I’ve seen theories all over the place saying Jynx lives and fakes her death. Basically I’m going to die and go away. Leave behind all the narratives all the roles and all the people. I’m not sure I believe it or if it’s more a symbolic thing. Either way could work. Can’t wait for your opinions. My only regret is that the show is over.
I mean, Jinx's story arc is "finding a reason to go on when you lose everything". She lost Silco and Isha gives her a reason to keep going. When she lost Isha Ekko gives her a reason to keep going. Ekko literally says it : " No matter what happened in the past, its never too late to build something new."
I suppose a good re-phrasal of what Ekko said is, "No matter what happens, you still have to find something to fight for." And Jinx does just that in the end. Saying that Jinx finally died for Vi isn't the best way to look at it. She saved her, and now she's moved on (probably in that airship) to the next thing to fight/live for in life.
I think I saw a post say that jinx and ekkos interaction was supposed to include ekko telling jinx about the alt universe powder. If they included that, it would make more sense why jinx decided not to end it or (possibly) why she escaped at the end and just left.
@@Justme-to6yuOh if so, and the idea of Jinx situation is caused by the environment not by herself. It really makes sense Jinx try to change her surroundings to see if her life would be better. Great perspective
@@Justme-to6yuthat would’ve been cool and instead of trying to explain going to a parallel dimension, he could’ve said it in the same way he told AU powder about Vi. He said “I had a dream” I told her what person Vi was and grew up to be. This time he could say he had a dream about her. Maybe even apologize for giving up on her like he said he did when he was talking to AU powder. We can still imagine that’s exactly what happened.
I also love all the references to Isha's clothes that Jinx had on her oufit and on the air balloon (bunny ears, the yellow shapes from Isha's goggles, the losanges from the miner's hat...)
Building on your point regarding the music in Arcane, I’m realizing now just how deliberate it is that Isha’s song is NOT in English. Of course there are people who can hear it and understand the lyrics, but for those who can’t the song can still elicit such a strong raw emotion. I don’t need to understand the lyrics because I can FEEL the music as it builds to a triumphant crescendo. It’s as you said, a wild rune.
In a show like this, EVERYTHING is there for a reason, we just let ourselves not see it when it's a really good story and narrative. Music is the closest thing we have to a universal language, Isha's theme, the song from Ekko and Powder dancing, even if you can't translate the words, you feel them, you understand the emotion, they can cut thru to the core far better than any deep dialog.
I think you hit the nail on the head with her not liking what she has become. The end of season one had her sit in the jinx chair, but she doesn't look or sound happy at all. I think she truly didn't want to be this person, but she doesn't know who she can be. I always thought that her story was about her finding that third identity, the identity she chooses to be. And I truly think she found it with isha, because isha had no expectations like vi or needed her for a purpose like silco. She was just herself with isha, just her goofy, playful, genius self. Edit: Holy shit, im famous.
So Jinx evolved from Harley Quinn and having two personalities Powder and Jinx to develop a third, like Moon Knight? Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley.
@@PillowEggI would say that it's the combination of jinx and powder. Not a new personality, but her excepting every part of herself. In season one, jinx refers to powder as a completely different person with hatred. She told vi powder fell down a well, like her and powder are completely different people. But she told isha she used to be called powder. She excepted who she was and still is.
The voice actor for Ekko Reed Lorenzo came out on his social media to take about sucide awareness and talk how Jinx wanted to die . During these times and there are things to live for
oh my gosh he DID?!?!?! I'm so so so so glad!!! I'm not sure I'll watch this analysis, even though I love his other vids about Arcane, cuz my brother commited suicide and i really don't want a breakdown of that process, even if she's a fictional chararacter...I'm so glad he did that, thanks so much for telling me!!
@@AdaminTranzit Going through such an experience is a pretty hard process, there can be a lot of feelings such as "did I cause this" or "was I not good enough to help". Those are not logical feelings, often times things are far more grand scale than the actions of one individual (as I'm sure you're aware), but that is not going to stop people from worring about it. I don't know what's going on in your life, and as such I cannot make promises, but I urge you to consider the result of your actions on others. Often times people care more than they show, whether it's because they are emotionally constipated or because they worry about making things depressing. Sorry for writing a huge paragraph, and I hope this comment did more good than bad, I just worry is all.
Vander’s apology letter to Silco is the same message that both Vi and Jinx want to say to each other. Vi even turns around and reaches to Jinx but stops herself. In that moment, she had one gauntlet off, whereas with Caitlyn, when she was at her most vulnerable, she dropped both gauntlets off. Vi even looks at Jinx while they walk as though she wants to say something but is afraid to. Like she has one more wall holding herself back.
i dont know if it is because my mom is also deaf, but i presumed she was deaf from the start and didnt even think she could be mute, so its crazy seeing people be surprised abt it
Ironically, I think it was Vander’s instructions of “you’ve got a good heart, don’t ever lose it” that has shaped Vi the way she is. As Schnee describes, out of all the characters in Arcane, she is the one that has changed the least. In season one, her “protect the family” heart made her act on reckless impulse and it shot herself in the foot. Yet now, in act one of season two, her good heart saved a kid and acted more as a blessing than a curse. But even though she did the right thing - possibly even saving Caitlyn from the guilt of killing a kid like Jayce did - she was still betrayed and left by Caitlyn. No wonder it seems so easy for Vi to believe that nothing she does will be right.
@@lockekappa500 tbf at the moment I can't believe anything he says could rectify it and the way the end of the season was written. I sure hope so, but I don't believe so.
Suicide is most often a means of controlling a life that you don't feel you have any control over otherwise. I don't think Jinx actually wants to die, but rather, she wants to be able to control circumstances so that she stops hurting those close to her. Vi has self-destructive tendancies, too, but they are about holding on to things that hurt her, connections that are mutually destructive. Jinx wants the opposite, to be able to let go and walk away.
If we go off of that idea, Jinx having a planned narrative makes more sense. She hasn't had any control up until now so she's going to have complete control over her death. I mean think about ep. 3. She lures Vi into this old cavern/temple thing, surrounded them with portraits/drawings of their past, and had Vi actually killed Jinx (and possibly died herself) it would've been followed by the colored explosions. Jinx wanted spectacle, she wanted her death (and maybe Vi's) to be this big meaningful and symbolic ending to a tragedy. Now the more I think about it Jinx has always had a thing for symbols. Ravens/raven feathers on the Jinx chair bc she's a deadly force, the monkey became a symbol for her destructiveness, keeping bunny pinned above her workbench, Her tattoos of the flare smoke. I'm sure there's more but that's just off the top of my head. Also realized if Jinx saw ep. 3 as an end of a tragedy that plays into the opening being a bunch of references to classic tragedies.
@@ashallen2143 Can we talk about the symbol of her destructive force, the monkey, was literally in the machine that allowed for Ekko to save both her life and eventually the whole world.
The fact that this was made before Act 3 is INSANE. The labels discussion that Silco's image has, Jinx faking her death and escaping Piltover was an attempt to remove that Jinx label! Seriously excellent stuff. I'm almost suspicious that you watched it early, seriously.
Silco's words meant it all. Cause Jinx said it: "Death aint no mercy" So she couldnt die, but to survive and end the cycle. Its a shame that she couldnt spent more time with Ekko.
6:48 another thing to the possible deafness but definite non-verbalness is that Jinx has been haunted by the dead screaming at her for YEARS, but then comes in this girl who is seeing the world through actions, not words. She doesn’t know about the about the horrible way Jinx sees herself- as a family killer, she sees her as a hero and an older sister. And while Jinx is with Isha the screaming voices seem to die down, because she’s happy but also because she doesn’t have to deal with more *real* voices. But after Isha’s gone I love the detail that unlike everyone else, Isha isn’t in Jinx’s head screaming at her. Because she *cant*, her death isn’t a loud ghost, it’s just a silent emptiness in Jinx’s life. And that’s just so tragic..
I was ecstatic when I saw Isha sign, too! My grandparents are deaf and ASL is a second language in my family. From what I could tell, if Isha was using ASL, she was loosely signing, "Again - Game." Which is ironic because that’s not what she wanted to say. And holding up her fists like a fight and stomping her foot like 'now'. Although those aren't the ASL signs for "Fight - Now". Like you said, my guess is that she made up her own sign language with Jinx and, whatever else she wants to convey, she mostly uses gestures and relies of Jinx to mostly read her mind. Too cute!
the "again- game" actually is what she wants to say, i think. she was demanding a rematch between the scuttle crabs because she wasn't fond of the outcome
Jinx lived she escaped in the air vents that is what Cait was looking at in the end of the episode and she holding a piece of the bomb and that was her on the blimp at the end. She walked away like Silco told her too in ep 8 , also if you go to the arcane wiki it says she is alive but presumed dead so she survived and left piltover/zaun..
SHE DID?!!?!!?!!?!?!?!?!!? OMG THAT'S WHY CAIT WAS LOOKING AT THAT DIAGRAM?!?!?!?!?!? OH MY GOSH MY HEART!!!!!! I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THAT!!!!! THAT MAKES ME FEEL SO MUCH BETTER ABOUT THE ENDING!!!! I WAS DEPRESSED FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF AFTER I FINISHED IT AND PROBABLY WOULD'VE BEEN FOR MORE IF I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!!!!!! OMG THANK YOU!!!!!
@@princessthyemis YES she did and try watching the BTS of ARCANE released you wont see anyone mentioning Jinx's sacrifice , which would have atleast expected from ELLA Purnell ryt ? and the nectric interview with Arcane's CO creator , he said that it's worth continuing their story forward (ekko and jinx's)
@@princessthyemis more explicitly, there's a purple flash during the explosion in one of the pipes that lead to air vents, plus the airship thing which is referring to "One day I'm gonna fly on one of these" from s1ep1
There's something beautiful about her escaping. This whole time she's tried to die many, many times, but was unsuccessful because of other people intervening. In this moment as she's falling with Warwick, there are 3 things that could kill her. The impact at the bottom of the shaft could kill her, Warwick could kill her, and the bomb could kill her. She had 3 opportunities to die in that moment and nobody would intervene, and she chose to live.
Also, adding to the "it had to be you" part, it would make a poetic narrative end as well. In Season 1 Episode 9 she told Vi that SHE created Jinx, not Silco not anyone else, Vi. So her, also killing Jinx, what she created, would be a poetic end to Jinx as well as give a "good" ending to Vi, whom I believe Jinx -or, she anyways- still loves
This has made me realize that Jinx has always had a thing about symbolism in her life. The reunion with Vi was this enotional lighting of the flare that'd shed been waiting for years to use, Choosing to be Jinx over powder was this dramatic tea party that ended in a war, Her death in ep 3 would've ended in colorful explosions all over Piltover. She's always had a tendency for drama Other examples: Ravens on the chair bc Jinx is a deadly force, powder chair being all pastels and crayons to represent the innocence she had, the monkey becoming her mark/logo specifically for being destructive/dangerous, the flare smoke tattoos (Theres probably more but that's just off the top of my head)
Watching Jinx go from gremlin Temu-Harley-Quinn LoL mascot to an absolute personification of suicide-awareness and self-worth is one of the most harrowing but most substantial glow-ups that I've ever seen in media.
Your analysis means a lot to me, as someone who's been suicidal in the past. I thought of myself as a failure and someone who caused others pain, just as Jinx did (even with the whole alter ego thing, as you explained with Vander/Warwick, and Vi/"Puncher" Vi). Just like Jinx and Isha though, I met someone who was similar to me, my ex-girlfriend who was also suicidal at times. She saw me as someone without the "baggage" as you said, and I helped her out of her suicidal stage. She was the best person I ever met, she motivated me to continue living and be strong, like Isha for Powder. Our paths diverged unfortunately, and even now I'm slipping back into that stage. Your video showed me something though: no matter the past any person has had, there is still a chance for a better life, so long as we're still here. Even if our past does scar us (and may still define our actions in our new lives, even to the extent where we can be destructive despite not wanting to be), there's still a chance for that future, because there's still hope. Hope in protecting others, hope in enjoyment, hope in just living LIFE as a whole. Isha showed Powder this with such an optimism to such to the extent that Powder was able to shake off the Jinx identity, and your analysis of humanity showed that life really is worth living, no matter the baggage. Because despite our imperfections, of me or my ex, there's no reason we can't live life just the way it is. Not even if we are on separate blimps to different lands, but just for anyone as a whole. Because we're human. 🙂 I understand my life a lot better now thanks to your explanation, and have a reason to keep living. Don't know if my comment will get lost in the jumble, but I just wanted to say you changed someone's life today, schnee. Thanks for the great video, you DEFINITELY earned yourself a sub!!!
When she said "Jinx is dead." I felt like she meant dead to the people of Zaun. Sevika and Isha tried to convince her to show up to her fans who weren't even sure if she is locked up somwhere or if she's even alive but Jinx wanted to stay out of sight and presumed to be dead. (And with that unattached to the whole leader of the riot and hero of the day idea.)
Ooo I didn’t think of that at all! Sick interpretation. My first thought was that she was referring to her actions and desire to be seen. Like her active role in the wider world and her presence as “Jinx” was dead. She wanted to step away from everything and that was killing that idea of “Jinx” that the Zaunites decided to champion. Season 1 she wanted to leave her mark on everything. She left fingerprints via her tags and spent the season slowly walking closer to that character of “Jinx.” She came to embrace the insanity as a character trait and everyone knew her name, even though it was killing her. Season 2, at this point in the story, Jinx wishes she was a shadow. She wanted desperately to walk entirely out of that spotlight, as she only saw that version of herself that she hated most.
That's also how I interpreted it. A big part of jinx's character for me is her lack of confidence. She lives behind this persona, and her theatrics are an act that does spur her to act, but she is clearly traumatized about how whatever she does it leads to people she cares about dying, like her family in S1 Act 1 or Silco in S1 Act 3. Even the alternate universe Powder is afraid to lose ''who she is'', and hasn't realistically tinkered for a hile, working as a bar maid until Ekko has her help with his own project. Vander mentions how he hasn't seen her act so alive, so i think it validates this. Her saying Jinx is '"dead'' was how she was off the grid, dead to world. Isha is showing her posters to spur her hero to action, because she only sees Jinx through this lense, but Jinx doesn't see how she can do any good.
