[sandraharissa]

Pls ppl when is it conveyed anywhere in arcane that silco wanted to be a martyr or that he was trying to make jinx into the perfect weapon??😭where??

what does this have anything to do with his arc?

[embershroud108]

If he was trying to make Jinx into the “perfect weapon” he fucking failed lmao

[xi-xi-chen]

[mollysunder]

I kind of really resent the Powder-Jinx face rig Arcane uses for Jinx. In my opinion it makes people take the difference between Powder and Jinx too literally. Every little moment has to be categorized where it goes, "in this scene where Jinx is scared Powder can't help but come out", or "the moment she has to fight, Powder's Jinx comes out". And it feels so flattening at times, because it's like Jinx can't be a full character, her own person. I don't see this being done with Silco, and the show likes to obscure his scar whenever he's more vulnerable with Jinx. Vander's murder attempt fundamentally scarred him for life, but we dont treat who he was before and after as entirely separate people.

We don't split apart any other character between before and after the worst moments of their life, becaus it does apply to others. All the other Zaunite characters also experience life altering, personality defining trauma. When Ekko hesitates to finish off Jinx in the bridge we don't say, "and we see Little Man struggle take over from Ekko", because we know characters can be conflicted and layered.

It's also annoying that the rig makes Jinx look younger, because Jinx is already the youngest on the show, she's the baby sister, and she's mentally ill. Those factors alone makes a lot of the audience not take her seriously when she does anything, no matter how violent or manipulative. Plenty end up reading Jinx's actions as just pure impulse. Then the rig explicitly makes her look younger than she actually is, which only reinforces this infantilized perspective people place on Jinx's behaviors and motives. It's pretty annoying.

[bedknees]

"It's impossible for a piece of media to have a perfect, thematically flawless ending."

Arcane:

[kkekaart]

Jinx

[lady-griffin]

Kind of dark, but I’m just imagining an enforcer on the bridge not quite dead yet, seeing the looks Ekko and Jinx are giving each other and thinking –

What the fuck is happening here? Are they going to fuck or fight to the death? Can my death just not be a part of this?

[karetypee]

Jinx! 💣💫

[prouvairesverse]

i never know if i wanna be her or be with her

[eggbertith]

imo it's a shame that they needed a convenient name drop for everything to happen in the last episode and they sacrificed vi's character to do it... telling the fucking council who jinx is? she would NEVER. she would literally never. i'm upset they threw vi's character under the bus for The Bit :/ like honestly just seems like a shallow writing mistake to me...

[embershroud108]

That and Vi turning her back on Jinx on the bridge without a word are the weakest parts of the show writing wise, tbh.

[visupremacy-deactivated20250626]

i've got to disagree here, i think vi's arc in act 3 is incredibly well done. not just that but it's also necessary in order to finish her season 1 story, because it's what she's been waiting for since the night everything went up in flames: it's her chance at a do-over.

(i apologize in advance for the essay, y'all know how it goes lmao)

for vi, the end of episode 7 and the start of episode 8 are a subtle but pretty exact mirror of the end of episode 3. powder/jinx causes an explosion, harming someone vi cares for. vi gets emotionally overloaded and does the only thing she knows how to do when that happens: she separates herself from the situation (and i'll talk about this more in a minute). once she's gotten a second to breathe and start thinking clearly again, she tries to go back, but is prevented from doing so by arrival of enforcers. and both times, it's too late anyway, because silco has gotten to her sister first.

last time she got thrown behind bars and was helpless to stop what came next. but this time, she's free. she can do something.

the decision she makes defines her final arc of the season: she has to stop silco, no matter the cost, because it's the only way she'll have any chance to save her sister.

her realization here wasn't sudden, but instead happened one gradual step at a time. vi assumed that if her sister survived, she must be silco's prisoner, but sevika threw a wrench in that theory. "she's like his daughter." however, sevika isn't trustworthy, and vi doesn't really get a chance to process what she said anyway.

when vi reunites with jinx, things quickly spiral out of control and she catches her first glimpse of the person her sister has become, but her behavior is probably still easy to rationalize even if it's troubling. jinx was acting in self defense, or at least in mutual aggression. the blurred line between the two is something vi understands well from her time in prison.

then ekko, one of the only people left in the city who vi does trust, backs up what sevika had said. jinx is violent and dangerous because she wants to be. she works for silco because she wants to. vi seems to be able to see some truth in ekko's words yet she still pushes back, defending her sister.

but it's with these words in her head that vi sees the proof with her own eyes: jinx bombs the blockade, catching not just on-duty enforcers but also caitlyn and ekko in the blast. there was nothing even resembling self-defense here--it was simply an act of war, committed on silco's behalf.

and then, jinx opens fire on vi herself, and the truth can't really be denied anymore.

