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”

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Makes sense. Psychology accepts that mental illnesses arise from an concoction of environmental, genetic, and neurological problems. This also explains why Violet was still able to keep her sanity and didn't react her traumas like her sister. Despite Powder had the potential of being Jinx from the start, she wouldn't become her if a healthy environment and family was provided.

I feel more like Jinx may be dissociating in these moments… because she does break down a few moments later.

She fells remorse she is haunted by her dead brothers and fells immense leave of guilt

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.)

The line: "why did you leave me?!" Always got me. I can see an actual child saying that. In the show Powder likes the explosion and is proud of herself before she realizes that she killed everyone. I don't think she knew how to react and grasp the severity of the situation. Her thoughts were focused on Vi in order to justify her actions and as trauma response. (This is just my perception of it tho)

She might have had some dangerous tendencies, but in my opinion the main reason for why she could become such a monster, is because of Vander's parenting strategy - that is: teach leader morality, and teach followers to OBEY ORDERS. Neither Vander or Vi ever told Powder "killing people is wrong", they told her "kill people when Vi orders you to". Powder with her attachment issues took them harder than Vander expected (which doesn't excuse Vander for basically making child soldiers), and after being abandoned latched to the first person that offered kindness to her. Vander operates the life in grey area, thinking that he teaches morality, but he doesn't realize that he is also planting seeds for evil, that just wait for good conditions to sprout.

actually powder does also say “i was only trying to help” like ten times when she sees vander dead but i do agree that there were signs that she was never very stable and what happened to vander claggor and mylo kind of let it out

The lack of reaction at the bridge is going too far since a 5yr old wouldn't be able to fully grasp the situation. Making explosives loaded with nails at 7yrs old on the other hand...

i’d have to softly disagree. i’m autistic, and everything powder does in terms of emotions- all things i did growing up. the way she doesn’t visibly express grief, that’s not because she doesn’t feel it. it’s because she doesn’t know _how_ to express it. emotions for us tend to be one-or-the-other, so her grief- which also hadn’t sunk in yet- just powered her feelings of abandonment, which was what her meltdowns were caused by. also, jinx is obviously schizophrenic, which is common in autistic people who’ve gone through traumatic things like this.

"…, but when Vi asks her, "Why did you do this?", Powder doesn't scream in agony, or say, "I didn't mean to", or say, "It ain't so", or anything like that. She says, "Why'd you leave me?!". Except that's not true though... Powder is staring at the body of Vander. Vi asks "Why did you do this?", and Powder, starts to cry, saying "I di-… I didn't… I was saving you!". She then notices the bloody goggles, and clearly (IMO) realizing what her actions have caused, begins repeatedly screaming "I only wanted to help!" I'd say that's very much *something like* screaming in agony and saying "I didn't mean to" or "it ain't so". It's only after Vi slaps her that she shouts "Why'd you leave me?!"

Wrong, she has a ton of remorse when she sees Vander and the other kid's blood stained goggles on the ground. She starts shaking her head and explaining that she only wanted to help. She definitely sees in that moment that she caused their deaths and is very upset and begins attempting to rationalize her next thoughts just to cope with what has happened.

I think Powder actually has a lot of empathy and is a very sensitive, sweet child. But she's constantly being overlooked, bullied and talked over. She IS extremely preoccupied with her own need-fulfillment but she's an emotionally neglected, traumatized and neurodivergent-coded child. I agree she doesn't display empathy how most people understand it, but she's a sponge for the feelings of others and often tries to mediate and placate her environment and regulates the feelings of the people around her. She did that with Vi and Mylo, and we see her do it with Silco, too. She actually shows a remarkable amount of light triad traits - unfortunately that's in an environment where these are thought of as weak. I think people as empathetic and sensitive as Powder can turn even colder upon witnessing such horrific, unrelenting violence and abuse. Due to being developmentally delayed, she's also easy to manipulate. I think she has social difficulties and trouble processing information; I suspect she's coded with Primarily Inattentive ADHD. But if with "red flags" you meant she's possibly Dark Triad, I think that's not quite right. But I agree she didn't get the opportunity to be her true, sweet, empathetic self, and didn't express empathy in the way humans want to see it. But I think it doesn't do the writing justice to only see that. A starving person isn't greedy or selfish for being desperate for food.

excuse me? Did we watch the same show? You show a clip of Powder seeing Vander's body being visibly in shock and starting to tear up, and you call that "no reaction"? Sure, she was mentally unstable, but that was just one of the many factors which lead to her being Jinx. You can't just take one factor and say "this is THE reason". It's complex and nuanced, and that's a sign of a well-written show.

