back home. Of course, these are just hypotheses: given that Arcane has profoundly changed the history of several characters, it is possible that this characteristic also does not belong to the “animated” Heimerdinger and that therefore he has actually disappeared completely, or has remained trapped in another dimension. However, until proven otherwise, we like to think that he is still playing his banjo in Bandle City…