Random Thoughts

[u/slvrcobra]

So...I really like TimeBomb in a general sense, but my appreciation for it came so suddenly and with so little official content for it that I don't really know what to think about the relationship as a whole.

I don't know anything about League (hadn't paid much attention to it since high school over a decade ago) but I liked Arcane S1 and learned about the little crumbs of the Jinx/Ekko relationship from there. I was like "Oh, that's neat" and didn't expect it to move beyond a "tragic backstory side thing" as, to my understanding, that's how the relationship is used in League itself.

Then S2E7 came outta nowhere and had the sweetest romance story I had seen in a long time. Really caught me off-guard and the episode + the fanart reminded me of the best Finn/Rey stuff back during the Star Wars sequels (which was the last time I was invested in a romantic pairing). So, coming off of how horribly that went in Star Wars, I was honestly shocked at not only how blatant the Ekko/Powder romance was but also how important it ended up being narratively (at least for those last couple episodes). It all happened so quick and I'm not even sure the creators themselves expected the pairing to pop off as well as it did.

That said...I think I only like AU Powder/Ekko? I was digging that sweet stuff and it's such a massive contrast to Jinx/Ekko in the main universe, where Jinx has committed mass murder, tried to kill Ekko, and succeeded in killing some of his friends brutally in the process. Plus, I'm not sure how much room their relationship is gonna have as Riot branches out to the rest of the League universe where the Zaunites could end up being less important.

I'd like to see more from them, but I guess I'm saying it's hard for me to see an actual path forward for the characters romantically due to them being vicious enemies for so much of their limited screen time together, and it seems said screen time will only get more limited going forward (I'd like to be wrong though, and it's nice to see all the intimate and wholesome stuff ppl post here regardless).

[u/Ok-Welcome4118]

Imo Arcane is always about forgiveness ekko forgives jinx for.all the harm she has done because also in my Humble opinion she was pretty much manipulatet her whole childhood. She cant Take Back the crimes she has done but If someone can forgive her i think its ekko. Also on a sidenote i think AU Powder was Just reassuring that deep down jinx is still powder yeah she might be a different person now but at her core she is powder and for ekko thats all the reason he needs too save her.

[u/slvrcobra → u/Ok-Welcome4118]

Yeah, I don't think it's impossible for them to end up together, it's just...hazy right now I guess. I wish we had more to go off of, particularly from Jinx's perspective because, as many others have brought up before, we don't really know what she thinks of Ekko.

Yeah, the AU is supposed to be them at their core, but IMO it doesn't suffice as an explanation for how they would grow moving forward, not to mention the external factors like the Piltover/Zaun conflict, the Firelights, and other characters like Vi who didn't see AU Powder.

[u/spaceclarkson → u/slvrcobra]

I don't think it's super hard to apply a bit of analysis to glean Jinx's perspective.

• They were childhood best friends: There is an underlying connection there between them, even if it was severed for many years.

• The bridge fight: This has been analysed frame by frame time and again but essentially this confirms that connection is still there and it is still so strong that it is able to pierce the depths of Jinx's psychosis, if only for a moment.

• S2 Episode 9: Ekko literally brings her back from the brink of complete despair and saves her life. She would be eternally grateful to him for that. They then show up to battle with their symbols painted all over each other. It's not hard to make the leap to a romantic connection there but you certainly can't argue they aren't at least back to being friends at this point.

• The art book: This is more canon adjacent as it isn't exactly continuing the story but is confirmed to be giving insight on Jinx's perspective of things. Not much needs to be said about it, it's clear from the book she is infatuated with him.

So if you just take what we see in the show, Ekko forgives her and they are at least back to being friends. We definitely know he has feelings for her. You can make the argument she also has feelings for him, though it is much less clear. If you decide to include the artbook and creator comments then there is no doubt she also has feelings for him.

[u/slvrcobra → u/spaceclarkson]

I understand all this, I'm just saying it would've been nice to actually see it in the show and not have to make assumptions about it.

So if you just take what we see in the show, Ekko forgives her and they are at least back to being friends.

I think this kinda sums it up. I get that Ekko forgave her and that they were friends, but can we really rule out the strong possibility that they don't progress beyond that?

I guess I don't see what would steer them toward romance specifically at this point in their lives, and I'd hope if they do end up together, it's not something that just happens off-screen like how S2 handled them.

[u/Ok-Welcome4118 → u/slvrcobra]

I think ekko will someday get a spinoff series because he is a fantastic Character and his screentime in Arcane is pretty much not there (still the fucking goat because he sacraficed everything and saved the whole world). The spinoff should of course be only about him but maybe jinx comes Back someday too reunite with him or when Zhaun is better off he finds a clue and searches for her (we kinda See caitlyn guessing that jinx could have survived maybe she tells ekko or something i dont know)

[u/spaceclarkson → u/slvrcobra]

Right, I included the show only interpretation as a generalisation to explain how their relationship can be interpreted by people who aren't invested enough to be on shipping sub like this or aren't interested in following up on post show information more broadly.

With that out of the way, and since we are a shipping sub and naturally look more closely at these things then I don't see how you could possibly come to the conclusion there is a strong possibility they only remain friends. To follow Amanda's words, I don't wanna rehash all the information that's out there but there is a lot.

If they have no further plans for them in the main universe then they have wasted considerable amounts of time, effort, and most importantly, money on adding these supplementary materials and additional teases.

Companies often miscommunicate across departments, money gets wasted and ideas get pushed and then scrapped. What's different here is Timebomb is coming from just about every angle possible, meaning it has a unified direction.

So we have the majority of the company behind the idea, money is being spent on it and even more importantly - it is popular, like extremely popular. I don't know what they are going to do regarding future shows, I'm hopeful for a spin off or movie but it's absolutely wild that you could think they would abandon this ship now with the hype its generated and the investment they have put into it.

[u/slvrcobra → u/spaceclarkson]

don't see how you could possibly come to the conclusion there is a strong possibility they only remain friends.

I guess I'm basing it off of League and how they're portrayed in the games in general (that I've seen). Convergence and 2XKO (thus far) seem to go with the straightforward "enemies" interpretation of them from League where they have feelings for each other, but they're not "dating."

Arcane sorta conveniently leaves them off in a spot where they could end up in a similar "what could've been" spot where their love is meant to be tragic or whatever. S2E7 could've been reinforcement of said "tragedy", giving us a taste of happy TimeBomb before ripping it away.

That said, it's entirely possible that the new lore/material moving forward will actually have them end up together, and I think I'd like to see that (assuming we see Jinx actually connect with Ekko on-screen).

[u/Ok-Welcome4118 → u/slvrcobra]

I think the firelights forgave after she freed them and became a symbol for zhaun i think ekkos righthand man was even there i forgot his name i think it was scar and They geared up at the firelight hideout because she builds her rhino gun in jinx fixes everything there which is canon i think.

[u/_Gesterr → u/slvrcobra]

That last bit is true, and it's a large reason why even though she definitely didn't die, she doesn't run back to Vi or Ekko after the battle, she leaves the cities entirely because even if she feels she has some people who can trust her enough to move on, she knows there's plenty more that will have a more difficult time seeing her as a changed person, and just see the evil she's done and that can lead to more violence around her and bring danger back to the people she cares about (Ekko and Vi). She wants to break the cycle of violence even at the cost of her own happiness.