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Jinx (Powder)

"Nothing ever stays dead."

^{Click here to see her as Powder}

Voiced by: Ella Purnell, Mia Sinclair Jenness (young)^{Other Languages}

Portrayed by: Kit Meyering, Aubree Bouche, Raquel Cosmic (Arcane: Enter the Undercity)

"It's Jinx now! "Powder" fell down a well!"

The Loose Cannon, once the youngest of a group of Zaunite street kids who desperately wanted to be useful to her family, especially her older sister. By Act 2 she's become Silco's most dangerous enforcer, and she grows increasingly more destructive and unstable as she sinks deeper into her "Jinx" persona throughout the season.

For tropes related to her game counterpart, see here.

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A-H

Abandonment-Induced Animosity: She hates being left behind for any reason. She bore resentment to Vi for years due to her older sister supposedly abandoning her.
Powder: (sobbing into Silco's shirt) She left me. She is not my sister anymore.
Abusive Offspring: To Silco a few times: when she finds out he lied to her about Vi's death she repeatedly stabs him in the face with a needle, and after misunderstanding his conversation with Vander's statue she kidnaps, binds and gags him for her "tea party".
Accidental Murder: While most of Jinx's kills are intentional as of Act II, there are a few exceptions:
- Back when she was Powder in Episode 3, her bomb causes an explosion greater than what she could've anticipated at the cannery, which kills Mylo and Claggor, and leads Vander to committing a Heroic Sacrifice to save Vi. When Powder learns what she's done, her sanity starts to crumble.
- In Episode 9, Jinx shoots her minigun during a psychotic trance when she notices Silco was about to shoot Vi with her pistol. When she comes back to her senses, Jinx is horrified to realize she fatally shot him.
- In Episode 8 of Season 2, Jinx reveals to Caitlyn that she didn't know there would be people inside the council chamber when she launched the Hextech rocket at it, though she follows it up by admitting that she probably would've still fired the rocket if she did know.
Achilles' Heel: By Act II, Vi is this to her. While she resents her sister for seemingly abandoning her after she accidentally blew up their family, Jinx goes into psychotic trances each time a memory of Vi triggers her past trauma. Despite it all, Jinx still hopes to reunite with her sister and have things go back to the way they were. Silco seems aware of this, and attempts to shoot Vi when she tries to get Powder back to her senses (unknowingly making it worse for her). This leads to Jinx shooting Silco to protect Vi, which is the hammer in Powder's coffin and Jinx's full acceptal of her destructive identity when she understands that Vi wants Powder and not Jinx.
Act of True Love: When you account for how desperately Jinx once desired Vi's love, whether as Jinx or even in childhood as Powder, it speaks volumes about Jinx's growth and love for her when her final act of the series is to leave her and depart Piltover and Zaun, giving Vi a chance to live freely and happily alongside Caitlyn without having to burden herself or feel guilty about her own happiness as a result of trying to protect her sister.
Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the game, Jinx is almost always smiling and giggling with child-like cheerfulness in contrast to the destruction she causes. She's much more somber in the show, and frequently haunted by hallucinations of the people she's lost. Justified, as her emotional wounds are still relatively fresh here and she still has doubts about whether she would rather be "Powder" or "Jinx"... At first.
Adaptational Backstory Change: Jinx's game backstory has it that she was always mischievous and would frequently travel to Piltover to play pranks on its people — pranks which became more serious as time went on — just for the sake of it. It also keeps the details of her early life intentionally vague. In the show, not only do we see Jinx's early life in Vander's care, but it's heavily implied that she had never been to Piltover before breaking into Jayce's apartment.
Adaptational Badass: She was never exactly a wimp in-game, but after Singed pipes her full of Shimmer she's briefly shown moving as fast as the Turbo Chemtanks that Vi and Jayce fought earlier.^note
Adaptational Heroism: Unlike her game counterpart, she eventually pulls a Heel–Face Turn in the second season, which ends with her sacrificing herself to save Vi from Vander/Warwick.
Adaptational Modesty: Downplayed. Her outfit here is still pretty skimpy, but nowhere near as much as the bikini top, short-shorts and stocking she wears in the game. Justified, as she's still a teenager at present^note.
Adaptational Seriousness: Her game counterpart is more lighthearted, chaotic, and wacky, with her destructive antics being played for humor and is an annoyance at worst to others. This incarnation of Jinx is more dour and somber, broken by the soul-crushing trauma of committing a two-count (three if Vander's Heroic Sacrifice to save Vi counts) Accidental Murder that destroyed her relationship with Vi.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: While Vi and Jinx were only rumored to be adoptive sisters in the old League lore^note, Arcane confirms them to be biological sisters. It was also previously established that it was Jinx who was the older sister, who tried to get the attention of her amnesiac younger sister by committing crimes as part of a "game". Arcane retcons this, making Vi the older sister and Jinx the youngest.
Adaptational Villainy: Zig-Zagged. In the established lore Jinx was a mischievous prankster who, while a definite threat to property, was considered a nuisance at worst who generally didn't get people killed with her antics. The first season of the show portrays her as a ruthless Mad Bomber who has no problem gruesomely killing Enforcers (including luring some to their deaths by pretending to be a child in need of help), guns down several Firelights, and later maliciously kidnaps Caitlyn and tries to force Vi to kill her.
Adoptive Name Change: Powder takes to calling herself "Jinx" after being taken in by Silco to distance herself from her past.
Adorably Precocious Child: Jinx starts out as an absolute (if somewhat naïve) sweetheart named Powder, who at somewhere around 10 has a working knowledge of building bombs and is an excellent shot with a pistol.
Affectionate Nickname: Vi calls her "Pow-Pow" at one point when they finally reconnect. It's the same nickname that Jinx gave to her gatling gun.
All Take and No Give: How she behaves in the last two arcs Season 1: She expects anyone she likes to always be there for and support her, and to be completely devoted only to her. She may genuinely care about her more "positive" relations, but she's also violently possessive of them. This attitude is best shown when she attempts to force Vi to shoot Caitlyn, promising Vi she could have "Powder" back if she did. She grows out of it after she takes in the orphan Isha.
Always Second Best: During Act 2, Jinx visits the old arcade her family would hide out in when things got too hot. She sets up the boxing game Vi used to play and attempts to beat her sister's highest score, but even after channeling all her issues into it she still only comes in second. She's so completely livid at her failure that she shoots the machine.
Animal Motifs:
- Creepy Crows. After shooting a crow at the old arcade she uses its feathers as bookmarks in Jayce's stolen notebook, her battle with Ekko uses a crow to represent her — both in the present and during the flashback to their childhood game —, there are multiple crows present during the final confrontation at the destroyed cannery in Episode 9, and the chair labelled "Jinx" during said confrontation is decorated with crow feathers. Crows are usually shorthand for bad omens — which is self-explanatory due to her status and insulting nickname — and death, befitting her unfortunate tendency to get everyone around her killed and having become a violent killer after the time-skip. Most importantly, crows symbolize adaptability and transformation, which ties into her corruption from innocent, loving Powder into the insane anarchist Jinx. She also has a rather avian habit of tilting her head in consideration.
- She still has her association with monkeys from the game, though here it's more a case of the maniacal version than the mischievous: As a child, she puts together a bomb that gets most of her adopted family killed using a stolen Hex crystal and a Cymbal-Banging Monkey toy, she leaves graffiti of a monkey's face as her calling card, and she has a tendency to perch in high places. Usually the rafters in Silco's office or her hidey-hole mentioned in Foil below.
- Her rocket launcher's Threatening Shark motif stands out because it defies her animal motif but fits nicely with her adoptive father Silco's. Fitting, since she built it to achieve his dream.
Annoying Younger Sibling: Mylo perceives her as this, accusing her of "jinxing" every job each time she tags along.
Appropriated Appellation: She calls herself "Jinx" since Mylo would regularly dismiss her as such when she ruined their heists, and her sister furiously agreed with him after she accidentally killed him, Claggor and Vander.
Arch-Enemy:
- To Ekko. Unlike Vi, Ekko is adamant that Powder is gone and Jinx cannot be redeemed. The genuine terror his Firelights show when faced with her and her sarcastically calling him "the boy savior" all allude to there being a long enmity between the two, though we the audience only see the tail end.
- Jinx hates Caitlyn for seemingly replacing her in Vi's life, but the feeling only becomes mutual when Jinx kills Caitlyn's mother in her attack on the Council. Caitlyn quickly comes to despise Jinx, eventually becoming the head of a martial-lawed state out of sheer, blind hate and obsession with killing the bomber.
Arc Villain: She is all set to take over from where Silco left off starting in Act 1 of Season 2, but drops from the role in Act 2 when Jinx realizes that she cares more about protecting Isha than leading a revolution, let alone continuing acts of terrorism.
Armor-Piercing Question: During an argument with Vi:
Jinx: [after Vi calls her delusional] Wish I was just seeing things when you decided to throw in with the Piltie goons who murdered Mom and Dad!
Vi: Well at least they never had to see the psycho their daughter turned into!
Jinx: Which one?
Artificial Limb: In Act 2 of Season 2, she makes a prosthetic middle finger for herself to replace the one Caitlyn shot off.
At Least I Admit It: In Season 2, Vi tells Jinx during an argument that at least their parents didn't have to see "the psycho their daughter turned into". Jinx retorts: "Which one?" Jinx is fully aware that she's messed up, but is annoyed that Vi acts like she's the "better sister" when they both have psychological issues.
Autobots, Rock Out!: Arrives at the Final Battle between Piltover and Noxus on top of blimp while blasting "Come Play" by Stray Kids, Young Miko and Tom Morello at full volume.
Awesome, but Impractical: Her Gatling gun "Pow-Pow" is far and away the most powerful weapon in her arsenal, but its weight and build — plus her own tendency to fire it wildly — means that she rarely lands a hit with it. Throughout the first season, anyone not already restrained or incapacitated is pretty easily able to dodge out of its way.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
- A rather morbid example in Act 2: Mylo and Powder spend most of their shared screen time in act 1 butting heads, but after the time skip she keeps a life-sized doll of him on her couch, showing that she does miss him and still wants him around. On top of that, Jinx actively hallucinates both his and Claggor's ghosts either whispering in the background during normal conversation or outright screaming at her during moments of extreme stress. It's clear that their deaths — and her responsibility for them — hit her hard.
- She's moved to genuine tears when Vi finds her after she sets off her flare, though it doesn't take long before Caitlyn turns up and Jinx assumes they were plotting against her.
- When Ekko proposes a final showdown based on their childhood game when they face off on the bridge, Jinx chuckles and accepts the challenge before getting into position. When Ekko manages to dodge all her bullets and takes her head off, he proceeds to give her a vicious beatdown. However, he hesitates to finish her off when he recognizes her as Powder, his old childhood friend, and not his enemy Jinx. All she can do is give him a sad smile, also realizing they were once best friends and still holds their memories together at heart.
- After Jinx shoots Silco in the heat of the moment, he confirms that he loves her and thinks she's perfect the way she is as she weeps for him. As weird and unhealthy as their father-daughter bond may have been, it was still real.
- The whole reason Jinx shot Silco in the first place was because he was about to kill Vi. Despite everything that had happened between them — and being in the throes of a mental breakdown she was causing at the time — Jinx still wasn't willing to stand by and let someone kill her sister.
- In the second season, when Jinx realizes Vi joined the Enforcers tracking her down, Jinx points her gun at her. However, Jinx can't bring herself to shoot her sister, especially in a place that holds fond memories of their childhood (Vi contemplating Claggor's goggles, that Jinx brought along with her to the arcade, helped as well).
Ax-Crazy: Following the time skip, Jinx has become an extremely maladjusted young woman perfectly fine with shooting her allies, blowing up airship full of Shimmer just to kill two enemies and luring several Enforcers to their deaths with a elaborate bomb trap^note. She also shows signs of her future Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter" tendencies, as she's clearly enjoying herself during the battle with the Firelights in Episode 6.
The Baby of the Bunch: Powder is the youngest of Vander's adopted children and she struggles to keep up with the group several times, causing them to either constantly worry for her safety or dismiss her as an annoying hinderance.
Back-to-Back Badasses: With Vi, as they fight off the attacking Firelights.
Badass Adorable: As a child, she could usually be found figuring out how to turn her toys into bombs and was an excellent shot at a pistol, getting every single target in her favorite arcade game. By her teens, she's gotten it down to an art form and is still as cute as she is psycho.
Badass Boast: In Season 2, when Smeech has her cornered and threatens to poke her eye out with a needle, Jinx shows no fear and holds her own against him:
Smeech: Don't think I won't skewer out those peepers. Drawback of you long-range types. Me? I'm the kind of guy who likes to get in close. Never thought I'd catch you blubbering. Wonder if Silco even saw that.
Jinx: [not even flinching] Twice. When he met me ... [whispers] And when I killed him.
Smeech: [shocked] You?
Jinx: It's always me. Whether I'm pulling the pin or not, everyone who gets close to me dies. Wanna know the real kicker? [whispers in his ear] You're the kind of guy who likes to get. in. close.
Bad People Abuse Animals: Played with. She pulls a gun on a crow that startles her and shoots it after regarding it for a few seconds. Still, the show makes it clear that Jinx isn't so much out-and-out evil as extremely messed up in the head.
Be Careful What You Wish For: As Powder, she wanted her bombs to actually work during a job. During a rescue mission she was told to stay out of, she secretly followed them intending to help with a new hextech-powered one. That time, it worked so well that it killed all but one of her own family.
Because You Were Nice to Me: Deconstructed. Powder/Jinx is completely loyal to Silco and his goals because he did something to console her after she set off the bomb that killed most of her family and seemingly drove Vi to abandon her. However, this is due more to her own selfishness and abandonment issues, as Silco praises and validates her almost constantly and is shown scolding her for her troublingly violent behavior all of once.
Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Very heavily downplayed: Jinx was already a violent, unhinged murderer, but being subjected to an agonizingly painful Shimmer-surgery by Singed makes her even worse.
Beneath the Mask: Under that crazy, violent terrorist blowing up buildings and bridges, is actually a mentally broken little girl who never got to grow up and just wanted to help her family, before unfortunate circumstances broke her sanity and lured her to a dark path.
Berserk Button:
- As Jinx, she becomes noticeably more unstable and uncontrollable as she figures out that people are deliberately trying to keep her and Vi apart… And because she still has abandonment issues with Vi, anything that suggests Vi might "betray" her again does the same.
- Downplayed, but she gets really annoyed whenever Vi acts like she’s the sanest of the sisters, when in reality, as Jinx points her out, they both suffer from psychosis whenever they are stressed out.
The Berserker: Becomes this if she suffers a breakdown during a fight, laughing and screaming as she fires her gatling gun wildly and even using said gun as a bludgeon.
Berserker Tears: Jinx cries Shimmer tears and lets out a gut-wrenching scream when she fires her rocket at the Council following Silco's death in the first season finale.
Beyond Redemption: Discussed and defied. Ekko admits Jinx cannot be saved in Acts II and III. At the end of the season, Jinx agrees, to Caitlyn and Vi's utter horror. However, despite rejecting the idea of becoming a better person, Jinx truly manages to change.