I agree that the cracks in her psyche may have been from birth, however the points you brought up could easily be explained as a child not knowing how to properly digest grief yet. I think a more compelling conversation would be if there was any chance Powder could’ve turnt out “good” (like in any timeline/au) or is her fall to Jinx an inevitable for the character due to inescapable external forces (I.e the cutthroat streets she grew up on, her ever degrading psyche, being bullied etc.). Is she always destined to become Jinx even without the events of act 1? If she is, then is there any hope in redeeming her? If she isn’t predestined to go batshit, is there good in her?

Come to think of it, do we see her hallucinate Vander as Jinx? ever? she hallucinates Mylo and Clagger, her brothers, innocent kids she killed, but she never hallucinates or makes dolls or a chair for Vander. Maybe because she doesn't feel guilty, maybe because she know Vander didn't really die, he's Warwick now.

I totally agree with this. Powder's trauma is rooted in Vi's abandonment and not in the death of her family. She always saw Vi as her guardian, not Vander and let's be real, Powder doesn't give a crap about Mylo and Claggor. They're just reminders that she messed up enough to make Vi leave her.

honestly the most controversial thing is that you call someone a monster because of their lack of empathy

Yes, I agree. This is indeed controversial.

I think that 'Jinx' was always there and that other people have said it's more akin to Vi "abandoning" her was when Jinx manifested

Thanks to Arcane for bringing you to the community, love your analysis man!

So am I the only one who realized she was sobbing while saying "I only wanted to help"? If that doesn't classify as guilt I guess I'm a psycopath too Besides, my sister who was around 4 at the time of my grandfather's death showed no sadness. Are we all psycopaths?

I assumed she was confused, in shock, and dissociating from the experience as a survival mechanism, as young children do when faced with severe trauma. I don’t think it’s fair to say that THAT in and of itself makes her “inherently crazy,” but rather just further proves she was a victim of the time. People experience and process traumatic events in all different ways.

Powder definitely had problems from the very beginning. Just remember how exited she looked when she threw mouser, which was full of nails, at the other boy in Episode 1. Also, in the Council Archives, if you want to count them too, Jinx writes that she believes that people go somewhere else when they die. So she doesn't understand that people that are dead are really gone.

She is affected by Vander's death, her expression is shock and horror. Her brain is snapping at that moment as her frame of reality is shifting. You can observe the psychological turmoil in the quick shift in her facial expressions (we saw the start of this when she was alone at The Last Drop before she decided to help. She has serious internal abandonment issues, everyone in her life leaves her; hence the purpose for the outburst, "WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?!?!!!!!") as well as the instability in her voice. She was horrified.

This so interesting because I saw the Bridge scene differently. When I think about how my younger sibling would react to a situation, especially that young, I reckon it wouldn’t be hugely different from powders. The concept of death can be a hard one to get your head around, but seeing someone you care about upset is a bit easier to understand. When she tries to comfort Vi it’s kind of like a child’s logic, as in you see someone cry you hug them to make them feel better. I’m not sure powder fully understands why Vi is so upset here because she can’t fully comprehend the gravity of the situation…… Love the take you have though, very interesting!!

