Rock Candy Reviews

An Isha Character Analysis

(Spoilers for all of Arcane season 2)

One character that has captured the hearts of many Arcane fans in the second season, is the little rebel, Isha. Although, some fans see her as more of a plot device, she truly functions as the perfect foil to Powder from season one of the show.

Introductions and set up

When we first meet Isha, she is running from three individuals before falling onto Jinx. Even though Jinx is the one to finish them off, we do get to see Isha fight back. She bites one of the individuals trying to take her, and this is actually one of the first things that sets her apart from young Powder.

Powder, in season one, freezes during fights, and avoids using her hands to fight. She is so scared of getting hurt in anyway that she throws away the bounty she and her friends worked so hard to get. Unlike Isha, who has many instances of fighting against the odds.

For better or worse, Isha is not afraid of conflict. She even takes on Vi and Rictus on separate occasions in order to fight for who she wants to protect. This is because the events of the story don’t shelter Isha the way Powder was. Isha has more agency agency and independence, because no one was there to fight in place of her or excuse her short comings. Even Jinx teaches Isha to take action on her own as they begin to spend more time together. This allows both Jinx and Isha to become more confident in their actions.

Character interactions

On the surface level, Isha doesn’t interact with many characters other than Jinx. If you look a bit closer, you’ll find that Isha has moments with Warwick/Vander and Vi that actually mean a lot.

Despite Vander being a beast, Isha is constantly friendly towards him, and tries to protect him when he gets agitated. Simple things like joining group hugs, and bringing him food shows that Isha has a big heart and attaches herself to people very quickly.

Vi meets Isha in a very tense moment, yet neither of them seem to hold any real grudge against each other. They both care about Jinx, and that is enough for them to move forward together.

When Vi unintentionally hits Isha in her tussle with Jinx, Isha is shaken, but not vengeful. This is also the moment that Vi is brought back from her anger towards Jinx. Seeing that she hurt yet another young kid in a fit of rage, Vi realizes that Isha and Jinx are clearly close. Which is the relationship she secretly still wants with Jinx.

Empowerment

Ultimately, Powder and Isha are what you get when you give or take away empowerment from kids.

Despite Vi’s best intentions, she did not let Powder take on appropriate responsibilities. (Either isolating Powder, or taking her on jobs she wasn’t ready for) This taught Powder to second guess herself, and blame herself even more when she made mistakes.

On the other hand, we have Isha. She feels emboldened enough to take action based on her own judgement, and fights for her ideals and others. She cares about defending the people of the undercity, as well as those she is personally connected to.