Arcane
A Psyche Under Siege.
Written by Stefano Tzinaridis
Cover & Back Cover art by Denisa Kotková
@sakyarts | sakyarts.com
Artwork used with permission. Full artist appreciation on page 18.
Arcane: A Psyche Under Siege
Many see Jinx as either broken or a representation of mental illness But it goes deeper than this. Her entire story is about how trauma can shape a person, where innocence and the will to help gets punished through Vi’s abandonment, the personification of responsibility Where the surrogate father ‘Silco’ does not only nurture the chaos, but harnesses it, caring for Jinx not because of him seeing her as his daughter, but as a means to an end. His love for her has conditions “you need to let powder die.” He tells her. Let go of your innocence and be “strong, like you were always meant to be ”
I decided to dig deeper, reflect on the symbolism and psyche of not only Jinx, but of the main characters How their stories interlock as if they are not just separate characters but all parts of a single entity
What follows is not just an analysis of characters, but a symbolic exploration of Arcane as a metaphor for a single psyche under siege, fractured by trauma, driven by loss, and pulled between forces like chaos, order, addiction, and responsibility Each character can be read as a voice within that system.
Young Vi: A symbol of systemically unsustainable responsibility.
Growing up without her parents Vi is not only Powder’s sister, but her caretaker, the responsibility, and the protector Sure, they have Vander who stands as a symbol for uncorrupted power, true love and protection, not only for Vi and Powder but so many others as well as the entire nation of Zaun But Vi, in Powder’s eyes, is her main protector, not only physically but also psychologically Vi gets burdened with the responsibility of protecting not just powder but also Milo and Claggor, as said by Vander:
“When people look up to you, you don’t get to be selfish You say run, they run You say swim, they dive in You say light a fire, they show up with oil But whatever happens, it's on you!”
This conversation between them shaped Vi’s sense of responsibility and her psyche When Vi ultimately decided to abandon Powder in her time of greatest need, even if the intent was brief, it’s like your fight-or-flight mode. Choosing flight in this case.
Through Powder’s eyes, it feels as if her inner protective system bails on her, leaving her to fend for herself Causing a split in her psyche, with the protective system no longer in place, it leaves the door wide open for corruption of the soul.
Young Powder: A child worthy of praise.
A young girl with something to prove Innocence longing for appreciation and love by her friends and her sister. Yet everything she tries fails, her monkey bombs, her physical combat skills Even though her marksmanship with guns is beyond the level of others she doesn't get praise or appreciation for it And when she falls short again and hears Milo say to Vi “You were twice the person at half her age.” He’s once again calling on Powder’s shortcomings and not her prowess, the things she excels at
Not seen by her peers and told to stay behind, her unique abilities and technological skills unused. In an attempt to be seen, destroys the one thing that she cared for, and needed the most Not only in a literal sense, the death of Vander and her friends, but also in a psychological sense as well
When uncorrupted power dies, and the defender of your sanity, the responsibility that keeps your mental health in check, not only punishes you physically, but abandons you, the only choice left is to find a new champion: chaos
When she says “she’s not my sister anymore”, it’s not meant to be taken literally, she means Vi is no longer the champion of her psyche And that's where Silco steps in
While Powder represents the death of innocence, Silco represents what replaces it. Power shaped by pain
Silco: Corrupted power and destructive addiction personified.
Where Vander is uncorrupted power, Silco is corrupted power Forged by the same flames he forges Powder in
“betrayal, that pain can either break you, or forge you into something greater ”
Silco praises Powder for her skills, as long as they are beneficial to him where others see a problem, like her friends used to do, he sees potential. A child dying for approval and praise. Forging Powder into something greater, Jinx She chose that name not because that's what she was called by Vi, but because she was a curse on Vi’s psyche, a true test of responsibility which Vi failed
Many see Silco’s and Jinx’s relationship as ‘creepy’ but it’s not Jinx trauma bonded with Silco, her sitting on Silco’s lap is innocence clinging onto corrupted power because that’s what chaos feeds off of.
The question if Silco has the hallmarks of addiction is evident He is strong, sharp, smart, manipulative It burrows its way into your mind without realizing it This shows mostly at the end, in the metaphor where Jinx is in prison, after having found peace of mind in Isha and a reason to get ‘clean’ gets shattered
Silco shows up as a manifestation of her addiction, it’s that craving creeping back in when you’re at your lowest point. The things he speaks of sound like addiction speaking to you.