"all that's left is jinx, and she belongs to silco."

to be clear, when vi walks away here, i don't think she's thinking ahead, crafting a plan, or behaving rationally at all. she's hurt, she's scared. she thinks her sister just tried to kill her, and she's too overwhelmed to handle the situation so she walks away. it's a pattern she repeats throughout the season--in episode 3, here, then to caitlyn in the very next episode. and i'm not here to pretend like she's right to do it, in fact it's one of her most glaring weaknesses. but it's painfully in character, and not bad writing at all.

so full circle back to the start: once she's away from the source of her stress and has half a second to think, vi realizes what she has to do. if what ekko said is true and jinx belongs to silco, then silco is the problem. he has always been the problem, so she has to take him out of the picture. and, to her credit i think, she realizes that she probably can't accomplish this on her own so she looks for help.

which finally brings me to OP's point about the moment where vi reveals jinx's name to the council--and again i gotta say, i don't think this is poor writing or out of character. vi actually explains her own thought process: "if you really want people to talk to you, you have to let them think you have what they want." vi needs the council's help but doesn't expect them to give it to her for nothing, so when jayce asks about the grenade, rather than lying to him (which isn't in her nature), vi gives him a name. just a name, which if you think about it is pretty inconsequential. it doesn't actually help them find jinx. vi makes them think that she has what they want, even if she has no intention of giving it to them.

i've said this before, vi is not a chess player, she's a boxer. she acts and reacts step by step, choosing what seems best in the moment and then moving to the next thing. in the council room, her goal was to get them to mobilize against silco. if they decided to go after jinx next, vi would figure out that problem when the time came.

tl;dr i can see how these things seem confusing but it all makes sense to me the end

[embershroud108]

You’re right about the bridge scene, I’m 95% on board with all of that. I was somewhat hyperbolic earlier and I think it’s just a matter of me personally wishing the character had made a different decision.

But with the council scene, I just don’t find the explanations of Vi’s motivations here compelling. Mainly because by giving Jinx’s name to the council she appears to completely contradict her motivations in act 2. Now, that’s not necessarily a problem in and of itself, if the shift was handled better, but the problem is it’s not at all clear why Vi is doing this. How she gets from motivation A to motivation B is muddy.

It’s especially….shocking? Repellent? Baffling? Considering that it seems to be written as a deliberate, pointed contrast to Vander refusing to give her and Powder up in act 1.

Ironically, I have a much easier time following the internal logic of Jinx’s actions in act 3 than Vi’s (at least in this specific scene) even though Jinx is far more mentally scrambled than Vi (maybe that says something about me lol).

The thing is Vi has no need to give Jinx’s name up except for Plot. I would say this is a Plot Convenience/borderline Plot Contrivance. Like I said before when we talked about this before, she could have said anyone made the bombs. She could have pinned it on Sevika, or just made up a name. Why would she throw Jinx under the bus like this if her whole purpose is to save her? Yes there’s the set up of Vi’s understanding of quid pro quo, but that in and of itself isnt a compelling explanation for me.

Now, one explanation I do find somewhat compelling, that I mentioned before, is that her priorities have shifted (whether she is aware of it or not), and now she is focused on revenge over rescue because (whether she wants to admit it or not) she thinks her sister can’t be saved by this point. The problem with this though is that her behavior in other scenes in act 3 would suggest otherwise, and the writers have essentially said otherwise. There’s also the potentially very interesting angle of Vi’s experience in prison making her compliant to authority, but again, this is at least somewhat contradicted in other scenes.

So I’m sorry, no explanations I’ve seen thus far have been able to reconcile “Vi still wants to save her sister” on the one hand with giving Jinx’s name up on the other. Either her motivations have at least shifted, or the scene doesnt work for me. And even then, this major shift in Vi’s character development comes off half-baked. It almost feels like there’s a scene missing in ep 8 that had to be cut for time.