I don't understand the "Jinx lacks empathy" ideas come from. The slow-mo fight scenes where her she focuses on each blow the teen hist each other with. The Enemy music video where she watches two kids beat up Mylo and she is unable to help and she has this look of fear and shame. Why go after Vi is she just wants selfish affirming affection? She can get that from Silco. Why hallucinate Mylo and Claggor, make little dolls of them? Jinx puts on an act in front of Sevika and the bartender but she clearly feels a lot of improperly processed guilt.

there's some really good posts about how stuff like not reacting to death "appropriately", the meltdown she has over Vi leaving, generally being enamoured by violence and being so proficient in constructing bombs and stuff is all part of her character throughout the entire show. some make a statement how it's a portrayal of neurodivergency, but just in general i think it points more to how Jinx isn't some persona that was created by anyone in particular but rather just the core of who Powder has always been, we the audience just ignored her worse traits the same way Vi did because Powder was a child and her inventions didn't work. until they did

I have a few thoughts. First off, in the first scene where her parents are dead, she may have been too young to fully process what was happening Second, she does seem to miss her family. She literally built milo out of spare parts. She may have been in shock and didn’t know what to do with herself in the scene where they died

At this point you're starting to overanalize the characters. No one at that age can comprihend the gravity of loosing their parents. But I agree that she's a bit emotionaly distant towards others and I believe that's because she has a inferiority complex not because she's a psycopath. Remember, writers don't have to show or tell us everything there is something called "implying" just because Vander and others didn't interact with powder doesn't mean she doesn't t care for them.

With the sisters I also find it weird how vi or “violet” has an actual name to her but the other seems to always have more of a nickname...

Friendly reminder that not only is low empathy not always what causes violence (it seems that Silco raising Powder is what caused that behavior in her), but kids aren't monsters. Powder showing signs of mental illness at a young age doesn't make her a monster. She's a traumatized kid.

Something people don't often seem to touch on, too - in the very very first scene when Powder's singing and Vi's leading her through the carnage, we see flashes including the scribbled monster face that Jinx later draws and sees during her hallucinations, which could indicate that this is a traumatic event, sure, but could also be an early sign of psychosis. Fledgling hallucinations or delusions, you know?

Small children doesn’t really understand what death is

As someone who's had C-PTSD almost their whole life, all of those examples are just symptoms of PTSD. When you experience a huge trauma from a very young age, you stop reacting to those things. For example, the last two times I almost got homeless again I felt nothing, this is a trauma response called "dissociation" and is one of the main symptoms of Complex PTSD. This video was honestly really harmful to those of us with these symptoms, it's a really scary experience to realise that you aren't reacting to your surroundings and then realising you feel nothing. Personally I related A LOT to Powder because she's such a good representation of Complex PTSD in a child and how difficult it is to grow up with it, and how it can mess you up if not treated.

I subscribe to this. Even when Vander was kidnapped, her biggest concern was wanting to help. Wanting to be needed. The biggest source of her distress wasn't that her father was kidnapped by a dangerous man and could die, rather it was from everyone including Vi making her feel un-needed. When she finds Vi in the end, utmost in her mind was that her bomb worked. That she helped. She doesn't ask where's Vander or how to get to safety because that was never really her biggest concern.

Like. a lot of people have said, I feel like Powder was too young to have realised what was going on when their parents died. After the explosion, I saw her anger as a defence mechanism - what she's done is too big for her to process, so she lashes out and tries to pin some of the guilt on Vi. It's Vi's fault for leaving her - if Vi hadn't have left her, this horrific event wouldn't have happened. At the end of the day, one of the things Arcane does brilliantly is create human characters - I might not agree with everything the characters do or how they react, but I can understand their reactions. They all feel real for the characters concerned.

In the first part of the second scene she kept saying “I only wanted to help” she was showing emotion and that she didn’t actually mean to kill them

I think "monster" is a misreading. She has signs of anxious attachment and Borderline Personality Disorder- which is mostly a personality break from extreme fear of abandonment. She likely can and does experience empathy, but it's so secondary to her abandonment fears that it doesn't surface substantially. Vi is her favorite person is Act 1, Silco in Act 2, and both in Act 3. So her focus is almost singularly, and always, on the person she goes to for a sense of security.

i feel blind for not thinking or seeing this sooner

When you say no sadness, no guilt, her expression says otherwise

No, she begins repeating “I was only trying to help” I see that as a way of saying she didn’t mean to. then yells “why did you leave me” when VI yells at her.