“A spark of rebellion still burns inside that husk I see ”
That’s that voice inside rebelling against the addiction, and the conversation that follows is breathtaking, both from a metaphorical view of a prison, and a philosophical one Almost like a conversation between your addiction and the part of you that wants to get out
Jinx: “I’m done running in circles ”
Silco: “we build our own prisons Bars forged from oaths, codes, commitments Walls of self-doubt and accepted limitations. We inhabit these cells, these identities, and call them us. I thought I could break free by eliminating those I deemed my jailors but I think the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away ”
The orbs leaving her mouth and disappearing, it’s like Jinx having made up her mind. Letting go of that addiction and walking away Sadly in a way that a lot of addicts find themselves choosing, convincing themselves that there is no good version of them Until she is saved by Ekko, the personification of the shadow, which will be elaborated on later
Jinx: The product of chaos.
Not the personification of chaos, but the product of it “When all the colors were black” when there was nothing positive to hold onto, Jinx still craves responsibility, searching for the thing that once protected her psyche, but when she never came, her attraction to chaos grew. Like she says:
“Silco thinks he made Jinx, , but he didn’t make Jinx, you did ”
She isn’t talking about the name, but the identity It’s the protector of your psyche leaving you when you need them the most, when that moment of trauma hits you and your mind leaves your body to protect itself, which causes you to cling to chaos
Silco plays this out perfectly by telling Jinx “You need to let Powder die ” And this is evident when Vi reunites with Jinx for the first time and she says:
“Powder fell down a well ”
There’s a big distinction in both lines Silco expects Powder, her innocence and her hold to hope, to die, be forgotten. Yet when Jinx speaks, she speaks of ‘falling down a well. ’ Powder isn’t dead, she’s trapped Wounded perhaps, buried deep in the psyche, but still alive
Like everything in life, there must be an equal and opposite force; order.
Caitlyn: Order, Discipline, yet willfully blind.
In comes Caitlyn, the personification of Order Forged by a system of rules and discipline, the opposite of chaos Trained as a marksman, which symbolizes zooming in with precision yet blocking out all other distractions besides your target. This leads her to believe in a black and white world, where Piltover is a symbol for innovation and Zaun is but a dangerous low class society
This changes once she meets Vi in her pursuit of Jinx. When responsibility and order meet it's a unison like no other, but it’s shallow It’s one truth and one alone Their relationship is not only there for character development, it’s the parts of us that work together the most, responsibility and order She starts to open up to the idea of Zaun being more than what she believed it to be. Yet chaos, Jinx, is still something unredeemable and needs to be rooted out
Willful blindness is seen throughout the show, failing to see any good in Jinx, eventually capturing her But in her blind pursuit of justice and order even she starts to lose herself to chaos Claiming:
“Hating you, I’ve hated myself.”
And when chaos owns up to its mistakes:
“I didn’t know your mom was there, it probably wouldn't have made a difference, but I didn't know ”
She sees there is a part of chaos that despises its own actions, just like order despises walking the line of chaos Finally paying real attention to who sits before her instead of zooming in on her own prejudice. Realizing that order is not inherently good, without compassion and perspective, it becomes another system of control
This makes her willful blindness fade, she zooms out, seeing more than a target. And when her trust in Vi’s vision of Jinx pays off by Jinx showing up at the end She loses an eye, this is not for shock value but it has deep symbolism that comes with it The eye symbolizes the ability to extract order from chaos, to truly see and make sense of the world
In simplified Egyptian mythology, Horus’s story represents a tale of conflict, renewal, and the triumph of good against evil During a battle, Horus loses his left eye in battle with Seth, the embodiment of chaos and disorder, Ambessa A symbolism that clarity often comes too late
When these deep psychological systems are put together, sat around a table You get an interesting dynamic
The dinner scene and the destruction of the council.
The dinner scene represents chaos finally having her say at the table where she is normally not allowed to speak It's misbehaviour that gets reprimanded as a child, or even as an adult As long as you fall in line, be responsible and orderly you get praised. Now chaos speaks, muzzling both order and corrupted power
When Jinx asks where she should sit before giving a chance for Caitlyn(Order) to speak up She’s not just offering a choice; it’s an ultimatum, kill the part of you that keeps you in line for the return of known innocence or let chaos run free and lose the last bit of hope you had in me That’s an impossible choice to make for anyone
When Jinx allows, and this is important, allows Silco to speak, it’s that inner struggle between responsibility and chaos, it's that corrupted power, the addictions and worst parts of yourself convincing you that you aren't “that girl anymore ” Listening to those words makes sense, but those words aren't words of progression or healing, it’s words that hold you back from potential, almost even convincing Jinx
Caitlyn has to free herself in order to speak, claiming:
“She’s too far gone ”
Yet Vi still believes the girl she used to know is still trapped down that well, dying to get out. Chaos beats Order anytime when it’s strengthened by addiction’s whispers. In a last ditch effort of the protective system trying to break the addictive grasp of Silco, Vi yells out the names of the ones Powder used to love But the images they form in her head are distorted by guilt, collapsing into confusion and sending her into a manic state.