@@_indigo_inked That also sounds very reasonable! Now think maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. While she wanted to physically be a ghost to the people she also felt like she lost her inner Jinx-ness to herself as well. S1 Jinx wouldn't have taken on the leader rolle either but she would have gone out of her way to play around with the enforcers and make the most fun out of the situation not just sitting in her hideout. So maybe at this point her original idea about what it means to be Jinx is dead. This idealised fun version is dead and only the weight of this role is left.
It's very obvious she's alive, there's a pink dash out of the explosion, Caitlyn looks at air ducts off to the side, and powder said she was gonna ride an airship one day and that's what the show ends on
Dude holy shit how did I never even think about the fact isha is partially (?) Deaf??? Just small details like her looking at lips to possibly try read them or watching facial expressions or being unable to react to things out of her sight is just such an awesome amount of detail. Im still in the camp that season 2 wasnt as tight as season 1 but a few more schnee vids might change my mind
Parents of deaf people see these signs, Audiologists, speech therapists, ASL teachers, ENT specialists, see it all the time. When we meet very young children we look for the signs that they cannot hear. It is almost second nature. The eye engagement is just different in people with severe hearing impairment, it is normal for people to track sound sources, this doesn't happen with sever and profound deafness. Most deaf people don't want it known that they are deaf. We never registered my daughter as deaf, as when she hit her adult life she would be on a list that she might not wish to be on. Later, when she was 20, she decided the benefits were worth it, but I didn't want to make that decision for her.
@@bluecatOMG Most people who use Sign Language aren't deaf. Isha and Jinx have been together for, at the minimum 3 months, to just under a year by that time. Show never indicates the passage of time properly. Simple gestures combined with context and expression can convey more meaning than you realize.
Jinx understands the problem of roles/labels/vicious circle. In her own eyes, she is the embodiment of misfortune, and as long as she is Jinx, she and those dear to her won't be able to live happily.And no, she can't become Powder again, because Powder is gone, there is only a curse in the form of herself. How to get rid of the curse? Jinx knows only the path of violence, the only option is suicide. "No matter what happened in the past, it's never too late to build something new. Someone worth building it for" - words Ekko borrowed from AU Powder, which showed Jinx that there is another path. What is interesting - Jinx is constantly told that if she put her mind into it she could create smth beautiful and help others, but, unfortunately, until Ekko she'd heard those words from people who do not know her history, her curse. For example Viktor. Oh and AU Vander tells Powder that she is a genius and can do whatever she wants, that she deserves more. For her though, such words were a mockery from bystanders. But then the words are spoken by Ekko, who saw everything she did, and he proves to her what she heard in prison from Silko (that is, she told herself) - you can leave the cage, but you don't have to die to do it. I really adore the last Vi and Jinx scene. It parallels their most important scenes from all the show - their job in Piltover, death of Vander, reunion fight, Isha's heroic last moment and probably others. But the most beautiful thing is the reversal of their roles. This time Vi is blinded by her trauma, she doesn't see herself being trapped in vicious circle, she doesn't realized yet that her protector-puncher role is her source of suffering. BUT JINX DOES. Vi's whole goal is to keep her family safe even if it means she herself will be miserable or even dead. Vi's not ready for Vander to return in face of Warwick but Jinx is ("nothing ever stays dead") and then Vi is not ready to let him go so soon yet again, but Jinx is, Jinx immediately understands he can't be saved. Jinx sees Vi's tears over Vander (clearly Vi was not ready to fight him neither did she want to. She just froze possibly thinking how to save him). Jinx does NOT choose to give up her life. I think she is finally escaped the mindset "I'm the monster, I shouldn't exist". Because in that moment, when Vi cries and Warwick grabs her, Jinx instantly understands that it is time for her (Jinx) to protect her sister, to kill all the monsters, to clear path for their family. And I believe that Jinx is still alive. She is just not in Piltover or Zaun because sisters need time to heal and to find their own purposes in life (and not to live just to protect the other - that's not healthy). And may be one day they'll meet again if they choose to!
When it comes to Jinx's fate, the difference between that moment and her other attempts at death is how she gives resolution to Vi and passes on what she's learned from Isha and Ekko. First, she learns that Vi will never stop, and never let herself have an independent life, when there is always a chance to be with her sister "you're never going to give up on me, are you?" If Jinx/Powder is dead, Vi no longer has to protect her. But her first attempt is to just die, as things are. There is a self-realization, but she hasn't returned this knowledge to the community, and that's what Ekko comes to help her realize. So by the end she ultimately still "dies" (shes not dead, very important to her arc I think) but by standing side by side with Vi and closing that book for her knowing that they're sisters again, even if it's not particularly happy. Jinx, by removing herself from the equation in this way, is breaking Vi out of her identity prison for her. I think it's also important that her big flashy act of "self-sacrifice" isn't to save the day. The threat of the Glorious Evolution and invasion of Noxus had already been defeated. When it comes to every single major shift in Jinx/Powder's life, it's always been unintentional, and also always changed the status quo of Piltover/Zaun fundamentally. Isha's big moment of heroism went according to plan, every beat was intentional, and she in turn saves just the moment and the people around her. No memorial, and nobody even knows about what happened in that corner of Zaun. Jinx's sacrifice at the end is to only save Vi and force her specifically to break free of her former identity, a completely personal and intimate moment, done with intention. A bit of an unworked thesis: I think there's something really integral to the narrative about intention and unintention. Vi's role as a big sister has always been acts of intention, trying so hard to shape Powder into a better person and keep her safe. Whereas Jinx in that role is completely irresponsible, creates no boundaries, Isha always vunerable and in harms way, and yet Isha turns out to basically be "Powder if everything went right". Back to the scene when she explains to Caitlyn that she didn't know her mother was in the room, not at all a personal attack. Back to the only heroic act Jinx can accept, the prison break, unlike the 'returning of the grey' to piltover which was so much bigger and had greater impact on the world, one was intentional and personal (she did the prison break to save Isha) the other was completely unintentional and didn't go as according to her plan. When we think about prison breaks, literal and metaphorical, in this season; I think the reason why Jinx refutes "rewriting her story" the first time when Vi comes to break her out of prison is Vi isn't actually breaking her out of her metaphorical prison of identity. I think she knows the situation of Piltover/Zaun is far too big and impersonal for such acts of intention to cause the intended outcome. "No amount of good deeds can undo your crimes" Jinx can't simply just "become a hero of Piltover" by saving the day as she did for Zaun, even in a self-sacrifice. If you take Caitlyn's big speech at the end and think about the hextech rune/wild rune context (intentional language and natural unintentional language) History will make it all "palatably abstract" none of the personal sacrifice will likely be mentioned and just as the conversation with Silco and Jayce happened in S1 about how the city was founded to protect themselves from outside invaders, the lack of context in history of the final battle in the show will doom the city to repeat the same ebbs and flows. So Jinx doesn't do a self-sacrifice to save the day/city, she does it to just save her sister. She knows she can force Vi out of her identity prison but also chooses to remain "dead" so the problem of Jinx is removed from equation when it comes to Piltover/Zaun's quest for peace, and 'walks away' (literally leaves the city). side note: but when it comes to the Isha deaf thing I think it makes sense and has added validity when you consider that Jinx's main characteristic is she "hears voices" so even from the standpoint of a writing room, why not pair the character who hears voices in her head with one who mostly can't hear voices at all. Just a solid dynamic with a lot of possibilities from a writing perspective. edit/addition: I was thinking more on how tight Season 1 was and how tight the narrative of Season 2 actually is or not. Particularly how people seem annoyed that Vi and Jinx were no longer really the focus of the finale but the way the Vi/Jinx narrative and Jayce/Viktor stuff still mesh well for the finale imo is that the show's key theme about transformation is given two answers in each subplot. Viktor wants to unify the world to solve all of its problems but in turn remove our identities. Jinx realizes, and her narrative shows the audience, that we are not bound by 1 identity but can transform infinitely. This in turn obviously doesn't solve all the world's problems, but the pursuit is still there, people are still trying, transforming, and moments are peace are possible. This is all off the cuff, I hope this makes any sense
woah that's so well put, didn't think of it that way but it makes so much sense! also about the hearing voices thing, damn, there's been this chain mail-like comment going round which went something like "i read it somewhere and cried so now you must suffer too: at least isha won't be one of the voices that jinx hears" but the antithesis of the one who hears voices and the one who hears none is so much more powerful.
I was looking for a comment like this. It aligns pretty well with my own interpretation of the ending. I agree that the stories of Jayce/Victor and Jinx/Vi are very much about the same thing. The line that stands out for me is what victor says right before Ecko's "timebomb" goes off. He says, "That device, can't, be." His current belief is that he has found, "the message hidden within the pattern". He knows that it's our love that also makes us do evil, hateful things. However, Ekko's "timebomb" is evidence of the fact that it is not love that makes us do evil things but our attachments. And if we can be detached/"walk away" and focus on the present moment. We can avoid the pain that comes with being attached and also love fully at the same time. Avoiding the pattern completely. This is why Jinx chooses to walk away and live at the end. This is her reaching her full potential as a source of chaos. By definition chaos has not pattern. Jinx embodies chaos. Therefore, Jinx is the only one in the story who can break the pattern. She does this by becoming detached. She detaches herself physically and emotionally from Powder, Jinx, her identity as Isha's guardian, Vander, Vi, Ecko, her city, and suicide. She still loves those people, places and identities, but by the end she is no longer attached to it emotionally and physically. Committing suicide would not have been breaking the pattern. Because that would have meant that she was still attached to that narrative driven outcome. This is maybe why people can't accept that she is alive. They want or think that the pattern should continue to the very end of the show. This is an idea that comes from Buddhism. Love and attachment are not the same thing.
@@rampantporcupineandfriends3793 Yea I think you're spot on. I was thinking about that difference between love and attachment but i dont know why i didn't associate that with the line about walking away. This is a throughline in a lot of stories, particularly Star Wars, that I've always really liked.
Very well thought out even if it's unfiltered! Do you have any thoughts on Vi's perspective on this? I'm torn on whether she could actually move on thinking she's dead to save her, I feel she'd be burdened with such guilt over it. People are saying her dying is the only way she'd 'give up' on protecting her sister, but maybe she's grown enough to accept that Jinx might need to walk away. I mean, Caitlyn's holding the monkey bomb in the same room, someone has to have gone to check for the body, and I would imagine Vi would have found out it wasn't there. Maybe the uncertainty is enough, she can believe she's alive "worlds apart" but doesn't want to confirm for sure because that's clearly not what Jinx wants and if she's dead she doesn't want to find out.
In an interview Christian Linke said (talking both about Jinx and AU Powder) "Powder is such an amazing example of what Zaun can be". Thinking about it, I think her arc is narratively intertwined with Zaun. Any time she has the choice between being more Jinx or more Powder, Zaun also has the choice between a brighter future or a darker one. All the events that shape Zaun's future also shape her future.
I feel like the line "It had to be you" becomes even more interesting in the context of episode 7 (Act 3 spoilers by the by), considering the extra layer it adds in what it represents for the story. We see that in this perfect universe, where Powder never became Jinx, Mylo and Claggor are alive, and Vander and Silco have reconciled, Vi is dead. Which while I was watching it, gave me this realization of "Oh, these two characters cannot be happy together, it's just not possible." Of course we never see any timelines other than the happy ending, the doomsday, and the main timeline, but I feel like it's pretty safe to assume that Vi and Jinx as a rule aren't allowed to be happy together. Which imo is a really interesting twist to one of the series' main themes, being unity. That dichotomy makes into "unity should be pursued, but some unities are not meant to be." In part, it almost kind of annoys me that the finale happened the way it did, and I kind of wish that Piltover and Zaun had been like Vi and Jinx. A unity that isn't meant to be.
Another thing I noticed is that Isha does not shy away sacrificing herself and dying in the process. I feel this is a lot because of how she models herself after her new big sister, and she frequently sees Jinx putting herself in harms way and not doing much about the possible harm that might come to her. Which makes Jinx losing Isha all the more painful since she basically "jinxed" Isha in a literal sense, Isha even *looks* like jinx, has her characteristics
This is perfect considering that I am 100% convinced that Jinx survived and that it’s her on that airship in the final shot. She walked away and learned the lesson Isha was trying to teach her.
the silco talk was jinx convincing herself that it was finally time to give up, but auPowder reminds Ekko who reminds Jinx that you have always been free. Jinx and Vi are so used to playing their roles, they can't imagine anything new. Jinx realizes she has always had agency and finally exercises it to take up Vi's role instead and she breaks Vi out of her role by removing the last thing Vi felt she had to protect
Naw, it aged fine. She both said what she'd did to Vi and cait realized it at the end of the episode, she escaped into the vents, unless cait just likes staring at schematics and smirking...
