I don't like ep7 of s2 but I had a little thought about the episode that I thought was worth considering and sharing. One of the starkest contrasts between the Arcane Universe and Episode 7's universe is Jinx and her much healthier mental state. In the Arcane Universe, Jinx is a character who has mental illness from a very young age, potentially even being born with mental illness. Her illness only gets worse with each traumatic experience she lives through, resulting in extreme meltdowns and hallucinations. But in Episode 7's universe, Jinx doesn't seem to have any of those same issues. People have theorized that it's because she has a more of a support system/a better support system than she does in the Arcane universe or because Episode 7's universe is more peaceful than Arcane's universe. However, I think the reason why Jinx and Powder are so different, despite loosing Vi at the same age, has to do with Ekko.
One of the things that really bugs me about this episode are the discrepancies between the Arcane universe and Episode 7's universe. For example: In the Arcane universe, Mylo really dislikes Jinx. He doesn't enjoy her company and he often blames her for every little thing that goes wrong. If Powder and Mylo had this relationship as kids in Episode 7's universe, as I suspect they did since Episode 7 seems to be pretty identical leading up to the kids' heist, then why doesn't Mylo blame Powder for Vi's death? Why are they able to have such a good relationship years later, despite all of the belittling Mylo subjected Powder to as a child? Well, what if it was because in Episode 7's universe, Powder isn't blamed for Vi's death- Ekko is.
When Arcane Ekko asks Powder if she was responsible for Vi's death, she scoffs and gets really offended, not guilt ridden or hurt. If she felt responsible for Vi's death then her reaction would have reflected that but instead what's the first thing that comes out of her mouth?
"You were the one that gave us the tip."
Now THIS is interesting because it's 100% true. We can play the blame game with everything that happens in arcane all we want and go all the way down the chain, and we'll eventually land on this fact. Jayce went to the undercity to purchase items from Benzo. Ekko saw him and instead of just up-charging him and leaving him alone, he followed Jayce ALL THE WAY to his home and proceeded to tell the other kids about how rich he was and the exact location of Jayce's home. Had Ekko not done that, then the kids would have never went on that heist. Powder would have never found the crystal, the apartment would have never blown up, Silco wouldn't have been able to make his move, enforcers wouldn't have flooded the lanes, Benzo would have lived along with everyone else in the family, they would have stayed together, Jayce would have never met Viktor, he probably would have never cracked hextech. And just like that, the events of Arcane never occur.
This is addressed in Episode 7's universe but it is NOT addressed in Arcane's universe. In the Arcane universe, Ekko and Jayce meet years later but show no signs of recognizing each other or the ramifications of their initial meeting. Earlier in the story, Ekko talked to Vi about the dangers of blaming herself for the events that unfolded post her arrest.
"That's a good way to drive yourself crazy."
And WHAT does Powder say about Ekko in Episode 7's universe?
"Oh, you know those ugly twins. Genius and Madness!"
Now isn't THIS fascinating. Arcane Ekko's line implies that he has his own past issues with blaming himself for what happened to his family and Zaun as a whole. However he no longer struggles with this and he doesn't blame himself at all, it's not something we see him struggle with. Ekko does not live in the past. He honors his losses but does not dwell on them. Jinx is the opposite way. Jinx has a hard time living with the present because she lives in the past. All she knows is dwelling on her losses and it's a struggle she never overcomes. Jinx does blame herself for everything that has happened and just like Ekko's line to Vi, it has drove her crazy.
But in Episode 7's universe, there's a potential that this dynamic is the reversed. In Episode 7's universe, Powder does NOT blame herself at all for Vi's death and the tragedy that was inflicted on her family. She is at peace with Vi's death and what happened that day. She honors Vi's memory and her issue isn't that she can't stop living in the past, her issue is that she can't stop living in the present. She likes the life she has and the community she has built but her life is stagnant. Nothing changes, she doesn't change, and even though the life she's living is comfortable, she's not really living her life. And while we don't have any definitive proof that Episode 7's Ekko blames himself for what happened, we do have evidence that points to this claim. We have the fact that Powder refers to him having both genius and madness. We have the fact that when asked about Vi, her first instinct is to remind Ekko of the role he played that day, and how Vi would still be alive if it weren't for the tip they got. We have the fact that it's thematically interesting and compelling. We have the fact that no one seems to be concerned about Ekko's odd behavior outside of Powder. They react to his strange reactions and inappropriate questions like it's just another day for Ekko, and maybe it IS. Maybe in this universe, EKKO is the one that struggles with his mental health and not Powder. At least not to the severity that Jinx struggled.
Additionally as I was writing this I figured out something HUGE to my own understanding of this episode as well as the characters and their parallels. Powder's flaw with living in the present is also Arcane Ekko's very same flaw. Arcane Ekko lives in the present but he's living too much in the present. He fails to consider the future. This is reflected in the fact that the firelights have no long term goals, nothing that they're actually striving for. Their only stance is silco bad, piltover bad. Once Silco is out of the way, the firelights literally have no idea what to do. They didn't plan on actually defeating Silco, and they didn't plan on housing and providing for all the extra firelights they're getting because ekko and his faction don't consider the future. They were fighting against Silco because they opposed him, not because they had a better alternative in mind. Once Ekko disappears, the firelights fall apart and fall into complete irrelevancy. They don't do anything new, they just all stay stagnant, only in the present. Without silco to fight they have no real cause, especially since piltover is too powerful to fight.
One of my biggest issues with episode 7 was the Ekko's journey felt pointless in regards to his character. I was constantly asking myself why Ekko was sent to this specific universe? What exactly did he learn from this experience? It wasn't that he had to go back home and do the right thing and not stay in paradise. Because Ekko addresses this really early on in the episode. While Ekko did greatly enjoy his time in Episode 7's universe, he struggle with the temptation of staying there because he recognized he had a duty and responsible to his own people, and that they come first. So that's not the lesson he had to learn. The lesson also wasn't that Jinx is a person worth saving, even though Ekko did spend a lot of time with Powder, because Ekko already came to this realization back in season one with his fight against Jinx. The reason why Ekko's relationship to Powder is so important in this episode is because he's able to realize his biggest flaw through her. Likewise, the reason why Powder finds Arcane Ekko so fascinating is because he is like her. It's only after Ekko has formed a relationship with her and seen her life that he realizes the importance of being active in his life and looking to the future. This is how he's able to save the day in the end. Or at least this is what I hope I was supposed to get out of this episode, considering im just now reaching this conclusion months after the episode came out.
Additionally, I'd just like to say that for me, this is why timebomb are a "doomed" relationship. Their worldviews are too drastic to be compatible without one of them changing. In Episode 7's universe, we can infer that between the two of them Ekko is the one stuck in the past while Powder is the one who's able to live in the present. These two characters canonically do have a romantic relationship, but we also know that even if Ekko struggles with the past, he's nowhere near the level Jinx struggles, so they're able to last. Arcane Ekko and Jinx don't reconcile until months after Jinx has been living in the present and not in the past. So the only way for these two characters to be together is if one of them changes their perspective.