Torn between responsibility and destructive addiction, Jinx chooses responsibility and kills Silco Conflicted by what she’s done, she breaks down in his arms Just like an addict, still clinging to that which made them who they are while forgetting who they were. When Silco says:
“don’t cry, you’re perfect”
He lays an anchor in Jinx’s psyche
This makes Jinx choose for herself for the first time. Chaos usually doesn’t get a voice, and now it does Many see Jinx blowing up the council as another act of insanity, or another mistake as they were about to vote for peace and the independence of Zaun, just like blowing up her family right as they would have escaped But it’s not, when someone who's been punished and ignored for so long sees their abuser suddenly wants peace, It raises a moral question of, do I choose peace despite myself, or let them feel the errors in their way toward peace it’s as if Jinx is saying:
“You don’t get to just vote for peace after everything you’ve put us through You can’t raise your hand without hearing my voice any longer ”
It links back to Vi in season 2 where she asks Caitlyn:
“who decides who gets a second chance ”
Ekko: The bridge between what was and what is
Ekko may appear to be just a childhood friend, but from the very beginning, his role is more complex It’s evident from the start that he wants information, symbolized by peering through a spyglass to spy on conversations or getting intel on ‘jobs’ for Vi and Powder to do. He knows both sisters from the beginning, witnessing their trauma firsthand, like a shadow within the psyche, silent yet ever-present
Once grown up, he creates a group called the ‘Firelights’ to combat against Silco and what he is doing to Zaun Firelights can either mean freedom or as a reference to fireflies For this analysis I will focus on the latter Working from the underground, hidden, like shadows, despite fireflies standing for illumination In Japan, fireflies symbolize love, passion and departed souls. This shows in the mural they have at their base, paintings of all the souls that were lost
The conversation between Ekko and Vi when they meet again. It’s the shadow forged in mistrust coming face to face with responsibility he thought had died Her coming back into the psyche with a symbol of order and discipline in Caitlyn, a presence Zaun hasn’t known since Vander’s death, And the unknown is often feared by those who don’t understand it
“I thought you were dead Now, you show up with a piltie and give her a tour of the lanes I didn't know if I could trust you ”
His response to Vi:
“You still block with your face ”
Not only in a literal sense but also symbolically It’s a truth about responsibility To absorb the hit, to protect others with your own body, or soul
Ekko knew Powder and now he has seen Jinx. Even he thought Powder was completely gone, erased from existence:
“Powder is gone Vi, there’s only Jinx now.”
He truly believes this But the fight on the bridge is not only a masterpiece in itself, its deeper meaning can be found in the symbolism behind it
When Jinx attacks, killing the guards first, who stand for your primary systems of defense against mental hazards, and wounding Caitlyn, with the same things Ekko uses to symbolize departed souls
Ready to finish the job, destroying the two things that hold back chaos the most, order and responsibility Before it’s too late, Ekko steps in, the shadow who knows both past and present. The only person that has even a small chance at stopping Jinx.
The clock is more than just a distraction It’s a symbol for time’s restorative potential The clock transforms Jinx back into Powder, before she breaks A happy moment they both share. Not in reality, but in animation. For a brief moment, the psyche remembers the child that once was, untouched by chaos Even Jinx, a product of chaos, pauses to remember Working disarmingly, she could’ve just ended it but she chose to relive that memory, leading to her loss.
It represents that the only force capable of halting chaos before it fully takes hold is the part of the self that remembers who we used to be. Ekko beats Jinx and has a chance to kill her, but doesn’t Ekko, unlike Vi, grieves the loss of Powder uniquely because he has no guilt, only mourning You cannot kill chaos by force without risking corruption of yourself Vi tries to fix Jinx through force, Ekko realizes at the end that true change must come from within
Ekko is a key factor not only in the show, but also in the psyche His travel to an alternate universe, to not only see what was, and what is But now seeing what could have been
Adult Powder: What could have been.
When we are first introduced to this version of Powder A version, not free of trauma, but with the right protective systems in place to deal with trauma, we catch a glimpse in the mirror of Jinx. This shows that chaos still lurks within Powder’s psyche. In this alternate dimension, this chaos was never allowed to manifest through a corrupted Silco, or addiction This mirror could very well be a symbolism that stands for the abyss Stare long enough into this mirror and you might find chaos staring back at you, hidden beneath the surface of even the happiest of people.
Ekko sees this mirrored version before the real version of Powder for a quick second, showing that the inner shadow without having all the information available will resort to what it knows, rather than what could be.
