Arcane explains Silco and Jinx’s story that’s been bugging me since season one

Arcane Season 2 explained a Silco and Jinx story that has been bothering me since the first season. A confession: I’m not an expert on League of Legends game. In truth, Arcane the first season was my introduction to the franchise and it completely surprised me. I’ve always had a soft spot for animation, a medium that is often underrated, in my opinion, and this is something very engaging and rich in characters. The characters of Arcane they felt incredibly well developed and their arcs and journeys were completely unpredictable. I loved it.

That said, by the end of Arcane season 1 I was left with a frustrating question – a character arc that didn’t make much sense to me. As compelling as Silco and Jinx were as villains, something about their relationship just didn’t work very well, in my opinion. Now, however, Arcane season two explained this – revealing that there was simply a detail I didn’t know included in the show’s lore.

Why would Silco show so much love for Jinx?

Silco is a villain with a surprising heart

Silco is introduced as Vander’s nemesis, and I can’t help but see shades of the Professor X/Magneto relationship between them. Vander wants peace between Lower Zaun and the Piltover Highlands, but Silco wants peace on his own terms, from a position of power. He has a fierce vendetta against Vander, going so far as to target him and all his loved ones. Watching the final confrontation between Vander and Silco, it’s impossible not to feel heartbroken when you realize that an old friendship has become something so broken.

And then, at the end of Arcane season 1, episode 3, Silco meets Powder. The girl is at her lowest point, believing she is bad luck for everyone she loves, rejected by Vi. The scene is dark and ominous and I didn’t know what to expect; after all, Silco had just tried to kill Vi, and Powder was responsible for causing so much damage and ruining many of his plans. For a moment, I wondered if he was really going to kill her – and then, to my surprise, he hugged her and offered comfort. Under her guidance, Powder became Jinx.

Initially, I assumed it was some twisted form of revenge against Vander.even after (what I believed to be) Vander’s death. It quickly became clear that I was wrong; Silco truly loved Jinx and would jeopardize all his plans for her sake. The darkest villain in Arcane the first season had a heart full of love. Going back to the Professor X/Magneto comparison, there’s nothing like that in the comics; Magneto had children (and even characters he believed to be his children, but reconverted into something else). But Magneto’s relationships have nothing to do with Silco’s love for Jinx.

Arcane Season 2 explains where Silco’s love for Jinx came from

It’s amazing from a character perspective… but what does it mean?

I don’t mind villains with positive character traits; I actually quite like them because they serve as a reminder that we all have multitudes. But Something about the surprising purity of Silco’s love for Jinx didn’t sit well with meeven if it was his undoing, in the kind of tragic twist Arcane stands out in. I couldn’t figure out whether my problem with the arc lay in the story itself or – I suspected – in my own interpretation of the character. For three years I felt vaguely that something was missing.

Turns out I was right. Arcane Season 2 includes a stunning flashback sequence exploring Vander and Silco’s history, and this ties Vi and Jinx’s family to them. Originally there weren’t two “dreamers” when Vander and Silco were friends, there were three – and Vi and Jinx’s mother was the third. Watching the scene, she’s married to someone else, but you get the strong feeling that Vander and Silco care deeply about her.

This is why Vander took Vi and Powder under his wing after their parents were killed. It wasn’t that he randomly stumbled upon two orphans; instead, he was probably trying to rescue their mother and arrived too late to save them. He adopted the girls out of love. Now, I suddenly realized that the same thing was happening with Silco. When Powder jumped into his arms, all those memories of his past must have come back, and the love he had for Powder’s mother made his heart open unexpectedly.

That’s it Arcanethe greatest strength; the characters are much deeper than I imagined, and I feel like I’m still learning a lot about heroes and villains, even after their deaths. Perhaps this will be a relief, after the deaths in Arcane 2nd season. Even when people I care deeply about have been killed, their stories aren’t over yet, because each revelation has the potential to reinterpret their narratives once again.