Storytelling, in its nature, is a group effort. We build stories upon stories, break up old ones and build something new from the pieces left, or get inspired and influenced by complex methods that migrate along different mediums to create something both new and familiarly old. This intertextual dimension has never been more apparent than in the new league of legends inspired show Arcane by Riot Games and Studio Fortiche. While there are many apparent parallels between ancient Greek theater and this show such as its theatrical narrative structure of three Acts, we’ll be focusing on one specific aspect: Jinx, one of the two sisters who this story revolves around. Following the characteristic of a tragic hero using Aristotle’s Poetic among other things, Jinx might just be a modern-day Oedipus, whose only companions seem to be misfortune and irony. But jinx is a new character, born from a creative medium that would have been unimaginable to the ancient Greeks, and as such, the way this literary archetype manifests itself in Arcane is bound to be just as uniquely familiar as jinx herself. In this article, we’ll delve into the characteristics of a tragic hero we can observe in jinx.
Spoiler warning: the following contains spoilers for Arcane season 1.
1. Jinx and the catharsis :
One of the most emblematic aspects of Greek tragedy according to Aristotle, is the concept of catharsis, the purging and manifestation of intense emotions through art, mainly pity and fear. For Arcane’s viewers, Jinx does a great job of doing exactly that. On one aspect, they are clearly meant to pity jinx because of the unfortunate circumstances of her upbringing in an oppressed Zaun, because of the traumatic experiences she went through, the loved ones she lost, and the way she’s suffering as a result of it. But on the other hand, these experiences created a jinx that is highly unstable, chaotic, and powerful but destructive. We can see that Jinx is capable of irreversible harm from the end of act 1 to the last scene that ends with her Hextech rocket headed toward the council’s chamber. Additionally, some part of the viewer doesn’t just fear jinx and her actions but also fear that what happened to Jinx, these experiences, such as the death of a loved one, which are at their core universal human experiences to some extent, might just happen to them someday, that if they were in her place they might have become the same. Ultimately, Jinx throughout her journey shown in Arcane leaves the viewer torn between crushing feelings of pity and fear, which fit exactly what is expected of a Tragic Hero.
2. Right intent, wrong actions:
Another important element of a tragic Aristotelian hero is that they are noble individuals with “pure” intent who only did wrong as a result of a human error. As shown in the first Act of the show, Jinx’s only motivation is not power or greed, it’s not revenge, or any typical « evil » goal. what drives her action is her desire to help, to be useful to those she cares about. She went after vi and vender in Act I after realizing that she can use the Hextech crystals to help them. However, because of an honest mistake, she ended up doing something horrible she didn’t intend to do. This pattern constantly repeats itself throughout the show: jinx tries to help Silco by bringing him the Hexcore, killing a dozen enforcers on the way, instinctually tries to protect Vi, and ends up shooting Silico… All of Jinx’s morally questionable actions are a result of poorly executed good intentions.
3. Heroism as an agent of tragedy:
Considering that it’s in the name, a tragic hero to Aristotle is before anything, well, heroic, but in a show of dramatic irony, it’s exactly what leads our characters to their downfall and jinx is no different. Jinx has all the characteristics associated with heroism: she has relatively good intentions as mentioned previously, she’s distinctively smart and innovative to the point where even victor praises her work, and she tries in her own way to right the wrongs of her word embodied by the oppression of Zaun. But again, it’s these heroic characteristics that drive her to sabotage herself and even have the capacity to go through the actions that cause her pain and suffering: if jinx wasn’t smart enough to figure out how to build her own Hextec weapon in Act III, didn’t wish to honor Silico one last time and « show them all » the worth of Zaun who they wronged, things would have ended very differently.
4. The irony of fate:
One of the most marking characteristics of Greek tragedy as a whole, is the presence of an inescapable fate, a destiny dictated by distant gods. The tragic irony of these plays lies in a hero, whose efforts to escape their predestined and prophesied fate, end up fulfilling it like Oedipus who came face to face with his fate while running away from his adoptive kingdom in an effort to escape it. While we wouldn’t exactly talk about fate in a traditional sense when talking about arcane, as five by five takes puts it in their Youtube video concerning Arcane, the determinist nature of Arcane’s universe is born from power structures and institutions that were here way before any of the characters but also acknowledge the decisions of the characters themselves. For jinx, her « predetermined » role as The Jinx, was already established in her youth by Milo, almost like a prophecy, and since then jinx tried to do everything in her power to disprove that, to show that she can help those around her and that not every project she’s a part off go south. But it’s exactly that eagerness to prove herself useful, to discard her role of jinx, that ends up fulfilling it. It is also interesting to mention that considering that Arcane follows the game of leagues of legends to some extent, powder becoming jinx was also something already predetermined in that aspect by the lore.
Overall, jinx is a complex character whose heritage seems to belong to the depth of the literary world but is also the labor of love and innovation of the Arcane writers who were able to breathe a new life into old and overused concepts in a way that serves modern media and create a fascinating character you can’t help but want to know more about in the next season of the show.
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