Jinx/Arcane (2024)

		"I thought maybe you could love me like you used to. Even though I'm... different. But you changed too. So, here's to the new us." In Dev Update - Champs, Lore & More, Laura 'poisonpixxi' DeYoung, Head of IP Creative for Riot Games, elaborated on their new approach to narrative cohesiveness by ironing out any inconsistencies that have sprung up over the years. This article contains information that conflicts with this new narrative and will most likely be changed/moved in the following year(s). For further information on these changes, see Canonical inconsistencies

“	"It's Jinx now. Powder fell down a well."
	— Jinx to Vi, When These Walls Come Tumbling Down

Jinx, born as Powder, is a notorious Zaunite criminal and Vi's younger sister. When she was a little girl, her parents were killed in a failed uprising against Piltover, leading Vander, the unspoken leader of the undercity, to adopt both her and Vi as his own daughters. After a series of events forced Jinx and her sister apart in more ways than one, she was fundamentally and irrevocably changed, transforming her into the demented killer she is today.

Background[]

Early Life[]

Jinx's real name was "Powder". At a young age, then-Powder and her sister Vi were orphaned during a battle between Piltover and the people of Zaun. Seeing the girls in distress, Zaunite defender Vander abandoned the battle to keep them safe, taking them away to Zaun. Powder was always criticized by her adopted brother Mylo due to her clumsiness and was always defended by Vi.^[1]

Life in the undercity was difficult, but Powder was able to stay out of trouble until she, Vi, Mylo, and fellow adoptee Claggor decided to break into the Piltover workshop of Jayce Talis in order to carry out a burglary. Powder mishandled unrefined Hextech crystals, leading to an explosion that seriously damaged the building.^[1] This alerted the Piltover Enforcers which lead to a chase through the city. The four would-be thieves inadvertently lead the Enforcers back to the Zaunite slum known as The Lanes. To shield his adopted children, Vander claimed responsibility and allowed himself to be arrested.^[2] Zaunite crime lord Silco attacked the Enforcers and kidnapped Vander in order to both take revenge on Vander for betraying him years before and to accrue power.

The children decided to rescue Vander, but Vi told Powder to remain home. This led to her being sad and crying in her room until she discovers the stolen Hextech crystals' destructive potential and goes to Vander's location. Upon seeing her family in trouble, Powder set off a handmade bomb, powered by Hextech crystals. The explosion destroyed Silco's Shimmer production facility, but also killed Vander, Mylo, and Claggor. After finding out Powder was responsible, Vi yelled at her, referring to her as a 'jinx' that ruins lives before walking away. Powder had another breakdown and found comfort in Silco, who adopted her as his daughter.^[3]

Powder was scarred from this experience, hearing the voices of Mylo and Claggor in her head constantly and even seeing hallucinations of their dead bodies. During her stay with Silco, she became more destructive as well as chaotic, adopting her name as Jinx.

Stolen Crystal and Vi's Return[]

After Jinx failed to protect one of Silco's shipments of Shimmer, she wanted to prove herself to him again. To do so, she decided to violently steal a newly made Hextech gemstone from Jayce Talis' Progress Day presentation. Although Silco was originally agitated that Jinx's theft killed several enforcers and consequently led to increased scrutiny of his criminal enterprise, he later approved of her actions when she showed him the gemstone. Silco told Jinx that she should make a hextech weapon with it in order to match Piltover's hextech; thus putting them in a better position to demand Zaun's independence. The stolen gemstone lead to economic-affecting sanctions by Piltover and searches being performed in Zaun by enforcers. While Silco was able to redirect the enforcers' aggression towards the Firelights via his man Sheriff Marcus, a rogue enforcer named Caitlyn Kiramman—alongside her associate Vi—investigate the Undercity for the stolen gemstone and the true culprits of the crime.^[4] Meanwhile, Silco has to deal with discontent from disgruntled Chem-Barons who blame Jinx for their suffering businesses and increased penalties from Piltover.