It felt like there a was a massive theme regarding sacrifice this season that were embodied by Ekkos words. When Ekko was talking to the alternate timeline Powder he said, "Sometimes taking a leap forward means leaving a few things behind" and I couldnt help but think that was played out to a large degree especially in the later half of the season. Heimerdinger sacrificed himself to return Ekko to his timeline, Viktor and Jayce presumably sacrificed themselves to save piltover/zaun, Caitlyn sacrificed her eye to give Mel the advtange against her mom and therefore "win", Isha sacrificed herself to save Jinx and the others, and at the end Jinx obviously sacrificed herself to save Vi. I don't think these "sacrifices" are neccascarily physical / only death in nature, it felt more like the were trying to "right their wrongs" in a way (or something else other than death at least). For example, it felt like Heimerdinger was extremely wary almost the entire show, his extensive lifetime bringing about a barrier that prevented him from taking any sort of leap of faiths and "leaving something behind" in essence, which can especially be seen in season 1 where he tells Viktor and Jayce to give Hextech another decade or so. With Ekko, he took that leap of faith, in the process leaving behind his old self physically and mentally in order to save him. I feel like it could also be seen with Jinx at the end as well. We obviously know based off the show and this video that Jinx is wanting to die a majority of the season, so the "leap of faith, leaving something behind" feels like it makes less sense with her at the end, until you think about how she is taking down Vander with her. Im not entirely convinced Jinx was intent on going through with killing Vi in the first act, and it was more like she was illustrating that she wouldn't go down without a fight whether that's for herself or to make it seem like Vi didn't have a choice Im not entirely sure. In other words, It felt like Jinx was trying to keep what little family she had left alive at a minimum. Which can be seen with her care towards, Vander, Vi, and Isha. It was also Jinx who was much more open and intent on helping Vander as opposed to Vi, at least initially. So at the end, when she sacrifices herself along with Vander, I think that's her taking her leap of faith. Anyways, this is just my raw thoughts, so there might be some holes or something Im not remembering. Feel free to let me know if that's the case, or to provide your opinion as well
@@novachromatic Thats true. If she died or if she didn't, she took that leap of faith and "sacrificed" a part of herself whether that's physically or mentally / both.
16:04 she actually does escape explosion, fun fun fact here. You see that streak of purple and the blimp at the end and her hand writing. Not only that, but the air ducts. She did walk away
Honestly, Arcane has been an incredibly, encompassing story about life. The truth is life doesn’t work like a story with “and they lived happily ever after”. As the trailer said, “Every ending… has a new beginning.” And Viktor says, “Evolution has a destination. Not to combat nature, but to supersede it.” All the characters in this story constantly evolve, constantly affect each others lives, and can never escape our capacity to perform our greatest good and our greatest evil… because life keeps happening. Life isn’t a short and sweet story with a neat beginning, middle, and ending. New things will constantly happen to us our whole lives. Every time we think a trauma or an event is going to destroy us, the story continues. Over and over, we are going to face new trauma, or pain, or feel incredible loss. But we’re still here, even if we’re questioning, “why?” If we looked at the world as a whole, we would undoubtedly believe humanity isn’t worth saving. But if we look just through our individual eyes at the people who loved us, who touched our lives, we believe that is worth saving.
I feel like her sacrifice was inevitable. Even in season 1 after her fight with Ekko she pulls the pin on her bomb attempting to end her life. Her sucidal thoughts and self inflicted wounds have been around throughout her time as an adult/older kid and I feel that her saving Vi but still killing Vander is a great roundabout moment to tie this series together. I also feel the need to mention that Isha died in act 2, leaving act 3 Jinx an emotional wreck who lost the last real person she cared about who still cared for her unconditionally.
Yeah I agree, a lot of people don't like Jinx's sacrifice or think she didn't actually die (which I don't really have an opinion on, that's not how I interpreted the ending), but I think it fits perfectly. In many ways Arcane has always been a tragedy, a story where if just one thing went differently, everything would have been okay, but that's just not how the story goes. It was always going to end this way. Jinx had been suicidal for a long time and biologically should have died in S1 if Singed didn't infuse her with shimmer, she has been through hell and back a million times and despite how much I love her, she is a pretty broken person, especially after Isha's death. As Schnee said, the narrative that is Jinx was always going to end in her death, that's how the story goes. Isha began to try to show Jinx that it could be different and she could live free of this narrative label, but unfortunately couldn't fully show her before dying - just another 'what if' moment. It all feels so melancholic and beautiful, I adore it.
@@jamon8139 I mean it is possible to honour that narrative and also have the character survive. You just have the Jynx part die. I still don't like the ending though. On one hand you have the explicit narrative around suicide appearing to lead to her death - which sucks. On the other hand you have with the pink streak, catitlyn looking at ducts, airship etc. Since Jynx surviving is pretty meaningful to the whole arc I hate that it's basically being told through easter eggs
@@christopherjohnston6343this is only my opinion, but I take heart knowing it is somewhat shared. I find the implied idea that she survived a lot more satisfying. There's a hopeful thought that even if she didn't tell Vi on her way out, Vi would eventually learn the truth but by then may have been able to move on from the NEED to protect her. If they were to ever meet again it could be after they've managed to make something of themselves.
Okay, I wasn't sure if someone else had pointed it out yet, but she still broke the cycle by "walking away", she just made it easier on Vi to get closure
I don't think Jinx always wanted to die. Initially, she was overwhelmed by the consequences of her actions, especially when they spiraled out of control. The regret she felt began to weigh heavily on her, and in her isolation, she struggled to find a way to atone or fix what had happened. This inability to cope or resolve her pain likely led her to view death as the only escape. After meeting Isha, however, her perspective began to shift. I believe that being saved by Isha gave her a new sense of purpose, a feeling that her life still held value. In a way, she saw herself stepping into the role that Silco once played in her life-providing structure and meaning. Isha's intervention reminded her of what Silco used to offer: a framework through which she could channel her talents and energy, preventing her from succumbing to the darkness of her past.
Spoilers for Act 3 of course... I think an important point to Isha's tragic death is that since Jinx sees her as powder 2.0, she takes on the mantle of protector to herself (I'm reminded of the original Enemy music video), and Isha is a way for Jinx to do over her past and build a better version of herself without all the tragedy. It was her final piece of hope she clung onto. Then, powder 2.0 repeated her actions, killing vander, and leading to more tragedy and destruction. It showed Jinx that even the best version of herself is a destructive force that only leads to death (she talks about this when she locks Vi up), and Isha's death just proved that there is no hope. The wasteland chorus "This world is a wasteland where nothing can grow / I used to have strength, but I ran out of hope / I know it's my fault that I'm here all alone" expands upon this idea, her end is fated, she cant grow. Isha was her strength and hope, her best self, but tragedy and death are directly tied to her own raw identity that Silco and you were talking about. Jinx isn't a corrupted version of Powder, it is just grown up powder, it was inevitable, and thus there is no hope to fix it. That is why I also think episode 7 was so emotionally impactful to us, to Ekko, and why his words to Jinx were so powerful, because we saw that it wasn't Jinx's raw wild runeness identity but actually her environment that lead to her own tragedy. From a aristotelian tragedy perspective, we see that the exciting force was not the heist explosion but the discovery of hextech, which was not caused by powder, so when that never happens powder grows into adult powder without all the complications in the main timeline. We see that her conclusion of hopelessness is false. Additionally, the bookending of her death replicating the first scene of the show kind of acts as a conclusion to the line "it had to be you," since it was still Vi in a way where there was that tragic ironic bookendedness, but not in the way she expected. I am just incredibly excited to see your opinion on the rest of Act III as well as the rest of season 2.
I also was thinking about what jinx dying her hair purple could represent, like letting out that wild rune energy, the eye of zaun, a merging of piltoevr and zaun, but I couldn't really figure it out. Its definitely a representation of her transition into accepting of herself, not acceptance of the jinx persona, but of herself. I currently like the connection to the wild rune since the purple isn't shimmer purple its more hexcore purple but I'm not entirely sure since there's also the parallel to alternate timeline powder with the strip of Vi pink in her hair.
i am never missing an schnee arcane video, or any schnee videos. you give me such great ideas and your work is beautifully done. keep going in inspiring others.
Something interesting about episode 7 relating to this is that (correct me if I'm wrong) they barely if ever use powder/jinx's name, reinforcing the fact that the ideal version of her doesn't have a "story" (so many random parallels to across the spiderverse also lmao(having a story at all seems gross))
I wonder if Vi’s three rules she learned from Vander about trust have to do with two things. One, her “shut up” lesson to Mylo. And two, her lesson to Caitlyn about “letting people think you have what they want.” “See this look on my face? This will always mean it’s time to shut up.” So, Vi saw something in Caitlyn’s face to know she could trust her sincerity? Vi also seemed to see something in Jinx’s tearful eyes to know she was telling the truth about Vander being alive. And looking back, Vi does tend to let her opponents talk and talk while she listens and plans her next move. Like with Silco outside her old house, or when Ekko kidnapped and interrogated her, or when Caitlyn implores Ekko to give back the gemstone.
Seeing Vi zone out and cry over Vander’s body… Jinx finally gets how much pain Vi was in. “You can’t save him.” And Vi still doesn’t respond. And then we get the shot of Vander’s bleeding head from Vi’s perspective that night! We, the audience were on the left, but now we see from Vi’s POV on the right. Jinx finally understands how Vi is not as invincible as she thought. She knows now Vi didn’t consciously choose to slap her that night, she was mentally overwhelmed with the pain of losing Vander. That reframing of the events that night is just gorgeous!
8:23 okie that transition is wild (i love hearing abt how isha might be nerve deaf, arcane really does their work in including all types of people and making them more than what makes them 'different')
Wow, you deduced all of this BEFORE watching act 3... thank you for helping me understand the themes of this season. After falling in love so much with S1, I was really unsatisfied with the tonal shift that S2 has made and was unhappy with the ending because I didnt understand these themes. But you make it make sense. Thanks Schnee ❤
Absolutely love LOVE this analysis of Isha. I can feel the show falling into place. Looking forward to further analysis on Jinx. I think there's pretty good evidence that she survived the blast, intentionally faking her own death. In my opinion, this fits with your theory and is well-supported by the text. So many thoughts. Let the second great wave of Arcane analysis begin!!
I knew Isha was key to decoding some of this but you and the patrons put it into words in a way I couldn’t for the life of me. I can’t wait for your videos about Ekko and powder, that arc was my favorite part of this season
I also thought that Isha was deaf, but there's a few moments that contradict it somewhat. Here's one of them: When Jinx, Isha and Vi are in the underground tunnel, Vi says 'or do you not want the kid to know how delusional you are' and Isha reacts, even tho Jinx does not slow down or react at all to what was said yet. Later on, for example, Jinx stops altogether and Isha does not even notice, she just keeps walking to the fork in the tunnel, which makes a bit more sense. In the same scene, Jinx says 'I kicked her butt' while Isha is lookign away completely, and Isha chuckles, even tho she was not supposed to hear it, and there was nothing other than speech to react to
You always notice things i miss! These videos rly helped me view arcane season 1 in a whole different light, and I’m so glad you’re here to do that for season 2 as well :))
I'm hard of hearing, it's hard to say exactly if Isha is deaf/hard of hearing, or nonverbal for a different reason. But I caught some signs she did that look A LOT like asking for "again game" right before jinx says "rematch?" during the bug battle. I can definitely see some of myself in her through the signing and what seems to be lip reading. I love that Arcane makes characters whose disabilities are a part of them and aren't glossed over, but aren't the only part of their characterization.
3:05 I don't think the jinxers see her as a hero ? I mean, it felt like they understood her, that she was just someone like them trying to survive and be free ? She is a symbol to them, but they are human with her and definitly not saying her as a hero. And so I think they are understanding her. Anyway I just chocked on a line, but the video is amazing. Its like I've seen all the pieces myself, but having someone say them... wow. It clicked in my brain. It is so clear I can remember it now
The point about the music makes so much sense in the context of the language choices in e6 & 7. The audience at large isn't meant to understand the Chinese and French at the moment; understanding the lyrics was INTENTIONALLY removed in favor of understanding the emotion.
Insight on Jinx’s mindset in her final moments saving Vi. About ten years ago I was in my the same emotional place. I decided to end the suffering. Almost immediately after deciding that, I thought about backing out or what kind of footprint my life would have after I was dead. I imagined someone younger than me accidentally running in the road and myself saving them. I was fine with dying that way, because then my death would-in this weird way-have a positive outcome. I promised myself that I would die saving someone else the next chance I got. I think Ekko’s motivation didn’t make Jinx agree to live, but just to put off her death for a little while. Su*c*de is always something you can come back to later. For Jinx, the opportunity to save someone else by sacrificing herself could have been exactly what she wanted. Better still that it was Vi, and Vi deserved to live and be happy in Jinx’s eyes. (I’m doing okay now dw)
I thought Jinx's main goal at the beginning of the season, when she's finally alone and united instead of be fractured, was to figure out how to value herself. I thought she would love Zaun and its people, following Silko's precepts, and find love and support among them. Become a hero against all odds and realize so she's not Jinx in a bad way. But Isha arrives and the focus of Jinx's attention shifts to her as a daughter, Isha dies and Jinx's cauldron of bitterness is already overflowing, but then Ekko stops her and even if Jinx survives, she still remains at the same point she started the season, finding her own value and living off of it. I experience something similar in my life, so I really wanted to see the realization of that in the series instead of the surrogate we received to understand what to do with my life. That's why I really enjoyed the first season, it was very life-affirming at the end for me.
I mean... this is fairly obvious. I'm not saying suicide is ever a valid option. I'm just saying people have killed themselves for far less than what happened to Jinx... and what kept happening constantly.
11:12 I had an existential and identity crisis back then. it got to the point where I didn't even understand my own humanity anymore. TLDR, stripping yourself of your very identity, admitting you're wrong is NOT fun nor easy at all. it was very scary and it makes you feel like your whole life is a lie then depression, anxiety, dread kicks in. it took me years to get to this point at 12:02 and once you do it feels so freeing. i just went into a path of consistent self-improvement because being wrong or changing is no longer daunting. idk just wanted to share even though my experiences weren't as fucked up as jinx you're really resonated with me.
God I’m not even through the whole video and the way this ties in so perfectly to the Silco conversation Jinx has in the prison at the end and how persona is it’s own prison it’s wild how perfectly this fits in to that
I don’t think Jinx intended to sacrifice herself until the moment Vi was holding her hand and she knew Vi wouldn’t let go. Just as how Vi always haunted her, picking her up when all the colors were black, Jinx tells Vi, “Always with you, sis.” Yes, Jinx again chooses for Vi, but at least both of them will live to see another day. Compared to how Jinx originally planned to end herself, she built so much more in her final fight than ever. Not physically, emotionally. Having Vi’s back, fighting side by side in a way she couldn’t have as Powder as a child. Jinx got to fulfill Powder’s childhood dreams, her idealized version of growing up, then she got to change her own course and go off on a different adventure, fulfilling her other dream.
