Jinx And The Slow Death Of Powder (Arcane)

creating dynamic characters is an integral part in storytelling it allows us to see the similarities and differences in who this character once was and who they have now become or are becoming seeing how their thoughts emotions actions and reactions have changed over time allows us as the audience to truly appreciate the journey this character has been on and how the world they live in has affected them arcane accomplishes this with many of its characters each one dynamic in their own way changing and evolving in accordance to how events within their world personally influence them but a character who i think many agree goes through one of the most interesting developments is powder and her transformation into jinx but what i find to be a unique example on how to write such a dynamic change is the tug of war which seems to play out between powder and jinx throughout the show with the seeds of jinx in powder at the beginning and remnants of powder in jinx throughout the remainder of it as a child we see how powder wants nothing more than to be a contributing member of her family she wants to be like vi strong independent a leader but she struggles in these aspects often when on her own and faced with adversity she runs or hides relying on her older companions to protect her but she does possess a fighting spirit she wants to be considered a helpful and needed part of the team but while she does want to help she doesn't fully understand how she can quite yet her efforts often jinxing their situation like blowing up jace's apartment throwing the stolen items away nearly falling and alerting the enforcer these mistakes began to nourish something inside her and need to be seen as useful to be seen as valuable to not be such a disappointment and a detriment and these needs were the seeds planted by her mistakes by the words of others by probably her own words to herself and these seeds would eventually grow into jinx her final mistake that began this transition from powdery jinx was when vanda got captured and by the person who always stood up for powder told her she couldn't help that she wasn't ready left alone she has a mental breakdown angry at everyone for seeing her as not good enough but most of all angry at herself because she knows she isn't good enough her breakdown i think shows that the instability of jinx has always been within powder and we see how when her need for validation grows her instability grows the jinx with inside her grows powder isn't necessarily the vacancy of jinx but her inner desires her insecurities her weaknesses she wanted to overcome were the harbingers of jinx powder doesn't want to be alone but not in the sense she wants someone to come and help her she wants someone to think of her as helpful to need her to ask her for help so she follows them desperate to prove she is a meaningful member of this family but this act was no different from the rest powder could only mess things up and her efforts caused the deaths of those she needed those she desperately wanted to need her silco offers powder not only a new home but he allows her to be seen as a helpful and contributing member to this new home so with the death of her family the last words of vi the acceptance of silko the story of jinx begins as does the slow death of powder in episode 4 of arcane we see how the desires and needs of powder have finally flourished in this new form of jinx who is strong confident and doesn't need anyone's help but everyone on her team needs hers powder is seemingly gone that is until jinx sees a remnant of her past and we see a glimpse of the little girl she used to be showing how even though jinx is this unstoppable force and everything powder couldn't be it doesn't mean she is gone she still is very much here we even see the panic and worry of powder affect jinx's aim unable to hit her target when before she couldn't even miss jinx is able to regain the reins when sevika stares her down refusing to be seen as weak and timid refusing to be looked at like powder was all those years ago this scene not only introduces us to jinx but it shows us that jinx is not the vacancy of powder she is the escape from powder later on we see jinx's tether to the past through the milo and clagger puppets their ghosts and voices haunt her but in a disturbing way they keep the powder inside her alive as her interactions with them remain unchanged from all those years ago and we can begin to recognize a parallel as powder she was a jinx when she made a mistake when she messed something up but as jinx is when she remembers her past she runs away is when she panics like powder she fails to hit her target the seeds of jinx cause powder to mess up the remnants of powder causes jinx to mess up when vi finds her younger sister i really do think in this moment she does find powder even though during their reunion she says she's changed i view this scene as one of the few in these later episodes where an almost unchanged powder is here the vulnerability her innocent smile her hugging her sister knowing in that brief moment everything was okay it was a moment that almost belonged to a different time a simpler time but this doesn't last long as the doubts cevica planted in jinx's mind come rushing back and the whole situation is well jinxed i think this helps show that it's not powder who develops the fear of vi leaving her vide would never leave powder but she did leave jinx the one who took her family away who ruined everything so it is jinx who fears if i will leave her abandon her because she did once