Shortly after, Jinx found out that Vi had returned from prison after interrogating Sevika. Afterwards, Jinx decided to light a flare that Vi had given her as a child. She was told to light it in case of an emergency and that Vi would come find her. She went to the rooftop of a tall building and lit the flare. Vi saw this and came to see Jinx. However, she came with Caitlyn Kiramman, an enforcer, leading her to think that Vi was only there to get the gemstone back and arrest her. After a fight with the Firelights—who have been tracking them—the gang stole Jinx's gemstone, and also kidnapped Vi and Caitlyn while they eluded Jinx.^[5]

Experimentation[]

As Jinx recovered from her battle with the Firelights, Jinx became more jealous of Caitlyn and obsessively tried to reassure herself that Vi was focused on reuniting their family; not pleasing Caitlyn. Jinx tracked Caitlyn, Vi, and Ekko to the Bridge of Progress, where they were intercepted by Sheriff Marcus and his enforcers. Witnessing Caitlyn and Vi's intimate relationship, Jinx furiously attacked everyone with her swarm of insect-bombs—killing Sheriff Marcus and his enforcers. Jinx shot at Caitlyn and Vi but Ekko engaged her and covered their escape. Ekko and Jinx fought a duel, which Ekko won, but Jinx detonated one of her bombs while he was distacted—injuring Ekko and critically injuring herself. Nevertheless, Jinx had managed to recover the stolen hextech gemstone from Caitlyn and Vi.^[6] In desperation, Silco turned to Singed, a scientist, to save her—chemically altering her but saving her from death. However, this chemical alteration would amplify JInx's mental problems, making her paranoid that Caitlyn was trying to steal Vi from her.^[7]

The Tea Party[]

After learning that Silco had the chance to give the undercity independence from Piltover in exchange for giving her up to the enforcers, Jinx kidnapped him, Vi, and Caitlyn and tied them up around a dinner table. She made two chairs for herself, with one having 'Jinx' written on it and the other having 'Powder' written on it to represent her younger self. Jinx asked Vi if they were still sisters and if they could be together again. Vi said yes, but Silco said that they would be together only for one day before Vi would come to her senses and realize that Jinx is a different person. He said that he would have never given her up to the authorities and that she should just kill Vi. As Jinx struggled to come to a decision, Silco freed himself from his bonds and pointed a gun at Vi. Jinx, in the midst of a mental breakdown, shot him multiple times. With his last words, Silco reaffirmed that he would have never given her up to the enforcers.^[8]

Vi asked Jinx to untie her and run away with her like she had before, but to her horror, Jinx sat down in the chair labeled 'Jinx', reaffirming her new identity and that the girl that Vi knew as a child was gone. She then took the weapon that she built with the Hextech gemstone and used it to launch a rocket into the room where the Piltover Council, a council consisting of the highest ranking members of the most prominent institutions of the city and the rulers of Piltover, were meeting.^[8]

Appearance[]

Jinx (formerly Powder) is a very slender and pale Zaunite with naturally blue hair and wide blue eyes (before being injected with shimmer by Singed).

In Act 1 as Powder, she had shoulder-length hair tied back into a singular plait, with hastily cut bangs accented with silvery intricate clips, some freckles, and wore purple and dark-blue stitched-up and worn Zaunite clothing.

In Acts 2 and 3, Jinx has ankle-length hair, styled into two plaits with a chin-length swoop of hair on the right side of her face. She wears a worn black sleeveless leather crop top with a leather choker, knee-length distressed purple striped trousers often complemented by dark leather accessories with purple accents on her arms, a pair of intricate worn black leather ankle-length boots with purple laces, and a worn crisscross band-aid on her left knee. She has pale blue stylized cloud tattoos on her right arm and midriff and her nails are covered with blue and pink paint. After Singed saved her life through the use of the drug “shimmer”, Jinx became far paler, and her blue eyes turned to a pinkish color due to the shimmer with visible purplish veins by her eyes.

Personality[]

As a child, Powder was kind but curious, clumsy, impulsive, and reckless, often making decisions that would badly affect the people around her. She was constantly criticized by Mylo for this, and it made her hate herself when she made these decisions. Deeply traumatized by the death of her parents, she would have attachment issues, specifically towards her sister Vi. After she caused the deaths of Mylo, Claggor, and Vander and Vi seemingly abandoning her during her most weakest moment, her trauma would become more pronounced, experiencing both auditory and visual hallucinations of Mylo and Claggor's dead voices and bodies. She would put on a veneer of a bubbly and energetic person, only to hide the hurt and trauma of past events. She's also very sarcastic, extroverted with a twisted sense of humor.

After she was adopted by Silco, Jinx became more chaotic and more prone to hallucinations, even enjoying becoming a criminal and being slightly sad*stic. Sevika stated that Jinx is someone impossible to control, even for Silco.

Although chaotic and unstable, she's a very skilled inventor with a high level of creativity and intelligence, creating her own arsenal of weapons.

