Let's Talk About Arcane's Ending

When I started Arcane on Netflix, I wasn't sure what I was getting into. I've never played League of Legends before, so I didn't know anything more than the trailer gave me. I thought I had a general idea from what I'd seen, but let me tell you, I was not ready for that rollercoaster of a show. We got a lot of good writing out of this. The progression of characters is extremely natural, the world building is strong, and it all makes sense. There's a lot I could talk about with this show, but the one thing that really got me was the ending. If you didn't guess, major spoilers ahead.

Shows nowadays seem to either want to shock their audience or appease them. I've heard several people say to me that that a show that doesn't end happy isn't a good show, and I have to say that's far from the truth. Either way, it feels like series finale's are making less and less sense. That's what really made the ending of Arcane stand out to me. Yes, the ending was a bit shocking when you're caught up in the moment, but if you go back and look at everything that happened, it makes perfect sense.

I could trace the line or progress for every character in the show and talk about how their decisions led to their own ending, but that would take days I want to talk about this now. So rather than doing that, I want to look at Jinx. She's the character who's inevitably effected everyone and, therefore, how Piltover changed. She was the beginning and the end of everything.

From the start, we were shown exactly what kind of character Jinx (or Powder) was. She craved attention and approval from the people she loved and when she didn't get it, she broke down. It happens when her friends leave her behind to save Vander and when Vi punches her. She takes s drastic shift from little girl to the criminal. The first time, she breaks down and decides to go anyways, leading to the death of her friends and father figure, and the second time she clings to the nearest person. In that vulnerable state, Silco gives her that approval, solidifying her place by his side.

Post time skip, we see the after affects of those breaks. She became the person who Silco approved of. While similar traits carried over like her craftiness, she learned to fight and fend for herself. While she still relied heavily on others, she is clearly shown as being able to survive. She became more ruthless, which is important to Silco and living in Zaun.

Vi's reappearance is one of the most important things in Jinx's full change. Vi comes back, not knowing what her sister became, looking for Powder, the little girl she hurt. What she finds is Jinx, the girl who hurt everyone else. You can see the shock in Vi when she sees what her younger sister became. Vi quickly realizes that Powder and Jinx are similar but different. But she still looks for Powder.

Image Credit: Fortiche Productions

Following the natural progression of the show, nothing that happens here is surprising. In fact, it nearly mirrors the Jinx's first cataclysm. She was left in a situation where the ones she loved were threatened and reacted. She tried to protect them and, inevitably, ended up killing one of them. The difference is that Powder instantly found someone who gave her that approval in Silco. Now, Jinx is alone. To her, Vi seems to only care about Powder, who she was before the world changed her, and the only person who loved Jinx is dead. In the council room, things finally seem to go right, a parallel to what was happening with Vi and Vander, and then Jinx, well, jinxes it.

Arcane's ending doesn't just work, it makes sense. While a lot of other characters played an important role in the inevitable downfall, Jinx was the center of everything. From episode 3, we're shown exactly what type of chaos she's capable of and she was only ever given the means to progress that. She learned how to create weapons and how to defend for herself. She was given the means to an end so she used them. We were told from the beginning that Powder was a jinx, and the bomb she sent careening through the peace talks fully solidified her place as Jinx.