My CONTROVERSIAL Powder Theory (Early Signs of JINX) | 1min Analysis #Arcane #shorts

#LeagueOfLegends #Netflix

Early signs of Jinx in Powder? Hard to be sure. There are a few scenes where Powder’s capacity for empathy seem limited, her reaction to suffering feels muted and cold, and her reactions feel self-absorbed to the point of concern. It’s nothing conclusive, but I think the Arcane writer’s did this on purpose to make us wonder on subsequent watch-throughs if we really are seeing red flags when Powder is this young. This may also be a reason for Vander’s distant relationship with Powder as a father -- more on that Sunday!

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[selenabulanart]

The way she looks to VI when their parents die can also be interpreted as her being small child that doesn’t know the meaning of death and therefore looks at VI to learn “how to react to a situation like this”

[eldritchemissary]

As someone who experienced the loss of a parent at a very similar age to powder I can say that I also didn't really react, I never cried or anything about it and I would like to think I am not a monster. To me it would be a better explanation that she grew emotionally stunted and detached because of all her trauma, her mind choosing to not feel the emotions rather than suffering through them as much as it could, only growing attached to the one constant in her life so when even that failed in her eyes she just completely lost it

[snowm]

this is a fair point with Powder seeing Vander dead and all but I think her saying that "she only wanted to help" can be interpreted as her being shocked and in denial at what just happend, then when Vi punched her the focus goes back to her abandonment issues

[Sandlchi]

I caught this as well and thought of it more as a way of showing how children can react to being brought up in war and poverty. vi was older than powder at the time of the war, so she has a harder time adjusting to it, while powder was young enough for it to permanently shape her perception to where violence and death are trivial

[robertzarfas]

What I thought when powder said, “Why did you leave me?” Was that she was so overwhelmed by the guilt that she had to redirect the blame. It wasn’t HER fault it was VI’s for leaving.

Also some kids who grow up in toxic, abusive, or just stressful situations develop disassociation as an emotional coping mechanism.

[basswachter]

Two things.
1. In the opening act on the bridge, Powder is around 5 years old and might not fully understand or realise what is going on.
2. Powder only really opens up to Vi because Vi is not only her sister but also the only one who stands up for her. Claggor doesn't pay much attention to her, Mylo is constantly putting her down and Vander is too busy teaching Vi to look out for the others.

[ceblla]

I think Powders reaction to when Vi leaves her behind to save Vander was very intentionally portrayed as a mental breakdown and not some childish tantrum, you can really feel her desperation and realize how deep her need for validation cuts. She definitely was very mentally unstable as a child and the sad thing is she never got a chance to heal, as her caretakers didn't have the tools to help her no matter how much they loved her. Vander left Vi to take care of her but Vi was just another child, and later Silco projects his own issues onto her which is obviously terrible. I don't think she lacks empathy though, at the bridge she probably didn't fully understand what was going on and with Vander she's in denial (who wouldn't be). Her desensitisation is probably another coping mechanism validated by the people around her and the violent environment, and which fucks her up even further in the long run. Sad shit

[justacat]

I think in the first scene Powder is too young to understand death so she is not as affected by it but she sees Vi cry and she hugs her because she doesn't want to see her sister in distress. Powder is often clinging to Vi because Vi is the only one that reassures her and encourages her. Others are either too busy to look after her, like Vander, or blame her for the group's shortcomings, like Mylo.
It should also be noted that Powder has anxious attachment, which means that she has low self-esteem and she is clinging to people because she needs validation, she needs someone to reassure her that she is valuable, that she is important. Vi is the only one who does that so it's understandable why Powder feels hurt when Vi leaves her.
This kind of attachment also develops in childhood because parents are often unavailable or inconsistent. We don't see Powder and Vander interact much because Vander is too busy teaching Vi how to be responsible and take care of the other kids so one might assume that Vander was mostly unavailable during her childhood.
And this is also why she is later clinging onto Silco, because he gives her the reassurance she is desperately craving.
I don't necessarily think she is selfish and lacking empathy but her need to feel useful to others overrides any other feelings.

[The_Story_Of_Us]

I already see people pointing this out in the comments, but I'll reiterate (and warn that any exclamations are for emphasis, not outbursts against anyone)
At Powder's age at the start of the series, she's literally too young for her brain to have developed in a way that it understands what the concept of death even means. This is actual science, children that young don't understand the permanence of death, they can't wrap their brains around it. (also I should mention the fact that she does go to comfort her sister means she does have empathy, she sees her sister is sad and hugs her).

And as for Vander... It feels a bit strange to me that you cut out the part where after actually seeing Vander's corpse and Mylo's bloody goggles, being told by Vi that it's her fault, she literally has a mental breakdown and starts uncontrollably sobbing... In the state she's in, you cannot ask ANY HUMAN BEING to display any sort of empathy, we just don't work that way.