So did Jinx metaphorically die when she fell? And was it Powder who escaped? Powder always said that she wanted to ride an AirShip at the beginning of Act 1. Also Jinx seeing an aspirition of Silco in a jail cell is similar to Bruce Wayne seeing Ras Al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises. Jinx falling seems like a callback to Star Wars where Luke Skywalker fell and escaped through some ventillation shaft. Jinx faking her death is also like Batman doing so when he escaped the explision also in The Dark Knight Rises. Jinx saving her sister with a gattling gun felt eerily like the Matrix with Neo and his Gattling gun to save Morpheus. There are also obvious callbacks to Across the Spiderverse with Gwen and Peter in the dance. In the making of Arcane one of the devs was watching John Wick, could Vi's tattoos also mimic that of John's... My mind is all over this show and picking it apart. You should do a parallels video with shot to shot compairsons, it would be interesting.
I also feel like in Jinx's mind, Vi is the reason Jinx exists, down to the reality that she named her that even if it was unintentional. One of the many things Vi blamed herself for and in season one when she finally meets Jinx after she used the flare, she tried to tell Jinx that she never should have called her that before Ekko's group took her. Jinx wants to blame Vi for everything even though really she just hates herself and blames herself for everything wrong. But if she paints Vi as the villain and the hero of her 'story', then not only is there no need for her in any role, the 'story' she created in her mind comes full circle from where they started. Among other reasons
I love this analysis. In my watch of season 2 I felt like Jinx's relationship with Isha was very much like the process of inner child work and healing. She treats Isha the way she wanted to be treated as Powder - she is involved in plans, she is given roles and responsibilities with little explosives that she can excel at whilst being nurtured (Jinx does big jump across roof line with Isha in flashback, rather than her doing it on her own like Powder had to on the Piltover roofs). When Vi punches Isha, (like she punched Powder) Jinx is there to be in big Sis mode. She is not overprotective, which Powder resented of Vi, arguably causing Powder's devastating unplanned explosion in S1. This is so healing for Jinx and the little Powder still inside her.
With the show over, i think it'd be a great idea to revisit some old videos. Some videos i'd love to see a part to for are "How Arcane Writes Women" & "Analyzing Arcane's Best Scenes"
Jinx is not dead you guys! I watched that scene 50 times! Right before the explosion there is a shimmer zap that goes into one of the vents. Maybe Jinx walked away by… walking away
Oh finally an explanation of Isha's condition, I was very confused, some said she was mute, but she makes sounds, others said she was deaf, but it seemed like she understood the other characters. Anyway, knowing more about it made me love her even more
From 11:28 - 12:40 is such a perfect encapsulation of the themes of the season, especially now that act 3 is out (what could’ve been in e7 is CRUCIAL for ekko not just bc it portrays positive possibility, but bc it changes the way he perceives jinx who he later saves in e9). Stunned, had so many of these thoughts but u put it into words so articulately. And there’s a LOT there for me to still unpack, about what love represents in this season in this context, etc. We’re so back
Isha is a good representation of Powder and young Vi. Her eyes are neither pink or blue, but yellow. Isha stole Vi’s gemstones from her gauntlets along with Jinx’s gem from her pistol. If you include Viktor’s question about fate, then Isha sacrificing herself is symbolic that Powder was always fated to die. The events of that night with the monkey bomb were always going to happen. But this time, Isha/Powder is somehow okay with it. She reminded Jinx what was good about the life of Powder. She even holds up Jinx’s pistol like the blue flare. Vander returning wasn’t just another chance for the sisters at a life with him, it was another chance at life after he is gone for good.
I'm not sure I agree with Jinx failing to complete her arc at the end. I think it's a case not of still trying to kill herself, but trying to save Vi--to be the protector, for a change. Her time with Isha allowed her to understand a little bit more of how Vi sees her. I think Isha is a real multitool for fast-tracking Jinx's character development and it does a lot of jobs simultaneously. When Sevika said Jinx didn't have to give her a new arm, Jinx's reply is so telling to me. "It was something I could fix." Unlike all the other things she's broken, or tried to break, she finally was able to fix something. To put her talents towards good, no matter how small. It's the first time we see Jinx do an intentionally, unequivocally, good thing since the start of this entire series. In the unfortunately unseen scene where Ekko convinces Jinx to build something new rather than destroy, probably by telling her about the Powder he knew in that other timeline (or at least alluding to it), I have to assume that Ekko affirmed what Jinx wouldn't believe on her own--that there IS a good version of her. Even after helping Sevika and proving herself wrong, she still doesn't believe she can turn her talents towards good. I think that Isha is ultimately what allowed Jinx to understand why Vi wasn't just unwilling to, but incapable of, giving up on her. So she saved Vi by tackling Vander, because Vi wasn't in a position to save herself, and then did it again by disabling the bitch mitten. It's almost like the show gave her a "are you sure you want to continue with this course of action? Y/N". I don't think she was trying to die in the end. I think she was trying to return the favour.
i have been refreshing my feed every single day since the start of the new season and tbh i cant wait for hours on end of analisis. please keep delivering what you always do: cuality content. much love
If you're going to make a video about Ekko and Powder, there's a small detail that I feel the need to point out about the song for their dance "Ma Meilleure Enemie" At the end of the first verse, there's this segment: "de toi je devrais m'éloigner, Mais comme le dit le dicton, Plutôt qu'être seul mieux vaut être mal accompagné," (From you I should get away But as the saying goes Rather than be alone, better be in bad company) This is a play on an actual idiom in french "Mieux vaux être seul que mal accompagné" (Better to be alone than in bad company). The original idiom is about how you can be happier alone than hanging out with the wrong people, but the song inverts this idiom, which makes sense given that the song is about Jinx and Ekko's relationship, with an emphasis on Ekko's perspective. Ekko misses his old friend Powder, and he tries to convince himself she's gone and that he doesn't care about her anymore, but as we see in episode 7 of season 1, he can't actually do it. He can't just stop caring and give up on her, even if she's killed so many of his friends among the firelights, even if they've fought numerous times, even if he has every reason to hate her, he just can't do it because if he did, then he would be all alone. And Ekko would rather be in Jinx's bad company than alone.
Jinx is alive, that’s the whole point of the final scenes, there’s a flash of shimmer going into the ducts before the explosion, and Caitlyn analyzes her escape route in the final scenes, while the airship she wanted to ride in s1 e1 flys past. She’s just living for herself now
I love your analysis… analyses’s? Analysis’? Anyway, your videos are great Schnee. I’ve learned so much about metaphor and thematic storytelling from watching you and it’s really helped my own writing. Thanks so much dude!
After seeing the full series, You also realise that it is because of Isha and Jinx's imperfections, jinx wanting to die, and Isha's deafness as well as her desire to be the hero (the way she sees jinx ) all of this is why the ending worked out so perfectly.
in my opinion jinx's sacrifice is a completion to the arc this video is about. i mean, earlier in the season shes trying to murder her last remaining family member in a massive explosion, now shes saving that last remaining family member and sacrificing her own life to do so. in a way shes mirroring what isha did for her at the end of s2e6 and finally embodying and accepting herself as the hero isha always saw her as
Season 1 was already packed, and then they tried to wrap every subplot in one more season, and they DID, which is rare for ambitious stories like this. Yeah, it's overwhelming, but so was Season 1, and like then, I'm expecting to process the subtleties better over time, with plenty of help from schnee.
She never intended to kill vi though, we see this in the arcade. She was talking about herself when she told sevika she intends to finish off what's left of her family. The gas was a funeral pyre for herself, one last joke using the colorful explosions
I LOVE THIS VIDEO SO MUCH. first time i've ever teared up at a video essay lol. i have BEEN SAYING she wanted to die and i've heard a lot of 'her death was unnecessary' and well nothing in arcane is unnecessary so i much look forward to all your future season 2 videos!! when you started describing isha's worldview and how she sees how 'beautiful' and 'kind' and 'loving' jinx is i was GONE because i wish so hard that jinx would see that. ALSO, the whole wild runes theory intertwining into their dynamics is SO INSIGHTFUL! idk how you do it.. i live for your videos. also that sneaky little sponsorship was weaved into it very cleverly lolol when you said the narrative of jinx is probably too ingrained into her by her actual death though.. i was gone again. poor powder doesn't deserve all of this pain :( this video was incredible and i WILL be rewatching over and over. another addition of points i can add to my argument that arcane did NOT have a bad ending!!!! that is physically impossible!! anyway,, thank you for your channel seeing you upload actually makes my day lol
So in total… Felicia and Connel, the hairless cat, Greyson, Benzo, Claggor, Mylo, Deckard, Vander, six officers + pink haired girl + whoever else Jinx killed, Sky, Marcus, Silco, Hanskol, Bosko, Cassandra, Amara + Ionian girl + goat guy + whoever else Ambessa killed, all chembarons, Kino, Elora, everyone in Stillwater prison during Warwick’s attack, Isha, Huck, Salo, and all of Viktor’s victims, Rictus, Gert (jinx fan), Loris, Maddie, Ambessa, and countless others are all confirmed dead. Heimerdinger, Viktor and Jayce, are possibly alive in a time loop. Singed is still alive! And he resurrected Orianna! La Blanc might be alive. Jinx is also possibly alive, escaping down an air shaft. Vi and Cait can finally be free and happy. Caitlyn’s dad can move on. Sevika is on the counsel. Mel is going back to Noxus. Ekko is probably looking after the tree. Gustov “the scowler” might never get a new jaw in this lifetime. Lest is hopefully safe, along with Babette. Piano guy hopefully doesn’t become so traumatized he becomes Jin. Steb can help his uncle Jericho go back to his food business. And Swain’s raven can get shot in the head by Jinx and we never hear about Swain again. The end!
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I actually laughed out loud when the sponsorship segment came out 😂 It was so smooth. Congrats, schnee!
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Amazing sponsor introduction!! 😂❤
I’ve seen theories all over the place saying Jynx lives and fakes her death. Basically I’m going to die and go away. Leave behind all the narratives all the roles and all the people. I’m not sure I believe it or if it’s more a symbolic thing. Either way could work.
Can’t wait for your opinions. My only regret is that the show is over.
I mean, Jinx's story arc is "finding a reason to go on when you lose everything". She lost Silco and Isha gives her a reason to keep going. When she lost Isha Ekko gives her a reason to keep going.
Ekko literally says it : " No matter what happened in the past, its never too late to build something new."
Exactly. Why Jinx wanted to die and why she ultimately changes her mind never really struck me as anything that needed an explanation.
I suppose a good re-phrasal of what Ekko said is, "No matter what happens, you still have to find something to fight for." And Jinx does just that in the end. Saying that Jinx finally died for Vi isn't the best way to look at it. She saved her, and now she's moved on (probably in that airship) to the next thing to fight/live for in life.
I think I saw a post say that jinx and ekkos interaction was supposed to include ekko telling jinx about the alt universe powder. If they included that, it would make more sense why jinx decided not to end it or (possibly) why she escaped at the end and just left.
@@Justme-to6yuOh if so, and the idea of Jinx situation is caused by the environment not by herself. It really makes sense Jinx try to change her surroundings to see if her life would be better. Great perspective
@@Justme-to6yuthat would’ve been cool and instead of trying to explain going to a parallel dimension, he could’ve said it in the same way he told AU powder about Vi. He said “I had a dream” I told her what person Vi was and grew up to be. This time he could say he had a dream about her. Maybe even apologize for giving up on her like he said he did when he was talking to AU powder. We can still imagine that’s exactly what happened.
I really wish Isha could’ve seen Jinx on that air vehicle coming in like the revolutionary she saw her as.
Your comment made me cry-
“What could’ve been”, right?..
she wouldve had so much fun
I also love all the references to Isha's clothes that Jinx had on her oufit and on the air balloon (bunny ears, the yellow shapes from Isha's goggles, the losanges from the miner's hat...)
@@MyMoxx But probably would've also died
To be fair that's who she was to her the whole time
Building on your point regarding the music in Arcane, I’m realizing now just how deliberate it is that Isha’s song is NOT in English. Of course there are people who can hear it and understand the lyrics, but for those who can’t the song can still elicit such a strong raw emotion. I don’t need to understand the lyrics because I can FEEL the music as it builds to a triumphant crescendo. It’s as you said, a wild rune.
Exactly! This show is on another level, man.
OH DAMN THEY COOKED THAT SHIT AND I DIDNT EVEN FULLY REALIZE THE MEAL I WAS SERVED!!!
Also the fact that she is mute and speaks in sign language which means very few people understand what she wants to say but can feel her emotions
In a show like this, EVERYTHING is there for a reason, we just let ourselves not see it when it's a really good story and narrative. Music is the closest thing we have to a universal language, Isha's theme, the song from Ekko and Powder dancing, even if you can't translate the words, you feel them, you understand the emotion, they can cut thru to the core far better than any deep dialog.
NO WAY that's wild omg
the best analyst ever on youtube. holding the entire arcane fandom together
Yeah. It's all... PERFECT
The video dropped 2 minutes ago 😂
Analyst, brüther.
@@tristancole8158thank you bruther
Can't argue that buuuuuuuut as far as for "Arcane", have you heard of "TBSkyen"?
th-cam.com/video/sZ2ULysvcw0/w-d-xo.htmlsi=wSqiQxIM4yYXBiOL
I think you hit the nail on the head with her not liking what she has become. The end of season one had her sit in the jinx chair, but she doesn't look or sound happy at all. I think she truly didn't want to be this person, but she doesn't know who she can be. I always thought that her story was about her finding that third identity, the identity she chooses to be. And I truly think she found it with isha, because isha had no expectations like vi or needed her for a purpose like silco. She was just herself with isha, just her goofy, playful, genius self.
Edit: Holy shit, im famous.
So Jinx evolved from Harley Quinn and having two personalities Powder and Jinx to develop a third, like Moon Knight? Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley.