Hmmm interesting.. I’d sooner go with this than all the overblown ‘Blame Vi’ theories

How about the scene where she threw mouser to get away from a pursuer? The expression on her face was gleeful anticipation that this dude was going to get nail bombed in his face.

I always thought Jinx was neglected by vander, he mostly parents Vi and expected her to parent Jinx

So I want to add something here. Her hallucinations are seen in the first scene. You talk about the opening scene and go back and watch it. Throughout the walk we see the scratches and scribbles which are characteristics of her visions. Also the whole scene is started with jinx's singing. Basically while her eyes are closed. The perspective of all this os from powder. If her eyes are closed how does she see all these scenes? The answer she isn't she's hallucinating it. I encourage everyone to go back and watch the bridge scene and notice all the "jinx scritches" that appear. Also jinx alot of times sees "monsters" which is what vi always protected her from. Her visions at the beginning is essentially jinx seeing "monsters" but she's with vi so she is protected. When Vi leaves her she left powder to the "monsters". Vi even says as much to Cait when they are in her room sharing things about their past.

I don’t think that she was always “jinx” I think she was too innocent. She never wanted to really fight and honestly imo I don’t think that she saw the full scale of the situation around her. She was quite playful as a child so I think that being her environment was so rough anyway she just naturally was used to that. whenever that happened and she saw what happened I don’t think she fully understood and was just looking to Vi for answer. And I think that because she was more sensitive than others, she was pushed to the edge a lot easier and I think that she is grieving her friends that she killed that’s why they appeared in her psychotic breaks. They haunt her

Exactly, this was my exact thought, instead of asking for forgiveness and sadness for the death of her loved ones, the first thing she asks is that VI l didn't leave her

The red flag I noticed was in episode 1, when the other gang fights with the kids and Powder tries to run, she attempts to use a bomb on the guy chasing her - it didn't work, but was it supposed to be lethal? Meanwhile Vi and the others beat up their opponents, but choose to avoid escalating it to lethality.

There is also that scene where she creates an explosion with the hextech crystal in her lair and it's so similar to the explosion that killed everyone when she was a child that she got a flashback to that moment, which she then starts crying and saying "it was a mistake" over and over. I think this scene indicates to me she does feel some sort of remorse for what happened. Though I know she was never as close to Vander, Claggor or Mylo and prioritized Vi way more because of her idolization/attachment to Vi. So I don't fully think she had no remorse for what happened, but she definitely cares more for Vi. Your theory was very interesting though and does point out she has odd reactions to some things which probably stems from some sort of mental health issues.

This theory is 100% wrong the moment she saw the glasses she started to cry. She said why did you leave me because if she never left her she would have not tried to use bombs to help. She didn’t cry much when her parents died because she was like 4 years old and doesn’t understand death and when vi started to cry she was worried about her

Gonna say it once: I strongly dislike shorts.

I like this take on the topic. In fact, the development of anti-social/psychopathic traits such as those we see in Jinx (emotional dysregulation, callousness, willingness to manipulate others, etc.) has been well documented to be influenced by both innate (inherited), as well as external factors. Therefore, it is quite likely that the combination of Powder's early psychological state with her traumatic experiences further fueled her full-blown transformation into Jinx. If we took either out of the equation, it probably would have turned out differently.

There's definite signs of other aspects before hand. I always interpreted her reaction to Vander as shock. The music video showing her finger gunning the enforcer was a more alarming scene to me.

When you have a "favorite person" (bpd term btw), doesn't mean you don't care about others at all, Powder feels bad for others and that's why she hallucinates, but when Vi gets mad at her she doesn't feel sad, she feels devastated, like the world is ending. When you're a grown-up and have bpd, sometimes, if you try hard, you can even discern things right, but as kid, this is just too overwhelming. (I'm talking from experience and my thoughts of Jinx/Powder)