As mentioned before, Powder is not free of trauma she has been through the loss of Vi in this dimension as well. The key difference is that she has had a chance to mourn, free from the seduction of addiction or the instantaneous replacement of one system for the next Real guilt has no part to play here, maybe survivors' guilt This comes out when at Vi’s shrine where Ekko, still unsure if the chaos is truly contained in this version or if it's a mask that simply hides it, questions:
"Was it you?”
Ekko is not looking for someone to blame, it's the shadow looking for answers to rewire its own structure Seeing what could be is the shadows greatest flaw, but also the only thing that can rewire it Just like every part of our psyche, it has parts where it excels at and its own internal flaws.
Powder’s reply is a perfect response Not only to shift blame, but to put the blame where it is supposed to go By shifting blame on the shadow it allows it to look inward
“You gave us the tip We went on that job because of you!”
After reflection, in the show an act of making up after a fight, he paints a mural of Vi, most importantly of future Vi, what could have been This is the first step in the shadows integration of the known and the unknown Linking them together throughout dimensions
Even though she lost Vi, the circumstances are different. The psyche didn’t lose its protective system, it was replaced by love, care, nurture of the good parts of you This is the main difference between these two versions of the self
Where Silco and Vander are enemies in one, corrupted and uncorrupted battling within the subconscious ‘Zaun’ They are partners, balancing each other out providing both strength and wisdom Instead of an imbalance, creating a product of chaos out of loss, they created a product of the best parts of her, a symbol of intelligence and innovation.
After the dance scene, Ekko sits with Powder for one of the most prominent conversations throughout the show, overlooking the undercity. Both in emotion and symbolism.
Powder: “Where’d you learn those moves?”
Ekko: “I was just following your lead ”
Ekko: “I used to dream to undercity could be like this. But somewhere, I got consumed by all the ways it wasn’t I gave up on it Gave up on you ”
Powder: “I’ve never seen you give up on anything, Ekko.”
Ekko: “Do you ever wish you could stay in one moment ”
Powder: “Sometimes taking a leap forward means leaving a few things behind ”
The dance between these two in itself stands for the beauty of when the shadow and the healed self are in unison. Them overlooking the undercity, how it could have been, it’s like overlooking your own subconscious The beauty of uncorruption, not the absence of trauma but the healed version of it The entire conversation is a reflection of the shadow, allowing itself to be led by a brighter version of the thing he knows.
The shadow wants peace of mind but its inability to stay in just one moment, constantly drifting between what was and what is, evident in how his time travel only works backwards in time. Powder’s last line hits hard, especially for an entity that can’t take a leap forward. Leaving the known behind is the only way to see where you're truly meant to be
If Zaun is the subconscious, the dark, chaotic, and rich inner landscape where trauma, instinct, and shadow aspects collide, then Piltover is the conscious mind: structured, curated, and brightly lit
Where Zaun hides systems that dance, clash, and integrate in secret, Piltover displays its systems in public: progress, order, innovation Its characters aren’t immune to internal conflict, but they represent the parts of us that lead with image, with intention the surface self we present to the world while the depths churn beneath.
Jayce: Ego left unchecked.
Jayce, a brilliant inventor of Piltover. His symbol and weapon of choice represent a hammer, a symbol of how the ego is not created, but built
He wants to create more than just inventions, he wants to integrate magic into it. Blocked by the manifestation of raw intelligence, Heimerdinger. The ego often pushes us into territories that intelligence wants us to stay out of Despite Heimerdinger’s best efforts, Jayce continues his research leading to the invention of Hextech and all the benefits and mishaps that come with it.
With the invention of Hextech and the innovation that comes with it, Jayce’s ego explodes Not only by choice but by the praise of others When others do nothing but praise an ego, that ego gets unchecked. It becomes not only a base structure of our personality but it gets a seat at the table of the council
A core value of ego is that it’s correct and just by its own standards, it can’t stand to be challenged, not by Zaun, and definitely not by raw intelligence This shows when intelligence is stopping the ego from moving forward, from inflating even further The ego, a sympathetic master, convinces the council to vote Heimerdinger off With protective intelligence no longer present, the ego has no more confinements, but ego’s greatest flaw is that it's easily manipulated Evident by the manipulation of Mel and Ambessa
Mel feeds his ambition but also makes him doubt himself. A cunning way to make ego work harder. Ambessa, a symbol for raw power through strength and manipulation, on the other hand, knows how to control Jayce’s ego to make it work for her Not through the feeding of ambition but by showing there’s more beyond his ambition
The challenge of Zaun, the subconscious mind, seeking power through its own use of Hextech and Silco’s addictive shimmer With its greatest challenge in the intelligence of Jinx, who can do what he can
Thinking you’re the best at what you do and then seeing, in his eyes, a low class criminal do what he does This signals to Jayce that he’s not that special, literally hurting his ego
Through the manipulation of Ambessa, Jayce is ready to go to war to prove it. But ego isn’t inherently bad, it can be a drive to do better
Still doubtful if force is the best way to overcome this threat, that’s where he meets Vi. The bridge between Zaun and Piltover stands as a pathway between the subconscious and the conscious When responsibility meets ego through order Their conversation of finding the will to act is profound
Vi: “So you just wave an arm, have someone dragged off, not bothered to find what it does to someone to ”
Jayce: “yeah, I want to make Silco pay”
Vi: “I want in”
Jayce: “There is no in, you heard the council ”
Vi: “Fuck the council, you said you were tired of doing nothing ”
Jayce: “I’m not a vigilante.”