You worded this so damn well. I’ve taken a screenshot of your comment and I’m sharing it with my friends. Thanks bro /gen
@@PillowEggI would say that it's the combination of jinx and powder. Not a new personality, but her excepting every part of herself. In season one, jinx refers to powder as a completely different person with hatred. She told vi powder fell down a well, like her and powder are completely different people. But she told isha she used to be called powder. She excepted who she was and still is.
@@_indigo_inkedI'm touched, you're welcome.
@PillowEgg uh, no. jinx doesn't have DID. powder and jinx are more-so ideas of different people, but it's still the same girl.
The voice actor for Ekko Reed Lorenzo came out on his social media to take about sucide awareness and talk how Jinx wanted to die . During these times and there are things to live for
oh my gosh he DID?!?!?! I'm so so so so glad!!! I'm not sure I'll watch this analysis, even though I love his other vids about Arcane, cuz my brother commited suicide and i really don't want a breakdown of that process, even if she's a fictional chararacter...I'm so glad he did that, thanks so much for telling me!!
@@princessthyemis I'm so sorry, I hope you're okay.
@@princessthyemis wouldn't that only help you get your brother? if i did that and i want to i would want my family to know my reasons
@@AdaminTranzit Going through such an experience is a pretty hard process, there can be a lot of feelings such as "did I cause this" or "was I not good enough to help". Those are not logical feelings, often times things are far more grand scale than the actions of one individual (as I'm sure you're aware), but that is not going to stop people from worring about it.
I don't know what's going on in your life, and as such I cannot make promises, but I urge you to consider the result of your actions on others. Often times people care more than they show, whether it's because they are emotionally constipated or because they worry about making things depressing.
Sorry for writing a huge paragraph, and I hope this comment did more good than bad, I just worry is all.
@@princessthyemis
I am terribly sorry for your loss.
I hope you can get through it
this man better make 100 more arcane videos
cuz i sure am watching all of them
that's exactly what I'm thinking
frfr
Vander’s apology letter to Silco is the same message that both Vi and Jinx want to say to each other. Vi even turns around and reaches to Jinx but stops herself. In that moment, she had one gauntlet off, whereas with Caitlyn, when she was at her most vulnerable, she dropped both gauntlets off. Vi even looks at Jinx while they walk as though she wants to say something but is afraid to. Like she has one more wall holding herself back.
Yep yep yep yep yep. I was like- this letter can still do it's job. Just for the next generation.
Vi's just a big wuss
She's def afraid of being vulnerable seeing how her life has been built to be the fighter/strong one in her family
Schnee video about the sisters please I am manifesting it 🙏
Esoo
Learning that Isha isn't just mute but partially DEAF just makes so much more sense in her character. I love this little girl so much😭
i dont know if it is because my mom is also deaf, but i presumed she was deaf from the start and didnt even think she could be mute, so its crazy seeing people be surprised abt it
Ironically, I think it was Vander’s instructions of “you’ve got a good heart, don’t ever lose it” that has shaped Vi the way she is. As Schnee describes, out of all the characters in Arcane, she is the one that has changed the least. In season one, her “protect the family” heart made her act on reckless impulse and it shot herself in the foot. Yet now, in act one of season two, her good heart saved a kid and acted more as a blessing than a curse. But even though she did the right thing - possibly even saving Caitlyn from the guilt of killing a kid like Jayce did - she was still betrayed and left by Caitlyn. No wonder it seems so easy for Vi to believe that nothing she does will be right.
He was still the meanest
Man I need a good video from Schnee to pull me from the darkness that was Vi's character arc this season.
"Protect the family" but almost smashed her sisters head in on an altar at the end of Act 1 S2. She's just selfish from my point of view.
@@lockekappa500 tbf at the moment I can't believe anything he says could rectify it and the way the end of the season was written. I sure hope so, but I don't believe so.
Suicide is most often a means of controlling a life that you don't feel you have any control over otherwise. I don't think Jinx actually wants to die, but rather, she wants to be able to control circumstances so that she stops hurting those close to her. Vi has self-destructive tendancies, too, but they are about holding on to things that hurt her, connections that are mutually destructive. Jinx wants the opposite, to be able to let go and walk away.
If we go off of that idea, Jinx having a planned narrative makes more sense. She hasn't had any control up until now so she's going to have complete control over her death.
I mean think about ep. 3. She lures Vi into this old cavern/temple thing, surrounded them with portraits/drawings of their past, and had Vi actually killed Jinx (and possibly died herself) it would've been followed by the colored explosions. Jinx wanted spectacle, she wanted her death (and maybe Vi's) to be this big meaningful and symbolic ending to a tragedy.
Now the more I think about it Jinx has always had a thing for symbols. Ravens/raven feathers on the Jinx chair bc she's a deadly force, the monkey became a symbol for her destructiveness, keeping bunny pinned above her workbench, Her tattoos of the flare smoke. I'm sure there's more but that's just off the top of my head.
Also realized if Jinx saw ep. 3 as an end of a tragedy that plays into the opening being a bunch of references to classic tragedies.
@@ashallen2143 Can we talk about the symbol of her destructive force, the monkey, was literally in the machine that allowed for Ekko to save both her life and eventually the whole world.
The fact that this was made before Act 3 is INSANE. The labels discussion that Silco's image has, Jinx faking her death and escaping Piltover was an attempt to remove that Jinx label!
Seriously excellent stuff. I'm almost suspicious that you watched it early, seriously.
Silco's words meant it all. Cause Jinx said it: "Death aint no mercy" So she couldnt die, but to survive and end the cycle. Its a shame that she couldnt spent more time with Ekko.
Nah Schnee has been ahead of the game for years. Probably the best media literacy out of ANY youtube analyst.
When you understand a character great, nothing is impossible.
6:48 another thing to the possible deafness but definite non-verbalness is that Jinx has been haunted by the dead screaming at her for YEARS, but then comes in this girl who is seeing the world through actions, not words. She doesn’t know about the about the horrible way Jinx sees herself- as a family killer, she sees her as a hero and an older sister.
And while Jinx is with Isha the screaming voices seem to die down, because she’s happy but also because she doesn’t have to deal with more *real* voices. But after Isha’s gone I love the detail that unlike everyone else, Isha isn’t in Jinx’s head screaming at her. Because she *cant*, her death isn’t a loud ghost, it’s just a silent emptiness in Jinx’s life. And that’s just so tragic..
That makes her "I'm tired of talking" line after hurt even more
I was ecstatic when I saw Isha sign, too! My grandparents are deaf and ASL is a second language in my family. From what I could tell, if Isha was using ASL, she was loosely signing, "Again - Game." Which is ironic because that’s not what she wanted to say. And holding up her fists like a fight and stomping her foot like 'now'. Although those aren't the ASL signs for "Fight - Now". Like you said, my guess is that she made up her own sign language with Jinx and, whatever else she wants to convey, she mostly uses gestures and relies of Jinx to mostly read her mind. Too cute!
the "again- game" actually is what she wants to say, i think. she was demanding a rematch between the scuttle crabs because she wasn't fond of the outcome
@@aurumludum3695I thought Isha won the game, hence why Jinx was talking about dropping her own champion bug over the side.
@@sakurap95 Oh she _did_ win. She just cares about Jinx more than winning. If Jinx is sad about losing, then rematch! ;;;;
Jinx lived she escaped in the air vents that is what Cait was looking at in the end of the episode and she holding a piece of the bomb and that was her on the blimp at the end. She walked away like Silco told her too in ep 8 , also if you go to the arcane wiki it says she is alive but presumed dead so she survived and left piltover/zaun..
SHE DID?!!?!!?!!?!?!?!?!!? OMG THAT'S WHY CAIT WAS LOOKING AT THAT DIAGRAM?!?!?!?!?!? OH MY GOSH MY HEART!!!!!! I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THAT!!!!! THAT MAKES ME FEEL SO MUCH BETTER ABOUT THE ENDING!!!! I WAS DEPRESSED FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF AFTER I FINISHED IT AND PROBABLY WOULD'VE BEEN FOR MORE IF I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!!!!!! OMG THANK YOU!!!!!
@@princessthyemis YES she did and try watching the BTS of ARCANE released you wont see anyone mentioning Jinx's sacrifice , which would have atleast expected from ELLA Purnell ryt ? and the nectric interview with Arcane's CO creator , he said that it's worth continuing their story forward (ekko and jinx's)
@@princessthyemis more explicitly, there's a purple flash during the explosion in one of the pipes that lead to air vents, plus the airship thing which is referring to "One day I'm gonna fly on one of these" from s1ep1
There's something beautiful about her escaping. This whole time she's tried to die many, many times, but was unsuccessful because of other people intervening. In this moment as she's falling with Warwick, there are 3 things that could kill her. The impact at the bottom of the shaft could kill her, Warwick could kill her, and the bomb could kill her. She had 3 opportunities to die in that moment and nobody would intervene, and she chose to live.
@@simplyepic3258 that’s a NICE takeaway
Also, adding to the "it had to be you" part, it would make a poetic narrative end as well. In Season 1 Episode 9 she told Vi that SHE created Jinx, not Silco not anyone else, Vi. So her, also killing Jinx, what she created, would be a poetic end to Jinx as well as give a "good" ending to Vi, whom I believe Jinx -or, she anyways- still loves
This has made me realize that Jinx has always had a thing about symbolism in her life. The reunion with Vi was this enotional lighting of the flare that'd shed been waiting for years to use, Choosing to be Jinx over powder was this dramatic tea party that ended in a war, Her death in ep 3 would've ended in colorful explosions all over Piltover. She's always had a tendency for drama
Other examples: Ravens on the chair bc Jinx is a deadly force, powder chair being all pastels and crayons to represent the innocence she had, the monkey becoming her mark/logo specifically for being destructive/dangerous, the flare smoke tattoos
(Theres probably more but that's just off the top of my head)
Watching Jinx go from gremlin Temu-Harley-Quinn LoL mascot to an absolute personification of suicide-awareness and self-worth is one of the most harrowing but most substantial glow-ups that I've ever seen in media.
Well, it's true u know. I went through that, kind of
Your analysis means a lot to me, as someone who's been suicidal in the past. I thought of myself as a failure and someone who caused others pain, just as Jinx did (even with the whole alter ego thing, as you explained with Vander/Warwick, and Vi/"Puncher" Vi). Just like Jinx and Isha though, I met someone who was similar to me, my ex-girlfriend who was also suicidal at times. She saw me as someone without the "baggage" as you said, and I helped her out of her suicidal stage. She was the best person I ever met, she motivated me to continue living and be strong, like Isha for Powder.
Our paths diverged unfortunately, and even now I'm slipping back into that stage. Your video showed me something though: no matter the past any person has had, there is still a chance for a better life, so long as we're still here. Even if our past does scar us (and may still define our actions in our new lives, even to the extent where we can be destructive despite not wanting to be), there's still a chance for that future, because there's still hope. Hope in protecting others, hope in enjoyment, hope in just living LIFE as a whole. Isha showed Powder this with such an optimism to such to the extent that Powder was able to shake off the Jinx identity, and your analysis of humanity showed that life really is worth living, no matter the baggage. Because despite our imperfections, of me or my ex, there's no reason we can't live life just the way it is. Not even if we are on separate blimps to different lands, but just for anyone as a whole. Because we're human. 🙂
I understand my life a lot better now thanks to your explanation, and have a reason to keep living. Don't know if my comment will get lost in the jumble, but I just wanted to say you changed someone's life today, schnee. Thanks for the great video, you DEFINITELY earned yourself a sub!!!
This is beautiful ❤️ And you hit the nail on the head - no matter what, there is hope if we keep on living. Sending much love ❤️
and we are happy that you are with us :)
I'm happy I managed to find this comment myself.
Thanks for making this comment, I feel the same too
When she said "Jinx is dead." I felt like she meant dead to the people of Zaun. Sevika and Isha tried to convince her to show up to her fans who weren't even sure if she is locked up somwhere or if she's even alive but Jinx wanted to stay out of sight and presumed to be dead. (And with that unattached to the whole leader of the riot and hero of the day idea.)
Ooo I didn’t think of that at all! Sick interpretation. My first thought was that she was referring to her actions and desire to be seen. Like her active role in the wider world and her presence as “Jinx” was dead. She wanted to step away from everything and that was killing that idea of “Jinx” that the Zaunites decided to champion.
Season 1 she wanted to leave her mark on everything. She left fingerprints via her tags and spent the season slowly walking closer to that character of “Jinx.” She came to embrace the insanity as a character trait and everyone knew her name, even though it was killing her. Season 2, at this point in the story, Jinx wishes she was a shadow. She wanted desperately to walk entirely out of that spotlight, as she only saw that version of herself that she hated most.
That's also how I interpreted it. A big part of jinx's character for me is her lack of confidence. She lives behind this persona, and her theatrics are an act that does spur her to act, but she is clearly traumatized about how whatever she does it leads to people she cares about dying, like her family in S1 Act 1 or Silco in S1 Act 3.
Even the alternate universe Powder is afraid to lose ''who she is'', and hasn't realistically tinkered for a hile, working as a bar maid until Ekko has her help with his own project. Vander mentions how he hasn't seen her act so alive, so i think it validates this.
Her saying Jinx is '"dead'' was how she was off the grid, dead to world. Isha is showing her posters to spur her hero to action, because she only sees Jinx through this lense, but Jinx doesn't see how she can do any good.
@@_indigo_inked That also sounds very reasonable! Now think maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. While she wanted to physically be a ghost to the people she also felt like she lost her inner Jinx-ness to herself as well. S1 Jinx wouldn't have taken on the leader rolle either but she would have gone out of her way to play around with the enforcers and make the most fun out of the situation not just sitting in her hideout. So maybe at this point her original idea about what it means to be Jinx is dead. This idealised fun version is dead and only the weight of this role is left.
i honestly thought ppl were crazy when they said Jinx was alive, starting to believe it now
It's basically true lol, there's way too much evidence to just dismiss as a coincidence
It's very obvious she's alive, there's a pink dash out of the explosion, Caitlyn looks at air ducts off to the side, and powder said she was gonna ride an airship one day and that's what the show ends on
@@shotloud6838 yeah well thats still just hints not canon that shes obv alive, i need facts and statistics I NEED STATISTICS!!!