Like I said in one of my other responses though, I do overall really like Vi’s act 3 arc (from tragic plot perspective). I just wish this pivotal moment in it had been developed more. As is, it feels like it comes out of left field.

And as for the side note you mentioned in the tags: no I don’t think Vi, as a character, should necessarily view the council as an enemy, so that plays no part in my frustration with this scene. It’s crystal clear, and from a narrative perspective works perfectly, that she thinks of Silco as her all consuming nemesis and I have no problems with her wanting to get help from Piltover to go after him on that level.

[kastell-eve]

I know everyone has their own opinions and feelings about this scene, and I find it understandable if people think that Vi's actions here were confusing or contradictory to her character. Personally, I find all the reasons listed to explain Vi's behaviour here very compelling because it shows that Vi isn't some mastermind who thinks everything through and that she's stuck in a conflict between protecting her sister, taking down Silco and also dealing with her anger towards Piltover.

Also I don't think Vi saying someone else built the bombs would've gone well with Caitlyn because Cait knows Jinx built them - And Vi knows that Caitlyn knows, so what's the point of lying if Caitlyn could just correct her/call her out on it? Especially since the Council would trust her word more than Vi's? Sure, Cait might've kept quiet and they could've talked it out later, but I don't think Vi would've forced or wanted Caitlyn to lie/not tell the truth after everything Cait went through (she could've gotten killed by Jinx in the explosion on the bridge, plus Jinx literally pointed her PowPow at Cait the first time she saw her.) Of course there's also the possibility that Vi just didn't trust Cait to not contradict her in that moment.

[embershroud108]

Except the way she name drops Jinx sounds like she has thought it through…but yeah that’s definitely a fair point. Considering that Caitlyn knows Jinx is responsible Vi might figure there’s no point in trying to obfuscate.

It’s just….Vander died to protect her and Powder from the council, and Vi just gives Jinx up so easily. Even if I understand it intellectually, emotionally it really rubs me the wrong way.

[embershroud108]

https://m.weibo.cn/status/NkBDnDGsM?jumpfrom=weibocom

Oh my god…..

[embershroud108]

I WAS WRONG IT’S A REAL SHOW

[mollysunder]

You know, I get pretty hype over Jinx and Viktor working together next season, the one thing I have trouble predicting is how Ekko fits into it. Obviously Ekko and Jinx have a whole emotionally fraught dynamic going on, but I can only see it escalating if Viktor's added to the mix. The few times League media has Ekko and Viktor interact, Ekko's kind of disgusted by Viktor, even after Viktor's lore got reworked. I don't treat voicelines as gospel but, "You're everything that's wrong with Zaun", is pretty harsh when Urgot exists. I know part of Viktor's bad reputation was caused by hearsay and rumors, but that means in their dynamic Ekko buys into Viktor's bad press. Now that Ekko's hanging out with Heimerdinger I can only see a misunderstanding only deepen between them, on the outside it looks like Viktor left Heimerdinger’s side to engage in unethical practice with Singed, a prominent figure in the Shimmer trade. It all only further complicates things, especially for Jinx and Ekko. Where Ekko could see Jinx once again work with another person of dubious intent, and Viktor's own choices could remind Ekko of the path Jinx took and how similar they are to each other. If there's any chance that all three are supposed to work together, I guess Jinx will just have to be the buffer friend.

[embershroud108]

If Jinx and Viktor do end up working together, I think it will be a very temporary alliance to take care of a very specific problem, to directly parallel the Vi + Jayce team-up. But like them, I see them falling out pretty quickly because of how wildly incompatible their personalities and temperaments are. In fact, I could see Jinx's emotional volatility as being the catalyst that convinces Viktor that human emotions need to be eliminated entirely vis-a-vis Glorious Evolution.

[mollysunder]

I can actually see them both forming a longer lasting partnership than Vi and Jayce created. One, because they're both entering a much higher stakes situation than Vi and Jayce were a part of and that takes time. Two, they're both in a place (Viktor's on his way to) where they need new connections. Jinx spent the season being tortured by her past till she decided to accept the present and the way things have changed to move forward. Viktor's one of the most isolated characters in the show and he's got no friends outside of Jayce and maybe formerly Sky, and maybe an ally in Singed. He's the Zaunite most estranged from Zaun and she's the one most in tune with Zaun's happenings. They both need to meet new people, they need new people.