Vi: “No, you're a victim ”
This is finally a force that can keep the ego in check Not through praise or encouragement, but by showing ego that it’s responsible for its actions. Make it see the errors in its way and force it to act on what it claims to be
Through his actions, he kills a kid A huge shift in his internal system It’s not about the kid, but about coming face to face with something you’ve ignored for far too long. Your egotistical actions have consequences that ripple throughout your entire mind Ready to throw hands with Vi, but deciding not to, that's ego facing off with the responsibility of your actions, walking away from it now that that ego is cracked.
Mel: The embodiment of light.
Mel was an outlier in the forceful power of Noxus Despite Ambessa, her mother's greatest efforts, she never had an affinity for raw forceful power Mel had a sharper mind, more strategic. Power born of influence and ambition. She is both cunning and manipulative, but for the right reasons
Her relationship with Jayce, the ego, is crucial She is the catalyst that drives the ego in a positive way. Ego craves praise for its successful ambitions and outcomes, even if they’re unjust She manipulates and mentors Jayce, not to destroy his ego but to elevate it, mold it to her vision
She has her own goals and plans, a vision for the future.That vision is challenged when her mother comes to Piltover She uses fear to manipulate Jayce into a more forceful approach
Ambessa, A ruthless strategist who doesn’t shy away from force, brings her own vision to Piltover To weaponize hextech and use it to forcefully get what she wants These two visions collide heavily One desires progress and the other conquest
Mel, sensing she is losing the strategic war with her mother, gets driven towards illusion. The Black Rose, partially led by the master of illusion, Leblanc Mel, going through her own illusions where she is trapped with her illusionary brother who died, goes through her own emotional journey.
Leblanc, believing this illusion to have worked, gets caught Mel sees through this illusion and breaks free, unlocking her real power, the light
The final showdown between Mel, Caitlyn and Ambessa holds a deep symbolism that correlates with Caitlyn losing her eye
In Egyptian mythology, the fight between Horus and Seth comes back to mind. Seth is said to have shapeshifted into a black boar when he took out Horus’s eye A foreshadowing happens during a conversation between Caitlyn and Vi referencing Ambessa
“How long were you sidled up with that shifty, self-serving warpig ”
The battle between Horus, the falcon God that represents courage, strength and vigilance and Seth, the embodiment of disorder, is a perfect representation of the battle between Caitlyn and Ambessa Toth, the God of wisdom and magic, or Mel, ties in to this comparison
with Egyptian mythology While not completely aligned with the chronicle order of this myth, it still holds significance. A battle of order vs disorder.
I call Mel the embodiment of light, not only for her magical powers, but also what happens once Ambessa is defeated She offers her up to Leblanc, tied by rose branches But like light not allowing darkness to thrive, through her own hatred of what her mother has done, she sets her free, so she can die with her mind intact, free from illusion
As she frees her by using the light to cancel out the dark she says “I see your face, deceiver.” This brought me to a quote from ‘Avatar: The last airbender’
“The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost The true heart can tough the poison of hatred without being harmed. Since beginningless time, darkness thrives in the void, but always yields to purifying light ”
But our minds are not separate entities, neither are they fully connected They are bridged by the very things that keep our psyche in check. Walking the bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind, not as part of one, but part of the self
Singed: necessary evil in the pursuit of love.
Can love justify monstrosity? What even counts as monstrosity when it’s done in the name of love?
There is no denying that Singed is a brilliant man Often misunderstood as just a mad scientist with no moral compass or ethics A genius that does experiments out of evil Less is true Singed is what happens when the line between love and harm blurs When love becomes an obsession. The part of the psyche that gets blinded by love, where flaws get buried
We start off not knowing where his intentions lay Is it power through science? Aiding silco in the creation of shimmer to hold Zaun under its control. An artificial transformation, almost a liquidization of silco’s traits A transformation without putting in the effort to work on the parts of the self to truly achieve transformation It’s like cocaine, providing the same feeling, firing the same neural pathways, providing the same dopamine, as though we achieved our long-term goals
We often see him isolated, experimenting on animals and plants not yet knowing its true purpose. He is not like Silco who seeks power. Singed doesn’t care for power or ideology and is beyond ethics Searching for a cure for something as natural as death itself
“Nature has made us intolerant to change. Fortunately, we have the capacity to change our nature.”