before so the fear of caitlyn replacing her and taking vi away is a fear manifesting not in powder but in jinx jinx's tea party shows her go through an important development where surrounded by those most important to her she decides who she's going to be which part of herself she'll let live and which she will let die if she'll be powder for vi or jinx for silko but neither of those options are the ones she wants what she really wants is for vi to accept her as she is now but the only outcome was her sitting in the chair that red jinx her connection to the little girl she once was is all but dead shown by how she shoots down milo killing that tether to her past while it was a negative one and one worth getting rid of it shows us how she is shunning away her past that powder is gone having died in a fight with an old friend or you could call it less of a fight and more of enjoying a time long gone by playing an old game with a once close friend what i like about this scene is that up to this point in these later arcane episodes powder has kind of represented the negative doubt regret weakness and failure but not in this scene here she represents an innocent joy long forgotten during this fight we see not a remnant of powder but the true powder not just the doubts and regret but the little girl who was just being a little girl having fun with a friend having fun with her talented aim because kids love to have fun with their talent cheering her own success laughing in victory because she's not a failure she's not just a regret powder is a happy memory as well a memory of friends of fun of innocence jinx is a product of her troubled childhood but there were good parts there were laughs there was dancing there was joy but the product of these positive things never came to be while the bad times lived within powder and manifested into jinx the good times also live within powder but unfortunately they manifested into nothing and even though this game ends in violence as the memory fades and reality returns powder remains as echo raises his fist he stops as he sees her his childhood friend powder besides silko and vi this was probably the first time in a long time someone else looked at her without fear or disdain in their eyes and it wasn't just anyone it was echo someone who unlike silko knew who powder was and unlike vi knew who jinx was he even had friends jinx herself killed yet knowing who she had become knowing what she had done in this moment when he finally had her he saw someone worth sparing powder knew what she was becoming knew that jinx was taking over and i don't think she liked it so after experiencing the purest form of joy after this fleeting moment of not being jinx fighting an enemy but powder playing with her friend echo after having someone look at her without those hateful and disdainful eyes for it all to end here in a way would be a beautiful outcome even if she didn't win seeing ekko finally win after all these years was probably nice in its own way so with the look of what appears to be acceptance powder lets jinx's bomb roll echo and jinx may have survived this explosion but powder didn't her slow death which began years ago when she lost her family had come to its end this shows powder died long before jinx gave by this choice and even if i did kill caitlyn and if the two sisters did run away together anything jinx would have tried to be for vi would have been a facade broken down eventually because she is jinx in this scene she isn't really trying to offer powder back to vi she's trying to convince vi to accept jinx but vi can't seem to do this or at least she doesn't know that is what jinx needs her to do so she tries to remind her sister of the past the past where she was powder with her family milo claga and vander but powder was enveloped in the explosion on the bridge survive's words don't evoke the memories of powder but of jinx the memories of trauma of resentment of death then amidst all the shouting and screaming we arrive to a culmination after killing silko she accepts who she is it's her only option the only person she can be is jinx and she solidifies this decision with a major act of destruction reminiscent of her first and it is here where ekko's words to vi now seem to ring true powder's gone vi all that's left is jinx and she belongs the character development of powder into jinx is an interesting one because it's not just a simple powder becomes jinx it's an inner wall between who she is going to be they are not separate they are one in the same always have been but she tends to lean into one or the other at different points jinx was always there within powder and powder continued to live within jinx this wasn't took a war that started in episode nine or seven or six or four it started in episode one and in a war that started because a young girl had the best of intentions to help her family [Music] good intentions that brought upon powder's slow death and gave life to jinx

Channel: Bejit'sWord

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Keywords: arcane review, arcane analysis, arcane jinx, arcane powder, arcane silco, arcane vi, arcane caitlyn, arcane ekko, ekko vs jinx, powder becomes jinx, jinx and powder scene pack, arcane breakdown, arcane reaction, mylo and claggor death, vi finds jinx, arcane ending scene, jinx kills silco, netflix arcane, league of legends arcane reaction, arcane act 1, arcane act 2, arcane act 3, arcane opening, arcane video essay, jinx kills her friends, league of legends arcane

Id: mPqGx_5mAGg

Length: 19min 10sec (1150 seconds)

Published: Wed May 11 2022