I can recognize that they're both different, but at their core they're pretty similar. Jinx is desperate for the care and approval of her loved ones which causes her to take desperate measures to gain their affirmations. Viktor has been alienated from his peers most his life because of his class and disability. The only ways he is able to be recognized as a person, and forge lasting bonds is through his own engineering prowess. Jinx and Viktor are both people that have staked their self esteem on what they can do for other people. For Jinx it's what she can do for her family, and for Viktor, it's what he can do for society at large. One just does it by more violent means while the other developed a savior complex. They're both just people in desperate need to accepted in a world that taught them they weren't.

When Viktor's work with the Hexcore causes him to inevitably be rejected by Piltovan society and he and Jayce split he needs someone who won't reject him. Jinx can be that person. For the few people she cares about, she cares deeply, no matter how monstrous they are. All Jinx wants is for it to be reciprocal, and Viktor can do it because no matter what the Machine Herald ever said about casting off emotion he was wrong. Viktor never rid himself of his emotions, he's still the same man depressed by the suffering of others, and he's only alone because his work disturbs the average citizen. Viktor craves the company of others, he always had. They both just need someone who won't judge them.

The fact that Jinx would be willing to help Viktor would mean she has to care about him. The only reason Jinx helps anyone isn't from mutual benefit, it's because she cares about them. Jinx is mean, she'd have an easier time getting her way if chose to play nice with Sevika, but she'd rather do things the hard way than pretend to care. She treats the average person as means to an end, look at Thieram. If that's how she on average talks to most people, it's not really emotionally volatile, it's just manipulative and kind of sadistic.

Finally, I just like it when characters are that previously had no attachment to each other encounter one another. Both characters can look at each other as they are in the present without the past governing their expectations.

[kittrs]

More jinx whoops

[ciccerone]

[chrisfroot]

School Jinx ~

[thenationofzaun]

ARCANE by AZ Pt

[mollysunder]

There's a long essay to be made about how Sevika's name means "servant of god" and the way the origin of nations is heavily mythologized to create a unifying cultural identity. Even more could be said about the way Sevika aligns herself with these larger than life figures whose actions are integral to the creation of Zaun. Silco starts out the story like a boogeyman, he's a patient and shadowy presence that struck hard and overwhelmed the Lanes and ultimately Zaun to consolidate power. Whatever he was like before Vander's betrayal he discarded it to wear a new identity that would be the Eye of Zaun. Silco chose to embody a concept, a figure that could terrify Piltover out Zaun, and discarded all his "weaknesses". The show constantly frames him like a zealous prophet, and he might even have a cult following him, if those eye cultists with the turtle are actually related to him. The more he's humanized through his love for Jinx, the more tenuous his position and persona become. When Silco's humanity comes into conflict with endgame of Zaun's creation, he is quickly killed.

And then there's Jinx, whom the show likes to wrap in unholy imagery just as much as Silco. The further she goes down her path of becoming, she is baptized in the flames of her explosives and the waters of the Pilt. Even before Jinx goes through her unholy resurrection using Shimmer, crows begin to flock in her presence, sometimes just the aftermath of her actions, like the Enforcer funeral. Sure plenty has been said on how crows act as symbols for transformation as Jinx struggles with her past. But in the context of Arcane, Zaun seems to be without their patron god Janna, the wind goddess who brings fresh air to Zaun. Janna is sometimes characterized with blue birds, or initially she appears as one when she arrives, they're symbols of hope and joy. And here's Jinx's space being enveloped by these dark birds with messy reputations instead. All the while Jinx is semi-living and working in giant possibly defunct ventilation shaft originally meant to regulate Zaun's air quality.

Sometimes I think about the way Silco died not just because it was a horrible accident, but because his character couldn't keep going in the story. Silco reached the part of the myth where his choices could only hurt Zaun or Jinx, and that’s one and the same for him and the story. But then there's Jinx, kneeling for forgiveness, seeing him off with her head down like in prayer, and taking a seat after he's finished in the story to officially begin her part.

[notes28]