0:10 I agree with Selenca Bulan Art, another commenter. This is likely her not knowing how to react in a situation like this because she is so young. She feels sad for Vi and hugs her because she doesn't really know how to react or what to do to help. 0:23 I always interpreted this scene as Powder going through the 5 stages of grief. Like, she refuses to believe it at first, "I was saving you.." Then she's pleading for Vi to understand, "I only wanted to help!" Her screaming, "Why did you lEAve mE?!" could've meant that she was thinking back on the past and what led up to this bad event. She was analyzing the past and trying to figure out where it all went wrong, and in this moment, Powder thinks that if Vi didn't leave her then she wouldn't have thought of the extreme monkey bomb plan and messed things up like this. It's the question that's been eating at her before this scene and it's the only thing she can think of saying in the moment. Just. Why. Why did that have to happen? 0:27 Again, "I only wanted to help!" And I highly disagree that she 'doesn't scream in agony'. 0:48 I partly agree with this? Like, Vander tries to help the best he can but just isn't able to understand her mindset and perspective perfectly. He has more trouble understanding Powder than Vi but he still tries, we just don't see it much. I definitely think this idea is an interesting topic (how age and environment affect empathy for life), but I just don't agree with how you presented this and what evidence you used.

I agree with most of the comments. People respond to trauma in different ways. I think appearing unresponsive on the outside is poor judgement for what's happening to a person on the inside. I've had this response to trauma and the loss of loved ones.

I saw it as normal dissociation and coping with severe trauma… Some people latch onto the little they have left even harder when they lose something… maybe Powder knew their parents would die, she might have been more prepared for it as a realist because we see that when she’s young she doesn’t like violence… she seems deeply triggered and affected by fighting but she goes along with it for Vi. I think in her mind, everyone is going to die and leave her eventually except for Vi… when her parents choose war over her and “leave her” Vi stuck by her side… When Vander dies, she always knew it was a possibility in Zaun.. she was always waiting for it, expecting the worst because that’s what her life has always been. She’s not a sociopath, she just built up a wall to protect herself the only person allowed inside was Vi. She was just a kid who had been through way more trauma and suffering than most and more than anyone deserves. What I’d like to know is how/why they were on that bridge… because that would tell us a lot! Did Vi chase after the parents to try to help? Did Powder insist that the family stick together? There weren’t any other kids or random people on the bridge… just combatants… so why? How?

My issue is that she couldn't have known that huge steel door would be so easily destroyed. She couldn't have known that everyone died to the bomb, because she was thrown back by the blast. And, if Powder didn't care, she wouldn't be haunted by visions of her dead friends all the time.

I love this short snippets you do and this one in particular made me want to say I really appreciate your analysis on what's turned out to be one of my favourite animated series' ever :D Keep it up!

A child powder’s age normally doesn’t react quite as strongly to death immediately, as this sort of mind doesn’t truly understand the meaning of death or the weight of it. All that a normal mind of this age understands is a lost attachment, and that can happen in many ways. She immediately latches onto Vi after this as her number one attachment and caregiving figure, and even though everyone else is her family, Vi is the only one who really ever offers encouragement or affection. Powder needed Vi’s strength. Jinx is very BPD coded, and that normally mean less active empathy except for that one attachment (hence Powder reacting to Vi reacting, and maintaining that pattern throughout her growing life). This theory makes a lot of sense considering Jinx’s trauma and psychosis initially. With BPD, little else matters during an episode but that singular attachment, and being abandoned by that one source of safety (and in Jinx’s mind, being the reason for this abandonment). Jinx is literally so swamped with stress that she’s in psychosis (not uncommon for BPD, usually delusions, but can also be other forms such as hallucinations as we see in Jinx), and in this stress, has little empathy or guilt over people she killed as much as she feels shame over being weak and dependent and incapable (her imagined reasons for abandonment.) We see in her tea party scene that every name Vi mentions was just another source of fear and danger in Jinx’s mind. Vi did not understand that Jinx was afraid of their makeshift family, and never felt like she belonged there. Jinx constantly hallucinates Milo because he was the most verbally judgmental, and that as a consequence made her feel alienated. Her only source of protection and acceptance as a child lied to her (when powder hears Vi agree with Milo and doesn’t stay for the rest of their conversation), devalued her (again, her agreeing with Milo in Powder’s eyes and the deep sense of betrayal and shame), and then abandoned her (Powder’s break down while Vi is away. An attachment is all a kid has really, humans aren’t normally made to survive without them, barring Antisocial Personality Disorder in a lot of cases of it. As a PwBPD myself, I had a lot of meltdowns just like Powder’s as a child, which are just more subdued as an adult). Jinx has not recovered from her past, and her trauma stunted her mental growth, emotional resilience, and ability to self regulate and self soothe tremendously. Emotionally, Jinx is still just a scared little girl. ALSO SHE’S MY BABY MY CHILD THE ULTIMATE COMFORT BLORBO AND I LOVE HER MDJSKDNSJAHSKDNA

