By: Conor Amendola, Music Director
You can email Conor @ Amendocj22@bonaventure.edu
If you’re anything like me recently, your Instagram feed has been filled with content about Arcane’s second season. The show is wonderful but heartbreaking. It is a great series covering the lore of Riot Games’ smash hit League of Legends. It has garnered a huge fan base, bringing in people who have never played a match of League (like me).
I could write about all of the most recent season, especially the most recent episodes. But, to avoid spoilers and reminders of how heartbreaking this show is, I’m not going to. Instead, I’m going to rewind back to season one and talk about my favorite (and the best) scene of not just the show, but in all of animated media: Ekko vs Jinx from Episode 7
A lot of action happens before the sequence really begins. I think this scene really starts with Vi (Jinx’s sister) carrying Caitlyn (her girlfriend) away. Caitlyn is injured, and Vi turns her back on Jinx yet another time as she seemingly has for most of season one. Ekko then steps into the scene, backlit by a bright white light, while we hear Jinx laugh manically. She sounds almost giddy as he appears, but there’s a hint of venom in her voice. We clearly hear it as she says “oh look who it is, the boy savior”. Ekko doesn’t respond. Instead, he breathes out heavily. He smirks and chuckles to himself. Then, he puts on a bold face and starts swinging his stopwatch from his left hand.
I need to explain Ekko’s abilities from League of Legends. This will help explain why the stopwatch is important to this moment. Ekko’s abilities are all time-based. He has two abilities that slow down enemy players and these abilities also give him some buffs. Additionally, he has an ability where he dashes and buffs his next regular attack. His ultimate ability, chronobreak, allows Ekko to set a marker where he’s standing. He then teleports back to it a few seconds later. This action deals damage to enemies nearby. In the show, Ekko doesn’t have his time based abilities yet. Even without them, time is an important part of his character and the scene, as we see later on.
As Ekko swings the stopwatch back and forth, the music for the scene, Dynasties and Dystopia, kicks in. The stopwatch swings in time with the beat, which is an incredible detail to add to the scene. The song itself is amazing and the vocals are performed by Denzel Curry, an artist who is just excellent if you have never listened to him. In-between the swings of the stopwatch, we see Jinx’s body language change. She goes from vitriolic as she was before to being a little more lighthearted. After a few more swings, we see her transform. She goes from being “Jinx” to being “Powder”, a kid, Jinx’s real name and also her before she became “Jinx”. With this transformation, there is a total change in her wardrobe. The same thing happens to Ekko as we see his design revert to what he looked like as a kid. This is made clear right after Ekko clicks his stopwatch, and the fight part of the sequence begins.
The animation switches and we get a sequence animated with incredibly vibrant colors that pop right off the screen. Curry’s lyrics also begin as this sequence begins, punctuating a real shift. The scene switches between both versions of Jinx and Ekko as he runs at Jinx, either with a fake sword or his actual club, while Jinx shoots at him with a real or fake gun. Ekko dodges Jinx’s shots with flair, including an amazing sideways flip over two bullets. However, his child self gets hit, a large pink dot coloring the white sheet on his chest. Ekko throws the stopwatch down in frustration, and the scene winds back.
The animation returns to Arcane as normal as we then see adult Ekko and Jinx do the exact same set of moves (backflip and all), but this time Ekko wins. The reason for this is subtle, but it has to do with the stopwatch from earlier: Ekko timed out their game when they were kids. He knew that when they used to play, he had four seconds and that Jinx used the same series of shots every time. As a kid, he couldn’t win because he couldn’t adapt. As an adult, it’s Jinx who’s stuck in the past. Ekko used his stopwatch to goad Jinx into doing the same series of shots she always did, and Jinx fell for it.
Ekko closes the distance and takes Jinx down easily as she isn’t an up close fighter, but he isn’t able to kill her. This is because when he looks at her as she’s stuck on the ground, he doesn’t see Jinx anymore, he just sees Powder. Ekko sees his friend from his youth and he just can’t do it. Jinx, however, pulls the pin on a grenade that rolls out next to her. The grenade goes off, but both characters survive the fight due to Ekko hitting it away at the last second (the sound is faint, but it is there), and the scene ends.
This entire sequence was beautifully animated, underscored with a great song, and features some insane storytelling. It’s also the best scene of the show. This sequence best exemplifies everything Arcane has: great storytelling, compelling and well thought out characters, and impeccable animation. I don’t think any other moment from the show hit me as hard as this scene did. There’s a similar scene I love where Vi and Jayce (another character) fight some baddies. The scene is cool and has good animation with a good soundtrack. But for whatever reason, Ekko vs Jinx was better to me. This sequence showcased what Arcane is as a show. It was simple but incredibly effective.
This is the best scene of the show. Yet, the rest of the show maintains the same quality. Not many shows can achieve this. Arcane is a masterpiece of animation. This scene shows what animation can achieve as a form of creative media. It also demonstrates why Arcane is one of the best animated series available now.
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