One of my favorite details from the finale is how three sky tendrils go into the Hexgates to take Vi, Jinx, and Ekko.
But Jinx dodges one of them.
This at first seems like a false victory, since she’s immediately grabbed by Warwick and another one just takes her.
But it’s not a false victory. The one that took Jinx was originally meant for Ekko, who was an unconscious duck at the time.
Because Jinx dodged the first sky tendril, Ekko remained disconnected from Viktor’s hivemind – which as you know, was kind of a major factor in the whole stopping the apocalypse from happening.
It’s this small, short-lived triumphant moment that seemingly doesn’t matter and yet it was essential to Ekko's major triumph in the end.
So yeah, I just really love that detail.
Also, I couldn't resist putting the flash frame of Ekko here, because my god, the art in this show is beyond amazing.
I think the real reason Ekko didnt get caught by the tendrils is because Victor didnt see where he was under the rubble.
Litterally thats it.
Like its evident Viktor can see through his "followers" eyes and take control of them. I dont think "ascension/glorious evolution" made him suddenly able to see every camera angle. It seemed like he was still limited to his followers.
Otherwise he would have seen Ekkos hexcore much sooner.
Warwick/Vander lost sight of him and was solely focused on Jinx and Vi. Since there was no other "followers" near Ekko he essentially slipped through the cracks.
And I'm sure Viktor was aware Ekko was down there since he sent the extra tendril. He was probably more concerned that Jinx managed to dodge one and prioritized grabbing her.
Another thing to back this up was when it cuts to the scene with Jayce his attention is entirely on him alone.
Only after Ekko starts advancing VERY fast and smaking a few follower-bots does Viktor notice and makes his followers chase after Ekko.
I do disagree with this or at least parts of it.
Viktor making a human error is beyond accurate though.
Despite Viktor’s claims about being “evolved” and the god-like imagery surrounding him, he’s still a flawed human; this is made especially clear when Viktor said the Z-Drive couldn’t exist as he was obviously wrong as it very much did exist and was about to explode in his face.
But I don’t think Viktor (through Warwick or some other means) not seeing Ekko because he was under the rubble makes a whole lot of sense.
If that was the case, it would’ve made more sense for only two sky tendrils to go into the Hexgates, not three, since Ekko was partially covered up by the rubble from the start.
Or even better, showing the tendril meant for Ekko overlooking him, but we're not shown that; instead, we're shown Jinx dodging a tendril and it dissipating right after it missed her.
This happens extremely fast and it’s beyond easy to miss; even I just assumed the tendril stopped existing, rather than noticed we start seeing it disappear. I mean don't get me wrong, they could've made this a lot more overt in my opinion, but it is there.
And it does make sense to me that the tendrils are "one shots" when we look at them visually; when they're coming down they slightly come apart, but not completely.
This gives the impression that they're not exactly stable forms of energy, but once they connect to someone that breakage stops completely and they become solid, stable lines.
Even though strands slightly pull away from the main tendril they don't disappear, rather they rejoin the main tendril a bit further down; so, if the main tendril no longer exists, it make sense to me we would see the strands dissipating.
Furthermore, because Viktor messed with the gravity of the Hexgates, Ekko isn’t actually hidden underneath the rubble by the time the sky tendrils come from them.
We’re even specifically shown the rubble floating off of a him a few minutes before the sky tendrils make their appearance.
So, it doesn’t make sense to me that Viktor (directly or indirectly) didn’t notice Ekko or lost track of him, as a tendril was sent for him and aside from floating a bit, he didn't move.
Also, if Ekko was only spared because Viktor didn’t "see" him, then what happened to that third tendril? Why don’t we see it continue to exist? Searching for him? Wouldn't that also imply the tendrils don't last if they don't find/reach their target?
The sky tendril missing Jinx and disintegrating right after, leading to either Viktor himself or the tendrils following some kind of “preexisting directive,” prioritizing Jinx and thus sending the one originally meant for Ekko after her makes a lot more sense based on what we're shown.
This is still Viktor making a human error, because three tendrils were sent down to the Hexgates, but only two people were connected.
Viktor either didn’t realize or care one person wasn’t connected.
Which makes sense, at that point Viktor was beyond certain of his victory and arrogant in how he “saved” humanity from itself; why would he bother to notice or care about something as insignificant as one person not being connected? How could one person stop him?
And then along came Ekko.
Also, if I may add, the comparison of these shots further proves one of the three tendrils that was sent down the inside of the Hexgate tower did in fact dissipate, because otherwise we would still see three tendrils in the second shot instead of two
The two on the left were probably the ones originally meant for Vi and Jinx, and the one on the right for Ekko. When Jinx initially dodged hers, the one right next to it grabbed her instead, then you see the third one bend itself at the last second to grab Vi.
I think it’s helpful to think of the tendrils kind of like heat-seeking missiles. They can redirect themselves but only to a very limited degree as there’s only a very limited intelligence guiding them. It’s not like Viktor was consciously guiding them moment to moment like a drone. So if they just barely missed their target like with Jinx they spin away and explode, or just dissolve, as the case may be, when the tendril didn’t have a person to hook into.
The question then becomes well why didn’t Viktor send another replacement tendril down after Ekko when the one that initially missed Jinx disappeared, but again Viktor wasn’t directly guiding the tendrils and had already focused all his attention on personally connecting Jayce to the hive mind by that point.
So I think Viktor (still very human as you say) just released the tendrils at once and let them guide themselves (again I imagine the tendrils being drawn to minds like a heat seeking missile is programmed to attack a heat signature) and just assumed everyone else was taken care of and put all his attention on Jayce, not noticing that Ekko was still free.