I think you're right in that there are early signs of "Jinx" in Powder, but I don't think it was a dangerous sign. She had issues since she was young. We can see the same scribbles in the intro as we do with Jinx Episode 4 and onward. Which seems to indicate that her 'condition' becomes more pronounced with stress. And after she killed her family, that stress just skyrocketed and she became entirely unstable. I think the reason she didn't have those issues earlier, is because she had her family to lean back on, to catch her when she became stressed. To the point where even in a war surrounded by death, she still had Vi to lean on. I agree with the fact that she's always kinda been this way, but I think you're looking at the wrong evidence. She's just young, and hasn't had to face these things before.

A point that I see a lot of meta posts about jinx bring up a key point that I think applies here. It looks as if Powder has never processed the grief from losing her parents. Unprocessed emotions and trauma can cause a lot of damage and show up in weird ways. I think Powder instead of processing her mom and dad's death (again she's five and probably doesn't understand the gravity of the situation) immediately latches onto Vi as her primary attachment and a kind of parental figure. So instead of processing the death's of Vander, mylo, and claggor she does what she has always done, Cling even tighter to Vi. I think when Silco dies and she finally lets go if Vi is the moment when she finally comes to terms with her identity and all the death in her life. Powder was definitely some kind of neuro-divergent as a kid but I severely doubt that she's a psychopath or sociopath. A person who suffers from borderline personality disorder or a very unhealthy anxious attachment style feels more accurate. Schizophrenia is also an option but I don't know enough about it to speculate.

Some children just don’t develop empathy and an understanding of death until about 7-8 too. Idk how old powder is here but it could be a good representation of a child going through something. I was in the room when my grandmother died and I didn’t understand so I just sat there quietly because everyone else was sad. (I was a child)

As most will say she is too young in the opening act to understand, I believe 5 or 6 is when children understand the concept of death. As for reaction to Vander's death, Powder can't process not only Vander's death but her role in it simultaneously at what? 10 years old? Powder sets off a bomb to save her family, she is elated to tell her sister. Powder then sees Vander's body, "You did this? Why would you do this?" The realization hits her and she sees Claggors goggles. What pre-teen could process that concept within seconds?

When I first watched the scene knowing nothing of league and how Powder will become Jinx I just assumed that Powder was to young to really understand death but can understand that her sister is upset which is why she tries comforts to comfort Vi. I still favor this interpretation in my head since I'm not really sure how old Powder is suppose to be in that scene but I'm pretty sure its around 5 to 9. As for seeing Vander's body did she even connect the dots that that is Vander? At this point I don't think Powder has seen what shimmer can do to a person yet and Vander is looking way bigger. I assumed that she didn't realize that was Vander or even that Vander was dead until later so she focuses not on who to her is a random body but Vi her sister who in her eyes she just saved.

When I rewatched the scene I interpreted it as powder seeing so much in such a short amount of time and not being able to process the damage she’s done. Especially when she sees claggors goggles she starts freaking out and saying “I only wanted to help” realising that she didn’t just kill Vander, she killed her brothers too.

Ever one of your Arcane videos hit me deap in my core and make my eyes water. There extremely powerful. Thank you.

This to me looks more like freezing. Not connecting to anything, immediately numbing and dissociating.

I mean, honestly, she could be in denial as she saw Vander's body. Or maybe she was in shock. When I saw my dog dead, laying down, I didn't even feel anything for a few minutes because it just wasn't kicking in. I called my mom and they took her to the veterinarian and only after a few minutes I finally realised what happened and burst out crying.