Big Bad Slippage: The first act of Season 1 details how the innocent Powder was shaped into the Ax-Crazy Jinx, as a disastrous accident from her youth and Silco's guidance over the Time Skip break-and-rebuild her into an uncontrollable psychopath. She subsequently serves as The Heavy of the season, initially working on Silco's behalf before her growing instability drives her to unsanctioned acts of terrorism that worsen the relations between the two cities (culminating in her bombing the Piltover Council at the end of the season finale).
Big Damn Heroes:
- She steps in just in time before Rictus can kill Caitlyn.
- When Ambessa's victory is almost assured, Jinx leads the rescue of Piltover in the series finale.
Big "NO!":
- Lets out an anguished one when the Firelights kidnap Vi just when they've finally reconnected after years of being apart.
- Screams this when Isha goes between her and Vi when the latter is about to finish her off.
- She also screams this in complete horror as Isha sacrifices her life to protect her and Vi from a rampaging Warwick and the attacking Noxian force.
Big "SHUT UP!": Whenever she is Hearing Voices, she screams this to her hallucinations.
Big Sister Instinct: Quickly develops this towards Isha in Season 2.
Big Sister Worship: Powder clearly loves and idolizes Vi. This admiration all but vanishes when Vi blames her for their family's death and slaps her — Powder outright disowns Vi as her sibling at the end of episode 3.
Body Horror: In Act III, she's so badly injured by her own grenade that the only way to save her is for Singed to strap her down and inject her with so much Shimmer that she might not be completely saline-based anymore^note Her veins bulge with the stuff even as it runs from her eyes and mouth, all while she screams in agony for him to stop. He even sticks a needle into her freaking ear at one point.
Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Literally. Jinx works for Silco as part of his resistance against Piltover's tyranny, however she cares more about killing its Enforcers and those who oppose Silco (such as the Firelights) than the consequences of her destructive actions have on Silco's operations and Zaun as a whole. However, her actions against Piltover make her a symbol of Zaunite revolution in Season 2.
Born Unlucky: At some point, you really have to wonder if Mylo's right and she really is cursed. While she progressively develops more agency in and responsibility for the tragedies she suffers (ranging from none at all when her parents are killed as a little girl to pulling the trigger that kills Silco as a teen), the universe seems determined to destroy her psyche. Everyone around her^noteExcept Vi may get killed, but having all their deaths on her conscience further drives her mad.
Boxing Battler: Jinx's round with the boxing machine at the old arcade proves she's pretty capable with her fists as a teenager, even if she prefers to fight with guns and explosives. Granted she does cheat a bit by throwing in more than a few kicks, but she still clearly knows what she's doing and she gets the second-highest score on the board, falling just behind Vi's teenage record.
Braids of Action: As a teenager, Jinx has her hair in two long braids reaching down her ankles. It proves however to be a disadvantage in close combat, as opponents tend to pull her By the Hair.
Break Her Heart to Save Her: Despite having crossed the Despair Event Horizon at the time, Jinx was cognizant of the fact that no matter what happens, Vi will do everything she can to protect and look after her, even at her own detriment, and that she'll never truly be happy because of that burden and the constant guilt she feels for everything that had gone wrong with their relationship. Part of the reason Jinx attempts at suicide is so she can finally let her sister be free this burden and guilt, and even after she regains the will to live, Jinx ultimately opts to fake her death and leave Piltover and Zaun on an airship, achieving the same result while still holding on to her life. And even though Vi thinks she's dead, Caitlyn does not, and because she and Jinx reached an understanding with each other, Caitlyn is aware of what Jinx's intentions are and decides to be complicit with her ruse.
Break the Cutie: Poor Powder gets absolutely shattered in Episode 3. The explosion she causes at Silco's factory kills Claggor outright, kills Mylo a few seconds later, breaks Vi's arm and forces Vander to pull a Heroic Sacrifice. Upon realizing this, Powder is so horrified that she can barely form a coherent apology before Vi snaps at her, further traumatizing the young girl. Vi then walks away to calm down and avoid hurting her further, but this only convinces Powder that Vi has abandoned her and her Start of Darkness begins.
Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: An older sibling example but Jinx clearly tries to learn from the good and bad of Vi as her older sister after becoming one to Isha. Most notably she immediately runs over to check on Isha after she's hurt during Jinx and Vi's fight, avoiding it festering like it did in her. When Jinx comes to rescue her after Isha puts herself in danger and gets captured by enforcers, Jinx notably does not respond with anger and instead just gently tries to make her laugh.
Broken Bird: In the present day, Jinx is still haunted by her past, plagued by hallucinations of her deceased loved ones, and crippled with self-doubt. By Episode 9, she becomes a shell of her former self when she accidentally kills Silco in a frenzy and severs ties with Vi, who she believes cannot love the "jinx" she is now.
Broken Pedestal: As if their relationship hadn't been frayed enough already, seeing that Vi has joined the Enforcers in Season 2 leaves Jinx a distraught mess once more.
Broken Tears: Upon each final scene in every arc:
- In Episode 3, Powder breaks down in tears when Vi leaves her and she pleads for her to come back.
- In Episode 6, Jinx goes back to being Powder upon reuniting with Vi, where she cries warmly in her arms for a moment she waited for so long.
- In Episode 9, Jinx starts crying when she realizes she fatally shot Silco, who spends his dying moments reassuring her and telling her she's perfect the way she is. Jinx can only weep some more in the aftermath.
Buffy Speak: At one point when studying Jayce's notes:
Jinx: They form some kind of math-y, magic-y gateway. [...] I don't know, to the realm of heebie-jeebies!
But Now I Must Go: Despite numerous signs that she did indeed survive the series finale, she appears to completely leave Piltover and Zaun in an airship (in fact, one of the exact same model she dreamed of flying on as a child) heading for parts unknown, and due to the circumstances, essentially everyone believes she is dead, with Ekko and Vi both somberly mourning her and only Caitlyn appearing to suspect the truth. By doing so, Jinx has finally severed herself from the endless trauma and cycle of violence she was trapped in, and has additionally allowed Vi to live a happy life with the girl she loves while freeing her from the guilt of not doing enough for her — though as she puts it, she's "always with [her]. Even when [they're] worlds apart."
Butt-Monkey: In an utterly cruel way. The sheer amount of times that Jinx has her mind, heart, and or body subjected to unimaginable torment breaks the poor girl repeatedly.
Cain and Abel: The Cain to Vi's Abel. She's a mass-murdering Silco loyalist while Vi is doing everything she can to take him down.
Call-Back: The first thing she says as Powder while she and her siblings get ready to rob Jayce's apartment all the way in the first episode of the series is her claiming she was going to ride an airship one day as she watches it fly overhead. In the series finale, after multiple hints at her Inferred Survival despite her seeming Heroic Sacrifice, an airship just like the one she had seen as a child flies into the distance as the last shot before a "The End" written like her hallucinations flashes on the screen and the credits roll, providing a fitting conclusion to her story as she accomplishes her original wish while leaving Piltover and Zaun.
Call-Forward:
- At the end of Episode 3, the flames from the burning cannery reflect in Powder's Innocent Grey Eyes, turning them Jinx's sinister reddish-pink.
- At the end of Act 2, she gets a nasty cut on her right leg which she then literally staples closed^note, which might explain why she only wears one stocking.
Character Development:
- Come Season 2, Jinx has fully embraced her identity as a villain and the first thing she does is make a suicidal bid to kill her sister Vi or die trying, as she can't think of anything she can do with her life beyond "[watching] it all burn" after everything she's done. However, she ends up finding a positive influence and Morality Pet in the form of Isha, taking her under her wing and becoming a Cool Big Sis to her, to the point she actively spurns her previous violent behavior in favor of taking care of her. While she loved Silco just as much, her relationship with Isha is far healthier in comparison and results in her making an honest effort to care about and look out for others, culminating in her breaking scores of Zaunites out of Stillwater Prison and accepting the role of a hero against Piltover's oppression, and even before becoming Isha's caretaker, she wasn't above fixing Sevika's arm just to finally do right by her. Her newfound appreciation for others even leads her to make a genuine attempt at entreating Vi for help despite their mutual antagonism, all for the sake of helping Vander after he was turned into Warwick. And even after losing Isha and Vander and subsequently falling into a suicidal Despair Event Horizon, Jinx regains the will to keep going and joins in the defense of Piltover and Zaun from the Noxian attack. Most importantly, Jinx's decision to fake her death and leave the Twin Cities is the ultimate display of how far she's come — not only has she found "the will to walk away" from the cycle of violence she'd been trapped in for so long, doing so while choosing to keep living despite her previous suicidal behavior, she's able to let go of her obsessive desire for Vi's love so her sister can live a free and happy life without the responsibilities and guilt that she feels on her account.
- Her opinion of Caitlyn goes through a significant shift throughout the series. Initially, Jinx only sees Caitlyn as another corrupt and elitist Piltovan Enforcer trying to "replace" her in Vi's heart; as such, Jinx has no problem threatening, shooting, kidnapping, hitting and psychologically torturing her with little remorse. Thanks to Isha's influence, Jinx's violent nature becomes less so to the point she doesn't attempt to shoot Caitlyn when the Enforcer helps her and Vi in freeing Vander/Warwick by incapacitating Singed; and while she was there just in case Caitlyn betrayed them, the fact that she didn't has Jinx give a brief but notable look of surprise, the look implying that this action from Caitlyn is what finally allowed the Loose Cannon to realize the Enforcer was not the villain she thought she was. And then she saved Caitlyn from being murdered by Rictus, a total contrast of her trying to kill Caitlyn in the previous season. And when the two finally talk to one another, Jinx informs Caitlyn she didn't know the latter's mother was going to be in the building she bombed, this moment being the closest Jinx comes to apologizing to Caitlyn, albeit in a roundabout way. And during her brief conversation, she tells Vi that the latter deserves to be with her [Caitlyn], this moment being the first and closest thing she has to complimenting Caitlyn.
Character Tics: She has a habit of biting her lips.
Cheerful Child: Powder was definitely this. At least before her Start of Darkness...
Childish Tooth Gap: Powder has one, though it becomes a little less pronounced as she grows older and becomes Jinx.
Children Are Innocent: Despite the rough environment she had to grow up in, Powder is a fairly happy little girl in Act I who tries hard to be useful to her sister. Her innocence ends up being her downfall when she overloads her monkey bomb with Hex crystals, causing an explosion that kills all but one of her family.
Co-Dragons: Jinx and Sevika are Silco's top trusted agents. Jinx in particular is Silco's personal enforcer and most dangerous follower, but her instability makes her unfit to lead the rest of his forces like Sevika can.
Color Motif:
- She's mostly associated with the color blue: the color of her hair, her clothing (as Powder), her eyes (as Jinx), her smoke cloud tattoos and most of her fingernails.
- Jinx uses a lot of neon pink in her Mad Artist drawings. Her grenades' explosions are pink in color, and she also painted some of her nails pink.
Composite Character: Takes the role of C, a mysterious criminal (implied to be the Chem-Baroness Corina Veraza) who became Caitlyn's Arch-Enemy after kidnapping her parents. Jinx, of course, takes it a step further than mere kidnapping by instead murdering Caitlyn's mother.
Conflicting Loyalty: After she reunites with Vi, Jinx is torn between her identity as Powder, Vi's little sister, and Jinx, Silco's daughter and second-in-command. After she accidentally kills Silco to save Vi, Jinx accepts her new identity before going rogue and firing a missile at the council in order to live her father's dream for a Zaunite revolution.
Cool Big Sis: In Season 2, she ends up becoming one to Isha after gunning down some thugs chasing her and saving her life. Though she makes it clear just how dangerous she is as a wanted criminal, Isha doesn't care and follows her, and after helping out in the fight against Smeech's men, Jinx decides to keep her around and look after her, culminating in both of them protecting each other towards the end of Jinx and Sevika's fight against Vi and Caitlyn. Tellingly, she's grown to care enough about Isha that she reacts with complete horror when the girl rushes in to put herself between her and Vi, genuinely fearing that Vi might hit her instead when she tries to land the finishing blow. Their relationship only deepens by the events of Act 2, as Jinx has remodeled her hideout to let Isha live with her, dyed her hair blue like her own, and has outright given up her violent ways to look after her, and Isha fully reciprocates all of the love Jinx now shows her.
Cop Killer: She technically qualifies, due to having at least six dead Enforcers — who serve as law-enforcement in Piltover — under her belt. She kills even more in episode 7, including Marcus, the Sheriff.
Corrupt the Cutie: After Powder accidentally gets her family killed with her monkey bomb and is hit and apparently abandoned by Vi, she is found by Silco, who takes her in out of pity and raises her as his own, shaping her into a ruthless bomb-throwing sociopath dependent on his love and approval by the time Act II starts.
Create Your Own Hero: Her Villainous Breakdown on the Shimmer cargo airship causes Caitlyn to start her investigation, which leads to her freeing Vi from prison, and the latter to try and find her sister. Episode 9 all but cements that while Vi is behind Jinx's creation, Jinx herself will cause Vi to become an Enforcer in the second season after she starts a war by sending a missile at the council.
Cradling Your Kill: Jinx gently holds Silco's face after she accidentally shoots him, then breaks down in tears into his lap after he dies.
Crazy Sane: Becomes this in the second season. While the voices in her head are gone following Silco's death, Jinx keeps herself in a colder composure, which barely hides her mental instability.
Creepy Blue Eyes: While Powder is born with Innocent Grey Eyes, Jinx has bright blue eyes by Act 2, which makes her look far more menacing and insane. While her eyes occasionally turn grey to hint there's some hints of Powder left in her, they permanently turn pink after Singed performs an emergency surgery after Jinx's bomb almost kills her.
Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Develops these between Act I and Act II, to hint at her deteriorating mental health. Her Shimmer surgery makes them even more prominent.
Cuckoosnarker: Becomes more sarcastic in the second season, which also counts as Stepford Snarker due to what she's been through.
Viktor: I have one condition.
Jinx: Looks like you got a couple.
Curtains Match the Window: She has naturally blue hair and eyes, but her eyes permanently turn a lurid pink after she's injected full of Shimmer.
Cute and Psycho: Jinx may be a baby-faced girl with large eyes, she's also an incredibly emotionally and mentally unstable psychopath and knows how to use her sweet looks to get her opponent's guards down.
Cute Clumsy Girl: In Act 1, Powder unwillingly make heists with her siblings harder with her inoperable bombs and tendency to panic. While we only see one heist go wrong in the first episode, Mylo states it's not the first time she "jinxes" one of their jobs. For extra measure, she has a hard time doing parkour and almost falls multiple times.
The Cutie: There's no denying she's painfully endearing as Powder, being around 11 years old with those Puppy-Dog Eyes and sweet personality. Said personality completely turns on its head after Episode 3, though Jinx remains cute as a button.
Daddy's Girl: To Silco, and not an example that could even remotely be considered healthy. Just look at the way she snuggles up in his lap in their first scene after the time skip, and try not to cringe.
