Rock Candy Reviews

An Arcane discussion, (Spoilers for season 1 of Arcane)

One of the most frustrating yet exciting scenes in the first season of Arcane is when the Firelights crash Jinx and Vi’s reunion. Caitlyn being there didn’t help either, but she is not the one that escalated the situation. Ekko, the leader of the Firelights wasted no time in attacking the two sisters, and did not even attempt to talk with Vi until she is captured. However, we at least get some conversation between the two of them as they get out their reasoning and emotions. With Jinx, we get nothing except for their fight scene on the bridge.

This got me thinking about the reason Ekko was so quick to give up on Powder. Her new identity of Jinx was no doubt a shock to his system, but there are a lot of unknown factors.

First of all, we don’t know if Ekko ever tried to reason with Jinx before the time skip. It would kind of be hypocritical of Ekko to claim Powder is gone if he never attempted to rescue her from Silco. We don’t even know how he feels about the death of Vander, Milo, and Claggor.

We know that he values the sanctuary he created and the participating Firelights. However, none of them were focused on enough in the show to make it seem like he valued them more than his old friends. Yes, Jinx does kill one young Firelight, which gives Ekko a reason to be vengeful and unforgiving. Yet he clearly hesitates in fully going through with killing Jinx. He has the chance to do so when he attacks her on the bridge, but can’t bring himself to finish her off.

The only thing that makes sense is the possibility that Ekko doesn’t know the full extent of Jinx’s circumstances and trauma. Silco’s loving but hurtful manipulation of Jinx is something many other characters never see. They simply see Jinx as an insane lost cause, and don’t acknowledge Silco’s influence. Ekko also clearly cares about saving individuals more than the whole of the undercity. Which is why he makes his secret society separate from the rest of the Lanes. This leads me to believe that Ekko does not see the past as something to base his decisions off of. Unlike Vi, who cherishes the past and fights to return to some semblance of it, Ekko is more focused on moving away from all that both The Lanes and Piltover has put him through. He wants to move on to a better future, even if it means abandoning all that came before.