Viktor ties in with Singed, they both have the same goal, but different ways of achieving that goal. Viktor seeks to supersede nature, Singed aims to combat nature. His methods might be unethical, but what lines would you cross when you’re the only one capable of bringing back a loved one His moral compass isn’t broken, it’s purposefully buried The locket he holds can be seen as a symbol for his moral compass With a picture of his daughter inside to remind him why he’s doing this. He knows what he is doing is wrong, but he doesn’t need to love himself It’s not love which corrupts him, it’s when love becomes your only view, and every other value you hold dear, even humanity, becomes expandable
Caitlyn: “Why? Why do all this?”
Singed: “Why does anyone commit acts others deem unspeakable? For love ”
His true intent is revealed, saving his daughter from death. And even though his methods are evil, and his moral compass and ethics buried, he is what’s left when the psyche sacrifices everything except on bond If your devotion to love turns into obsession, you’re no longer preserving the actual person, but the idea of that person
This shows in the monster he creates in pursuit of his love, Warwick Transforming a man into a beast who senses and is attracted to blood A reference to the phrase “bleeding for love.” gets taken literally here.Warwick is love turned tragedy, where grief and mourning for a loved one turns to pure rage when not subdued by the happy memories
Isha: A mirror of hope in contrast to Jinx’s chaos.
Isha, the only part of the psyche that is without flaws, hope True hope, no falsehoods or hidden agendas, no masks for pain, just pure truthful hope untainted
Isha is introduced by literally falling into Jinx’s life A unique bond is instantly formed, chaos defending hope from the corrupted manifestations of Zaun’s underground Hope senses fragmentation and despair, and mirrors the best parts of us Who else would follow someone who blames themselves for everything.
Jinx: “If you ever need to curse a sibling, a family, or a society, my card ”
Isha follows Jinx, mimicking the best parts of her, like a mirror of truth. Jinx’s affinity with technology, her hair color and mannerisms When Jinx refuses to be a symbol for hope in Zaun, Isha pretends to be her to unite Zaun, because hope sees what a person truly needs if they can’t see it themselves. Isha is a mute for a reason. Hope doesn’t need to speak, but act
When Isha gets captured with others Zaunites at a rally by enforcers It represents the conscious mind seeking to cleanse the subconscious of what it deems filth and often doesn’t differentiate between good or bad When things get bad, you flush out the entire system, indiscriminately
Jinx: “I got something going now, a friend, and I don’t want to mess it up.”
With Jinx’s hope locked in a dungeon The first thing the mind does is seek the validation of the destructive known. Her illusions of guilt and all the bad memories rush in, presented by manic illusions
One of the first things she hears those voices in her fragmented mind say is:
“You know what you are ”
The ‘what’ is a big distinction from ‘who’, An addict is not just a person with an addiction, it’s an identity An identity that can never truly be erased, only buried, silent but always lurking beneath, waiting for its moment to surface
Jinx never saw herself as a symbol of hope, refusing its call. But as Isha is taken, she frees all the Zaunites They don’t speak, but physically show appreciation A recognition for her heroism purposefully done in silence, recognition she never wanted but needed Silent, because appreciation is quiet, guilt is loud
It’s a tale as old as time, going into the lair of the thing you fear the most to retract a treasure It’s the Jungian idea that what you need most is where you least want to look, cause that's where real transformation occurs.
Isha’s symbol of hope mirrors through in her actions towards Warwick A man, twisted by suffering with an extraordinary will to live, transformed into a beast of rage Warwick in its fight against Jinx is subdued by the memory of her as Powder, revealing he was once Vander She shows him love, compassion, uses her helmet as a drinking bowl, mirroring Vander’s inner self, looking beyond the exterior beast
Jinx: “Ever since I’ve met you It’s like I put on glasses Except I can’t tell if everythings blurry, or clear.”
This represents hope not always being clearly visible A tool you put on the psyche that isn’t always obvious Your doubts and insecurities are like fog on a mirror, if you remove the fog, you can clearly see the beauty that’s hiding underneath.
In the fight that follows Viktor’s bodily death With his encapsulating consciousness projected onto his followers, and his removal of weakness and bad memories gone. Warwick, driven by nothing but rage, goes berserk.
Rage, being a prime emotion, anger turned up to eleven, it’s unstoppable, but not completely. There is one force that can stand against rage, hope.
That’s where Isha comes in Hope runs towards rage, remembering all the happy memories it created in her connection to Jinx, memories that show there is hope for Jinx, and symbolically loading it into a gun.