Daddy's Little Villain: To Silco, mixed with varying levels of The Millstone, The Dreaded and The Berserker; She's easily the most dangerous and destructive of his gang — too much so, in fact — but Silco continues to dote on and enable her even as he acknowledges this.
Dark Action Girl: In spades post-Time Skip. She takes on Enforcers and fellow criminals alike with guns, bombs, and maniacal glee. The entire Firelight gang working in tandem is afraid to take her head-on.
Death Glare:
- Twofold. Sevika gets right up in her face with one of these when she chews her out for botching their smuggling job. Jinx just scoffs and returns it.
- She gives a terrifying one to Caitlyn in Episode 9 after she knocks her out with her minigun, complete with Glowing Eyes of Doom.
Death Seeker:
- An ambiguous situation in episode 7. While fighting Ekko, Jinx activates one of her grenades in an attempt to take Ekko with her. Her reasons for doing this are unclear, but her sad smile indicates a possibility she was genuinely trying to kill herself after going through so much trauma and heartbreak.
- In Season 2 Act 1, Jinx's first course of action is to meet Vi head-on in battle to either kill her or die trying. When she and her sister do have their brutal fight in Episode 3, Jinx resigns herself to being killed by Vi after she gets pinned down, remarking that she was glad it was her at the end of the line and this was how it was meant to be. She's appropriately shocked when Isha puts herself between them to protect her, even telling her to scram, and is visibly upset when Sevika's subsequent interference saves her life.
Despair Event Horizon: Has one twice.
- After Jinx accidentally kills all her friends and is abandoned by Vi, she suffers an extreme psychological meltdown that leaves her mind and heart permanently damaged. For several years, this was when Powder died and Jinx was born.
- After the events at Viktor's commune result in Vander being subsumed completely by Warwick and Isha sacrificing herself, Jinx is left completely broken, only being able to ensure Vi was safe before surrendering to the Enforcers and getting herself locked up. As she rots in her cell, she concludes she would never be able live a good life, was doomed to an endless cycle of killing and destruction, and would not have a happy ending, with the only way out being to commit suicide so she could at least let Vi live her own life without feeling any more guilt over her.
Didn't Think This Through: In her rush to be helpful to her family and make her bombs work, she ends up causing a much bigger explosion than planned, killing Mylo and Claggor and nearly killing Vander and Vi.
Disc-One Final Boss: Jinx acts as the antagonist for Season 2's first three episodes, with the Enforcers aiming to bring her down while she plans to "watch it all burn." However, after what she planned to be a final confrontation with her sister ends in a stalemate, she decides to give up her terrorism to take care of Isha before reconciling with Vi to save Vander.
Disowned Sibling: In Season 2, following Jinx's actions, it's Vi's turn to disown Jinx as her sister:
Vi: I'm done blaming myself for your mistakes. Done pretending that you're my sister, you're not! You killed her. I'm not gonna let you stain her memory anymore.
Distinctive Appearances: By Act 2, she's the character with the longest hair among the entire cast of characters, with braids that reach her ankles.
Dissonant Serenity: Jinx remains incredibly calm as Smeech and his goons have her cornered, and the Yordle has a needle threatening to stab her in the eye. Not only is she not fazed, she nonchalantly reveals that Silco saw her cry only twice: when he found her, and when she killed him, which visibly shocks Smeech.
Do Not Call Me "Paul": Lampshaded in Episode 6 when her reunion with Vi goes haywire.
Vi: Powder, it's okay...
Jinx: Stop! Calling me that! It's Jinx, now! "Powder" fell down a well!
Dragon Ascendant: For the first act of Season 2, following Silco's death and her attack on the Piltover Council, Jinx becomes Public Enemy #1 and receives Vi and Caitlyn's full ire as the one who must be stopped to bring peace to the region.
Dragon-in-Chief: Downplayed. Jinx's boss Silco is plenty dangerous on his own. However, Jinx is only barely held in check by her need for his approval, and his own attachment to her makes him unable to properly reprimand her for the trouble she causes him. Throughout the season, she continues to butt into his hunt for Vi to settle her insane jealousy of Caitlyn; develops a Hextech weapon to level the playing field with Piltover that far outclasses what Shimmer does to his army; almost singlehandedly raises tensions between the two cities to bring them close to the war he's been after; and officially upstages him as the main threat after she kills him in the finale.
Dramatic Drop: Drops the stolen Hexgem in shock when Vi hugs her after her flare burns out.
The Dreaded: Following the time skip, Jinx has garnered a reputation among her allies and enemies alike for being dangerously unstable, a far cry from how she was introduced. When the Firelights notice her graffitied calling card while trying to bust Silco's smuggling operation, they immediately go on high alert. Even Silco's own crew are wary of Jinx due to her erratic behavior and penchant for blowing things up. When Chross' goons stumble on her, they visibly flinch.
Driven to Madness: Poor, poor Powder. She was never a jinx: just a child who had good intentions and made a mistake. But Vi hitting her and agreeing with Mylo that she's "a jinx" after causing the deaths of their family and abandoning her traumatized Powder so bad, her actions and her guilt caused her to undergo a gradual, but painful Sanity Slippage into becoming the crazy and violent Jinx.
Driven to Suicide:
- In Episode 7, after seeing that Vi has "replaced her" with Caitlyn and being pinned and beaten by her former best friend Ekko, she attempts to blow herself up with her old friend. Silco manages to save her and bring her to Singed for an emergency surgery in time.
- In the wake of Isha's death, Jinx decides any happy ending for her will be impossible, and the only way she can escape her "cycle" of death and destruction is to kill herself. It takes Ekko, who'd seen an alternate timeline where Jinx did become a truly good person, to convince her that it doesn't have to end in such a way.
Dying as Yourself: Jinx chooses to meet her supposed end at peace with herself as Violet's sister and Vander's daughter Powder, saving her beloved sister and giving her father a final peace. At least at first glance.
Emergency Transformation: After being nearly killed during her fight with Ekko, Silco brings her to Singed to save her, which he can only do by injecting her with massive doses of Shimmer. The procedure permanently lightens her skin and turns her eyes a glowing reddish-pink.
Empowered Badass Normal: Jinx was already plenty dangerous as Silco's top subordinate, but after she's critically injured by her attempted suicide bombing of Ekko, Singed is only able to save her life by pumping her full of Shimmer, which makes her even faster, stronger, and crazier than she was before. It also has the side-effect of turning her eyes their trademark red-pink.
Et Tu, Brute?:
- She is very unhappy Silco lied to her about Vi's survival, viewing it as a deep betrayal and taking it out on him via very uncomfortable needle jabs.
- She has an emotional breakdown after seeing for herself that Vi joined the Enforcers and is helping Piltover chasing her down.
Even Bad People Love Their Parents:
- As bad as "Jinx" is, she's completely devoted to her adoptive father Silco, and treats him with more affection than she does almost anyone else. Their relationship sours when she finds out he lied to her about Vi's death, and even more so when she misunderstands him talking to Vander's statue about his deal with Jayce. Even so, she's immediately horrified when she realizes she shot him.
- In Season 2, Jinx doesn't hesitate to try and make amends with Vi when she recognizes Warwick as Vander and tries the best she can to help him. Even if she's Silco's daughter, she was Vander's daughter first, and Jinx never stopped loving him in spite of the feud between her two fathers.
- Despite how she turned out, Jinx has nothing but fond memories of her birth parents.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- No matter how much chaos she causes, how many people she kills or lives she ruins, she does still on some level want things between her and her sister Vi to back to go back to the way they were when they were kids. Even when she realizes they can never go back at being sisters because they've changed too much, Jinx is still broken because she really wanted to patch things up with her sister.
- She feels very protective and even loving towards Isha, doing her best to act as a Cool Big Sis for her and wanting to give up on acts of violence to be happy with her. She is understandably devastated by Isha's Heroic Sacrifice.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- In Episode 9, when a terrified Vi assumes she cut off Caitlyn's head and is about to serve it to her on a platter, Jinx insists with some offense that "(she's) not that crazy!" While she would prefer to have Caitlyn dead, she's somewhat insulted that her sister would think she'd go as far as to decapitate someone and serve their head.
- In "Finally Got The Name Right", Jinx screams a Big "NO!" when Isha jumps between her and Vi and points her pistol and the latter. Jinx is truly terrified at that moment; despite everything, she doesn't want an innocent child getting hurt.
- She's just as disturbed as everyone else in "The Message Hidden Within The Pattern" watching all of the Machine Herald's subjects that have been enhanced by him collapsing and seemingly dying when he is grievously wounded by Jayce.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In Season 2, she looks and sounds legitimately confused when Isha leaps in between her and Vi to protect her. She's equally shocked when Sevika jumps in to take Vi and Caitlyn out of the fight, seemingly unable to comprehend that anyone would bother risking their life for her out of anything other than pragmatism. She's also visibly uncomfortable and confused as the Zaunites she helped break out of Stillwater all look to her and touch her with gratitude and admiration, clearly unprepared for anyone to see her with such a degree of positivity.
Evil Former Friend: To Ekko. The two were best friends as children, but their friendship fell apart after Silco took her in and raised her into Jinx, a ruthless gunslinger who has killed many of his fellow Firelights.
Evil Sounds Raspy: As a young adult, she has a hoarse and guttural voice courtesy of Ella Purnell.
Expository Hairstyle Change: By Season 2 Act 3. Following Isha's death and her own capture, Jinx lets her massive long hair loose from its braids, showing how completely hopeless and broken she became. By the finale, she cuts right above her shoulders. At first is a sign of how she putting her identity as Jinx to rest right before she kills herself, but after Ekko talks her out of suicide, it becomes a sign of her turn for the better, as she finally becomes the hero Undercity saw her as.
Expy:
- Of the Joker. Ax-Crazy? Lean and Mean? Chaotic fighting style? Pale complexion? Laughing Mad? The Dreaded? Association with purple? Name that starts with "j"? Yeah, it becomes less subtle as the season goes on. Of all Joker incarnations, she bears the most resemblance to Arthur Fleck, another realistic portrayal of a character whose insanity was originally just shorthand for "I will commit crimes in the most eccentric way possible". Both of them started out as psychologically tormented but decent people who had the misfortune of being born into Wretched Hives that the elitist jerks in power made sure never got any better. Over the course of their stories, their mental health deteriorates further due to a Trauma Conga Line until they finally snap and their "J" persona completely overtakes the people they once were. Additionally, Arthur ends up becoming the symbol of a violent rebellion against the upper classes after his publicized acts of revenge, with the participants donning clown masks to emulate him. In Season 2 Jinx ends up becoming a similar symbol after her assault on the Council, with her followers dying their hair blue in her image. Like Arthur, she is a bit ambivalent about that at first.
- Many fans have also noted that Ella Purnell's voice for Jinx sounds very similar to Margot Robbie's portrayal of Harley Quinn, an influence Purnell has confirmed in interviews. The similarities become stronger in Season 2 as both cross paths with a helpless child (in the form of Isha and Cassandra Cain, respectively) in the aftermath of splitting from their loved ones. Eventually, despite the usual challenges and conflicts they face, their time with their younger companions encourages them to be ‘a less terrible person’ to the point that they become more eager to assist others in dire times, culminating in defying the most dreadful figures of their city. It helps that Jinx’s and Harley’s shamelessly childlike flair and independence make them inspiring in the eyes of Isha and Cass. Additionally, when they eventually must go forward without their companions (though Cassandra’s fate is unknown upon Harley’s recapture), they are more active, heroic and cooperative alongside staging a close Heroic Sacrifice at the hands of a ruthless beast.
Eye Colour Change: Powder initially has light grey eyes, in contrast to Jinx in the game. This changes over the course of the season, as "Powder" is further subsumed by "Jinx". The first sign comes from the final shots of Act 1, when the surrounding flames reflected in Powder's eyes make it look purple, like Jinx in the game. After the Time Skip, Jinx retains blue eyes as a sign that there is still some trace of Powder in her... Then her own grenade nearly kills her and she can only be saved by a Shimmer infusion. From then on, Jinx is shown with glowing pink eyes (a side-effect of the operation) and she's at her most malicious and destructive. In Season 2, however, her eyes become a greyish purple during when she's calm, indicating that her good qualities as Powder were never truly lost for good.
Eye Motifs: Jinx's eyes change colors throughout the season the more her mental health degrades and she goes down a Big Bad Slippage. Grey represents Powder before losing her innocence, Blue is Jinx post-Time Skip (for her craziness and emotional coldness), and Pink after Singed saves her life and she fully accepts being Jinx following Silco's death. Scenes also put focus on her right eye being obscured in some way, either by her bangs or scenery (such as the broken mirror during her Villainous Breakdown upon losing Vi again ); it ties with Silco's own eye motif, being his surrogate daughter and Villainous Legacy after his death in the first season finale.
Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Jinx is a pretty cute teen whose big eyes and full lips lend themselves very well to Puppy-Dog Eyes-faces. She's also a remorseless Mad Bomber who knows how to use her sweet looks to make people lower their guard.
Faking the Dead: There are multiple signs that Jinx let everyone think she's dead to leave Piltover and Zaun behind for somewhere new.
Family Eye Resemblance: Powder got light grey eyes, while Vi's eyes are more of a greyish blue. As of Act II, Jinx's eyes are more blue, but still shows there is Powder left in her and a chance for her to reconcile with her sister... until Singed operates on her with Shimmer, which turns her eyes into a pinkish-purple.
Fan Disservice: Jinx's midriff-baring, Side Boob-flashing outfit would normally be a case of Fanservice, if she wasn't so borderline-ghoulishly pale and scrawny.
Fatal Flaw: Jinx's constant need to prove herself, as well as her need for love and validation, lead her to make so many mistakes that hurt both herself and those around her.
Finger Gun: A Character Tic of hers. She's first seen doing it in the Enemy music video, and in the show points a finger gun at a firelight. The Season 2 opening title features her signature "Boom" gesture where she points her finger at the camera and mimics the action of pulling the trigger. This gesture will later be echoed by Isha before her Heroic Sacrifice.
Fingore: She loses her left middle finger to Caitlyn's Hextech-powered bullet in the finale of Season 2's Act 1. She eventually gets herself a mechanical prosthetic to replace her missing finger (and mostly being able to flip off people).
Flash Step: After Singed fills her full of Shimmer to save her life following her attempted suicide bombing of Ekko, her already-impressive reflexes advance to this, allowing her to briefly dart around quicker than the eye can track as her eyes leave a sinister pink trail of light behind her. It's how she survives her supposed Heroic Sacrifice, as closer observation reveals a pink trail of light zipping away from her exploding grenade before it goes off, just like the ones her eyes leave behind.
Flipping the Bird: Attempts to do this in Act 2 of Season 2 when Sevika entreats her to rally the Undercity as their leader, though it falls flat because she'd forgotten her left middle finger was missing. She later does it for real with a prosthetic metal finger in response to a lecherous Enforcer making eyes at her while she's infiltrating Stillwater.
Foil: To Ekko, after the Time Skip. Befitting a pair of former Childhood Friends, there are many parallels between the two.
- Design-wise, Ekko is a short-haired black boy who typically wears loose-fitting clothing, whereas Jinx is a long-haired white girl dressed in skin-tight Stripperific garb. Still, they both have a distinctively Zaunite aesthetic about them, including the fact that they both wear tank tops.