I should also point out just that... She's like ELEVEN YEARS OLD. Let's not mention that anyone in her circumstance even an adult with a fully formed brain would be unable to process this. She's like SEVERAL stages of psychological development away from even THAT. At her age we don't even fully understand that our actions have consequences! So to go from "My invention finally helped people I care about!" to being told that "you killed them all, it's your fault", if our human brains are faced with something like that, we don't go "Oh shoot, my bad, I'm sorry", it is too much for us to accept on ANY LEVEL, the brain is INCAPABLE of processing something like that in the moment, it goes on autopilot and deflects, it pacifies in any way it can. Her attempt at pacification becomes seeking comfort from Vi, begging and pleading that she didn't mean to, that she just wanted to help, "please don't stop loving me" as the subtext goes, or as explicitly stated "I need you!"
It's the same reason Vi lashes out at Powder like that, of course this isn't Powder's fault, it's Silco's, but Vi is so overwhelmed by this that her brain needs to seek pacification and in her case, as is in line with her character, it becomes taking out her anger on something. Powder was good enough. That is until Vi is snapped out of it by the realization that "Oh my fucking god, what did I just do?" and her pacifying behaviour becomes to walk away from any triggers. Which is consistent with both of their attachment styles. Vi, the avoidant, leaves. Powder, the anxious, seeks comfort and breaks down when she can't get it.

The sociopathic tendencies we see later on from Jinx are fostered by Silco, but in terms of earlier on, they aren't the result of any psychological defect she was born with, it's a set of preconditions in her environment and upbringing that limits her emotional development through NO FAULT of her own. She wasn't born to be Jinx, she was raised to be Jinx.

[LJLvids]

I have trouble interpreting any small child as 'evil' or even socipathic or what have you. I see this as what's probably some kind of shutting down of feellings as some kind of trauma response

[craig]

This is another great example of the high-level psychology in the writing of the show. Children at that age aren't capable of feeling and engaging with the emotions you're talking about here. In fact, that's part of the reason why Jinx is the way she is: her trauma has hindered her emotional development. At the age Powder was when her parents died, children are still completely self-centered. They literally cannot think about the world being something that exists outside themselves and without them. Everything that happens in their world relates directly to them. This is part of the reason why children whose parents get divorced between the ages of 5-7 blame themselves; in the mind of that child, the terrible thing that happened is directly tied to them. They aren't able to articulate these feelings. They don't have the emotional tools that older people have. They have to do the best they can with what they've got. In Powder's case, it is almost certainly the root cause of her anxious-attachment issues, among other things. But I wouldn't say that her behavior in early childhood is a sign of some kind of sociopathy or general lack of empathy. You raised a great point though, and this question was something I had on my mind as well when I went back and re-watched how Powder acted as a child. Great video as always

[omerkeidar]

She was really young when her parents died, likely didn't know the meaning and so she looked at Vi to understand. Later when Vander and the step brothers died she seemed truly distraught. And immediately started to justify to herself that she was helping and it was actually Vi's fault for leaving her. That's deeply human, we all tend to protect our ideas of ourselves, and with children and some adults it is often despite real events.

[Pete...NoNotThatOne]

I’ve copied this from an earlier post I made concerning this very topic, but I think it explains a lot.

Powder is an anxious-ambivalent attachment personality, she’s spent her whole life relying on somebody else’s validation (Vi as a surrogate mother-figure and cool big sister). You can see the way Powder looks to Vi to determine how to act in a situation; when she sees her dead parents (keeping in mind she probably doesn’t have a concept of death at that age), she’s looking to Vi to see how to react; when Vi comes back from Benzo’s that Powder literally launches herself at Vi, even though she’s only been gone a few hours. The others in her life are just background characters, Vi is her emotional and moral centre.
In Powder’s psyche, nothing hurts more than being left behind, thus the exaggerated reaction of being told to stay home; also, after years of confidence-building by Vi, all of a sudden Powder is told that she’s _not_ ready, definitely something which is a shock to her psyche. And when Vi snaps, Powder isn’t screaming “Why did you hit me?!” She’s very specifically begging Vi to “Please don’t leave me!!” because being alone is the scariest thing on earth to Powder. Without the validation and feedback of her attachment, I.e., the perceived rejection by her sister, she literally goes into shutdown.
Point is, when Silco turns up, Powder doesn’t know who he is, or his role in any of this. All she knows is she’s been ‘abandoned’ - even though we as the audience know Vi was coming back - and this other figure turns up, so she launches herself at him instead, looking for comfort and validation. Silco was just the closest target, so to say. And in anxious-ambivalent, as they tend to base their own reactions on their immediate surface feelings, people tend to be very black-and-white. _Vi abandoned me! I don’t have a sister anymore!_
Now, as Jinx, she’s attached to Silco, and looks to him for guidance and morality. She literally couldn’t care less about shimmer or The Revolution, she only wants the approval of Silco. Murder is fine as long as Silco approves. And everybody else, like Sevika, is a background character or a nuisance, stealing the approval of her attachment figure.
Anxious Ambivalent is a real attachment type, one of three main types, though IRL people tend to be much more nuanced and complex.
Sorry for the psych lesson, but this is another aspect of this show I can’t stop thinking about - the fact that they imbued their characters with definite psychological traits and learned reactions based on their experiences, and their decisions follow on from those traits.

