 In many ways, Arcane was a jolt of possibility of life for video game adaptations, lovers of animation, and over offered those who just love a good story. I love a good fight, and episode 7, Boy Saviors Between Jinx and Echo was one of the best I've seen in a long time. For me, this weighted battle between these two characters is a scene that I can often find myself replaying over and over again. It's perfect. To paint the picture of Jinx and Echo, we have to look at the factors that led up to this moment. Beginning with Echo, we don't see too much of Echo when he was younger, but Little Man as he grew older, became an important part of the world Arcane built. After the time skip in Arcane's second act, Echo has changed quite a bit. We don't ever see exactly what's happened to him, but through his demeanor, his body language and his words, Echo has anger that has been brewing over the past few years, and justifiably so. His initial reaction towards seeing Vi again after so many years wasn't one of warmth. It was cold, defensive. Throughout this time lost, Echo has been forced to survive and fight to build his home. He's lost people. People have changed. They have given in. While he has many people around to support him, when he falls into Vi's arms, it feels as though he hasn't felt the warmth of a good hug in a long time. And those tears quickly shed that tough exterior that he's been forced to build up after all these years. When he feels his big sister's embrace after all that time apart, it lets us know how much time has passed. In the moments after this, talking to Caitlyn, Echo's response to her is filled with so much rage. Not only has Piltover neglected the undercity, but they've allowed Silco and his shimmer to run rampant, to destroy lives while the enforcers enable it, and turn a blind eye to it. That mural of all the people they've lost is indicative of that. And it's a source of his anger. He's lost so many people, so many friends, and is reminded of that every day. And when we look at that mural once more, Powder is up there, even though she's still alive. Echo and those around him have separated Powder and Jinx as two different people. She's clearly made that distinction as he pleads with Vi that her sister is not the same person she once was, that she can't be changed, that she made her choice. On the other hand, Jinx has undergone a drastic change as well, the biggest of them all. As a result of her actions when she tried to save her sister and friends, joining Silco has changed her tremendously. She hallucinates now, and her old friends are the ones feeding her mind. After Silco's manipulation and constantly battling herself, Jinx has isolated herself from love. Not only does she not have any friends left, the friends that did survive, Echo for example, walk two different paths. And those paths converged when she saw her sister make a choice that would send Jinx through another transformation. From early on in the series, Powder has always had severe attachment issues, intensely afraid of being abandoned. We see that in the second and third episodes. There's sadness when separated from her sister and her reaction after Vi returns. In the third, her breakdown after Vi leaves her asking her to stay behind when Vi went to rescue Vander. Yes, Powder wanted to help her sister at that moment, but at the same time she's desperate to avoid that feeling. Following Powder's accidental destruction, Vi lashes out at her sister, eventually hitting her. But after apologizing profusely, that hit propels Powder to yell out to her sister. Why did you leave me? Finally, that desperation is most prevalent when she almost primarily tackles Silco after he offers her the slightest inkling of love and company. Like an animal fighting to survive as her last words as Powder are, she left me. So as Jinx watches Vi and Caitlyn, she first sees her giving Caitlyn a goodbye hug which she's able to ward off the voices from manipulating that image. But it's when Vi is shown carrying Caitlyn out and Milo's voice is laughing, distorting her image of Caitlyn, it causes her to break that final chain, and even shoot at the two of them. Milo is always the toughest on Powder, constantly putting her down and making fun of her. With no confidence from Milo or Clegoire, Powder's fight is to be needed and wanted, valued, to not be left behind. But years later, after the incident, and now finally being abandoned not only once but the second time, it's the final nail in the coffin. There is no one left who sees her as Powder, Vi has moved on. Now she's only Jinx. From the creators themselves, they discuss that in this battle, those stylized flashbacks are mainly from Echo's perspective, and it not only informs us of how things have changed between the former friends, but also an insight into his ability from the game. To demonstrate that Echo is able to manipulate time, as hinted by the ticking sounds and a signature stopwatch to help him, Echo is the boy who shattered time. In the background of these flashbacks, a firelight follows behind Echo and a raven behind Jinx. These two characters oppose each other in many ways, and in some cases they are two sides of the same coin. If we replace the firelight with a firefly, the obvious inspiration, fireflies represent light, illumination, and hope. And the raven in fiction represents death and tragedy, an animal that follows Jinx throughout the series. Echo has turned his anger into innovation, solutions. He's turned his solitude into family and community. Though he started alone, Echo has built up those around him to fight