- Both liberally utilize modern technology of their own design in combat. But while Ekko is a highly meticulous and innovative Clock King who uses non-lethal weaponry — such as crystal-forming grenades that immobilize targets — and fights very acrobatically at melee range alongside his fellow Firelights, Jinx is a wild and reckless Mad Bomber who works terribly with others, typically fights at range from a fixed position, and packs about twice her weight in bombs, her pistol and her minigun.
- Both are gifted young Zaunite inventors, but Ekko uses his talents to fight Silco's stranglehold on the Undercity — even building a settlement safe from his influence — and Jinx works as one of Silco's deadliest enforcers.
- Both live in secret hideouts they created themselves, but said hideouts are like night and day: Ekko lives near Zaun's lower levels in a massive Treehouse of Fun, a bright place full of life and surrounded by people he loves and who love him. Meanwhile, Jinx lives alone near Zaun's border with Piltover on a giant broken-down ventilation fan overlooking a mining chasm, a dreary and dark place with only the dolls of her dead brothers and occasional visits from Silco for company. Their "homes" symbolize their upbringings well: Ekko thrived in the Undercity with the help of his many loyal friends and companions, and thus he uses his gifts to fight for a good cause — No one ever saw anything but the worst in Jinx, so she squanders her gifts and spends her teens with exactly one person who cares for her.
- Their reunions with Vi are complete inversions of each other: Ekko is initially deeply suspicious of Vi, even accusing her of working for Silco, but they manage to rekindle their friendship within minutes. Jinx starts off crying in relief at seeing her again, and they look like they're about to go back to being sisters, but outside influences torpedo the situation and make Jinx close herself off.
- By the end of the first season, Ekko seems to be in a much brighter place and may have found a new mentor or even friend in Heimerdinger, while Jinx is a broken shell of a girl who has resigned herself to a life of evil after killing her beloved adoptive father Silco.
Forced to Watch: Can only scream in horror when Isha performs a Heroic Sacrifice, with Vi holding her back as she doesn't get caught in the explosion.
Foregone Conclusion: That Jinx won't ever go back to being "Powder", considering the series is a prequel to the established lore in League, where Jinx is fully at ease with her destructive tendencies.
Fragile Speedster: Not entirely unlike her in-game self after Singed's Meatgrinder Surgery pumps her full of Shimmer, Jinx becomes this in battle following the operation. While she wasn't exactly helpless up close before, her newfound speed is a major boon for close-quarters fights, as she's able to rush Caitlyn and knock her unconscious before she can react and gun her down, and she similarly is able to handle herself in a tight alleyway brawl against Smeech's men or even engage Vi up close and personal with nothing but her speed and bare hands. That said, if she gets caught, like when Smeech' thugs take her by surprise and pin her to wall or when Vi gets on top of her at the end of their first real fight, she can't meaningfully retaliate at all.
Freak Out: Jinx has many, many of these:
- In Episode 3, Powder descends into a sobbing, screaming mess after Vi and her brothers leave her home while they rescue Vander from Silco.
- In Episode 4, when Jinx mistakes a Firelight for Vi, she is reminded of all her past trauma and blows a fuse in more ways than one: She first shoots the girl, then starts firing her minigun maniacally, blowing up the entire load of Shimmer she was supposed to guard.
- Gets one in Episode 5 while she fails to beat Vi's record on the arcade's boxing game.
- When she thinks Vi is abandoning her for Caitlyn in Episode 7, a hallucination of Mylo taunts her and prompts her to set off her butterfly bombs on the bridge and cause carnage.
- Played for Drama in the final episode of Season 1, where Jinx suffers a mental breakdown over her Conflicting Loyalty between her sister and her adoptive father. She's seen desperately grabbing her head as her hallucinations get worse, and she finally snaps and shoots her minigun frantically when Silco is about to shoot Vi, which accidentally kills him.
- Jinx has a psychosis mixed with a panic attack after Isha gets taken to Stillwater.
Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Ekko has zero sympathy for the person Powder's become, pointing out to Vi that Jinx has been willingly serving, killing for, and helping run drugs for Silco for years even though he's clearly done nothing but make the Undercity worse because she's decided that his coddling her outweighs any lives he may ruin or end. Although he does come around at the end of Season 2, going through considerable effort to talk Jinx down from suicide.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Sevika not-hyperbolically snaps at Silco that everyone who isn't him thinks Jinx is way more trouble than she's worth. For her part, Jinx is never shown hanging out socially with anyone but Silco either. However, they also all know that Jinx is Silco's favorite, so she never faces any consequences for her actions.
From Nobody to Nightmare: When introduced in Act I, she's a sweet-natured Tagalong Kid whose homemade bombs hardly ever work, and she frequently ends up as The Load during her siblings' heists. After the Time Skip, she's become The Heavy. Not only does she have her bombs drastically improved in destructive power and functionality, but she has become a devastating opponent and feared throughout the Undercity.
Futile Hand Reach: Can only do this as she watches Isha commit a Heroic Suicide while Vi holds her back.
Gadgeteer Genius:
- Despite all her bombs being duds (at least until Episode 3), Powder is gifted enough with engineering to build a working panic button in Vander's bar, which he uses to successfully warn them about the Enforcers coming to arrest them. Her naming her weaponry as Jinx, as she did with her bombs as Powder, implies that she made them all herself.
- Silco tells her outright that she's his best option for actually weaponizing the Piltovan tech she stole, implying that she's become this for his gang as a whole. She's able to reproduce Jayce's first Hextech experiment with reasonable accuracy (if understandably lower quality due to her available resources), and demonstrates an understanding of the underlying principles just from reading his notes all in the span of hours. By the end of the first season, she's managed to cobble together her "Fishbones" rocket launcher, using Hextech to dramatically increase the range of the missile. She may act like a barely-sane kindergartener, but she's arguably one of the smartest characters of the series under it. Act 2 of Season 2 leans on this further by revealing that in the absence of Jayce, Viktor, and Heimerdinger, no one in Piltover knows how to safely handle Hextech even with all the resources at their disposal, yet Jinx did it with nothing more than scraps.
Gatling Good: As Jinx, she makes delighted use of a customized gatling gun, known in the game as "Pow-Pow".
Generation Xerox: As of Episode 3, Vi and Powder seem to be turning out exactly like Vander and Silco: The "younger" sibling idolized their "older" sibling until they experienced what they perceive as a betrayal and abandonment — which their sibling deeply regrets — and thus end up on opposite sides of the conflict between Piltover and Zaun. Even better, the older sibling is a physically powerful hand-to-hand fighter, while the younger is much more reedy and has to rely on their own cunning and various weapons in fights.
Genius Ditz: As a teenager, she's highly unstable and commits wanton acts of violence no matter how bad an idea it is. However, she can also single-handedly recreate Jayce's hextech prototype with nothing but his notebook and whatever scrap she had lying around (stolen hex gem aside). She might be violent and unhinged, she's far from being unintelligent.
Giggling Villain: She tends to chuckle or snicker during tense moments, to show how disconnected she is with reality.
Girlish Pigtails: It's easy to miss, but Powder already has a much shorter version of Jinx's trademark long twin braids. She just keeps them tied together, so it looks like she only has one.
The Glomp: An unusually dramatic version in Episode 3: Powder has been bombarded by the fact that the explosion she caused killed Claggor and Mylo and indirectly killed Vander, and she's just been slapped, yelled at, and apparently abandoned by Vi. When Silco appears and offers her some small measure of comfort, Powder is so desperately emotionally shattered that she literally knocks him off his feet in a hug.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: After Singed fills her with Shimmer, her eyes become an eerie reddish-pink and give off a sinister glow when she's feeling threatened or agitated. They also leave behind an eerie trail of pink light whenever she uses her new Flash Step abilities.
Go Mad from the Revelation: While Powder wasn't always stable when Vi was not around, her sanity starts deteriorating when she realizes Mylo, Claggor and Vander died because of her bomb, when Vi had told her to stay put. It only gets worse for her when Vi hits her and leaves to cool off, leading Powder to think she had abandoned her.
Powder: [crying] I only wanted to help... [sobs] I only wanted to help, I ONLY WANTED TO HELP, I ONLY WANTED TO--
Good Costume Switch: Downplayed, since it wasn't a complete switch, but as she leads Zaun in a counter strike against Noxians during the Final Battle, Jinx wears a bright grey cloth and a white tank top, while her body is covered in bright neon paint.
Go Out with a Smile:
- She gives Ekko a sad smile when he cannot bring himself to finish her off, before she attempts to blow both of them up with one of her grenades. However, she survives, thanks to Singed's Shimmer operation.
- Her seeming death in the finale of season 2 is Jinx choosing to die for her beloved sister, smiling peacefully as she detonates her last bomb to take Warwick with her.
Green-Eyed Monster: During Act 3, she's completely livid at how close Caitlyn and Vi are, believing that her sister has replaced her. At the end of Episode 9, she gives Vi an impossible ultimatum: if she really wants Powder back, she has to get rid of Caitlyn first.
Grief Makes You Crazy: Part of what turned Powder into Jinx is her grief/guilt over the deaths Mylo and Clagger. Years later, as a young adult, she still hears Mylo and Clagger's voices as part of her hallucinations, heavily implying that she's never stopped grieving them.
The Gunslinger: Shown to be both a Quick Draw and a deadly accurate shot, even as a kid.
Gun Twirling: She tends to spin her handgun before aiming.
Hanlon's Razor: Powder's Start of Darkness was born from from a genuine desire to help her family, which makes all their deaths even more tragic.
Harmful to Minors: Powder could not have been older than 4 or 5 when she discovered the corpses of her parents on the bridge with her sister, which is how the series starts. This pretty much sets the tone for her entire life.
Hate at First Sight: She was already on edge when she and Caitlyn 'met' during her reunion with Vi, taking her presence to mean that Sevika was right about Vi bringing the Enforcers down on her, but after seeing how close Vi and Caitlyn are throughout Act III she becomes downright murderous towards her, believing her to be the main reason Vi won't truly return to her and hallucinating Caitlyn smirking victoriously at her when Vi helps her to safety after Jinx's bombs wound her on the bridge. While Singed is operating on her to save her life with Shimmer, she hallucinates that he's Caitlyn — effectively blaming her for her current suffering — and afterward goes out of her way to kidnap Caitlyn and drag her to her "dinner party" so she can make Vi shoot her to reaffirm that she won't ever "betray" her again. Essentially, she won't ever be able to trust and love Vi like she used to as long as Caitlyn's around.
Hated by All: While not all, she comes pretty close—after becoming Silco's top enforcer, the citizens of Zaun are terrified of her, the Firelights hate and fear her, Piltover views her as a dangerous criminal, Silco's squad doesn't like having her around because he lets her get away with causing a ton of trouble, and even Silco himself gets frustrated with Jinx throwing a wrench in his plans sometimes, although he does love her. Even Vi eventually, bitterly comes to accept that her sweet innocent little sister is long gone and there's only Jinx left. It is, however, subverted in Season 2 when the Zaunites come to see her as a folk hero for resisting Piltover, a little girl named Isha forms a bond with her, and she and Vi kinda-sorta repair their sisterly bond after discovering Vander is alive as Warwick.
Hates Being Alone: Powder dissolves into a sobbing mess after Vi leaves her home while she, Mylo, and Claggor go to rescue Vander. She completely shatters when Vi seemingly leaves her all alone after she accidentally gets their family killed. Post time-skip, Jinx is still deeply insecure at the idea of being alone. After she gets Silco killed, and finding herself all alone once again, Jinx accepts her new identity and starts a war to make her deceased father's wish come true.
Hates Rich People: Like many Zaunites, she despises the citizens of Piltover — especially the Council — for how badly they mistreat them and their home.
Hearing Voices: Following the time skip, her childhood tendency to talk to her weapons before setting them off has spiraled into full conversations with inanimate objects (usually the effigies she made of her brothers). In high-stress situations, they develop into full-blown auditory and visual hallucinations that she either argues with or just yells at to shut up. They die down come Season 2 after settling into her Jinx identity in the wake of Silco dying at her hands and forgiving her, but they can still come back if she gets stressed out badly enough.
The Heavy: Powder and Vi's relationship is the central focus of the first season, as the former unravels further into the psychotic Jinx and becomes a far more personal and dangerous enemy than Silco ever was. The increase in tensions between Piltover and Zaun largely stems from her unsanctioned attacks; Caitlyn frees Vi to help her track down the gemstone she stole, to which Vi only agrees so she can reconcile with her sister; and Silco tries to kill the two of them specifically to prevent Jinx from learning Vi is still alive. It all comes to a head when she goes rogue in the finale, kidnapping Caitlyn, Vi, and even Silco. The season's climax ends with her embracing her "Jinx" identity and bombing the Piltover Council, literally blowing any chance at peace between the two cities to hell.
Heel–Face Turn: Strongly implied at the end of Season 2. After losing Isha and briefly going over the Despair Event Horizon, Jinx is given a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech by Ekko (whose faith that Jinx can be redeemed is restored after he meets Jinx's alternate timeline counterpart). Ultimately, Jinx and Vi reconcile enough to try and bring down the monstrous Warwick, and Jinx ultimately pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to save Vi and put Warwick out of his misery. It seems to be a clear-cut case of Redemption Equals Death, up until the final few minutes all but outright say that Jinx survived and is heading out of Zaun and Piltover to continue finding herself.
Heel Realization: She wordlessly has one at the end of her fight with Vi, when her sister quits trying to kill her to try and talk Caitlyn out of potentially shooting Isha, who'd thrown herself onto Jinx and is refusing to get off to try and protect her from both Enforcers. She looks at the scene in astonishment, realizing that the Cool Big Sis who always looked out for and protected her still had the good heart she remembered her having.
Heroic Sacrifice:
- Faces Warwick head on to buy enough time for Sevika to take Isha to safety. However before Warwick can kill her, he recognizes her as Powder, indicating that the beast is not only Vander, but he is still alive after all those years.
- When she realizes Warwick will kill Vi, Jinx tackles him and refuses to let Vi fall with her. Instead, she bids farewell to Vi and plummets below with her former father, using a grenade to take the both of them out.
Hero Killer: Becomes this in Act 2 of Season 1, having killed many Firelights.
Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Post-Time Skip, Jinx has chin-lenght bangs partially hiding her right eye, which makes her look more menacing during moments of psychosis, or shows Powder "hiding" behind her "Jinx" persona during moments of emotional vulnerability.
Hypocrite: She resents and calls out Vi for her association with Caitlyn and the Enforcers, treating it as a betrayal of their birth parents in favor of the people who murdered them. Yet she herself professes loyalty to Silco, the same guy who sought to murder her and Vi's adoptive father Vander before going on to oppress the very community Vander devoted his life to with the help of corrupt Enforcers, to the extent of fighting against her childhood friend Ekko when he led a resistance against Silco. And while Vi at least can say that Caitlyn had nothing to do with the deaths of her and Jinx's parents, Jinx has no such excuse when it comes to Silco and his misdeeds.