@@AdaminTranzit to quote a very famous and lovely young lady...WHO NEEDS REASONS?!
@@AdaminTranzit By that logic electricity and wind don't exist because they're invisible lol
13:36 aye W ad transition 😂
wasn't it just so smooth lol
I found it way funnier than I should’ve xD like huh, he’s being oddly specific how I should listen to my music, I wonder why that is
truly a great ad transition
11:45 WAIT YOU MADE THIS VIDEO BEFORE ACT 3 !!!! wow that was a very impressive understanding of the show
Exactly what I was thinking 😂
Schnee is the GOAT
11:50 it’s actually insane how spot on you were before watching part 3.
Dude holy shit how did I never even think about the fact isha is partially (?) Deaf??? Just small details like her looking at lips to possibly try read them or watching facial expressions or being unable to react to things out of her sight is just such an awesome amount of detail.
Im still in the camp that season 2 wasnt as tight as season 1 but a few more schnee vids might change my mind
Parents of deaf people see these signs, Audiologists, speech therapists, ASL teachers, ENT specialists, see it all the time. When we meet very young children we look for the signs that they cannot hear. It is almost second nature. The eye engagement is just different in people with severe hearing impairment, it is normal for people to track sound sources, this doesn't happen with sever and profound deafness. Most deaf people don't want it known that they are deaf. We never registered my daughter as deaf, as when she hit her adult life she would be on a list that she might not wish to be on. Later, when she was 20, she decided the benefits were worth it, but I didn't want to make that decision for her.
Same man, I interpreted it as neurodivergent/nonverbal but now that they point it out it seems obvious 😂
Didnt Isha sign to jinx at one point and jinx seemed to understand it?
but then you have to watch all the schnee vids about season 1 again to be fair to both!
@@bluecatOMG Most people who use Sign Language aren't deaf. Isha and Jinx have been together for, at the minimum 3 months, to just under a year by that time. Show never indicates the passage of time properly. Simple gestures combined with context and expression can convey more meaning than you realize.
Jinxs "there is no good version of me" in act 3 broke my heart. We literally see a good version her the episode before, and is arguabley already good.
Jinx understands the problem of roles/labels/vicious circle. In her own eyes, she is the embodiment of misfortune, and as long as she is Jinx, she and those dear to her won't be able to live happily.And no, she can't become Powder again, because Powder is gone, there is only a curse in the form of herself. How to get rid of the curse? Jinx knows only the path of violence, the only option is suicide.
"No matter what happened in the past, it's never too late to build something new. Someone worth building it for" - words Ekko borrowed from AU Powder, which showed Jinx that there is another path. What is interesting - Jinx is constantly told that if she put her mind into it she could create smth beautiful and help others, but, unfortunately, until Ekko she'd heard those words from people who do not know her history, her curse. For example Viktor. Oh and AU Vander tells Powder that she is a genius and can do whatever she wants, that she deserves more. For her though, such words were a mockery from bystanders. But then the words are spoken by Ekko, who saw everything she did, and he proves to her what she heard in prison from Silko (that is, she told herself) - you can leave the cage, but you don't have to die to do it.
I really adore the last Vi and Jinx scene. It parallels their most important scenes from all the show - their job in Piltover, death of Vander, reunion fight, Isha's heroic last moment and probably others. But the most beautiful thing is the reversal of their roles.
This time Vi is blinded by her trauma, she doesn't see herself being trapped in vicious circle, she doesn't realized yet that her protector-puncher role is her source of suffering. BUT JINX DOES. Vi's whole goal is to keep her family safe even if it means she herself will be miserable or even dead. Vi's not ready for Vander to return in face of Warwick but Jinx is ("nothing ever stays dead") and then Vi is not ready to let him go so soon yet again, but Jinx is, Jinx immediately understands he can't be saved. Jinx sees Vi's tears over Vander (clearly Vi was not ready to fight him neither did she want to. She just froze possibly thinking how to save him).
Jinx does NOT choose to give up her life. I think she is finally escaped the mindset "I'm the monster, I shouldn't exist". Because in that moment, when Vi cries and Warwick grabs her, Jinx instantly understands that it is time for her (Jinx) to protect her sister, to kill all the monsters, to clear path for their family.
And I believe that Jinx is still alive. She is just not in Piltover or Zaun because sisters need time to heal and to find their own purposes in life (and not to live just to protect the other - that's not healthy). And may be one day they'll meet again if they choose to!
When it comes to Jinx's fate, the difference between that moment and her other attempts at death is how she gives resolution to Vi and passes on what she's learned from Isha and Ekko. First, she learns that Vi will never stop, and never let herself have an independent life, when there is always a chance to be with her sister "you're never going to give up on me, are you?" If Jinx/Powder is dead, Vi no longer has to protect her. But her first attempt is to just die, as things are. There is a self-realization, but she hasn't returned this knowledge to the community, and that's what Ekko comes to help her realize. So by the end she ultimately still "dies" (shes not dead, very important to her arc I think) but by standing side by side with Vi and closing that book for her knowing that they're sisters again, even if it's not particularly happy. Jinx, by removing herself from the equation in this way, is breaking Vi out of her identity prison for her.
I think it's also important that her big flashy act of "self-sacrifice" isn't to save the day. The threat of the Glorious Evolution and invasion of Noxus had already been defeated. When it comes to every single major shift in Jinx/Powder's life, it's always been unintentional, and also always changed the status quo of Piltover/Zaun fundamentally. Isha's big moment of heroism went according to plan, every beat was intentional, and she in turn saves just the moment and the people around her. No memorial, and nobody even knows about what happened in that corner of Zaun. Jinx's sacrifice at the end is to only save Vi and force her specifically to break free of her former identity, a completely personal and intimate moment, done with intention.
A bit of an unworked thesis:
I think there's something really integral to the narrative about intention and unintention. Vi's role as a big sister has always been acts of intention, trying so hard to shape Powder into a better person and keep her safe. Whereas Jinx in that role is completely irresponsible, creates no boundaries, Isha always vunerable and in harms way, and yet Isha turns out to basically be "Powder if everything went right". Back to the scene when she explains to Caitlyn that she didn't know her mother was in the room, not at all a personal attack. Back to the only heroic act Jinx can accept, the prison break, unlike the 'returning of the grey' to piltover which was so much bigger and had greater impact on the world, one was intentional and personal (she did the prison break to save Isha) the other was completely unintentional and didn't go as according to her plan.
When we think about prison breaks, literal and metaphorical, in this season; I think the reason why Jinx refutes "rewriting her story" the first time when Vi comes to break her out of prison is Vi isn't actually breaking her out of her metaphorical prison of identity. I think she knows the situation of Piltover/Zaun is far too big and impersonal for such acts of intention to cause the intended outcome. "No amount of good deeds can undo your crimes" Jinx can't simply just "become a hero of Piltover" by saving the day as she did for Zaun, even in a self-sacrifice. If you take Caitlyn's big speech at the end and think about the hextech rune/wild rune context (intentional language and natural unintentional language) History will make it all "palatably abstract" none of the personal sacrifice will likely be mentioned and just as the conversation with Silco and Jayce happened in S1 about how the city was founded to protect themselves from outside invaders, the lack of context in history of the final battle in the show will doom the city to repeat the same ebbs and flows. So Jinx doesn't do a self-sacrifice to save the day/city, she does it to just save her sister. She knows she can force Vi out of her identity prison but also chooses to remain "dead" so the problem of Jinx is removed from equation when it comes to Piltover/Zaun's quest for peace, and 'walks away' (literally leaves the city).
side note: but when it comes to the Isha deaf thing I think it makes sense and has added validity when you consider that Jinx's main characteristic is she "hears voices" so even from the standpoint of a writing room, why not pair the character who hears voices in her head with one who mostly can't hear voices at all. Just a solid dynamic with a lot of possibilities from a writing perspective.
edit/addition: I was thinking more on how tight Season 1 was and how tight the narrative of Season 2 actually is or not. Particularly how people seem annoyed that Vi and Jinx were no longer really the focus of the finale but the way the Vi/Jinx narrative and Jayce/Viktor stuff still mesh well for the finale imo is that the show's key theme about transformation is given two answers in each subplot. Viktor wants to unify the world to solve all of its problems but in turn remove our identities. Jinx realizes, and her narrative shows the audience, that we are not bound by 1 identity but can transform infinitely. This in turn obviously doesn't solve all the world's problems, but the pursuit is still there, people are still trying, transforming, and moments are peace are possible.
This is all off the cuff, I hope this makes any sense
Thanks for a comment it was interesting to read this
woah that's so well put, didn't think of it that way but it makes so much sense!
also about the hearing voices thing, damn, there's been this chain mail-like comment going round which went something like "i read it somewhere and cried so now you must suffer too: at least isha won't be one of the voices that jinx hears"
but the antithesis of the one who hears voices and the one who hears none is so much more powerful.
I was looking for a comment like this. It aligns pretty well with my own interpretation of the ending.
I agree that the stories of Jayce/Victor and Jinx/Vi are very much about the same thing. The line that stands out for me is what victor says right before Ecko's "timebomb" goes off. He says, "That device, can't, be." His current belief is that he has found, "the message hidden within the pattern". He knows that it's our love that also makes us do evil, hateful things. However, Ekko's "timebomb" is evidence of the fact that it is not love that makes us do evil things but our attachments. And if we can be detached/"walk away" and focus on the present moment. We can avoid the pain that comes with being attached and also love fully at the same time. Avoiding the pattern completely.
This is why Jinx chooses to walk away and live at the end. This is her reaching her full potential as a source of chaos. By definition chaos has not pattern. Jinx embodies chaos. Therefore, Jinx is the only one in the story who can break the pattern. She does this by becoming detached. She detaches herself physically and emotionally from Powder, Jinx, her identity as Isha's guardian, Vander, Vi, Ecko, her city, and suicide. She still loves those people, places and identities, but by the end she is no longer attached to it emotionally and physically. Committing suicide would not have been breaking the pattern. Because that would have meant that she was still attached to that narrative driven outcome.
This is maybe why people can't accept that she is alive. They want or think that the pattern should continue to the very end of the show.
This is an idea that comes from Buddhism. Love and attachment are not the same thing.
@@rampantporcupineandfriends3793 Yea I think you're spot on. I was thinking about that difference between love and attachment but i dont know why i didn't associate that with the line about walking away. This is a throughline in a lot of stories, particularly Star Wars, that I've always really liked.
Very well thought out even if it's unfiltered! Do you have any thoughts on Vi's perspective on this? I'm torn on whether she could actually move on thinking she's dead to save her, I feel she'd be burdened with such guilt over it. People are saying her dying is the only way she'd 'give up' on protecting her sister, but maybe she's grown enough to accept that Jinx might need to walk away. I mean, Caitlyn's holding the monkey bomb in the same room, someone has to have gone to check for the body, and I would imagine Vi would have found out it wasn't there. Maybe the uncertainty is enough, she can believe she's alive "worlds apart" but doesn't want to confirm for sure because that's clearly not what Jinx wants and if she's dead she doesn't want to find out.
In an interview Christian Linke said (talking both about Jinx and AU Powder) "Powder is such an amazing example of what Zaun can be". Thinking about it, I think her arc is narratively intertwined with Zaun. Any time she has the choice between being more Jinx or more Powder, Zaun also has the choice between a brighter future or a darker one. All the events that shape Zaun's future also shape her future.
I feel like the line "It had to be you" becomes even more interesting in the context of episode 7 (Act 3 spoilers by the by), considering the extra layer it adds in what it represents for the story. We see that in this perfect universe, where Powder never became Jinx, Mylo and Claggor are alive, and Vander and Silco have reconciled, Vi is dead. Which while I was watching it, gave me this realization of "Oh, these two characters cannot be happy together, it's just not possible." Of course we never see any timelines other than the happy ending, the doomsday, and the main timeline, but I feel like it's pretty safe to assume that Vi and Jinx as a rule aren't allowed to be happy together. Which imo is a really interesting twist to one of the series' main themes, being unity. That dichotomy makes into "unity should be pursued, but some unities are not meant to be." In part, it almost kind of annoys me that the finale happened the way it did, and I kind of wish that Piltover and Zaun had been like Vi and Jinx. A unity that isn't meant to be.
Another thing I noticed is that Isha does not shy away sacrificing herself and dying in the process. I feel this is a lot because of how she models herself after her new big sister, and she frequently sees Jinx putting herself in harms way and not doing much about the possible harm that might come to her. Which makes Jinx losing Isha all the more painful since she basically "jinxed" Isha in a literal sense, Isha even *looks* like jinx, has her characteristics
This is perfect considering that I am 100% convinced that Jinx survived and that it’s her on that airship in the final shot. She walked away and learned the lesson Isha was trying to teach her.
Amazing catch. Now I want to see an edit where everyone is muted unless Isha is looking at them, just to see what her picture of everything really is
YES OMG THAT WOULD BE INCREDIBLE
the silco talk was jinx convincing herself that it was finally time to give up, but auPowder reminds Ekko who reminds Jinx that you have always been free. Jinx and Vi are so used to playing their roles, they can't imagine anything new. Jinx realizes she has always had agency and finally exercises it to take up Vi's role instead and she breaks Vi out of her role by removing the last thing Vi felt she had to protect
Fun fact, around 11:38 - 11:39, if you slow down the intro to x0.25 speed, you can see Isha doing the gun point, and yes all intros are different
woah great catch!
Woah, I would have never noticed that.
Holy hell! That's awesome! Why are people built so different?
0:28 hmmmm aged well
She also doesn't die at the end of the season!
@@EsYeyehow the fuck do you spot dodge a explosion
Naw, it aged fine. She both said what she'd did to Vi and cait realized it at the end of the episode, she escaped into the vents, unless cait just likes staring at schematics and smirking...
