Understanding Jinx - A Fractured Identity (Arcane)

we all want to feel useful don't we to feel needed to be told that we are already perfect just the way we are when you are an orphan of War living in the undercity where they have to claw and scrap just to survive one's worth suddenly comes into question more often than not these feelings are heightened for powder it certainly was maybe seeing her parents die so early on and watching everyone around her fight just to survive in their crime-ridden City maybe all of that made her deeply afraid of what might happen where she left alone in that world Vai understands this and her sister's fears and so she looks out for her by bringing her along on their jobs to not only make her feel useful but also to rapidly mold her into someone who can one day be useful for her own sake for her sanity and for the safety of them all when that day will come when they will have to fight back Milo and clagger constantly complained about powder's usefulness or lack thereof and from so early on we see powder with these inventions whether it's Mauser or these gadgets and bombs that she's always tinkering with powder can't fight like VI and she isn't Savvy in the ways that my Lower Echo are so she searches for her own ways to be of service to those around her so that she may never get left behind at her core she has a deep deep fear of being abandoned and so she will do whatever she must to ensure that that will never happen maybe it's this over eagerness that causes things to go wrong for her his Milo foreshadows what she is and who she will become in the very first episode she jinxes every job he says something he has repeatedly called her this mental baggage that she carries along with post-traumatic stress and the intense fear that she has even from so young it clouds her Judgment of reality at the end of the first act when Vai leaves her out of the job to say Vander powder doesn't hear anything after her sister tells her that she is not ready powder doesn't at all listen or understand when Vai tells her that she is all that VI has left and that she can't lose her only sister that it's because she loves her that she's leaving her behind to powder being left out was her worst nightmare realized and her mind could not focus on anything other than the fact that she was not ready that she was not good enough and that she is being left behind hence her extreme reaction to it all to powder being left behind means that she is not loved that she is not deserving of love because she is not strong enough which explains her Jubilation when her bomb finally Works powder is finally helpful right that action was met with the base violence necessary for change however it wasn't the slap that really damaged powder it was the answer to her simple question after realizing the horror that she had caused why did you leave me do you hear me change your progress is a common theme of this story and the story often confronts characters in the face of change challenging them to accept the fact that things are not what they once were when we meet what was once powder now in the care of zahn's King silco she too has changed we the audience are forced to accept that this is that same little girl from what feels like a lifetime ago jinx's first interaction with silco tells us that though she is so different she has not fundamentally changed as she gets angry when silke doesn't ask her to help believing that this task that silco had assigned to savika had damaged his view of her now he thinks I'm weak she says I'm not weak I'm gonna show him that sounds very similar to an if I asked her to sit out the job and later with that same determined look on her face she was desperate to prove that she could help that she had value but instead of the monkey bomb this time she blows a building to pieces and kills a few dozen enforcers Jinx has changed so much and yet not at all and much of that change is because of silco are like two planets that Jinx orbits around Jinx in her Quest For Love attaches herself to those who are willing to offer her that affection these are the two people that have helped shape her the most into who she is and they are big parts of why her identity becomes so fractured first and foremost I think it's important to point out the fact that silco absolutely does love Jinx unconditionally even she understands the girl to a degree that not many do silco understands jinx's constant need for reassurance he understands where all this stems from trauma from the war the undercity being an orphan he understands her feelings of hurt and betrayal by a sibling because he too felt betrayed by his brother he understands her deep deep guilt over the fact that she killed Vander and her friends and while he doesn't share that guilt he accepts her despite everything that she's done despite all of the mistakes that she's made no matter how bad of a person she might feel that she is he accepts her silco trusts Jinx he wants to hear the story from her perspective silco has given Jinx chances upon chances silco has given Jinx grace and patience she has opened up to him about the hallucinations of Milo and clagor about what plagues her heart and her mind he's seen her go through meltdowns and bouts of psychosis he's seen it all it's been six or seven years he watched her grow Soko has seen every iteration of jinx all the highs and the lows and still like a father he remains patient and he continues to trust her despite everything he continues to love her despite everything in that time away that was exactly the type of unconditional uncompromising love that Jinx needed but at the same time it was so damaging for her he was manipulative silco tried to slowly kill off the person that she was drowning her memories trying to make her forget and Destroy powder her past life her past experiences that was not what she needed she needed to heal to grieve to mourn to accept what she had done not to detach silk called molter into both a daughter and a weapon in the fifth episode takes her to the same Waters that Vander almost drowned him in and Jinx interrupts him repeating the quote millions of times that silco had told her that Vander wasn't the man she thought he was during these years they've been together silco clouds are unstable and untrustworthy mind this little girl does his bidding and he knows that she will do it so long as he gives her praise and admiration and love Zan's King has been trying to poison whatever image she has of Vander as her father by projecting much of his own anger and his own feelings towards Vander onto jinx moreover as stated he has repeatedly tried to disconnect whatever guilt or trauma or fear that she has about what she's done or who she's hurt no it was a mistake [Music] that she shouldn't feel bad because he was a bad disloyal man regardless silico cleverly connects the Betrayal he felt with Vander to jinx his feelings of betrayal by Vi he creates common ground for understanding so she can see him as something to Aspire towards someone to be while they are the same the way he truly became silco was by letting a weak man die so he tells her that she needs to let go of her past to be forged into something greater he says let