I-Z

I Am a Monster: She genuinely views herself as a “jinx” that can only bring suffering and death to everyone she comes across willy-nilly (especially her loved ones), something not helped by her poor track record at keeping them safe. She even considers committing suicide several times, whether by her own hands or by someone else’s, in order to escape the cycle of violence and death that she’s been trapped in for so long, and to spare her loved ones from more suffering.
I Call It "Vera": Powder has a habit of naming her weapons, such as "Mouser" and "Whisker" the bombs. "Pow-Pow" the minigun and "Fishbones" the rocket launcher show that she maintains this habit as Jinx. "Pow-Pow" is also something of a Meaningful Name, as it was Vi's Affectionate Nickname for Powder when they were younger and she tends to fire it madly as a form of venting/stress relief.
I Just Want to Be Loved: At Jinx's core is a sad, scared little girl, crying in the rain for her sister to come back. It's implied all she really wants is love and recognition, and Silco provides it to her in spades. After the events of Episode 9 in Season 1 end with her accidentally killing Silco and fully embracing her identity as Jinx, she admits that she hoped Vi could still love her despite how much she'd changed.
Important Haircut: Jinx cuts her hair during her Despair Event Horizon, but it's cutting it shorter and dying purple streaks in her fringe that shows her newest will to use her skills for good during the final battle.
Improbable Aiming Skills: Even as a child she was able to score over 20 perfect shots in a row on an arcade game. Jinx's minigun leaves little room for accuracy, but she's still good enough with a pistol to shoot a crystal grenade in mid-air as it's being thrown at her.
Inelegant Blubbering: A rather disturbing example occurs in episode 3. After being told by Vi and crew to sit out the rescue mission for Vander, Powder throws a violent temper tantrum in her room, complete with spit and snot running down her face.
- Smeech invokes this Season 2 after his goons corner Jinx while she was sobbing and screaming: "Never thought I'd catch you blubbering!"
Inferred Survival: Despite her seeming sacrifice, there are strong signs that Jinx survived and has allowed herself to escape the cycle of killing and hatred by leaving the cities behind.
Innocence Lost: Occurs to Powder in Episode 3 after her monkey bomb accidentally gets Vander and her adoptive brothers killed, and Vi hits her in rage before leaving her to cool off. This breaks Powder's heart as it leads her to think Vi deliberately disowned her as her sister and that she's found herself all alone. That fateful night marks the birth of Jinx and Powder's Start of Darkness when Silco finds her and decides to spare her life and take her in instead.
Innocent Grey Eyes: They begin as a light grey, like her sister, but noticeably turn blue after her encounter with hextech. Either way, they highlight her youth and relative inexperience compared to the others. She loses them permanently after being pumped full of Shimmer by Singed, which comes with the side effect of turning her eyes a bright red-pink.
Insane Troll Logic: If Vi really wants to be sisters again, then she has to "make (Caitlyn) go away". This is just what finally hammers it into Vi's head that her sister truly is insane. Jinx is just that possessive.
Ironic Nursery Rhyme: In the opening scene of the first episode, a young Powder sings a beggar's song, "Dear Friend Across The River", a song that showcases the wage difference between the two cities where a Zaunite asks a Piltovian for a penny, "without envy" and with gratitude... All while Enforcers mercilessly gun down civilians, including Powder's own parents. Come Episode 7, Powder, who has now grown into the psychotic Jinx, hums the same song she used to shield herself from violence as a kid, this time while being a perpetrator of violence herself and asking for more than just a penny from her "friend across the river"...
Irony:
- Jinx despises how close Vi and Caitlyn are, but she's ultimately the one who brought them together.
- In the same vein, Jinx would very likely have lived and died without ever seeing her sister again if not for Caitlyn getting her out of Stillwater Hold, yet she considers her the biggest obstacle to rebuilding her and Vi's relationship.
- Related to the first of the above points, she comes to resent Vi for involving herself with Caitlyn and the Enforcers due to how the latter killed their birth parents, yet she's spent years loyally working for Silco, who conspired to murder the family she found afterwards and would later pay off the Enforcers to protect his interests when he took control of the Undercity.
- For all the trouble Hextech has caused both her personally and her home of Zaun, Jinx has proven to be one of the few people in all of Runeterra who can actually create new Hextech devices. The only others are Jayce, Viktor, Heimerdinger, and (possibly) Ekko with Ambessa's efforts to find a new Hextech inventor following all of the others disappearing proving fruitless.
It's All About Me: As a teenager, Jinx seems unable (or just plain unwilling) to care about anyone she doesn't think is nice enough to her. Most of her actions across Acts 2 and 3 are driven by her need to prove herself to Silco and make herself happy, even defying Silco's order to stay under the radar in an attempt to impress him and flagrantly ignoring his complaints about her destroying a building and killing six Enforcers. This even extends to her sister Vi—she's All Take and No Give in their relationship and never seems to consider, even if she's hurting Vi by demanding she kill Caitlyn to reconcile with Powder. Ekko thinks so too, reasoning that she could have walked away from Silco at any time but chose to stay with him because of how he enables her. Taking care of Isha in Season 2 seems to have made her grow out of this.
It's All My Fault: Powder has no one to blame but her overloaded monkey bomb for causing the death of her family, especially considering Vi told her to stay away. She is promptly driven to madness by the revelation, and still holds herself responsible for the tragedy in the present day.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Post-time skip in the season 1, Jinx is a selfish lunatic who doesn't care about anyone or anything she doesn't personally like. And even they aren't completely safe when she thinks they're plotting against her. However, she wouldn't want to kill them and it's clear that the "Jinx" persona is nothing but a mask she puts on in order to protect Powder, her broken inner child, from further harm. Even at her worst, Jinx never forgave herself for accidentally killing her family. After she botches a Shimmer smuggling operation, she makes it up to Silco as she wants to support him. She is later shown to fondly remember her time with Ekko as kids and wishes nothing more but to reconnect with her sister. In episode 9 when she fatally shoots Silco, she immediately regrets that and repeatedly apologizes to him while crying just before he dies.
- Her heart of gold becomes more prominent in Season 2. Jinx saves a little girl named Isha from thugs and becomes a Cool Big Sis figure towards her. She also makes peace with Sevika, with whom she had an antagonistic relationship in the first season, to the point where she fixes and upgrades her prosthetic arm. When she realizes Vander is still alive in the body of a violent beast, she makes an effort to try to reconcile with Vi in order to help their father.
The Jinx: Mylo calls Powder a jinx for her tendency to derail their heists whenever she tags along. She takes it as her name after Vi agrees with the sentiment when Powder accidentally kills the rest of their adoptive family.
Kick Chick: Played With. When Jinx goes back to the ruins of the arcade her family used to play in, she boots up the boxing machine Vi used to practice on. Rather than stick purely to her fists as Vi did, she throws in at least one kick for every punch or two. Other times, however, she throws grenades and shoots guns in fights, and if she does have to get physical, she just wields her minigun like a blunt weapon.
Kick the Dog: Several times after Act I.
- Tricking a squad of Enforcers into a bomb trap by acting like a child trapped in a burning building, especially when you consider that it was just a diversion. Even if a distraction had been necessary (which itself is debatable) she could've come up with a non-lethal one if she'd wanted to, but still chose to kill cops doing their job.
- She kills a crow that startles her when it lands too close, and later uses its feathers as bookmarks.
- When facing off with Ekko on the bridge, she spitefully mocks him and wastes no time shooting for the kill.
- Kidnapping Caitlyn, and demanding Vi execute her before she'll forgive her "abandonment". Also, she really drags out the reveal that she did not, in fact, cut Caitlyn's head off to serve it to Vi on a plate.
- She completely blames Vi for the way she turned out, and ultimately fires a missile at the Council chambers out of misdirected spite.
Knight of Cerebus: Her appearance sets this show at its darkest mood. As her heinous actions and unhinged behavior are ultimately not Played for Laughs but render her as one of the biggest threats, this Jinx is a much darker and more serious character than her game counterpart. Since Act 2 of Season 2, though, she loses this status.
Kubrick Stare: Often shoots these at people in Act 2 and 3. After her Shimmer operation, the glowing pink eyes make them especially creepy.
Lack of Empathy: Jinx is pretty much totally indifferent to anything and anyone she doesn't personally care about; even that can turn on a dime if they do her the slightest wrong either in reality or in her own head. This is made most clear to the audience through Vi, when she's so completely unconcerned with collateral damage that she almost shoots her sister during their battle with the Firelights.
Laughing Mad: In Episode 7, after Vi get taken by the Firelights and Jinx gets injured, she limps back to her lair and staples her wound shut, all while cackling like a madwoman.
Lean and Mean: She's much lankier than her sister Vi, both as a child and a teen. In that last case, it makes her look physically unwell on top of mentally.
Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: In Episode 7, she immediately understands Ekko's suggestion when he starts swinging his pocket watch at his side, and decides to humor him with an homage to their childhood game.
Lightning Gun: In Season 2, Jinx turns her normal handgun to a Hextech-powered gun that shoots electricity blasts instead of bullets, which is her weapon "Zappy" in the game.
Like Parent, Like Child: Jinx turned out to be a lot like Silco — ruthless, selfish, unsympathetic, uses violence/intimidation to get what she wants, and just generally unpleasant to anyone she doesn't like and/or need something from.
The Lost Lenore: Season 2 Act 3 makes it pretty clear that Ekko was - and perhaps still is - in love with Powder. And the final scene of him, after Jinx has seemingly died, shows him grieving alone in a shot identical to him sitting together with the Powder of the alternate timeline.
Love Redeems: Taking care of Isha helps to stabilize Jinx's mental state and brings out the best in her. It's for her that Jinx stirs herself to liberate the undercity prisoners as a "Big Fat Hero." Likewise, her love for Vander prompts her to find Vi so they can reach their adoptive father whereupon Vi invites her to a family hug, signifying the renewal of their bond and showcasing that Jinx was never beyond hope.
Mad Artist: Loves dark-light graffiti, and decorates her many explosives and weapons with them. She even paints a smile on Caitlyn's gag after kidnapping her.
Mad Bomber: She's always had a thing for explosives. As a teen, she even tosses bombs down a pit when stressed and/or bored.
The Mad Hatter: For all her flaws, Jinx seems to be well aware that she's insane, and loves to creep out others (as seen with Thieram at the bar). When Vi assumes she cut off Caitlyn's head, Jinx scoffs that she's "not THAT crazy".
Mafia Princess: With Silco being the closest thing Zaun has to The Don (having built an industrialist empire with Shimmer and the most powerful criminal in the underground of Zaun), Jinx is his beloved and pampered adopted daughter, who Silco is very protective of.
Male Gaze: Several shots focus and linger on Jinx's shapely rear, her hips, and her bare belly.
Meaningful Echo: In the climax of Season 1, Vi desperately begs Jinx not to kill Caitlyn by swearing they could just leave Piltover and Zaun together and never return, which Jinx replies to with incredulity. In the aftermath of Season 2, with her surviving her attempt at a Heroic Sacrifice, Jinx seemingly ends up doing just that as she departs the cities in an airship for parts unknown.
Meaningful Name:
- Her birth name, "Powder", might be a reference a powder keg — an extremely tense and volatile situation that will spiral into complete chaos at the slightest provocation — or a "powder monkey"^notesomeone who works with explosives, which also ties into her Animal Motif. It could also come from her hair color, powder blue (sort of like how Vi's full name, Violet, matches her hair color).
- Her unfortunate tendency to ruin the kids' heists and projects earns her the insulting nickname "jinx" from Mylo, and once from an enraged Vi after one of Powder's explosions kills the rest of their family.
Meaningful Rename: Her changing her name to "Jinx" shows an acceptance of her destructive tendencies and distancing herself from her past as Powder.
Menacing Stroll: How Jinx is (re)introduced in the fourth episode, walking slowly to the Firelights to greet them with a "hi"... and proceeding to blow up two of them with her grenades. She walks in a similar manner in Episode 7 after unleashing her butterfly bombs on the bridge, while humming "Dear Friend Across The River" for extra creepy factor before gunning down an injured Enforcer.
The Mentally Disturbed: As a teenager, Jinx suffers from severe anxiety and hallucinations, as a result of her past traumas. No one but Vi attempts to help her with it, either they enable her destructive behavior (Silco), have no sympathy and even taunt her (Sevika) or consider her a lost cause (Ekko and Caitlyn).
The Millstone: As a kid, her friends' robberies would tend to fail if they brought her with them. Later, when working for Silco, she's a dangerously unpredictable maniac that even he can barely keep in line. Sevika furiously complains to Silco about this after Jinx botches a protection job, and while he does acknowledge her complaints his own affection for her keeps him from actually doing anything to discipline her. Her actions repeatedly get her own family and allies killed, often in situations where they would have at least limped away without her.
Mirror Character: Ironically enough, she becomes one to Vi in Season 2, particularly the version of her in the past. She starts the season by chancing across Isha and ends up becoming a Cool Big Sis to her the same way Vi had been her own Cool Big Sis before her Sanity Slippage, and she gains a loyal companion in the form of Sevika, reflecting Vi's own relationship with their brothers Mylo and Claggor, who used to follow her as the head honcho of their group as children. Meanwhile, Vi starts the season suffering situations not so different from her own circumstances as Powder during their childhood together. And just like how Vi wasn't able to reach Powder and save her from Silco, Jinx wasn't able to stop Isha from committing a Heroic Sacrifice.
Misplaced Retribution: Her abandonment issues with Vi and the hallucinations caused by Singed infusing her with Shimmer to drag her back from the brink of death make her direct a lot of hatred towards Caitlyn, with whom she believes Vi has replaced her with.
Mix-and-Match Weapon: In the series finale, she wields a modified version of her signature minigun, rocket launcher, and pistol that resulted in all three being combined into one massive BFG known as "Rhino," allowing her to swap between her minigun and rocket launcher just by wielding the opposite end and using her pistol's magic blasts out of the rocket launcher's mouth.
Morality Pet:
- Was this to Vi when they were kids. While Vi was a troublemaker and sometimes harsh with Mylo, she showed a protective and caring side to her little sister.