I never personally perceived these moments as a lack of empathy from Powder. As someone with cPTSD whose symptoms can be confused with lack of empathy, these kinds of generalisations are a worry. She's a literal child, I don't think she has a fully fleshed out understanding of death and must be very overwhelmed and confused. Not to mention Jinx heavily dissociates in stressful situations as a young woman so it makes sense for these coping mechanisms to be established during early childhood. It's a really common cPTSD symptom for someone to 'shut down' emotionally during moments of stress. It doesn't mean the person doesn't care.

I don't know, the panic attack she had when she first started working with the hextech gemstone and the fact that she's haunted by hallucinations of the friends she killed tells me she does feel bad

Holy crap Vander never spoke to Powder?! I didn't even notice that!

In the opening sequence you see the neon doodles over the faces of the Piltover soldiers, I think this implies it’s forms Powder’s “perspective” and it’s already traumatized her.

Vander also had that talk with Vi about the kids looking up to her. I think that he was trying to tell Vi her influence was actually stronger than his.. but she was just a kid still too.

I almost agree with you. Let me tell you a quick story about myself that kind of relates to this theory in a way. When I was 12, my grandad passed away. He was an amazing man (I’m 19 now and I still miss him). But when he passed away, my parents were heartbroken over it, but it didn’t click fully until a year ago, because I still couldn’t believe it. Sometimes, I’ll be doing whatever, and something will remind me of him and I’ll fight back the tears. Maybe this is what happened with Powder. Maybe a few months after Silco adopted her, she thought of Vander and bawled her eyes out? Who knows. But yeah, interesting theory 👍🏼

Good catch. I really enjoy the insight into her emotional state throughout her story

Well before Powder leaves to help Vi they show her having an outburst where she's hitting her head and crying which are huge ptsd and adhd indications. She has too many problems in her own head to react to dead bodies. I do feel like she feels bad about it because she has puppets of Mylo and Claggor and she talks to them in when she's having her episodes of phycosis. If she didn't care she wouldn't keep them in her heart. I'm not sure if it was a coincidence that Silco and Jinx both visited Vander's at the same time or if Jinx followed him there but my take is that she goes to visit him often.

Honestly I think people just react differently because I watched my grandma die when I was 11 but I had a reaction more similar to Powder did. I felt more upset for my cousins who lived with my grandma than I felt with her actual death, even if their house was basically where I spent most my days. I watched her die with tubes in her cut open throat and honestly I didn’t feel all that sad when I was the closest one to her. I think we all just cope differently and my way is shutting out my emotions but even like a month later and eventually years later I don’t feel that sad. I just never feel too upset when I watch people die. Our brains out wired differently because mine is more like Jinx, I couldn’t care less, I’ll mourn, in some weird way, I couldn’t care less.

I agree with all the other explanations here, but I offer up an additional one: she didn't just look to Vi as a sister. On that night, Vi lost her parents and gained Vander. Powder lost her parents and gained Vi. She doesn't just view Vi as a sister but a parental figure as well, leading to why she still needs to understand why Vi left her over being sad about Vander. A child's need to have their parents love them is incredibly strong.

The way i see it was she was VERY young when her parents died, and didnt have the opportunity to connect with them as much, especially considering the adults/parents make money in a traditional family structure, leaving Vi with Powder (also shown by how they would play games in their bed with the monsters. Also, sharing a bed and a room would lead to a closer bond). This is also shown again as to why Vander is a huge role: because she is constantly with Vi, going on jobs to steal from people. The second part of this is the fact that one, no matter what changed in her life, Vi was always there, and two, like most siblings, the youngest is very attached to the oldersibling and views them as a role model. Edit: also Vi not only having more time TO connect with her parents, after having powder, more money has to be made, which includes more work, which means less time at home, so not only the fact that powder, would never ve able to have as much time with her parents because she is younger, which is a fact, but it could also be assumed that she saw less of her parents then vi did when she was powders age.

In the bridge scene, we see Jinx's scribbles over the enforcers who have just killed her parents. If the scribbles are the show's way of visually depicting Jinx's insanity, then their presence in the opening scene suggest that it was the death of her parents that laid the groundwork for Powder to become Jinx.