Not in order to kill, but to enlighten, soften rage to the point of subduction Both forces can not be killed, but are needed to balance eachother out. Isha is a vessel of hope, and like love, hope does not leave the heart, but is reborn
Kindred: The twin spirits of Death.
Jinx having lost all hope turns towards despair Locked in literal and metaphorical prison, battling between the addictive whispers of Silco and the guilt and accountability for her actions through Caitlyn. Freed by Vi and hugged. She can’t cope with the idea of responsibility any longer It’s often not pain that breaks us, but the belief we are to blame for it
Jinx: You’re never gonna give up on me, are you?”
She doesn’t let her answer before locking Vi in the same prison she was This time not out of malice or chaos, but out of protection With the loss of Isha, believing there really is no good version of her. Ready to break the cycle in a way of ultimate despair, death.
Kindred, the twin spirits of Death itself Two entities bound together Lamb, a form of serenity and compassion. And Wolf, a wild and ravenous predator. Lamb offers a peaceful, painless death to those who accept their fate while Wolf chases those who defy death, who refuse it
They represent the duality of Death, a choice Embrace the end willingly or face it violently Regardless, death always arrives. They aren't villains or heroes, but natural forces, personifying Death
I think of Kindred when I hear the song that plays in the background during Jinx’s supposed final act, ‘wasteland’, specifically the line, "If she wants, Death can take me this time.” Death is mostly seen as an it, not a she What the song is suggesting is that Jinx is ready to accept her fate, to break the cycle and accept her death, allowing Lamb to peacefully come and claim her.
As mentioned, Lamb is not the sole piece of this force So where is Wolf?
When Vander takes shimmer he defies death through chemical means, containing Death itself, like a vessel He is taken by Singed to be experimented on, but in his own words
“...the mind I could not recover.”
Wolf, already eating at Vander’s mind, his soul, after defying death Turned into a literal wolf by Singed and chained As if he’s experimenting on Death itself to save his daughter Here is where his quote from earlier shines a different light.
“ we have the capacity to change our nature ”
He combats nature’s inevitability in a literal sense through his daughter. Orianna does not defy death by will, but is kept alive through artificial means, preserved, not resisting For this reason Wolf isn’t chasing her, but Singed, cause he’s the one that is defying her death
You might think that Singed trained this beast, summoning him by the scent of blood But it’s Wolf’s nature to hunt the souls unwilling to go Contained within the husk of a wolf in the mortal plane, he is bound by nature’s laws This is seen when Singed locks himself in a cell, to not get hurt by the beast he supposedly trained.
It is only when Jinx, ready to willingly embrace death that he doubts whether this is his soul to claim. Shown later when Jinx is ready to let go as a fractured jaw of a wolf. Vander’s unbreakable will to live and protect the ones he loves pushes through a weakened force, because love, like Death, is a force of nature
A force Singed aimed to contain, and successfully so. Orianna is saved by his undying love, her body transformed from human to a mechanical piece of clockwork, but her soul intact It was never about Death alone, but the balance between love and death
Viktor: Perfection at the cost of humanity.
A genius mind, trapped inside a failing body Watching himself break down, piece by piece, where even his mind can’t save him any longer A mind gifted for progress, without the vessel to hold it.
Seeking to cure his body at all costs through the arcane itself, his limbs turn mechanical A symbolism that the elimination of weakness comes at a price A price few are willing to make, emotion. His tone shifts from passionate to cold, devoid of emotion.
Although what he’s achieving at first glance is inherently good, curing addiction and weakness for those who open their mind to it, willingly Even attempting to bring back Vander’s soul from the jaws of Death, a soul being ripped by Wolf, and almost succeeding. There is still humanity left inside Viktor at this point, not yet willing to force his will onto others in pursuit of perfection As he tells Singed about Vander
“He is not a specimen He is a man and he needs my help I will not sacrifice his humanity for your cause ”
Viktor is still human in his actions, anchored by Sky, the woman that saw beyond his weakness, a quiet heartbeat of his remaining humanity In her tragic consumption by the arcane, a representation of the toll perfection asks of us, still holds vastly in Viktor’s subconscious.