[MrKilljay]

Yes! I was literally just thinking about this minutes before you made this video! Jinx's mental issues did not necessarily come about because of episode 3. I believe that they were always there as small seeds. Keep in mind that after Vi "abandoned" her, the FIRST thing she did was immediately attach herself to the FIRST person are saw. Silco. I'm not a therapist, but that is not regular behavior for a child. (I believe this is because she only sees value in herself if others see value in her. But that's for another day.) It's easy to say that Jinx was a result of Power's environment. A little girl who was pushed to the edges of her sanity by circumstance, but as I've been thinking more about it, I've realized that even as Powder she was never completely sane/mentally regular. I love this show! It feels like the more layers you peel back, the better it gets. Truly a masterpiece. Excellent analysis as always.

[dodger-sinnravensilver]

I also thought about it that way, it's like her obsession is with Vi and the rest of the world is like something distant from her

[LF-mgnx]

I think the reason she doesn't cry seeing her parents' bodies is cause she doesn't understand death yet but she understands sadness and sees her sister sad and comforts her (which I would argue is a sign of empathy). Reminds me of when my grandmother died and my 6year old sister comforted me (8-9 at the time) cause she didn't fully grasp what had happened yet but understood that I needed comforting. I don't think Powder is meant to be over 6 in the opening scene.

As for her reaction to Vander's body, falling down screaming and crying isn't everyone's response to overwhelming pain and sadness, some of us shut down. When Powder starts saying 'I only wanted to help" over and over again I think that's her fully coming to terms with the full consequences of her actions.

Ultimately I don't think Powder/Jinx has a lack of empathy, Milo and Clagor 'haunting' her are literal manifestations of the guilt she feels.

[supermonstars]

We don't generally diagnose children because it's difficult and uncertain, but with Powder/Jinx we see enough of her in various stages of her life to make an educated guess.

PTSD is obvious and not really relevant to the topic, but an argument for shizophrenia and BPD can be made without even having to try hard. The hallucinations could just be an artistic representation of her guilt and trauma, but in my opinion it's clear it's more than that. The scratches are there since the start and schizophrenia isn't completely crippling in real life, many can be fully functional with it. It's only when it's made worse by trauma that it becomes a big problem. And one of the symptoms of schizophrenia IS low empathy.

BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) is my flagship diagnosis. Powder/Jinx is completely fixated on one "favorite person". In her world everything is fine as long as things are going well with that one person. It was Vi from the start, but when she thought Vi died after abandoning her, she attached herself to Silco instead. All of her problems stem from being torn between the two, because she has a pathological dependence on both. It's a sad state of affairs, and surprisingly well done if intentional. Portrayed in all of its destructiveness and toxicity while still keeping her 100% human. As someone who's worked with BPD individuals before during my time at the youth health center, Powder/Jinx's story played out disturbingly similar to many I've known, fantasy elements notwithstanding.

[MariOfTheMountains]

Two words - attachment issues.
Jinx shows clear signs of disorganized attachment, but more than that, Vi has become or perhaps has always been her primary attachment figure. The problem is that she is developmentally stunted in terms of attachment, likely because of severe traumas. She's still in the "young child" stage of caring solely about the status of her relationship with who she sees as her primary caregiver, and since this need was chronically unmet or met poorly (you can't expect a kid to take care of another kid in a mature manner, after all), she's never moved on from that, even as Jinx.
(Source: personal experience, psych degree, working in mental health for past year or so.)

[Ireallylikepotatoesandbg]

I think in the bridge scene she is really confused because she's five, I don.t think it's her lacking empathy. Plus when she sees Vanders body she is almost immediately in shock, she's scared and overwhelmed like a normal 11 year old would be. She feels intense guilt when she realises it's because of her, she tries to justify it and understand it by saying "I was only trying to help, ". Neither Powder nor Jinx, in my opinion, totally lack empathy or understanding. Jinx feels empathy when she hurts someone she cares about, but she's also incredible desensitised to death so when she doesn't know the person it doesn't matter. Powder is definitely empathetic towards others but she's very young and has experience extreme trauma from an extremely young age. Age matters and it all contributed to who she became; Her parents death, the death of Vander and Co, Vi abandoning her, Silco's death, etc.

[KikiOttosen]

I assumed she is already traumatised in the opening scene, since we see Poder/Jinx's scribbles pop up before she see her parents.