powder die Jinx is perfect he tells her and in the same Waters that he was forged in he places her into that water like a baptism you're strong now just like you're always meant to be Soco goes against what everyone has ever told her that she was too weak too weak to help out on the job not ready Jinx has certainly told him of all the things that Milo and clagor and even if I called her the worthlessness she feels and has felt and silco uses that to slowly shape the type of person he wants Jinx to be while talking directly to her he says in the third person Jinx is perfect another statement to try and disconnect powder from jinx but despite all of his efforts it is all for naught even if I is rumored to be back in the undercity as Jinx lights up the flame in search of reuniting with her sister again it's important to restate especially with Jinx is the mental baggage the trauma and the mental illness that she has affects every part of her it's hard for Jinx to gauge reality to gauge the things that people say to her or even what she's seeing with her own two eyes her senses her mind is often unreliable though she does show great awareness at times every interaction she Witnesses or is a part of is clouded and that is the struggle of her mental illness this is especially apparent when Jinx and Phi reunite and Jinks with that horror and sadness in her face genuinely asks her sister if she's real that's how debilitating her hallucinations have been but she also knows that she has changed which gives her anxiety about whether or not VI will accept her Caitlyn's mere presence is constantly warped and demonized by the hallucinations that her mind is bombarding her with making her believe that Vai has betrayed her and abandoned her again add in silco who has been hammering the idea that the two only have each other and that she should trust no one but silco only makes things worse for her in one breath she says that Silko stabbed Van Der in the back and in the next she returns to him she is aware and Confused with VI now entered as a player Jinx becomes more lost than she has ever been the hallucinations and the meltdowns get heightened because now she truly has no idea where to go or who to choose she's still stuck on that fateful day being pulled from both sides Echo plays a small part in this too he has also watched Jinx slowly unravel into the person she is today echo says that he has lost hope in her ever turning back to the person that she was and yet powder's face remains on their mural she still means so much to him and it's why he couldn't kill her when given the chance Echo is a part of her life that she has been conditioned to try and forget to try and sever and after being nursed back to hell thanks to Shimmer jinx's struggle only worsens pitting VI and silco against each other literally and physically at the table was all of jinx's internal turmoil being put out on display searching frantically for an answer forcing herself to make an impossible choice between her sister and her father both whom she loves dearly while she had everything she desired with silco as she says if I's voice and her presence was always there it kept her alive it colored her world Jinx is desperate to know which one won't abandon her and now she has to choose between who will give her what she wants trying to uncover who has been lying to her and who will ultimately love Jinx for all that she is because again at her core that is what she is searching for validation acceptance and unconditional love Vander Vai silco Echo they've all given her and shown her so much love but it is not enough it does not fulfill her her mind just won't let it she still feels like at any moment she can get left behind Shimmer has only exacerbated these fears speaking of her mind over the course of this series jinx's hallucinations while provocative and aggressive have never truly manifested like they did in this episode I like how they manifested on the operating table while she was dying when silco implores her to kill Caitlyn to hurt VI it's at this moment when this rather unique meltdown begins and once again Violet calls for powder she pleads for her sister to wake up to picture the people she loves Milo Cleghorn Vander with each name the hallucinations get worse and when slowing these images down in a split second Vander turns from his regular human form the form that Jinx knew him as into the Shimmer infused monstrosity that she killed this is her guilt once again the imagery is so telling the guilt swallows her up into a void where those three hallucinations those demons that have tormented her very existence begin to suffocate her the image of these monsters is so volatile and hostile and invasive unlike anything we've ever seen they usually last for seconds or mere moments now they exist on their own they walk around and they smother jinx and this provokes silko's anger if I was trying to help but instead triggered and worsened her mental state immensely this provokes silko's anger maybe because he knows what's happening to his daughter maybe he's seen this sort of meltdown before and like any father would he tries to stop the cause death and his words at that moment bring all of her voices and demons and monsters to a halt and it gives her this chilling clarity Jinx finally realizes that if I is unable to see jinx's powder if I implored her to remember who she is Vai is unable to recognize and accept that this is not the little girl from all those years ago if I isn't even able to call her sister jinx for Violet that's not her name it was a name that was used to demean and to belittle her sister by Milo and unfortunately by her it's an insult she can't color jinx I think VI's own guilt prevented her from accepting the fact that she played a part in her sister becoming jinx but that in itself fractured the girl's identity even more if I cannot accept that the powder she knew did terrible unforgivable things that her little sister joined the man that killed Vander that killed their father she thinks just running away from a silco will bring powder back that Jinx is just a persona if I ultimately cannot accept that powder is jinx in that Moment of clarity Jinx understands it all instead of making the impossible decision to choose between powder or Jinx or VI or Silko something else happens in all that chaos when Soco tries to stop the cause of his daughter's meltdown Jinx shoots to protect Vai it's her sister but she also understands the final words that silco tells her you're perfect and so she amalgamates all of these pieces of her identity into one finally and she makes a decision Jinx loves her sister but she has changed powder has changed powder has and will forever be a part of jinx no longer does she desire to be loved like before bye bye she does not need her sister's validation anymore Jinx is perfect a singular identity crafted and crowned all on her own separate from both silco and violet this is what she has chosen this is jinx here's to the new her [Music] [Music]

Channel: Sage's Rain

Views: 60,999

Keywords: anime, tv, arcane, television, jinx, gaming, league of legends

Id: Kx9GO90gBkk

Length: 17min 30sec (1050 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023