ARCANE's Vi and Jinx: Grief, Guilt, and Psychosis

How do you handle the people love you changing? How do you deal with loss of loved ones?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright take a look at the relationship between sisters Vi and Powder/Jinx in Arcane League of Legends to talk about loss, trauma, grief, guilt, psychosis, anger, and a whole lots more. There's a LOT to unpack with these characters and this relationship! They talk about Powder's journey to becoming Jinx, Vi's journey of trying to protect her sister and facing the reality of who her sister has become, the incredible Art Deco/art nouveau world and the stunning animation style of this series.

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Cinema Therapy is:
Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, and Alan Seawright
Edited by: Sophie Téllez
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis

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[CinemaTherapyShow]

Alan here clarifying something: This episode does not mean we are suddenly *_TELEVISION THERAPY_* or *_VIDEO GAME THERAPY_*. We can't take that amount of time regularly to review entire multi-season shows to prep for this. Sorry. 
We will _occasionally_ be able to do limited series like this (Ted Lasso, we're looking at you, buddy!) We're glad that you're all so passionate about Steven Universe, but there's no way we can spend the time to watch 160 episodes of a show.
But the channel is still Cinema Therapy. Movies are our passion. 
Love you all!

[tessat]

When my mom was a psychiatric nurse, she had a patient in the middle of a psychotic episode, and she was trying to get him to focus on her to bring him back into touch with reality. In the middle of this, (with security guards right behind him) the patient lunged, not AT my mom, but PAST her, because she was a nice lady and he wanted to protect her from "Them." She always remembered this as evidence of this person's essential decency, that, even in the middle of a delusion and a severe psychological crisis, he was still trying to look out for others.

[Witheringdawn]

I interpreted it as Vi walking away because she needed some space. She had just hit her sister, which she thought she would never do, and she needed to be away from her before she did more damage. When she saw Powder was in danger, she tried to go back. It was never her abandoning Powder

[coloraddiction]

It's sad how Silco did genuinely become very attached to her, but because he did so through the lense of his own trauma he pretty much dumped his insecurities on her in a way that made her psychosis so much worse.

[occultnightingale]

Lying is such a trigger for Powder/Jinx because Vi had, previously, attempted to comfort her by pushing back against when Mylo would call her dead weight, inexperienced, or bad luck. However, in her darkest hour, the moment she needed help the most, Vi punched her in the face and spat out "because you're a *jinx!"* When Vi said that, Powder heard "everything I've ever told you was a lie, and this is the underlying truth I've been hiding all this time." That was the moment that Jinx was born.

[TheLangenator]

I think my favorite description of that last moment is:
"Powder killed Silco to save her sister,
Jinx killed Powder to avenge her father"

[narial]

Vi has the "first born child" trauma on top of everything else. She feels responsible for everything, no matter how out of her control it was

[Maxisamo]

The scene where Silco sits by Vander's statue and basically goes "Dude... I finally understand you..." is amazing character work

[chaoticcasper]

As somebody who's been best friends with somebody who genuinely struggles with psychosis & schitzophrenia... Lying is a gigantic trigger. Why? Because they already struggle with knowing what is and is not real. The idea of a person lying only adds to that.

Jinx is one of my biggest kins and the main reason is because my sister left me, quite recently actually. She hasn't talked to me in two years. The lines "are we... still sisters?" and "I thought, maybe you could love me like you used to... Even though I'm... different." cut me fucking DEEP.

[Mediados]

Vi's greatest problem towards Jinx is that she doesn't understand her issues. The thought of Vander, Milo, Powder and Claggor is what gives Vi the strength to keep going. For Jinx the thought of them has been endless torment for years. Vi can't imagine that their family is exactly the thing that is Jinx' worst thought.

[Triple-A-Artist]

I love vi because she subverts the stereotypes of “strong woman no emotion strong” Vi is strong but she holds so much emotion she cry’s she cares for people. Ekko is the one who holds the “hardened ” trait. I love how this show is so strong and confident in how it does women and just people in genre

[SilverDragonMoon]

For a show as complex as Arcane that blurs the line between good and evil so much, I would have been disappointed if a character was completely, one-sidedly bad. Marcus being the corrupt cop and the single parent who is a decent dad expresses this perfectly. It’s not meant to make us like him, it’s meant to show us the complexity of these kinds of situations.

In real life, evil doesn’t look like someone sitting around scheming and cackling maniacally all day, and nuanced writing needs to take that into account.

Also when you write a character and have them be anything more than a minor character, you should give them that depth. It gives your world that feeling of being somewhere that’s lived-in instead of just being a vehicle for the plot. That there’s more people with their own lives living there other than the main cast.

[FlubbedPig]

Worth noting, at one point Milo says "He's our dad too" about Vander, so Powder didn't just get her friends killed, it was her entire adoptive family.

[Laecy]

I think Jinx’s trigger around lying is due to her psychosis.

When you know you can’t trust your own perceptions, there’s a degree of trust you have to place in the people around you to navigate reality. It’s a trust that goes beyond normal relationships.

I have a somewhat milder version with being on the spectrum. If there’s someone I trust to help me socially, being lied to or manipulated by that person is especially devastating.

I imagine there’s something similar with deaf folks and their interpreters or blind people with their guides.

Jinx can’t tell the difference between truth and delusion, and being lied to by her father figure would be terrifying.

[aperson]

The bit where you guys were talking about Jinx's "chaotic apathy" being an act that's born from pain over how much she cares...YES. There's a scene you didn't cover here where she's talking to Sevika and has her tied to a chair, and Sevika really gets under her skin by telling her Vi has replaced her with Caitlyn. Jinx seems like she's on the edge of a breakdown but then suddenly she does this overexaggerated sneeze and starts laughing. I fully believe the first part is real and what she shifts to is an act to cover up and avoid how much she's hurting.

[SilverGallowglass]

One part of that last scene that always hurts is when Jinx says "Even though I'm...different" because I can tell that that moment before she says "different", that she is also saying "broken", "crazy", "wrong". All these other words are just pressing on the back of tongue and she finally settled on "different". Because you can feel you're a lot of things but to say them out loud, especially to a loved one, makes them real and more painful. "Different" she can say, "different" is what she can face right now.

[cuileth]

I have to disagree with Alan here, I loved that even the side characters got at least one little moment for them. I love that the corrupt cop was humanized. For me, that is a big part of why this show is so great. It puts everything into complicated perspective and reminds you that nothing is as simple as it "often seems"/ many shows make it seem.

[slsthewriter]

I think the biggest thing with Vi, for me at least, is she *never* actually did abandon Powder. Powder was still in her line of sight the whole time, hence why she was able to get right back up and (try to) run and protect her.

The key with her is Vander raised her. Vander who used to just talk with his fists, and arguably had a lot of anger issues. He probably taught Vi, given how similar they are to each other, to step away and cool off before coming back to recoperate. When Vi ran off, I don't think she it was ever to abandon, it was just to clear her head and give her the space, especially with how horrified of herself she was about laying a hand on her sister. And as I said, she really didn't go that far. Still within Powder's line of sight, Silco just literally came between them. So Powder didn't see that Vi was, in fact, still there.

[charliecheadle]

Alan: “There’s a Villian Therapy on Silco coming sometime soon!”

Me two years later: “….😀…”

[brittvaughn]

The silence before Jinx chooses her chair is very telling. It's not the voices telling her what to choose- it's her. It's heartbreaking that if Vi had understood that she needed to accept Jinx rather than reminding Powder of her greatest trauma, she might have been able to reach her. Georgia Dow has great breakdowns of their psychology on here!