- As of Act II, Jinx is the one and only person Silco remotely cares about. So much that he refuses to give her to Jayce and the Council when they promise an Independent Zaun, and spends his dying moments reassuring her when she accidentally shot him during a breakdown. Talk about fatherly love from a ruthless villain.
- To Warwick in Season 2, when it's revealed that it's actually Vander, her first adoptive father. Before Warwick can kill Jinx during their first confrontation, he sees her bomb and then recognizes her as Powder, which pushes him to fight from the inside so he doesn't hurt her further. Vander's love for his daughters is what keeps his control over the beast within.
Ms. Fanservice: Pale and emaciated she may be but Jinx is still a svelt young woman who spends most of the series wearing Painted-On Pants and a bit of fabric that barely covers her chest - exposing her midriff, back and sideboobs. She also tends to sway her hips a lot and gets quite a few rear end shots.
Mundane Utility: At one point she uses Vi's Atlas Gauntlets, intended for heavy mining or combat, as oven mitts.
Muscles Are Meaningless: She's pretty scrawny as a teenager, yet still capable of wielding a minigun about as long as she is tall, even effectively using it as a makeshift melee weapon.
My Greatest Failure: The fact that her own bomb killed her foster father and brothers has clearly become this after the Time Skip, to the point that it's how her psychosis manifests: not only has she created dolls in their likeness that she often talks to, but in moments of extreme distress she hallucinates their ghosts screaming at her over her shoulder.
My God, What Have I Done?:
- The realization that she caused the explosion that killed Vander, Claggor and Mylo makes her break down sobbing inconsolably as she tries to explain herself to Vi.
- Jinx accidentally shoots Silco in a psychotic panic when he tries to shoot Vi. Despite believing that he was going to sacrifice her to Piltover to ensure Zaun's independence, she tearfully runs to the only person who's cared about her for years, desperately apologizing to him as he's bleeding out. He uses his last words to assure her that he would never have done so, and asserts that he thinks she's perfect as she is. It obviously shatters whatever's left of her hear, and it ensures Jinx's only loyalty will forever be to Silco's dream: the independence of Zaun.
My Sister Is Off-Limits: An extremely dark version. When she sees how close Vi is with Caitlyn she starts frothing with jealous rage, due in no small part to how it feeds into her paranoia that Vi has "replaced" her with Caitlyn. It drives her to try to force Vi to kill Caitlyn so they can "go back" to being sisters.
Mythology Gag: During a scuffle, Jinx calls Vi "Fat Hands"^notein reference to her gauntlets, which is how Jinx calls her in-game when they interract.
Never Be Hurt Again: The reason she became Jinx in the first place: she associates her past identity, Powder, to nothing but pain and heartache considering she unwillingly caused the deaths of her family when she was trying to help and how every single thing she tried to do as a kid only led to her "jinxing it". Now older and stronger, Jinx accepts her role as an enforcer of chaos and destruction, but is still fueled by insecurities and fear of being perceived as "weak" or "useless" like she was in her childhood. By Episode 9, she distances herself from Vi, whom she killed Silco for and surely because she can't keep losing those she cares about.
Never My Fault: In Episode 9 she claims that her current "Jinx" mindset is all on Vi, even though — as Ekko points out — Jinx has been making her own decisions ever since they were separated. In truth, Vi only played a very small, unintentional part, and even if Powder had been too young know any better, her actions are still way more on her than on Vi.
- Downplayed, however, that Jinx isn't saying it to Vi in an accusatory manner: she seems to be thanking Vi for "pushing her" to becoming strong in the present day. Vi doesn't see it as a compliment, and is clearly guilt-ridden for her role in Jinx's creation.
Not Quite Dead: All but outright stated to be the case. Despite seemingly performing a Heroic Sacrifice to kill Warwick with a grenade as the two fall to their deaths within the Hexgate, a number of signs all heavy-handedly point out she isn't actually dead. As Caitlyn investigates the Hexgate's design in the aftermath while fiddling with what was likely a part from was said grenade at the scene, she conspicuously focuses on a cooling vent in the side of the chamber, which would have served as a means for her to escape from the explosion. When you additionally consider the airship flying off into the distance at the end of the series, in conjuction with her very first words in the series saying she wanted to ride one, and how an an eagle-eyed viewer can catch a pink streak darting away before the explosion occurs along with the series as a whole ending on a final shot of "The End" styled like her hallucinations, it's safe to say Jinx is alive and well, able to finally "walk away" from the cycle of killing that she'd been trapped in.
Not Quite the Right Thing: In episode 3, Powder tries for a Big Damn Heroes moment using a Hextech bomb. Had she not — like they told her — her family would have probably gotten away by the skin of their teeth. Instead, three of them died.
Nice Girl: Powder was absolutely this. She may have been more than a little nuts, but she obviously loved her (non-Mylo) family and wanted to help them however she could. Then she accidentally blew them up, her and Vi's relationship fell apart, and Silco took her in and raised her into a complete Jerkass.
OOC Is Serious Business:
- The usually manic and perky Jinx is reduced to an Empty Shell speaking with a broken, shaking voice after she accidentally kills Silco and realizes that she and Vi can never go back at being sisters.
- Jinx becomes horrified when Isha shields her and holds Vi at gunpoint.
- When bailing out the Piltover faction against the Noxians after the trauma conga line she went through in the past few days, while Jinx’s methods have her usual dramatic, trollish flair, the girl herself has a stoic air of grim satisfaction.
The Ophelia: Under the revealing wardrobe, Puppy-Dog Eyes and excitable behavior, Jinx carries around some substantial trauma and a love of carnage and destruction.
The Paranoiac: As of Act II, one of her defining traits is thinking that those she cares about are plotting against her. Her hallucinations only add fuel to the fire and distorts her view of reality. Her paranoia worsens upon seeing Vi with Caitlyn, an enforcer, whom Jinx assumes "replaced her" in Vi's heart.
Parental Substitute: After she takes in Isha in Season 2, Jinx becomes the closest thing to a big sister/mother figure to the young girl.
Patricide: Twofold. First, in Act I, her bomb injures Vander who then sacrifices his life to save Vi from Silco. Then in Episode 9, when Silco is about to shoot Vi, Jinx fires her minigun in a psychotic trance, which ends up accidentally killing him. She's immediately regretful once she realizes what she's done.
Perky Female Minion: Is this to Silco, though she's his daughter rather than just a common underling.
Pet the Dog: Gets a few in Season 2.
- She decides to go and repair Sevika's damaged prosthetic arm after learning how much they actually had in common, with the intention of giving it to her as a gesture of good will and a peace offering, wrapping it as a present for good measure. Her efforts pay off, too.
- Her entire relationship with Isha. Jinx first saves the girl from Chross' henchmen by shooting them. She easily could've let her be taken, but instead stands up for a defenseless little girl. She later lets Isha stick around after she helps her during her fight with Smeech's goons, even letting her borrow her telescope in the next episode. In the climax of Episode 3, Jinx can seen protecting Isha by holding her down when the draft of Grey that Sevika unleashes threathens to blow them away.
- She gets a dark example in the third act. After unsuccessfully attempting to blow herself up four times due to Ekko rewinding time, she actually stops to listen to Ekko talk. Then when Ekko says that he's going to see if he can try to "talk an old friend from blowing them both up", you see a spark of realization from Jinx as she realizes that her grenade would catch the boy savior in the blast radius. The next time she pulls the pin, she makes sure to jump first so that the grenade kills her and only her. Ekko of course rewinds time to save her life again, but the very act of wanting to spare Ekko is a far cry from the Jinx who tried to blow both of them up following their showdown on the bridge.
Please, Don't Leave Me: This becomes one of her primary character traits: She has all of the abandonment issues, likely stemming from finding her parents' corpses during the opening scene of the show. In Episode 3, she shrieks for Vi to come back when she walks away following the explosion that killed the rest of their family, already traumatized by the realization that she caused said explosion and Vi slapping and yelling at her.
Precision F-Strike: Compared to the likes of her sister, Jinx rarely curses. She says the word "shit" only twice (once per season), and refers to Vi's gauntlets as "bitch mittens" at some point.
Pre-Sacrifice Final Goodbye: Her final words are to Vi, accompanied by a last smile. "Always with you, sis."
Protagonist Journey to Villain: Season One tells the story of how a fairly innocent child became a psychotic anarchist.
Protectorate:
- When they were children, Vi was extremely protective of Powder.
- To Silco. She's the only person he cares about in the world, and the only person he would refuse a truce between Piltover and Zaun for in order to keep her safe.
- To Warwick, when it's revealed that he's Vander Back from the Dead. He becomes a literal Papa Wolf when Rictus tries to kill Jinx; he immediately jumps to her rescue and proceeds to throw Rictus through the window.
Psychopathic Womanchild: Powder was never able to fully process her trauma and mature as she grew up; it clearly shows as Jinx throws violent tantrums, gives names to her cute, animal-themed weapons, and doodles graffiti over everything she can. The psychopathic part is downplayed in the sense that Jinx is still capable of feeling guilt, love and compassion, if only for a few individuals.
Psycho Pink: Jinx mainly uses bright pink colors in her Mad Artist doodles, and by Episode 8 her eyes permanently turn pink after Singed's operation, which makes her look far more dangerous and deranged.
Psycho Serum: Singed injecting Powder with massive doses of Shimmer to save her life completes her physical transformation into Jinx, noticeably lightening her skin and giving her her signature reddish-pink eyes. It also elevated her already impressive reflexes into Flash Step territory.
Psycho Supporter: Because Silco took her in and consoled her after Vi left her and was imprisoned by Marcus, Powder became incredibly loyal to her foster father, now going by Jinx and going along in his crime schemes to get Zaun's independence. Jinx doesn't necessarily cares about the cause (or the people she kills in the process), she stays by Silco's side no matter what because he's the one person that's patient with her and doesn't see her being a "jinx" as a nuisance (on the contrary, he encourages her destructive behavior).
Raised by Rival: When her foster father and brothers were killed and her older sister Vi apparently abandoned her and dropped off the radar, Jinx was taken in by her father's nemesis Silco, the Undercity drug lord who had initially planned on killing her but changed his mind at the last second. She grows into a mentally unstable Daddy's Little Villain, but is rattled pretty hard when Vi resurfaces in Zaun. Vi desperately wants to be with her sister again, but after killing Silco, Jinx finally accepts that she and Vi are too different for that to be possible anymore.
Redemption Earns Life: It's strongly implied that after her final fight where she seemingly sacrifices herself to put Warwick down, Jinx survives and is able to flee Piltover to walk the path she chooses.
Reestablishing Character Moment: In episode 4, Ekko and the Firelights ambush one of Silco's airships to destroy the Shimmer on board. All seems to being going well until they notice the dark-light monkey painted on the wall, and then a swing goes over their heads to reveal a similar dark-light "BOOM" painted on its underside. Cue explosion. A pair of boots then moseys into frame, and an older Powder — armed to the teeth — blows her fringe out of her face and announces herself with "Hi." She then draws a pair of grenades, pulls the pins with her teeth through a menacing glare and chucks them at her opponents, who are knocked over the side of the airship shortly before the explosions go off. The audience clearly understands that loving, klutzy little Powder is now a deeply feared Mad Bomber who can more than hold her own and clearly isn't firing on all cylinders.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: A variant. Her eyes turn red-pink after Singed fills her full of Shimmer to save her life.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Played with. As a child, she's mostly the Blue to Vi's Red: She wears mostly blue clothing (on top of her blue eyes and hair), she's much more timid than her sister, and if she does have to fight she uses weapons (that usually don't work) instead of her fists, but as the younger of the two she's also more impulsive and doesn't always fully understand the situation around her. She's also deeply emotionally unstable without Vi around to support her, as evidenced by her rather disturbing tantrum in episode 3.
Room Full of Crazy: Her headquarters in Silco's lair include: a life-size dummy of Mylo, a doll with Claggor's goggles with his dried bloodstains on it, and a crucified stuffed bunny above her workspace.
Rhymes on a Dime: Briefly after her reunion with Vi crashes and burns. It helps convey how absolutely batshit insane she is now^note.
Jinx: [Dry laugh at Vi] You're a class act, sister! Sister, thought I missed her... [Death Glare] Bet you wouldn't miss her! [shoves Pow-Pow in Vi's face]
Rule of Symbolism:
- See Eye Color Change: Powder has Innocent Grey Eyes, while Jinx is denoted with Creepy Blue Eyes. When Jinx reunites with Vi, her eyes turn from blue to grey, to showcase that she's back to being Powder with her sister back with her again. When Caitlyn enters the scene, Jinx becomes defensive seeing an Enforcer and her eyes are back to being blue when she thinks she's being tricked by Vi. In the next episode, her eyes are blue until the moment Ekko has her pinned down on the bridge and about to deliver the fatal blow where Jinx's eyes turn grey once again, proving to Ekko that Powder is indeed still in there. After Singed saves her life using Shimmer, Jinx's eyes turn pink, sealing her into being the destructive and dangerously strong Jinx, with whatever traces of Powder (along with her grey eyes) being gone.
- To tie with the above fight scene with Ekko, some blood from her nose get on the middle of her teeth, mimicking the Childish Tooth Gap she had back when she was Powder. That along with the grey eyes make Ekko have a brief Heroic BSoD until he realizes Jinx activated one of her grenades to blow them up.
Sanity Slippage: After Act I, her screws loosen further and further over the season and pretty much come out altogether after Singed's "operation".
Sanity Strengthening: Come season 2, she ironically seems to have regained a bit of her sanity, at least compared to season 1. While not fully “normal”, she is much more withdrawn at times, saves a child from thugs and later adopts her, and actually seems to have, somewhat, temporarily reigned in her some of her more violent tendencies. It speaks volumes that she was perfectly content to just live in hiding and raise Isha in peace, until Isha got taken to the Piltover prison and Jynx had to rescue her. This carries on for the whole season, with her notably attempting to reconcile with Vi upon figuring out Vander is alive and nearly coming across as the more level headed of the pair by Act 2 due to Vi being in a haze from pit fighting and excessive drinking. This all cumulates in Jynx redeeming herself in the finale.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
- All of her attempts to separate Vi and Caitlyn ironically only push them closer to each other.
- Even though Jinx has changed and is no longer Powder, she really wants herself and Vi to be sisters again, but is afraid that Vi could never love her as she is now, with all her crazy. Then Jinx does crazy things like trying to force Vi to shoot Caitlyn, and blowing up the Piltover council, that convince Vi her beloved sister is gone for good and there is only Jinx who has to be stopped.
