Editor’s Note: There are spoilers for the entire show, which is rated TV-14. Any opinions expressed in City Voice articles are the authors and do not imply that the City Voice takes a stand one way or another.
The 2021 animated show Arcane has captivated many audiences around the US and in the international community. It’s been praised for its deep and nuanced characters, riveting story, and powerful, overarching themes that leave audiences stunned by the show’s profoundness.
A large theme in the show is moral ambiguity. The show dives deep into human principles in society. It uses its character-driven story as a device to show how certain events and past experiences can affect how people make decisions. Every event in the story occurs because of a conscious decision by a character. This drives the very realistic, human, and grounded tone of Arcane, despite it being a fantasy/sci-fi show. Fans love the characters because the characters are, well, human, truly human.
Jinx, a fan-favorite of the show, is a very morally ambiguous character. Fans love her not just because of her fun, chaotic antics and captivating character design, but because her mental health journey is so relatable for many viewers alike. Jinx started the show as a little girl named Powder, taken care of by her parentified sister, Vi. Through a series of tragic events, Powder later accepts her identity as a Jinx by the end of the show, a Jinx that will always fail and hurt those she loves.
The story of Jinx is a tragedy. The cause of this tragedy, however, is completely circumstantial and a culmination of tragic events caused by characters with good intentions or mistakes.
The issue with the Arcane fandom is that many fail to understand this. Instead, like a typical protagonist-antagonist show, they seek to blame a character for Jinx’s mental spiral. Unfortunately, most of the blame has been thrown on the only person who truly devoted her entire life to Jinx: Vi.
Vi is the protagonist of Arcane. While many view Jinx as the center of the show, Vi is the character who undergoes the hero’s journey, creating the plot from her conscious decisions. Rather, Jinx is more of an antagonist (and Silco is the villain). Vi was the character that would always be there for Powder, offering her support and guidance and empowering her as an individual. However, as the protagonist, Vi is flawed, as any human is flawed. As a teenager, Vi took her adoptive brothers, Mylo and Claggor, along with Powder to the richer Piltover to rob money for her poorer city, Zaun. This heist goes wrong since Powder drops a hex crystal and blows up a building, and Piltover begins to probe Zaun to submit a criminal for the robbery. Vi didn’t want this to happen, it happened due to circumstance.
Eventually, Silco reveals to a Piltover enforcer that Vi and the others were behind it. Silco kidnaps Vi’s and Powder’s adoptive father, Vander. Vi, desperate to not lose her father figure, goes out to save him and asks Powder to stay back. Powder became desperate to help, so she ventured out with a homemade hextech, a monkey toy, device that acts as a bomb. Ultimately, in an innocent attempt to save her family, Powder bombed the whole building, killing Mylo and Claggor, and killing Vander as he risked his life to save Vi.
This was a moment of crisis for Vi, a scar that would forever wound her. When Vi saw Powder and realized she killed their whole family, this was the only time she could not be an empowering older sister. She punches Powder, and calls her a Jinx. She walks away from Powder after as Powder screams for her to come back. Vi walks to a nearby building to sit down and cry alone to let out her pain.
When Silco finds Jinx a few moments later, Vi runs back to rescue Powder. It was too late, however; she was thrown in jail by an enforcer before she could go back to Powder.
This punch to Powder’s face continues to live with her as she goes under Silco’s care. Silco adopts Powder but reinforces the identity of Jinx by calling her a Jinx. Slowly, Powder starts to believe it. Powder becomes Jinx. But the past demons never leave, and Jinx will regularly have hallucinations of Vi hitting her and her past mistakes.
This is why fans blame Vi. But this is an unfair blame.
Keep in mind, that Jinx is a clear-cut, mentally ill, war criminal. Jinx is not a good person, no matter what trauma created her identity. Jinx is motivated by constant validation, and abandonment issues, and is willing to do anything (murder and destruction included) to receive validation and love. Vi, however, made a horrible mistake at a critical time when Powder needed support. But, Vi was also a child, who saw her whole family die because of Powder. This mistake was the only time Vi took off her big sister, parentified-child hat. The repercussions of this action are immensely out of her control. Spending the rest of her childhood and early adulthood in jail, the only thing that could keep Vi going was the thought of getting back to Powder, who was no longer Powder, but Jinx.
So, the creation of Jinx is completely due to unfortunate circumstances.
Moral ambiguity is the basis of this tragic event. Vi is not a clear-cut moral character. Yes, she makes poor choices that can end up hurting people. However, it is never Vi’s intention to hurt those she loves. She stands for justice and care for others. Jinx, is also a very morally ambiguous character. She does horrible things, an example of this is shooting a crow without much thought. She threatens to murder Vi’s later ‘girlfriend’ Caitlyn. But the good intentions she had as a kid were there, they have just disappeared from trauma and mental illness.
Some fans don’t blame Vi, but blame other characters anyway. An example is Mylo. During the heist that Powder messed up on accident, he says she jinxes every job. He constantly invalidates her capabilities, laying the groundwork for her insecurities and later her acceptance of her new identity as Jinx. However, Mylo is also an insecure teenager that experienced a lot of trauma. It is frustrating when missions keep failing because a younger, less-experienced person keeps messing up a job. Mylo is not Vi nor Vander’s favorite. It can be inferred that he has a sort of middle-child syndrome, and wants attention by undermining Powder.
Some fans blame Silco too. Silco was a very manipulative father and not an ethical person, but he loved Jinx dearly. When Jinx kills Silco at the end because of her psychosis, Silco calls her perfect and says he would never trade her in for Zaun’s freedom.
Vi, Mylo, and Silco have contributed to the destruction of Powder, but none of these characters are morally, clear-cut, evil.
There are other examples of fandom labeling characters as static good and evil labels without taking into consideration moral ambiguity. For example, Caitlyn in Season 2 becomes rash in her decision-making, steering away from her by-the-book characterization. This is due to her intense thirst for justice and revenge as Jinx murdered her mother and disrespected the Kiramman name. Caitlyn hits Vi after Vi stops her from shooting Jinx and Jinx’s adoptive sister, Isha. Fans quickly despised her afterward but forgot to take into consideration the actions that caused her to make that decision. Trust me, I did not like Caitlyn at that moment either, but she had the shot to kill the most wanted criminal, but couldn’t because Vi stopped her.
The fandom needs to stop labeling certain characters, especially Vi, as horrible people or very good people. Jinx has her own autonomy. She is not completely a victim, and she is definitely not a hero. Vi had her best intentions, so she is not a villain. She’s a caring person who is human. Humans make mistakes. The whole premise of the show is very, very morally ambiguous, with characters motivated by personal intentions (some good, some bad). Therefore, simply labeling characters as good or evil is a disrespect to the entire message that Riot Games and Fortiche are trying to send through their splendid storytelling and animation.
This is similar to society (the beauty of Arcane). We cannot label any individual as completely good or completely evil. Our perception of people comes from differing perspectives and identities. Yes, some people make more ethically and morally wrong choices and there are legal repercussions for that. Does this always mean they are a completely evil person and are not morally ambiguous in the slightest? No, it doesn’t.
So, Arcane tried to teach us all a lesson, but some of the fandom still hasn’t gotten it. They take the same approach to Arcane as they do with any shallow show, and give the labels of villain and hero to characters that are truly, really, just simply human.
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