He’s back!!!
i dont think ill ever comprehend that this show is actually over
It felt like there a was a massive theme regarding sacrifice this season that were embodied by Ekkos words. When Ekko was talking to the alternate timeline Powder he said, "Sometimes taking a leap forward means leaving a few things behind" and I couldnt help but think that was played out to a large degree especially in the later half of the season. Heimerdinger sacrificed himself to return Ekko to his timeline, Viktor and Jayce presumably sacrificed themselves to save piltover/zaun, Caitlyn sacrificed her eye to give Mel the advtange against her mom and therefore "win", Isha sacrificed herself to save Jinx and the others, and at the end Jinx obviously sacrificed herself to save Vi. I don't think these "sacrifices" are neccascarily physical / only death in nature, it felt more like the were trying to "right their wrongs" in a way (or something else other than death at least). For example, it felt like Heimerdinger was extremely wary almost the entire show, his extensive lifetime bringing about a barrier that prevented him from taking any sort of leap of faiths and "leaving something behind" in essence, which can especially be seen in season 1 where he tells Viktor and Jayce to give Hextech another decade or so. With Ekko, he took that leap of faith, in the process leaving behind his old self physically and mentally in order to save him. I feel like it could also be seen with Jinx at the end as well. We obviously know based off the show and this video that Jinx is wanting to die a majority of the season, so the "leap of faith, leaving something behind" feels like it makes less sense with her at the end, until you think about how she is taking down Vander with her. Im not entirely convinced Jinx was intent on going through with killing Vi in the first act, and it was more like she was illustrating that she wouldn't go down without a fight whether that's for herself or to make it seem like Vi didn't have a choice Im not entirely sure. In other words, It felt like Jinx was trying to keep what little family she had left alive at a minimum. Which can be seen with her care towards, Vander, Vi, and Isha. It was also Jinx who was much more open and intent on helping Vander as opposed to Vi, at least initially. So at the end, when she sacrifices herself along with Vander, I think that's her taking her leap of faith. Anyways, this is just my raw thoughts, so there might be some holes or something Im not remembering. Feel free to let me know if that's the case, or to provide your opinion as well
Well, a lot of people think Jinx didn't actually die, so what she left behind was her Jinx identity.
@@novachromatic Thats true. If she died or if she didn't, she took that leap of faith and "sacrificed" a part of herself whether that's physically or mentally / both.
"everyone is just mouth flapping"
every zoom meeting ever.
I think I was just about as excited for a steady stream of new schnee Arcane analysis videos as I was for season 2 in general.
16:04 she actually does escape explosion, fun fun fact here. You see that streak of purple and the blimp at the end and her hand writing. Not only that, but the air ducts. She did walk away
Honestly, Arcane has been an incredibly, encompassing story about life. The truth is life doesn’t work like a story with “and they lived happily ever after”. As the trailer said, “Every ending… has a new beginning.” And Viktor says, “Evolution has a destination. Not to combat nature, but to supersede it.” All the characters in this story constantly evolve, constantly affect each others lives, and can never escape our capacity to perform our greatest good and our greatest evil… because life keeps happening. Life isn’t a short and sweet story with a neat beginning, middle, and ending. New things will constantly happen to us our whole lives. Every time we think a trauma or an event is going to destroy us, the story continues. Over and over, we are going to face new trauma, or pain, or feel incredible loss. But we’re still here, even if we’re questioning, “why?” If we looked at the world as a whole, we would undoubtedly believe humanity isn’t worth saving. But if we look just through our individual eyes at the people who loved us, who touched our lives, we believe that is worth saving.
This is probably the best take on Arcane as a whole I have ever read! And extremely well written, too. This should be the top comment of this video
@@henniee2051thanks
I feel like her sacrifice was inevitable. Even in season 1 after her fight with Ekko she pulls the pin on her bomb attempting to end her life. Her sucidal thoughts and self inflicted wounds have been around throughout her time as an adult/older kid and I feel that her saving Vi but still killing Vander is a great roundabout moment to tie this series together. I also feel the need to mention that Isha died in act 2, leaving act 3 Jinx an emotional wreck who lost the last real person she cared about who still cared for her unconditionally.
Jinx didn’t actually die, though. And Vander/Warwick is most likely not dead.
@ how do you know?
Yeah I agree, a lot of people don't like Jinx's sacrifice or think she didn't actually die (which I don't really have an opinion on, that's not how I interpreted the ending), but I think it fits perfectly. In many ways Arcane has always been a tragedy, a story where if just one thing went differently, everything would have been okay, but that's just not how the story goes. It was always going to end this way. Jinx had been suicidal for a long time and biologically should have died in S1 if Singed didn't infuse her with shimmer, she has been through hell and back a million times and despite how much I love her, she is a pretty broken person, especially after Isha's death. As Schnee said, the narrative that is Jinx was always going to end in her death, that's how the story goes. Isha began to try to show Jinx that it could be different and she could live free of this narrative label, but unfortunately couldn't fully show her before dying - just another 'what if' moment.
It all feels so melancholic and beautiful, I adore it.
@@jamon8139 I mean it is possible to honour that narrative and also have the character survive. You just have the Jynx part die. I still don't like the ending though. On one hand you have the explicit narrative around suicide appearing to lead to her death - which sucks. On the other hand you have with the pink streak, catitlyn looking at ducts, airship etc. Since Jynx surviving is pretty meaningful to the whole arc I hate that it's basically being told through easter eggs
@@christopherjohnston6343this is only my opinion, but I take heart knowing it is somewhat shared. I find the implied idea that she survived a lot more satisfying. There's a hopeful thought that even if she didn't tell Vi on her way out, Vi would eventually learn the truth but by then may have been able to move on from the NEED to protect her. If they were to ever meet again it could be after they've managed to make something of themselves.
The part where you said Isha just sees Jinx as she is, made me cry again😭
Poor girl is legally not allowed to be happy 💀
Good thing she has no respect for the law ;)
Jinx is ALIVE❤️
She’s like oh no no no no GIRL💜what I DO💜
Okay, I wasn't sure if someone else had pointed it out yet, but she still broke the cycle by "walking away", she just made it easier on Vi to get closure
She’s ALIVE!!!
Edit to Powder💙
I don't think Jinx always wanted to die. Initially, she was overwhelmed by the consequences of her actions, especially when they spiraled out of control. The regret she felt began to weigh heavily on her, and in her isolation, she struggled to find a way to atone or fix what had happened. This inability to cope or resolve her pain likely led her to view death as the only escape.
After meeting Isha, however, her perspective began to shift. I believe that being saved by Isha gave her a new sense of purpose, a feeling that her life still held value. In a way, she saw herself stepping into the role that Silco once played in her life-providing structure and meaning. Isha's intervention reminded her of what Silco used to offer: a framework through which she could channel her talents and energy, preventing her from succumbing to the darkness of her past.
Spoilers for Act 3 of course...
I think an important point to Isha's tragic death is that since Jinx sees her as powder 2.0, she takes on the mantle of protector to herself (I'm reminded of the original Enemy music video), and Isha is a way for Jinx to do over her past and build a better version of herself without all the tragedy. It was her final piece of hope she clung onto. Then, powder 2.0 repeated her actions, killing vander, and leading to more tragedy and destruction. It showed Jinx that even the best version of herself is a destructive force that only leads to death (she talks about this when she locks Vi up), and Isha's death just proved that there is no hope.
The wasteland chorus "This world is a wasteland where nothing can grow / I used to have strength, but I ran out of hope / I know it's my fault that I'm here all alone" expands upon this idea, her end is fated, she cant grow. Isha was her strength and hope, her best self, but tragedy and death are directly tied to her own raw identity that Silco and you were talking about. Jinx isn't a corrupted version of Powder, it is just grown up powder, it was inevitable, and thus there is no hope to fix it.
That is why I also think episode 7 was so emotionally impactful to us, to Ekko, and why his words to Jinx were so powerful, because we saw that it wasn't Jinx's raw wild runeness identity but actually her environment that lead to her own tragedy. From a aristotelian tragedy perspective, we see that the exciting force was not the heist explosion but the discovery of hextech, which was not caused by powder, so when that never happens powder grows into adult powder without all the complications in the main timeline. We see that her conclusion of hopelessness is false.
Additionally, the bookending of her death replicating the first scene of the show kind of acts as a conclusion to the line "it had to be you," since it was still Vi in a way where there was that tragic ironic bookendedness, but not in the way she expected.
I am just incredibly excited to see your opinion on the rest of Act III as well as the rest of season 2.
I also was thinking about what jinx dying her hair purple could represent, like letting out that wild rune energy, the eye of zaun, a merging of piltoevr and zaun, but I couldn't really figure it out. Its definitely a representation of her transition into accepting of herself, not acceptance of the jinx persona, but of herself. I currently like the connection to the wild rune since the purple isn't shimmer purple its more hexcore purple but I'm not entirely sure since there's also the parallel to alternate timeline powder with the strip of Vi pink in her hair.
damn
i am never missing an schnee arcane video, or any schnee videos. you give me such great ideas and your work is beautifully done. keep going in inspiring others.
Something interesting about episode 7 relating to this is that (correct me if I'm wrong) they barely if ever use powder/jinx's name, reinforcing the fact that the ideal version of her doesn't have a "story" (so many random parallels to across the spiderverse also lmao(having a story at all seems gross))
yess I noticed that too! I was just waiting for someone to call her by her name that whole episode
Wait could you elaborate a little bit more? I’m intrigued but also confused
@@cheap2402 no calls her by her name in EP 7. Not powder or jinx.
I wonder if Vi’s three rules she learned from Vander about trust have to do with two things. One, her “shut up” lesson to Mylo. And two, her lesson to Caitlyn about “letting people think you have what they want.”
“See this look on my face? This will always mean it’s time to shut up.” So, Vi saw something in Caitlyn’s face to know she could trust her sincerity? Vi also seemed to see something in Jinx’s tearful eyes to know she was telling the truth about Vander being alive. And looking back, Vi does tend to let her opponents talk and talk while she listens and plans her next move. Like with Silco outside her old house, or when Ekko kidnapped and interrogated her, or when Caitlyn implores Ekko to give back the gemstone.
Seeing Vi zone out and cry over Vander’s body… Jinx finally gets how much pain Vi was in. “You can’t save him.” And Vi still doesn’t respond. And then we get the shot of Vander’s bleeding head from Vi’s perspective that night! We, the audience were on the left, but now we see from Vi’s POV on the right.
Jinx finally understands how Vi is not as invincible as she thought. She knows now Vi didn’t consciously choose to slap her that night, she was mentally overwhelmed with the pain of losing Vander. That reframing of the events that night is just gorgeous!
8:23 okie that transition is wild (i love hearing abt how isha might be nerve deaf, arcane really does their work in including all types of people and making them more than what makes them 'different')
real !!!
Wow, you deduced all of this BEFORE watching act 3... thank you for helping me understand the themes of this season. After falling in love so much with S1, I was really unsatisfied with the tonal shift that S2 has made and was unhappy with the ending because I didnt understand these themes. But you make it make sense. Thanks Schnee ❤
Absolutely love LOVE this analysis of Isha. I can feel the show falling into place.
Looking forward to further analysis on Jinx. I think there's pretty good evidence that she survived the blast, intentionally faking her own death. In my opinion, this fits with your theory and is well-supported by the text. So many thoughts. Let the second great wave of Arcane analysis begin!!
I knew Isha was key to decoding some of this but you and the patrons put it into words in a way I couldn’t for the life of me. I can’t wait for your videos about Ekko and powder, that arc was my favorite part of this season
I also thought that Isha was deaf, but there's a few moments that contradict it somewhat. Here's one of them:
When Jinx, Isha and Vi are in the underground tunnel, Vi says 'or do you not want the kid to know how delusional you are' and Isha reacts, even tho Jinx does not slow down or react at all to what was said yet. Later on, for example, Jinx stops altogether and Isha does not even notice, she just keeps walking to the fork in the tunnel, which makes a bit more sense.
In the same scene, Jinx says 'I kicked her butt' while Isha is lookign away completely, and Isha chuckles, even tho she was not supposed to hear it, and there was nothing other than speech to react to
You always notice things i miss! These videos rly helped me view arcane season 1 in a whole different light, and I’m so glad you’re here to do that for season 2 as well :))
This mans analysis videos are so good he has the whole arcane fandom skipping a beat after seeing the thumb nail.
I'm hard of hearing, it's hard to say exactly if Isha is deaf/hard of hearing, or nonverbal for a different reason. But I caught some signs she did that look A LOT like asking for "again game" right before jinx says "rematch?" during the bug battle. I can definitely see some of myself in her through the signing and what seems to be lip reading. I love that Arcane makes characters whose disabilities are a part of them and aren't glossed over, but aren't the only part of their characterization.
3:05
I don't think the jinxers see her as a hero ? I mean, it felt like they understood her, that she was just someone like them trying to survive and be free ? She is a symbol to them, but they are human with her and definitly not saying her as a hero. And so I think they are understanding her.
Anyway I just chocked on a line, but the video is amazing. Its like I've seen all the pieces myself, but having someone say them... wow. It clicked in my brain. It is so clear I can remember it now
The point about the music makes so much sense in the context of the language choices in e6 & 7.
The audience at large isn't meant to understand the Chinese and French at the moment; understanding the lyrics was INTENTIONALLY removed in favor of understanding the emotion.
Insight on Jinx’s mindset in her final moments saving Vi.
About ten years ago I was in my the same emotional place. I decided to end the suffering. Almost immediately after deciding that, I thought about backing out or what kind of footprint my life would have after I was dead. I imagined someone younger than me accidentally running in the road and myself saving them. I was fine with dying that way, because then my death would-in this weird way-have a positive outcome. I promised myself that I would die saving someone else the next chance I got.