Jayce, who returns from a future alternate dimension, at the same time as Ekko A future where everyone turned into robotic, motionless beings, destroys Viktor after having seen the true cost of a perfect world, free will. And with Viktor’s endless pursuit of evolution, superseding nature itself, it is only a matter of time before this will become their reality as well
Time has its own way of rectifying itself, a paradox. The more one seeks to prevent a possible future, the faster one will reach it By destroying Viktor’s body, his initial weakness and the vessel for humans emotional flaws, he creates that which he seeks to destroy Not only does his body turn fully mechanical after Singed’s reconstruction, but so do his emotions
Sky embodies those emotions, his final attachment to humanity A parallel can be drawn to Hinduism. Where the 7th chakra is the chakra of cosmic connection to your supreme self, but is blocked by worldly attachments Her departure from his subconscious is like removing the anchor that kept you human During their last conversation, you hear her voice turn mechanical
Viktor: “Thank you for your company in my solitude I will miss our talks ” Sky (now mechanical): “No You won’t ”
When Viktor’s obsession for perfection reaches beyond the physical, he seeks to cleanse the world of any imperfection, by force. He has seen the corruption of consciousness and the fog that clouds the subconscious The fault in our choices and the pitfalls of our emotions In his eyes, doing the people a favor, erasing the very things that cloud our capacity for reason
Viktor: “Do you see? The sublime intersection of order and chaos. This conflict, this senseless waste I know their minds, Jayce They want better lives, but emotion clashes with reason humanity's self corrupting contradiction ”
We walk the beam between order and chaos daily. Emotion keeps us human, it’s emotion that stops us from achieving, from reaching our full potential We put limitations on ourselves through fear or self doubt, scared to lose what we have
But it’s not only the negative emotions that can cause those limitations Happiness for what we have, often stops us from pushing ourselves beyond our limits just as much By cutting those ties to emotion, Viktor believes he sets us free, sacrificing free will
The integration of the shadow self.
Ekko returns from his alternate dimension journey, like the shadow returning to the psyche Bringing back with him what he learned, a witness of true redemption Yet Jinx is devoid of hope, ready to give herself to Death.
Ekko tries multiple times to stop her suicide, a symbol that the shadow isn’t integrated in one fell swoop, it needs time to reach that part of us that is willing to listen to it But when it does it can deliver some of the hardest truths.
“No matter what happened in the past It’s never too late to build something new, someone worth building it for ”
Like the death of a phoenix only to be reborn again, a transformation from one life to the next Letting go of the things that made you cling to the past, the trauma and fear of losing anyone that matters, and rebuild a new life worth building for yourself. Isha’s death hit hard, it’s a depiction of the loss of hope
But the love for Isha that Jinx had was never gone, it is reborn in a new form of love, self love. Because what is grief, if not love persevering.
In the music video of “ma meilleure ennemie” it depicts Ekko showing Jinx the alternate universe Powder. To see with her own eyes that there is a better version of her. Not to denounce her traumas but letting it be part of who she is, not stop her from who she could become That she has the potential to do good, to create and not destroy
With this final integration, a new hope for herself. They join in on the final battle, flying in on a balloon full of echoes to Isha, symbolizing her new found hope of a better version of herself In her final moments she protects Vi from the empty husk of Warwick that once housed Vander’s soul
Holding his head as they plummet towards the ground, looking it in its eyes, a symbol of embracing your trauma Surrendering the idea that trauma is not something to forget, but to forgive yourself so you can be reborn again. It shows when Jinx leaves on a white air balloon, a memory of Powder before the trauma, no longer afraid of that part of herself
Conclusion
Through my eyes, Arcane is not just an extraordinary show with a specific character I relate to I see myself in all of them, in trauma, addiction, ego, light and shadow, responsibility and love, chaos and order. Each a reflection of something buried inside. The pain we carry, the innocence we lost, the systems we built to survive
To me, it’s not just a story. It’s a symbol. A war inside ourselves, between who we were, who we are, and who we could be. We all try to fix ourselves. Or worse, let others try to fix us. But we are not broken We never were We are imperfect Yet it’s those imperfections that grant us free will
Arcane is a reflection of our psyches A soft base of responsibility, strong enough to hold together everything we are expected to carry, our emotional baggage A layer of frosting, our shadow, smoothing over the cracks when it gets too heavy Topped off with a single, colorful cherry: chaos. Playful, wild,and just unstable enough to make the whole thing worth tasting.
Like a cupcake.
Artist Appreciation
The artwork featured on the cover and back cover was created by digital artist Denisa Kotková, known online as @sakyarts. Her emotionally charged illustrations explore character, trauma, and transformation with a depth that mirrors the themes of this essay
Her ability to capture vulnerability, resilience, and inner conflict through color, composition, and expression made her work a perfect visual complement to the psychological and symbolic exploration within these pages.
You can find more of her work at www.sakyarts.com and on Instagram or TikTok under @sakyarts.
Author’s Note
This essay was born out of personal struggle, reflection, and a deep connection with the characters of Arcane. It is not written as an academic critique, but as a symbolic exploration, a mythological map of the psyche, where every character is a part of us all.
Written
By Stefano Tzinaridis
Written by Stefano Tzinaridis © 2025 Stefano Tzinaridis All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, shared, published, or adapted in print, online, or as part of any video essay or media project without the author’s written permission
For inquiries, contact: tzinaridisstefano@gmail com