Her chemical alteration by Singed would further deteriorate her mental stability, making her even more paranoid and more erratic. With the return of her sister (seemingly with another person), she would do whatever it took to not lose her again, even kidnapping her and accidentally killing Silco. Despite being mentally unstable, a part of her as Powder remained inside her; this would make her feel scared of being the same fearful, weak, and timid child before Vi abandoned her, thus creating an inner struggle about her true identity. However, after Silco's death, she fully embraced her new identity as Jinx.

Abilities[]

• Chemically Altered Physiology: Due to being subjected to a horrendous experiment revolving around shimmer to save her life, Jinx would permanently have shimmer inside her body. This would give her strength, speed, and durability beyond of a normal human, in exchange for an, even more, deteriorated mental state.
• Inventor: Despite not having any formal education, Jinx is a prolific engineer and inventor, having created numerous contraptions and weapons with her own creativity and ingenuity. She was also able to quickly reverse-engineer the hextech technology created by Jayce and Viktor with just the aid of their research journal, being the first Zaunite to build hextech weapons for her own use.
  • Pow-Pow: A machine gun of her own design, this would be Jinx's primary weapon during her usual escapades around Piltover and Zaun.
  • Fishbones: Designed from her childhood drawings, this rocket cannon has a chemtech payload known as Super Mega Rockets. At one point the rocket was empowered with a hextech gemstone, enabling it to shoot for greater distances.
  • Gun: A pistol that fires shimmer-enhanced gunpowder bullets, capable of injuring any targeted person.
  • Chompers: Inspired by her childhood bomb designs, the chompers have a chemtech payload inside them. Disarming one can prove to be dangerous, as its inner mechanisms are difficult to go through due to their random scrapheap design, even for scientists like Viktor and Jayce.

Relations[]

Violet[]

“	"I thought maybe you could love me like you used to. Even though I'm... different. But you changed too. So here's to the new us."
	— Jinx to Vi, The Monster You Created

Violet and Powder are sisters who grew up together under the care of Vander after their parents' deaths. Vi is overprotective of her sister, defending her often against their adopted brother Mylo who teases her. She is Powder's biggest supporter when they were young, they often sat together looking at the mechanics Powder had made.

After the kidnapping of Vander, Vi told her sister to stay back so she wouldn't get hurt. But Powder had a mental break down until she discovered she could enhance her bombs with the hex crystals she stole. Believing she could help her family, Powder ultimately went to the warehouse and threw a bomb, killing her adopted father and brothers by accident. The disaster led to Vi calling Powder a 'Jinx' and say other hurtful words in frustration before walking away from her to clear her head. Although Vi intended to return to Powder when she saw Silco was approaching her, she was drugged unconscious and kidnapped by Marcus. Due to Vi's absence, Powder believed she was abandoned. According to Jinx, Vi was what motivated her to become stronger and to create the persona Jinx.

As adults, Powder and Vi reunited but Vi's sister was no longer Powder but rather Jinx. Powder's Jinx persona, along with her willingly working for Silco, disturbed Vi and troubled her; while Vi's intimate relationship with Caitlyn upset Jinx. Although she missed her sister, Jinx felt very confused. Part of her thinks Vi no longer loves her but sought to manipulate her in order to get into Caitlyn's favor—notions that were encouraged by Sevika and Silco. Jinx didn't entirely trust Silco or Sevika either since they've lied to her about Vi being alive, in spite of Silco raising Jinx as his own daughter.Ultimately, their reunion was short-lived. They were separated again and their misunderstandings made their relationship tense and occasionally hostile.

In order to protect her sister, Jinx ended up killing Silco; the consequence of that event caused Vi's sister to abandon her Powder persona and embrace her identity as Jinx.

Deep down she still loves her sister very much, but feels that she cannot reconcile with her.

Vander[]

After the uprising, Vander took in Powder as his own child. He would teach her to live a better life, guiding her to be a better person than himself. However, being guilted by her own actions that caused Vander's death, she would regress into her own childhood memories, trying to avoid the trauma of what had happened. The images of Vander would come and haunt her, bringing her much pain whenever they surface.

Claggor[]

Claggor was the elder adopted brother to Jinx. Unlike Mylo, he was much more calm and caring to her and didn't ridicule her. After the bomb exploded during the rescue mission of Vander, he died. Jinx built a doll version of him, including his signature goggles. She doesn't hear his voice as much as the other ones of her deceased family.