Self-Made Orphan: Twice: Powder set off the explosion that made it necessary for Vander to pull a Heroic Sacrifice, and as a teenager Jinx unloads her minigun into Silco during a psychotic break. She even lampshades it in "Finally Got The Name Right":
Jinx: Never thought my own sister would turn bluebelly.
Vi: Never thought mine would orphan kids!
Jinx: [scoffs] Ha! Why not? Did it to myself enough...
Shared Family Quirks: As Season 2 reveals, she wears her hair in a manner that borrows from both her adoptive father Silco and biological mother Felicia. Her Braids of Action are evocative of her mother's Motherly Side Plait, and the bang she lets hang over her face is just like the one Silco used to have back when he was younger.
Shipper on Deck: A big sign of her Character Development is encouraging Vi to romantically pursue Caitlyn, in stark contrast to how deadset against she was of the two being a couple in Season 1.
Shipping Torpedo: Funnily enough, she's the one who's most vocal about there being something more than friendship going on between Vi and Caitlyn, and she loathes it. Jinx explicitly calls Caitlyn "(Vi's) girlfriend" (in a mocking tone) and immediately tries to force Vi to shoot her.
Shrinking Violet: As a child, Powder was meek and timid around anyone who wasn't Vi or Vander.
Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Powder is a lot less talkative and assertive than the rest of Vi's gang. Jinx, however, completely averts this.
Sideboob: Her skimpy teenage outfit has a touch of this going on.
A Sinister Clue: Jinx and Powder both wield a pistol in their left hand, and Jinx holds a pencil in her left hand while studying/adding to Jayce's notes.
Slasher Smile: Often breaks these out during fights, much to Vi's horror.
Smokescreen Crime: On Progress Day, Jinx demolishes a building and murders several Enforcers just to give herself an opening to steal a Hextech gem.
Spanner in the Works: Not for nothing does Mylo deride her as The Jinx; Every time she tags along, she tends to make the situation around her spiral out of control. As a child it's accidental, but as she gets older and crazier she starts doing it on purpose, as she thinks it's just a part of who she is.
- In episode 1, Powder dropping one of the Hex crystals as she's stealing them causes the explosion that alerts the Enforcers to their presence, causing a very public disturbance and drawing a lot of unwanted attention to both her siblings and Zaun as a whole, raising tensions between Zaun and Piltover. Powder also ultimately has to dump everything they got from the heist in the river when Deckard's group ambushes them, rendering the whole thing pointless. The mounting pressure on Vander — due to his status as the Big Good of Zaun and his unwillingness to sacrifice his adopted family to resolve the problem — alerts Silco to the fact that there's an opportunity to usurp his former brother as the leader of Zaun and push forward with his plans. Note that Vi, Mylo, and Claggor found another Hex crystal in the main room of Jayce's study, but they knew better than to mess around with something they didn't understand.
- In episode 2, the explosion she caused also forced Jayce to reveal the truth about his research to the Council, aggravating them with him personally over his experimentation with magic and causing them to demand the thieves be found immediately due to the dangerous nature of what they stole — Jayce was very nearly Driven to Suicide before Victor stops him. Powder later bringing Vi's old stuffed rabbit with her to Vander's bar tips him off that Vi intends to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to resolve the tensions between Zaun and Piltover.
- In episode 3, Vander and Benzo rush to the latter's pawn shop before the Enforcers arrive in an effort to take Vi's place, leaving them unprepared and unable to properly fight back when Silco ambushes them and sics a Shimmer-mutated Deckard on them: he kills the Enforcers and Benzo outright and drags Vander off to parts unknown, kicking off the climactic showdown at the cannery. Vi and her brothers actually manage to reach Vander and secure an escape route, even with Silco's thugs — including Deckard — hot on their heels, before Powder interferes with an improvised Hextech explosive — she saw Vi losing her brief tussle with the mutant and thought she was about to die. The blast outright kills Mylo and Claggor, injures Vi badly enough that Vander has to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to get her out of the burning building, and ignites the Shimmer production underneath the cannery, causing a massive explosion that A) gives Singed his trademark scars, B) destroys Sevika's left arm and C) alerts Marcus to the disturbance, eventually resulting in him subduing Vi before she can launch a doomed attack on Silco and his surviving henchmen and dumping her in Stillwater prison as an Un-person, confirming Powder's assumption that her sister abandoned her and (literally) driving her into Silco's arms.
- In episode 4, facing off with a Firelight that looks like Vi sends Jinx into a berserker fit, wildly shooting her minigun to drive off the attackers. One of her stray shots ends up hitting one of Silco's own men, forcing them to leave him behind below deck on the ship, where he's later found by Caitlyn and sent to Stillwater Hold. Vi, now an adult and still imprisoned, recognizes him from the fight at the cannery and beats him into the dirt, eventually resulting in Caitlyn and Vi meeting and the former securing the latter's release, kicking off an upset in Silco's operations as Vi starts derailing them looking for Powder. Jinx's desire to be seen as useful when Silco takes Sevika's criticism of her to heart after the raid and asks her to avoid further disruptions causes her to launch an unsanctioned attack on Piltover, stealing Jayce's Hextech gems and further increasing tensions between the cities, especially since the sophistication of Jinx's explosives convinces Piltover that she could weaponize Hextech against them.
- In episode 7, Jinx is so confused and furious about Caitlyn accompanying Vi that she sets off a cloud of explosives shaped like firelights on the bridge just as Caitlyn and Ekko are trying to bring the gemstone to Piltover. The blast kills Marcus, who intercepted them (and was about to reluctantly shoot Caitlyn), costing Silco a useful asset, though Silco himself isn't all that worried — he is sure he can easily find another Enforcer to coerce. Jinx then grabs the container Ekko had hidden the gemstone in, but seeing Vi help Caitlyn get to safety, whom she hallucinates taunting her, drives her into trying to shoot them. Ekko manages to retrieve the container before pummeling her, but Jinx sets off one last grenade that almost kills her and injures Ekko, putting him out of action for the rest of the season. Oh, and best of all, she lifted the gemstone from the container before losing it, making Vi and Caitlyn's adventure All for Nothing.
- In episode 8, Silco desperately rushes a barely-alive Jinx to Singed. He is able to save her, but only at the cost of worsening her insanity. What's more, Silco's actions damage his standing with the other chembarons, who view him as soft and hypocritical.
- In episode 9, although Silco assures Jinx with his dying breath that he would never have let Piltover have her, the Council voted for his deal with Jayce and a diplomatic solution to the crisis was found. Jinx killing Silco and subsequently bombing the Council utterly destroys any chance for peace between Piltover and Zaun.
Spikes of Villainy: Downplayed, since it's only her belt that has spikes on it.
Spoiled Brat: Her life isn't exactly rosy, but Silco caters to her every desire, scolds her a grand total of one time, constantly validates her actions, and protects her from any consequences, including taking the blame for her worst actions. While this keeps Jinx happy most of the time, it also makes her more easily agitated and angered when things don't go her way and more willing to hurt Silco's goons, his standing with Piltover, and even Silco himself.
Start of Darkness: Powder gets hers in Episode 3, after her Hextech monkey bomb kills her brothers and leads to Vander's death. When Vi learns it was her doing, she slaps her, calls her a "jinx" and leaves her alone. Silco finds the poor girl sobbing her heart out, but can't bring himself to kill her when she hugs him for comfort and realizes how similar they are. Once he decides to comfort her and take her as his own daughter, the future Loose Cannon is born.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Downplayed with Ekko, as only he is shown to retain a form of these feelings (and only after outstanding circumstances). There are several hints of a Childhood Friend Romance between the two of them when she was Powder, which get further confirmed after Ekko shares a kiss with an alternate version of Powder in "Pretend Like It's the First Time", but unfortunately neither has the chance to act on said feelings after the tragedy that set them apart. First because Jinx willingly sides with Silco at the end of Season 1 Act 1, whom Ekko and the Firelights are in direct war with, which resulted in them coming into direct conflict with each other over the years leading up to to Season 1 Act 2 (and had come to severely resent each other), and later because Jinx (seemingly) sacrifices herself to save Vi from Warwick. In the end, all Ekko can do is look fondly at the sky and think of what could have been between himself and his former friend.
Stealth Pun: Powder is the youngest of Vander's adopted children, which makes her "baby powder".
Stepford Smiler: Of the Slasher Smile variety, but Jinx hides her childhood trauma and insanity with a goofy, childish and excitable personality. It's a thin paper mask that easily crumbles whenever a Berserk Button is activated.
Storyboard Body: The right side of her body from her shoulder to her hip is tattooed with blue clouds/smoke. It symbolizes not only the Hextech explosion that killed her family and led to the birth of her Jinx persona, it's also meant to represent the flare gun Vi gave to her before she left, showcasing Jinx's desire to reunite with her sister.
Strong Family Resemblance: As a teenager, Jinx styles her hair a lot like how her mother Felicia did hers in a short braid to the side (whereas, Jinx has two much longer braids going down her back) and like her surrogate father Silco in his youth, she has one large bang in the front.
Stupid Evil: She commits wanton acts of cruelty and violence just because she feels like it and it's often a detriment to herself and Silco's goals. She murders several Enforcers (which Silco calls her out on) and because of it all, Jayce is only willing to give in to Silco's demands if he hands Jinx over to face justice (which he can't bring himself to do). Kidnapping Caitlyn, Vi and Silco gets her beloved father-figure killed and her blowing up the Piltover Council ruins any chance for peaceful Zaunite independence. She largely seems to regret this and starts moving away from it by season 2.
Suicide by Cop: It's implied that Piltover hunting her down for her brutal actions are a feature and not a bug in whatever destructive schemes she cooks up. When she and Vi have their first real fight in Act 1 of Season 2 and ends up at her sister's mercy, Jinx admits to her that she's glad Vi will be the one to kill her at the end of the line.
Super-Reflexes: Frequently implied, as her perception seems to slow normal time to a crawl (bordering on Bullet Time), and she can nail over a dozen shots dead center on moving arcade targets even as a young girl. As Jinx, she proves capable of evading multiple shots in combat with the Firelights with no effort. This is enhanced further after she gets loaded with Shimmer to save her life.
Symbolic Baptism: In the fifth episode, Jinx tells Silco she is unable to weaponize Hextech because she keeps seeing the deaths of her brothers in the cannery. In order to "help", Silco takes Jinx in the river Vander had attempted to drown him in and tells her that a weak man died that day, and a new one was born. He encourages her to "let Powder die" so fear won't control her anymore, and that she's stronger now and perfect the way she currently is. Jinx then trusts Silco to "baptize" her in order to leave Powder in the past. She is later seen successfully succeeding to weaponize Hextech, all while her hair drips. In the next episode when she reunites with Vi, Jinx lampshades this moment by telling her "Powder fell down a well".
Tagalong Kid: How Claggor and (especially) Mylo perceive her. The last time she tags along (uninvited), she unwillingly makes the situation go completely fubar.
Taking You with Me:
- When Ekko doesn't quite have it in him to finish her off during their battle at the end of Episode 7, she activates one of her grenades as an attempt to kill him with her. It would have killed her if not for Singed injecting her full of enough Shimmer to permanently alter her physiology.
- When she realizes Vi can't save her in the series finale, she forces off Vi's gauntlet and plummets down with Warwick, using her last bomb to destroy the (supposedly) both of them while fondly reminiscing of his days as Vander.
Tantrum Throwing: Played for Drama when Vi refuses to let her go with her and their brothers to rescue Vander. She's so heartbroken and outraged that she throws a fit through her screaming and sobbing, even destroying her own inventions, which ironically shows her the destructive potential of the crystals she stole.
Tattooed Crook: Her right arm, side, and leg are tattooed with blue clouds, and she's one of Silco's most lethal subordinates.
Teens Are Monsters: Jinx is a mass-murdering maniac in her late teens.
Teen Genius: As an adolescent, she builds powerful bombs and deadly artillery from junk-yard scraps. Even as a kid she was tinkering with bombs, even if they were all duds. Add to that her quick understanding of Jayce's Hextech notes and she could've been a peerless genius if she was ever given a real opportunity to apply her talents. Instead, she works for Silco.
Terms of Endangerment: Upon reuniting with Ekko in Episode 7, Jinx sarcastically refers to him as "The Boy Savior", as a mockery to his past nickname "Little Man". It takes a sadder turn since it's hinted Ekko previously tried to save Powder from Silco in the past, but failed doing so and their friendship fell apart afterwards.
- She also loves to call Vi her "sister" with enough venom in her voice to make it clear she views Vi with nothing but contempt. In Season 2 it becomes a sign that Jinx is genuinely trying to mend their relationship when she instead starts calling Vi "sis" in much more genuinely affectionate tones.
That Woman Is Dead: When Jinx finally reunites with Vi and sees her with Caitlyn, she angrily tells Vi to stop calling her Powder, who she states "fell down a well". At the end of Act 3, after accidentally killing Silco, she quietly sits at the seat labeled "Jinx" and tells Vi "Here's to the new us", showing that whatever traces of Powder were left in her are gone.
Then Let Me Be Evil: In "The Monster You Created," Jinx brings Vi to what she calls a "dinner party" and shows her two different seats — one marked "Powder", one "Jinx" — and claims she'll let Vi decide where she should sit. After accidentally killing Silco and hearing him say she's perfect the way she is — as Jinx — she decides that Vi can't love her the way she currently is, and she quietly sinks into the "Jinx" seat. She then gets up, retrieves the gemstone, and uses it to fire a rocket at the Council chamber.
Jinx: I thought...Maybe you could love me like you used to. Even though I'm...Different. But you've changed too. So...Here's to the new us.
Through the Eyes of Madness: To further emphasize her deteriorating mental state, whenever a scene changes to her perspective after Act 2, it always features multiple smash cuts between frames and flashes of past scenes with distorted drawings over characters' faces. And that's before her constantly hearing and/or seeing Mylo and Claggor's corpses out of the corner of her eye.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Vi's tomboy.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Jinx is known for her impulsive, unpredictable, chaotic and rebellious nature, has a preference for action and chaos and is a Gadgeteer Genius. But she was a meek Shrinking Violet back when she was Powder, as an adult wears makeup and nail polish, plus has an artistic streak based on the graffiti in her lair and seems to be The Fashionista (in an unconventional way) based on the fact that she makes and cares about her clothes enough to be insulted when an Enforcer made several jabs at her outfit.