against any that oppress the people of the undercity. The firelights are his family who he protects, addicts and victims that he's saved. He is the boy's savior in many ways, Silk was way of life, his darkness, it's tempting. But Echo ultimately is the light in that darkness. As he and Jinx fight, the light begins on Jinx but Echo is always in control of it. Following their initial encounter, the light seems to stand behind Echo, whether it illuminates his face or his body. It represents Echo's purity, his status as a hero. Jinx on the other hand is again the raven that represents tragedy, death, but also passage from one state to another. The tragedy of Jinx is ever present in this series, and it's mainly how her trauma has influenced her perception of the world around her, how she's been abandoned, how her guilt has devoured her mind. Where Echo has found solace through building up his own community, Jinx has found solace in solitude, but she hasn't really found peace. As she's grown, she has no friends, no real loved ones. Other than Silk, Jinx is alone and left to discuss with the voices that exist inside her mind. Moving back to the fight, as Echo lets the stopwatch go, just as he did in the past, the moment before it shows Echo waiting, thinking and then smirking. He baited Jinx into recreating their old play fight. In the past, Echo got caught with the fourth shot, and in the present he's able to avoid it, but when Echo does manage to avoid that final shot, he gains the upper hand on his old friend. As the stylized memories of his childhood fade along with the music, it's replaced by the sounds of these two grappling with each other and their own breaths, the sounds of their punches, the silence of it all. It becomes hauntingly real very quickly, it's also when it becomes tragic. These two were friends, kids, they still are kids, their innocence taken away by the world that surrounds them, the world has forced them to grow and to change, they aren't kids anymore. What was once paint is replaced by real bullets, a toy sword is exchanged for a real weapon. There are now stakes in this fight, consequences. The world has forced Echo to let go of his friend, Powder, and embrace Jinx, the enemy, and he does, until he sees her face. As Echo looks at her all bloodied up, it reminds me of that look Vi had after hitting Powder. He said earlier in this episode that Powder doesn't exist anymore, but at this moment when he looks at her, when he sees her eyes, he sees Powder again. He's reminded of that little blue haired girl that used to tag along with Vi and the others. This is Powder. Powder's eyes always had a distinct gray color, but Jinx's eyes are blue, or purple when she's with Silco. But her eyes here are that gray color, not a hint of blue. This is the girl he grew up with. Jinx killed one of the fire lights back when they were trying to destroy the shimmer in the fourth episode. This was a chance at revenge, but he couldn't do it. Maybe when he was saying that Powder doesn't exist anymore, he was trying to convince himself of that, trying to let her go, but he can't. And as this is from Echo's perspective, you can hear Jinx struggle to catch her breath. Whether it was because she's injured or because she was going to cry, Echo recognizes this, all of it. And he seems relieved that he can finally see Powder again. Even he hasn't seen in years. At that moment, maybe he believed Powder could still be saved, and Jinx's reaction seems to mirror his. When Jinx sees Echo, there's no manipulation, no hallucinations. There doesn't appear to be any extra baggage or trauma attached onto Echo personally. He is still a friend, and she recognized the way he saw her. There are many discussions over the final moment of this episode, it can be seen a few different ways. One can see it as, while Echo might have been able to use the past to inform his present, the reality is that Jinx isn't Powder. Echo might have baited Jinx into repeating the same moves, but that bomb wasn't something he could have predicted. Jinx is not only unpredictable, but intelligent. Intelligent enough to manipulate Echo. However, I am of the perspective that Jinx's bomb wasn't to damage Echo, but it was for herself. One of the writers wrote that Jinx doesn't have a healthy fear of death. So that look on her face, it wasn't fear, and I can't get that look out of my head. This girl who's finally been reunited with her sister after so many years, who's so incredibly damaged and carrying so much guilt, she's torn. Her mind is fractured, split between Jinx and Powder, simultaneously trying to prove that she has value as Jinx, but also fighting her inner child. She killed her friends, her sister abandoned her now twice, and now everyone she's aligned with only knows her as Jinx. From her perspective, even Vi, her own blood, who came back for Powder, found that Powder doesn't exist anymore, and Vi doesn't like Jinx. She never did, and so she abandoned her again. Vi lied, in addition to her fear of abandonment, she also despises liars. But when Echo sees her, the real her, Powder, she's relieved, truly the boy's savior. With that look, she can move on away from the pain and the trauma that came with being Jinx, and she can die as Powder. The fact that someone, a friend, Echo, saw her as Powder again, it was enough. Enough for her to let go of being Jinx. This video has kindly been sponsored by Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for anyone who loves learning and wants to explore their creativity and learn new skills. 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