Netflix’s TV show, Arcane, is undoubtedly one of the greatest franchises we have ever watched. The animated drama-action series made its way into our hearts with its remarkable story, characters, design, graphics, colors, and many other elements. Riot Games showed how it’s possible to create a unique, emotional, and fascinating story from the characters of a simple strategic game that players play primarily for fun. Check out our Act 1 and Act 2 and 3 reviews.
This article focuses on the ending of the show, where our main character’s story is hugely affected. Therefore, if you haven’t watched the show yet, major spoilers lie ahead.
What Happened to Jinx
In Season 2 Episode 9, Piltover is massively attacked by Ambessa’s Noxian soldiers. The whole episode contains this all-in battle, filled with many epic moments from different characters. Upon Ekko’s arrival and his heroic action that saved everyone from being controlled by Viktor, the moment arrives for Jinx to show up.
One an unstable platform where Vi can’t still give up on her father-figure Vander, aka Warwick, and she is then attacked by him, Jinx, using her dash ability enhanced by the injected Shimmer, pushes Vander away, resulting in both of them swinging at the edge of the platform. The moment now comes for Jinx to show her loyalty to her sister after everything she has done. With the sad quote ”Always with you sis”, Jinx lets herself fall off and detonates a bomb mid-air, breaking the cycle with an ultimate sacrifice.
What Fans Found Out
Although Jinx’s fate was tragic and left fans in tears, there are three elements meticulous viewers detected, suggesting she is still alive:
- The pink streak: Upon reaching the explosion, if you slow motion, a millisecond before the blast, you find a trail of pink on the top-right corner going through a path. That is actually Jinx, as we mention above, due to her Shimmer power, every time she dashes, a pink streak is revealed. So, she surely escaped the explosion using the power.
- Caitlyn checking the tower’s blueprint: The hextower holds ventilation systems. In a scene, Caitlyn is checking the blueprint of the Piltover tower, where she notices the ducts which are the same Jinx zipped into to escape. Her smile can also confirm she looked for Jinx and didn’t find her, and she can still be alive.
- The flying ship: The last scene of the show is a ship flying over the ocean. This is the exact same ship we saw in Season 1 when Powder said: ”One day, I’m going to ride in one of those things”. Perhaps, she is now aboard the ship, flying away to discover her new life.
The Relationship Between Viewers’ and Creators’ Honor
One of the most important factors designers should pay attention to when creating a character is the direct relationship between the respect viewers, or players in video games, give to the character and the respect you, the creator, give to him/her. People might fall in love with a character, making the character extremely beloved and popular, requiring respect, honor, and dignity if you plan to eliminate them from the story. If creators fail to balance this, fans won’t be satisfied, and they will label the story as having wasted the character. On the contrary, when a character is really hated, giving honor and prestige to them is totally wrong; this will leave your fans to judge that the character didn’t deserve it.
For more clarification, let’s take a look at a character: Brandon Stark in Game of Thrones. The main reason why the show received the lowest score of 4/10 in the very last episode was because of choosing him as the final king. Such risky decision resulted in many fans deeply disappointed about the show. This is due to the respect they didn’t show to Brandon, regardless of many positive things he had done, and also, the presence of stronger candidates, particularly Jon Snow. So, fans didn’t like the character at all, and the developers made him the king. Such contradiction made the show have the worst possible memory in our minds.
Jinx is certainly a beloved person. She is the lead character of Arcane‘s story, and no matter how much harm she caused to others, she remains iconic and popular among fans. If you take a closer look at how and why she decided to sacrifice herself, you can probably realize that the sacrifice wasn’t entirely necessary and significant, in comparison to Isha’s sacrifice that saved everyone from the wild, gigantic Warwick. While Jinx’s sacrifice was really respectable and demonstrated her love for her sister, it was somewhat trivial. If there was no signs of her being possibly alive, you could easily argue that she could have dashed away from the explosion. Surely, Riot Games understands how much incredible Jinx is for fans, and they will bring her back in the upcoming titles; otherwise, we will be left saying: ”What a waste of a character”.
The Last of Us Part II Scenario
However, there is one concerning scenario the company might apply for Jinx. First, let’s jump into one of the most intense games of all time: The Last of Part II. After only two hours of gameplay, you get absolutely shocked by your lovely character’s death: Joel. Back in June 2020, after the public release of the game and upon a few hours, a massive drop in user score happened for the game due to this brutal unexpected event. This refers to the contradiction we spoke of, as the character is really honorable, but Naughty Dog, the company, chose to kill him off in a careless manner.
But, this was predictable by ND, and they surely didn’t desire to leave Joel alone in that way. Consequently, to restore the honor and dignity he deserves, they put him in many flashbacks he had with Ellie, meaning killing the original character and replacing it with a new form. The idea progressively healed the wound fans experienced at the beginning, and upon reaching the end of the story, where you see Joel playing the guitar, you will become calm and accept what was supposed to be his fate.
If Riot Games chooses to follow this approach, the original Jinx would be gone and replaced by a new version; for example, considering S2E07 where she found out the Z-Drive machine, and upon opening the drawer, the scene shows a pack of crystals left. Perhaps, she could come back to the show as the real Powder. However, this is probably not the best idea, and we all hope the company will decide to keep her alive, and we will see her again as the naughty, warrior, and full of sense of humor character we love.