Took a Level in Badass: Powder was The Baby of the Bunch and pretty much useless in a fight, not even able to make her grenades explode. Jinx as a teenager is a Mad Bomber, a crack shot with a pistol, and can fight hand-to-hand well enough to nearly beat Vi's high score against the boxing robot. Takes another level following the radical and traumatic surgery that Singed performs on her to save her life in Episode 8. When Caitlyn is holding her at gunpoint at the climax of the season, she reveals that thanks to the Shimmer infusion she can now move almost faster than the eye can track and knocks Caitlyn out with her minigun.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Powder may have been all kinds of troubled, but she was ultimately a Nice Girl who wanted to help her family. By Act 2, she's become a selfish, unempathetic psychopath who only cares about herself and a handful of people she personally likes, and even they aren't completely safe if they do anything that upsets her.
Took a Level in Kindness: Season 2 proves that beneath her mask of insanity there is still a spark of humanity, and becoming a Cool Big Sis to Isha and getting her first father back in Vander only helped to ignite that fire.
Tragic Keepsake: As of Act II, Jinx is revealed to have three: Claggor's blood-stained goggles from the explosion she caused, along with the stuffed bunny and flare gun that Vi gave to her the last day they saw each other.
Tragic Villain: There are no other ways to describe Jinx in this adaptation. Jinx started off as a young, sweet, innocent girl with engineering potential who is fueled by insecurity and a sense of inadequacy. She discovers Hextech, a source of magic, and causes a massive explosion, accidentally killing her family and breaking her heart as Vi apparently abandons her afterward. She is raised by Silco, a criminal lord who corrupts her into a violent serial killer. The season finale sees Jinx accidentally killing her adoptive father to save her sister, causing her to sink deeper into her destructive role and destroy peace between Zaun and Piltover as she fires a rocket at the Council to continue her father's legacy for an independent Zaun.
Trapped in Villainy: After Isha dies saving their lives, an utterly crushed Jinx realizes through a hallucination of Silco that she's trapped in a "cycle" of killing and destruction with no hope of escaping it to lead a better, happier life, and the only way to get out of it was to "find the will to walk away." This culminates in her attempting suicide after she escapes her cell, though after Ekko manages to talk her out of it, she joins everyone in the battle against the Noxians — and with her supposed Heroic Sacrifice, she finds a different way to "walk away."
Trauma Button: Isha being taken to prison with the other Zaunites at the rally is enough to cause Jinx to spiral, with the moments of both Vi's betrayal and Silco's death flashing in her head alongside all her past hallucinations.
Trigger-Happy: While Jinx uses her minigun to vent during tense moments, she's seen giggling dementedly while shooting it at the Firelights in Episode 6.
Troll: Aside from her capacity for destruction and all-violent instability, another reason for nobody in Silco's gang liking her besides Silco himself is that Jinx delights in teasing and messing with people. Even when she makes an effort to do something genuinely good by repairing Sevika's arm in Season 2, she still builds a speaker into it that blasts "Get Jinxed" for the express purpose of annoying her anyway.
Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: While Powder was introduced as a sweet, innocent child, she wasn't always 100% sane.
- Powder attempts to contribute to Vi and co's efforts with bombs, some of them filled with nails. Her very first on-screen attempt at using one shows her filling it with nails before throwing it, and she waits for it to go off with disturbing excitement and anticipation.
- A more subtle example is shown in Episode 3: after getting caught in her own improvised bomb's explosion, Powder is shown mid-fall in slow motion, not shocked or fearful but awed and wonderstruck at the sheer destructive power of what she made. Made even more pronounced by the Soundtrack Dissonance that plays as this happens.
- There's also that moment of Tantrum Throwing after Vi insists that she stay at home while she and their brothers go to rescue Vander. She's not just screaming and throwing things through her tears here, there's a moment near the beginning where she looks to be beating the side of her head with her fist.
Unambiguous in the Adaptation: Vi and Jinx in the games were hinted to have been very close in the past with a strong indication they are sisters but with no real confirmation. In Arcane, Vi and Jinx are biological sisters.
Underling with an F in PR: Silco is at least attempting to maintain some semblance of order in Zaun, but Jinx throws a wrench in his plans because she just keeps causing mayhem and blowing up whoever she wants. In "Happy Progress Day," he's mad at her for blowing up the Enforcers because it would attract more attention to their operations.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In her attempt to save Vi and Vander from Silco, she creates an explosion that kills Mylo and Claggor, breaks Vi's arm and forces Vander to sacrifice himself to save Vi.
Powder: I... I didn't... I was saving you!
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Powder started out as a Tag-Along Cheerful Child who admired her older sister and just wanted to help her siblings during their heists. Getting her family killed with her bomb while she only wanted to save them and (seemingly) being abandoned by her only living family member left, Vi, shattered her completely and her Start of Darkness was unavoidable after she was spared and taken in by Big Bad Silco, who raised and shaped her into the violent, destructive Jinx we see in Act 2.
Villain Killer: She kills three of Chross' goons who were chasing Isha, and guns down many Noxian soldiers during the final battle of the series finale.
Villainous BSoD: Jinx has one when she mistakes a Firelight for Vi in the fourth episode. She briefly freezes when she remembers all her bad memories with Vi and the Firelight is unable to break free from her grasp.
Villainous Breakdown:
- During her battle with the Firelights in Episode 6, she stiffens in shock when she knocks the mask off one of them and mistakes her for Vi. When she realizes it's not her, Jinx shoots the girl before firing her minigun in a craze, blowing up loads of shimmer and screaming like a madwoman.
- In the final Episode 9, Jinx is driven mad by hallucinations caused by Vi trying to snap "Powder" out of it. It leads to Jinx killing Silco when he attempted to shoot Vi. Upon killing her family a second time, she fires a rocket at the Council in order to continue her father's legacy for an Independent Zaun, while screaming in agony.
Villainous Legacy: As of Episode 9, with Silco dead, Piltover has one hell of a storm coming in the form of Jinx, an unhinged, vengeful girl with deadly arsenal.
Villain Protagonist: The first season is just as much about Jinx's downfall from sweet, loving Powder to Ax-Crazy terrorist Jinx as it is about Vi. What's more, it's mostly Jinx's actions that drive the plot: Her messing with Jayce's hextech crystals in episode 1 causes the explosion that exposes him and sets Enforcers on the Undercity, her bomb in episode 3 kills her family, her stealing a Hextech gemstone in act 2 kicks off the conflict between Piltover and Zaun and her repeated interference keeps it from getting resolved, and in the final episode she kills Silco by accident and fires a Hextech weapon at the Council, turning the cities' cold war hot and likely unleashing weaponized Hextech on the world.
Walking Disaster Area: Her bad luck, insanity, and firm believe in No Kill like Overkill means no area she fights in comes away unscathed, nor do her own allies. What else do you expect from a tiny young woman who's preferred personal weapons are a minigun and a rocket launcher?
"Well Done, Daughter!" Girl:
- A sibling variant in Act I. As a child, Powder is desperate to prove her worth to her older siblings (especially Vi), which causes her to follow them against Vi's wishes to rescue Vander and detonate a bomb that kills all of them, but Vi.
- In Act II, one of Jinx's psychotic rants demonstrates that she's terrified of Silco thinking she's weak or a loose end, likely as a holdover from her past traumas. To make up for the losses in a botched smuggling job, she goes off on her own and manages to steal a perfected Hextech gemstone to impress him. He does actually look pretty touched by it, too.
We Used to Be Friends: Powder and Ekko were close as children, but their friendship broke apart after the deaths of Mylo, Claggor and Vander followed by Vi's disappearance. A deleted scene had a young Ekko trying to save Powder from Silco, but their friendship fell apart when she decided to remain loyal to her father figure, who eventually contributed to her becoming Jinx (who killed a lot of Firelights, adding to Ekko's animosity towards her).
What You Are in the Dark:
- During a psychotic breakdown, Jinx realizes Silco is about to shoot Vi. She immediately grabs her minigun and shoots before he can kill her sister. Jinx might be extremely messed up, but even during her worst moments, she cares a lot about Vi and won't let anyone hurt her. Though she snaps out of it when she realizes what she's done to her adoptive father...
- While hiding from Caitlyn's Enforcer squad as they investigate one of her hideouts in "Watch It All Burn", Jinx realizes that one of them is Vi when she sees her take a moment to mournfully stare at Claggor's goggles. While she's enraged and heartbroken by the fact she's joined the very people who'd made their lives a living hell and levels a gun at her head out of sight, she begins weeping as she realizes she can't do the deed, at least not while Vi is remembering their family.
- In "Finally Got The Name Right", Jinx is horrified when Isha jumps between her and Vi to protect her, even holding her own pistol in her sister's face, screaming a Big "NO!" for good measure. Despite everything she's done, Jinx hasn't lost her compassion; she clearly cares for Isha and doesn't want her getting hurt.
When She Smiles: She gives Ekko a sad, but genuine smile when he has her pinned on the bridge, right before she tries to blow herself up with him.
Wild Card: She's called the "Loose Cannon" for a reason. Jinx is so unpredictable when she unleashes chaos that both her enemies and allies alike are not safe from harm. It's prominent in Episode 9 when Jinx is torn between her love for both Vi and Silco, which leads to a huge psychotic breakdown that ends with her killing Silco in order to save Vi, sealing her identity as Jinx for good. The first season ends with a rogue Jinx firing a missile at the council and starting a war between Zaun and Piltover.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Powder was already traumatized by her parents' death when she was very young, and just a few years later she herself made it happen all over again. Even between point A and point B, she grew up in a very harsh environment and was expected to prove herself during a dangerous heist. After all that she ended up under Silco's wing, whose goal of "vengeance against Piltover" wasn't much different from what Vi originally wanted, only he was fully aware of what it required. As much as Silco can be blamed for exploiting Powder's eagerness to prove herself, Vi is the reason it exists in the first place, so "Jinx" is ultimately the result of deep trauma and the influence of the two most important people in her life. Even as Jinx, her Sanity Slippage is further accelerated by her haunting hallucinations, near-death experience, being operated on by resident Mad Scientist Singed, and killing Silco in a panic. Maybe she really was Born Unlucky.
Wounded Gazelle Gambit: She records an impression of a young girl begging for help to lure a squad of Enforcers into a trap and blow them up. She also hits Ekko with Puppy-Dog Eyes before he can finish her off, buying her enough time to try to blow them both up.
Wrecked Weapon: She goes through this a lot in Season 2. She loses both her primary weapons in "Finally Got The Name Right", with Pow-Pow getting ripped in half by Vi while Fishbones winds up blowing up due to the Hextech glitches, and is implied to lose her pistol as well in the blast of wind that ends the fight. This forces her to make a shock pistol, Zapper, in Act 2 to act as her new primary Hextech weapon, but she loses that too when Isha detonates it as part of her Heroic Sacrifice. Her weapon for the finale, Rhino, is also implied to have gotten dropped down a maintenance shaft when Viktor briefly assimilates everyone.
Wrong Assumption: Jinx's worsening mental problems are all exacerbated by the assumption that everyone will betray and abandon her the way Vi (unintentionally) did during their childhood, making her react extremely vindictively over the smallest of perceived slights against her. Examples include her repeatedly stabbing Silco with his Shimmer injector for lying about Vi being dead, going off the rails when she sees Caitlyn accompanying Vi while searching for her, and most tragically, thinking that Silco was going to hand her over to Piltover for the sake of his goals as he was voicing his sorrows to Vander's statue, completely unaware that he was going to refuse Topside's offer. After she subsequently kidnaps him for the "dinner party," it ultimately ends with her accidentally killing her beloved adopted father and solidifying her downfall into villainy.
Yank the Dog's Chain: Season 2 shows signs of Jinx undergoing a redemption arc for her actions in the first season by introducing Isha, who Jinx takes to like an older sister and begins to reclaim her lost kindness as Powder. Then Act 2 culminates with Isha's Heroic Sacrifice, all while Jinx screams and cries in vain as it happens.
You Can't Go Home Again: Given her all but confirmed survival by the final episode, Jinx is seen leaving the Twin Cities on a blimp just like she promised to as a kid. However, the traumatic experiences from her past, not to mention her infamous career as a criminal mean that even after helping Piltover win the war against the Noxians and preventing Viktor's Assimilation Plot will not be enough to prevent her from being arrested, so she decides to leave Piltover and Zaun in order to start over elsewhere, even if it means leaving Vi and Ekko behind.
Your Costume Needs Work: When she accosts a guard at Stillwater to distract her, saying she is indeed the infamous terrorist Jinx in the flesh, the guard just laughs her off saying the real Jinx wouldn't dress like her, specifically calling out her pants and saying she looks like a "half-eaten circus tent." Jinx, for her part, is genuinely shocked and offended by her words, hilariously enough.
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: After Piltover declares martial law and starts to double down the persecution against the Undercity, Jinx quickly becomes a symbol of defiance against Topside, despite being a Bomb-Throwing Anarchist with countless deaths under her belt. It helps that she Took a Level in Kindness thanks to Isha's influence and toned down her psychotic tendencies.
Youthful Freckles: Not quite as prominent as Vi's, but they're there.

"Always with you, sis."

Arcane: Jinx

9 Following

All spoilers for season one have been left unmarked! You Have Been Warned.

Jinx (Powder)

Voiced by: Ella Purnell, Mia Sinclair Jenness (young)^{Other Languages}

Portrayed by: Kit Meyering, Aubree Bouche, Raquel Cosmic (Arcane: Enter the Undercity)

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Characters / Arcane: Jinx 9 Following

All spoilers for season one have been left unmarked! You Have Been Warned.

Jinx (Powder)

Voiced by: Ella Purnell, Mia Sinclair Jenness (young)Other LanguagesAdeline Chetail, Alice Orsat (young) (French), Sumire Uesaka (Japanese)

Portrayed by: Kit Meyering, Aubree Bouche, Raquel Cosmic (Arcane: Enter the Undercity)

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Arcane: Jinx

9 Following

Voiced by: Ella Purnell, Mia Sinclair Jenness (young)^{Other Languages}