I think Ekko’s motivation didn’t make Jinx agree to live, but just to put off her death for a little while. Su*c*de is always something you can come back to later. For Jinx, the opportunity to save someone else by sacrificing herself could have been exactly what she wanted. Better still that it was Vi, and Vi deserved to live and be happy in Jinx’s eyes.
(I’m doing okay now dw)
and we are happy that you're with us :)
I thought Jinx's main goal at the beginning of the season, when she's finally alone and united instead of be fractured, was to figure out how to value herself. I thought she would love Zaun and its people, following Silko's precepts, and find love and support among them. Become a hero against all odds and realize so she's not Jinx in a bad way. But Isha arrives and the focus of Jinx's attention shifts to her as a daughter, Isha dies and Jinx's cauldron of bitterness is already overflowing, but then Ekko stops her and even if Jinx survives, she still remains at the same point she started the season, finding her own value and living off of it. I experience something similar in my life, so I really wanted to see the realization of that in the series instead of the surrogate we received to understand what to do with my life. That's why I really enjoyed the first season, it was very life-affirming at the end for me.
I mean... this is fairly obvious.
I'm not saying suicide is ever a valid option. I'm just saying people have killed themselves for far less than what happened to Jinx... and what kept happening constantly.
Yes, it's obvious, but _why_ is it obvious ? ;)
I think you are lacking the nuance that was put into Arcane.
Interesting that you talk about Jinx in a passive tone, like she isn't a very active participant in the chaos that runs her life. 🤔
11:12 I had an existential and identity crisis back then. it got to the point where I didn't even understand my own humanity anymore. TLDR, stripping yourself of your very identity, admitting you're wrong is NOT fun nor easy at all. it was very scary and it makes you feel like your whole life is a lie then depression, anxiety, dread kicks in. it took me years to get to this point at 12:02 and once you do it feels so freeing. i just went into a path of consistent self-improvement because being wrong or changing is no longer daunting. idk just wanted to share even though my experiences weren't as fucked up as jinx you're really resonated with me.
God I’m not even through the whole video and the way this ties in so perfectly to the Silco conversation Jinx has in the prison at the end and how persona is it’s own prison it’s wild how perfectly this fits in to that
"Imagining yourself a hero? One final act to make you the martyr you've always seen yourself as?"
i'm a simple man, i see schnee talking about arcane, i click instantly.
With you since the first Arcane video, great channel!
I don’t think Jinx intended to sacrifice herself until the moment Vi was holding her hand and she knew Vi wouldn’t let go. Just as how Vi always haunted her, picking her up when all the colors were black, Jinx tells Vi, “Always with you, sis.” Yes, Jinx again chooses for Vi, but at least both of them will live to see another day. Compared to how Jinx originally planned to end herself, she built so much more in her final fight than ever. Not physically, emotionally. Having Vi’s back, fighting side by side in a way she couldn’t have as Powder as a child. Jinx got to fulfill Powder’s childhood dreams, her idealized version of growing up, then she got to change her own course and go off on a different adventure, fulfilling her other dream.
So did Jinx metaphorically die when she fell? And was it Powder who escaped? Powder always said that she wanted to ride an AirShip at the beginning of Act 1.
Also Jinx seeing an aspirition of Silco in a jail cell is similar to Bruce Wayne seeing Ras Al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises.
Jinx falling seems like a callback to Star Wars where Luke Skywalker fell and escaped through some ventillation shaft.
Jinx faking her death is also like Batman doing so when he escaped the explision also in The Dark Knight Rises.
Jinx saving her sister with a gattling gun felt eerily like the Matrix with Neo and his Gattling gun to save Morpheus.
There are also obvious callbacks to Across the Spiderverse with Gwen and Peter in the dance.
In the making of Arcane one of the devs was watching John Wick, could Vi's tattoos also mimic that of John's...
My mind is all over this show and picking it apart.
You should do a parallels video with shot to shot compairsons, it would be interesting.
I also feel like in Jinx's mind, Vi is the reason Jinx exists, down to the reality that she named her that even if it was unintentional. One of the many things Vi blamed herself for and in season one when she finally meets Jinx after she used the flare, she tried to tell Jinx that she never should have called her that before Ekko's group took her.
Jinx wants to blame Vi for everything even though really she just hates herself and blames herself for everything wrong. But if she paints Vi as the villain and the hero of her 'story', then not only is there no need for her in any role, the 'story' she created in her mind comes full circle from where they started. Among other reasons
I love this analysis. In my watch of season 2 I felt like Jinx's relationship with Isha was very much like the process of inner child work and healing. She treats Isha the way she wanted to be treated as Powder - she is involved in plans, she is given roles and responsibilities with little explosives that she can excel at whilst being nurtured (Jinx does big jump across roof line with Isha in flashback, rather than her doing it on her own like Powder had to on the Piltover roofs). When Vi punches Isha, (like she punched Powder) Jinx is there to be in big Sis mode. She is not overprotective, which Powder resented of Vi, arguably causing Powder's devastating unplanned explosion in S1. This is so healing for Jinx and the little Powder still inside her.
With the show over, i think it'd be a great idea to revisit some old videos. Some videos i'd love to see a part to for are "How Arcane Writes Women" & "Analyzing Arcane's Best Scenes"
I broke down just by reading the title
Hey, you ok
Jinx is not dead you guys! I watched that scene 50 times! Right before the explosion there is a shimmer zap that goes into one of the vents. Maybe Jinx walked away by… walking away
As much as I want Jynx to survive I hate that her survival is being told through easter eggs
That's literally irrelevant to what we're discussing. She was prepared to not survive.
Oh finally an explanation of Isha's condition, I was very confused, some said she was mute, but she makes sounds, others said she was deaf, but it seemed like she understood the other characters.
Anyway, knowing more about it made me love her even more
From 11:28 - 12:40 is such a perfect encapsulation of the themes of the season, especially now that act 3 is out (what could’ve been in e7 is CRUCIAL for ekko not just bc it portrays positive possibility, but bc it changes the way he perceives jinx who he later saves in e9). Stunned, had so many of these thoughts but u put it into words so articulately. And there’s a LOT there for me to still unpack, about what love represents in this season in this context, etc. We’re so back
Isha is a good representation of Powder and young Vi. Her eyes are neither pink or blue, but yellow. Isha stole Vi’s gemstones from her gauntlets along with Jinx’s gem from her pistol. If you include Viktor’s question about fate, then Isha sacrificing herself is symbolic that Powder was always fated to die. The events of that night with the monkey bomb were always going to happen. But this time, Isha/Powder is somehow okay with it. She reminded Jinx what was good about the life of Powder. She even holds up Jinx’s pistol like the blue flare. Vander returning wasn’t just another chance for the sisters at a life with him, it was another chance at life after he is gone for good.
I'm not sure I agree with Jinx failing to complete her arc at the end. I think it's a case not of still trying to kill herself, but trying to save Vi--to be the protector, for a change. Her time with Isha allowed her to understand a little bit more of how Vi sees her. I think Isha is a real multitool for fast-tracking Jinx's character development and it does a lot of jobs simultaneously.
When Sevika said Jinx didn't have to give her a new arm, Jinx's reply is so telling to me. "It was something I could fix." Unlike all the other things she's broken, or tried to break, she finally was able to fix something. To put her talents towards good, no matter how small. It's the first time we see Jinx do an intentionally, unequivocally, good thing since the start of this entire series. In the unfortunately unseen scene where Ekko convinces Jinx to build something new rather than destroy, probably by telling her about the Powder he knew in that other timeline (or at least alluding to it), I have to assume that Ekko affirmed what Jinx wouldn't believe on her own--that there IS a good version of her. Even after helping Sevika and proving herself wrong, she still doesn't believe she can turn her talents towards good.
I think that Isha is ultimately what allowed Jinx to understand why Vi wasn't just unwilling to, but incapable of, giving up on her. So she saved Vi by tackling Vander, because Vi wasn't in a position to save herself, and then did it again by disabling the bitch mitten. It's almost like the show gave her a "are you sure you want to continue with this course of action? Y/N". I don't think she was trying to die in the end. I think she was trying to return the favour.
9:50 silco (in Jinx's head) did indeed say almost the exact same thing as you in act 3 lol.
i have been refreshing my feed every single day since the start of the new season and tbh i cant wait for hours on end of analisis. please keep delivering what you always do: cuality content.
much love
If you're going to make a video about Ekko and Powder, there's a small detail that I feel the need to point out about the song for their dance "Ma Meilleure Enemie"
At the end of the first verse, there's this segment:
"de toi je devrais m'éloigner,
Mais comme le dit le dicton,
Plutôt qu'être seul mieux vaut être mal accompagné,"
(From you I should get away
But as the saying goes
Rather than be alone, better be in bad company)
This is a play on an actual idiom in french "Mieux vaux être seul que mal accompagné" (Better to be alone than in bad company). The original idiom is about how you can be happier alone than hanging out with the wrong people, but the song inverts this idiom, which makes sense given that the song is about Jinx and Ekko's relationship, with an emphasis on Ekko's perspective.
Ekko misses his old friend Powder, and he tries to convince himself she's gone and that he doesn't care about her anymore, but as we see in episode 7 of season 1, he can't actually do it. He can't just stop caring and give up on her, even if she's killed so many of his friends among the firelights, even if they've fought numerous times, even if he has every reason to hate her, he just can't do it because if he did, then he would be all alone.
And Ekko would rather be in Jinx's bad company than alone.
Isha’s helmet lets you know she worked in the mines. So that would be an indication of her impaired hearing.
"Isha is Jinx's wild rune?" Naw, more like,
"Washa WAS Jinx's wild rune" amirite fellas
Foul 😂
I feel bad laughing...😂
The one thing to know about Isha isha better not get attached
14:48 the French have read Lacan… it is critical to all of this
Slay psychoanalysis! Identities are imposed to us!!!
Everybody this is what I have been waiting for. Excited for the video man!
Jinx is alive, that’s the whole point of the final scenes, there’s a flash of shimmer going into the ducts before the explosion, and Caitlyn analyzes her escape route in the final scenes, while the airship she wanted to ride in s1 e1 flys past. She’s just living for herself now
100 years Schnee! 100 years! Videos for 100 years!
I love your analysis… analyses’s? Analysis’? Anyway, your videos are great Schnee. I’ve learned so much about metaphor and thematic storytelling from watching you and it’s really helped my own writing. Thanks so much dude!
7:08 preach
After seeing the full series, You also realise that it is because of Isha and Jinx's imperfections, jinx wanting to die, and Isha's deafness as well as her desire to be the hero (the way she sees jinx ) all of this is why the ending worked out so perfectly.
in my opinion jinx's sacrifice is a completion to the arc this video is about. i mean, earlier in the season shes trying to murder her last remaining family member in a massive explosion, now shes saving that last remaining family member and sacrificing her own life to do so. in a way shes mirroring what isha did for her at the end of s2e6 and finally embodying and accepting herself as the hero isha always saw her as
^^ This. I also believe that Jinx is dead. It makes the most sense for her arc.
This video was perfect, PLEASE ceep up the work. And the video abut Eko and Powder next sounds bombastick, im sooooo exited for IT!!! Thx 😁
When we talking about the rushed pace, the jump straight to world ending threat and lack of character development in season 2?
I hope we will and schee isn't just fanboy
@@mishan3168I see you're new here
@@Rampala not really. But I want to believe in best 🌚
Season 1 was already packed, and then they tried to wrap every subplot in one more season, and they DID, which is rare for ambitious stories like this. Yeah, it's overwhelming, but so was Season 1, and like then, I'm expecting to process the subtleties better over time, with plenty of help from schnee.
@ nah they didn’t wrap anything up LMAO
im SO excited waiting for all your other arcane analysis videos
She never intended to kill vi though, we see this in the arcade. She was talking about herself when she told sevika she intends to finish off what's left of her family. The gas was a funeral pyre for herself, one last joke using the colorful explosions
I LOVE THIS VIDEO SO MUCH. first time i've ever teared up at a video essay lol. i have BEEN SAYING she wanted to die and i've heard a lot of 'her death was unnecessary' and well nothing in arcane is unnecessary so i much look forward to all your future season 2 videos!!
when you started describing isha's worldview and how she sees how 'beautiful' and 'kind' and 'loving' jinx is i was GONE because i wish so hard that jinx would see that. ALSO, the whole wild runes theory intertwining into their dynamics is SO INSIGHTFUL! idk how you do it.. i live for your videos. also that sneaky little sponsorship was weaved into it very cleverly lolol
when you said the narrative of jinx is probably too ingrained into her by her actual death though.. i was gone again. poor powder doesn't deserve all of this pain :(
this video was incredible and i WILL be rewatching over and over. another addition of points i can add to my argument that arcane did NOT have a bad ending!!!! that is physically impossible!!
anyway,, thank you for your channel seeing you upload actually makes my day lol
So in total… Felicia and Connel, the hairless cat, Greyson, Benzo, Claggor, Mylo, Deckard, Vander, six officers + pink haired girl + whoever else Jinx killed, Sky, Marcus, Silco, Hanskol, Bosko, Cassandra, Amara + Ionian girl + goat guy + whoever else Ambessa killed, all chembarons, Kino, Elora, everyone in Stillwater prison during Warwick’s attack, Isha, Huck, Salo, and all of Viktor’s victims, Rictus, Gert (jinx fan), Loris, Maddie, Ambessa, and countless others are all confirmed dead.
Heimerdinger, Viktor and Jayce, are possibly alive in a time loop. Singed is still alive! And he resurrected Orianna! La Blanc might be alive. Jinx is also possibly alive, escaping down an air shaft.
Vi and Cait can finally be free and happy. Caitlyn’s dad can move on. Sevika is on the counsel. Mel is going back to Noxus. Ekko is probably looking after the tree. Gustov “the scowler” might never get a new jaw in this lifetime. Lest is hopefully safe, along with Babette. Piano guy hopefully doesn’t become so traumatized he becomes Jin. Steb can help his uncle Jericho go back to his food business. And Swain’s raven can get shot in the head by Jinx and we never hear about Swain again. The end!