Mylo[]

Mylo was her elder adopted brother back when she was still Powder. He'd often ridicule her for her clumsiness and incompetence for completing missions, saying she jinxed every mission, and often compared her to her older sister. They often butted heads, where Mylo struggled with things Powder exceeded in, such as shooting. After Powder was left behind during the rescue mission of Vander, she eventually came to try to help ultimately leading to Mylo's death. Jinx is later haunted by his voice, becoming the embodiment of her doubts, anxieties, and self ridicule. She also built a mechanical version of her deceased brother to talk to.

Ekko[]

Ekko and Powder were childhood friends, often praticing fighting moves, or playing around together. There are hints in the League of Legends game that he had a crush on her in childhood ("I had a crush... until you started talking to the gun"). In the series, there is currently no such information. When he and the Firelights established their base, they painted a mural of all the people they've lost; Ekko apparently painted Powder as part of the mural, signifying that he believed his childhood friend was gone. As adults, Jinx willingly worked for Silco—and she killed many Firelights on his behalf and fought Ekko several times. During the fight between him and Jinx on the bridge, it paralleled their childhood fighting games that they used to play. Although Ekko usually lost those games when they were children, he defeated Jinx in a real battle and was ready to land the final blow before seeing Jinx's face, which reminded him of the Powder he used to know. That sentimentality distracted him, and she ended up detonating a bomb, injuring Ekko and gravely injuring herself.

Silco[]

After the deaths of Vander, Claggor, and Mylo alongside being abandoned by Vi, young Jinx was orphaned once again and all alone. She turned to the first person who was there to seek comfort in which was Silco who adopted her. Silco became the most powerful Chem-Baron in Zaun, and Jinx was Silco's precious adopted daughter and most trusted agent. He covered up her messes, and never punished nor blamed her—only rarely remonstrating her when she got way out of hand. He loved her as his own even when other agents disliked her and her tactics. Silco entrusted Jinx to administer his shimmer injections to his disfigured eye and to carry out his most important schemes. Jinx in turn, sought to become formidable to gain his approval and trusted him until she overheard that he may sell her out to the Piltover authorities in order to gain Zaun's independence. When she later accidentally killed Silco to save Vi, he still comforted her in his dying moments as she realized what she had done.

Sevika[]

After she was adopted by Silco, Sevika rose to the rank of second-in-command, responsible for making sure her bosses operations went smoothly. However her and Jinx had a strained relationship, as both competed for Silco's favor and JInx was responsible for destroying her arm. Sevika saw Jinx as a loose cannon, unhinged and often prone to violent outbursts that result in things going out of control.

Caitlyn Kiramman[]

Jinx's entire perception of Caitlyn was twisted before she even met her. Vi's intimate relationship with an Enforcer confused Jinx and made her jealous, since she not only felt replaced but also thought Vi was not sincere in wanting her back. Rather, Jinx was worried Vi was trying to undermine her criminal activities in order to please her Enforcer girlfriend. She would be haunted by hallucinations of Caitlyn during her Shimmer operation. At one point, she would even offer Vi an ultimatum: kill Caitlyn in exchange for getting Powder back, as she saw Caitlyn as a villain who stole Vi from her.

Arcane Show Appearances[]

Trivia[]

• Before the official confirmation with the release of Arcane, Vi and Jinx were often theorized by the community to be sisters. The reference to this on Jinx's release was her quote, "You think I'm crazy? You should see my sister". Though there was never any implication that the sister was Vi, players equated Jinx's antagonization of Vi specifically as "sisterly bonding".
• Jinx is stated to be 11-12 years old in the first act of Arcane and is estimated to be 17-19 years old in the second and third act of the series.^[9]
• Jinx's official height is 160 cm (5'3).^[10]

Media[]

References[]

See also[]

Universe Wiki | Arcane

Characters	Amara Ambessa Bolbok Caitlyn Cassandra Chross Claggor Ekko Elora Finn Heimerdinger Jayce Jinx Marcus Margot Mel Mylo Renni Salo Sevika Silco Singed Smeech Tobias Vander Vi Viktor
Places	Noxus Piltover Zaun Runeterra
Season 1 Episodes	Welcome to the Playground Some Mysteries Are Better Left Unsolved The Base Violence Necessary for Change Happy Progress Day! Everybody Wants to Be My Enemy When These Walls Come Tumbling Down The Boy Savior Oil and Water The Monster You Created
The Council Archives	Jayce's Journal The Warden's Write-Ups The Grand Conspiracy The Adventures of Jinx
Other Lore and Media	Enemy (Music Video) Arcane (Soundtrack) Arcane (Universe)