Therapist REACTS
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Arcane Alternate Universe Livestream (Mitchell's questions) - Completed & video available
🕑 Added 2025-04-08 15:07:50 +0000 UTCThis is what Mitchell would like us to consider:
Ekko/Jinx: Ekko painted OU Vi to show AU powder how badass her sister is in his world (which he discusses as “a dream he had”… this language is heard previously when Ekko first goes to AU Powder’s lair and she tells him about their innovator’s project “you had one of your crazy dreams”). Then when he had the chance to tell her about jinx (you were different in my dream too), he chose to say nothing about jinx or destruction, and only say that she changed the world. Beautiful on its own. But powerful at episode end when AU powder sees the ekkos split, and graffiti ekko stands in the anomaly. She has already been suspecting something has changed based on the montage expressions, but here, the reality hits her, he’s real. His “dreams” are real, somewhere else. Which means… Vi is alive, and kicking ass somewhere else. Vi is protecting powder, somewhere else. Powder changed the world, somewhere else.
He chose to leave her, his perfect life, his love, everyone he cared for and missed, all the things he wanted in his life. He left, keeping the pain of jinx to himself, and leaving powder with only the pride of having a badass sister, and changing his world.
Her realization further confirmed by her putting the gift necklace in Vi’s shrine. Doing this, she acknowledges it is a part of someone she’ll never see again.
Concepts: Relationships heal relationships. But if the relationship that does the healing is with the same person that did the damage, does it stand to become more precarious or volatile, or do the foundational realizations necessary to even initiate a true “second chance” actually enhance stability? Can people change enough to have a truly different relationship with the same person?
Altered or new relationship with a different version of the same person. Is this playing on the idea that sometimes people only want to know the side of a person that they enjoy? And have cognitive dissonance when being confronted by the changing nature of relationships/people?
Putting the aspect of self “in the chair”. Is AU powder really just Ekko speaking to himself about his feelings toward jinx and their history?
Grief for things yet to pass but assured none-the-less, “living grief”.
Is working to leave this world reflective of suicide (being surrounded by support structures and loved ones but feeling disconnected), maybe not complete suicide, but excising a part of the self (allusion to “letting powder die” in the river baptism).
Ekko’s choice to keep jinx’s existence to himself and give AU powder pride in her alternate self. Is this a breakthrough in introspection and self assessment? A Dickensonian “ghost of powder’s present” that alludes to when ekko told Vi in season 1 “powder is gone, there’s only jinx now”, and vi responded “she’s still in there.”
AU powder’s choice to place the necklace in the shrine. Her capacity to understand the situation. Is this reflective of our world’s belief in an afterlife? (Eg. my sister died young, and it is sad for me here on earth, but if I believe in heaven, then she is somewhere else flourishing).
“I used to think the undercity could be like this, but somewhere along the way, I got consumed by all the ways it wasn’t. I gave up on it. Gave up on you.” — is this an allusion to acceptance/commitment? Realizing that though he sees all the bad in his home timeline, the good must still be there, just like powder must still be there? Because for the pain to even exist, the love must still remain in some form too?
Comments
Grace Heavens
God I love all your Arcane videos, just recently joined the Patreon and I'm loving it here. Would love to see you react to some of the songs from RWBY! :)
Nathaniell717
I'd love to talk about everything Mitchell wrote - because I agree with most of his basic premises, and I think some of the questions he asked are really worth asking - but I'll only comment on the last paragraph, because that part of the dialogue, to me, undermines the idea of the possibility of a perfect future (or a perfect relationship) that Ekko leaves behind in episode seven (but I'll try to be on tonight's stream). "I used to think the undercity could be like this, but somewhere along the way, I got consumed by all the ways it wasn't. I gave up on it. Gave up on you." I think the meaning of this message is a little different than simple bad/good. We know Ekko. We've never seen him sit on his ass and do nothing. This means he is not talking about passivity or inactivity, but may be referring to a loss of vision or purpose. "I gave up on it." - it may not be the conventional "I stopped fighting" but more like "I stopped believing". And why I believe it's not quite "for bad things I stopped seeing the good" is the way it fits into the larger context of what Arcane is trying to convey to us. And I personally find the clearest message to be coming to terms with the past. As long as we try to run backwards, to change something, to remake something, we are always doomed to fail. That's why saving Vander was impossible from the first moment ("maybe this is like a do-over"), Vi had to fail to save her sister in prison ("we can rewrite your story") - but Ekko doesn't fit this pattern (or does he?). Maybe we can say he's the only character who had this right from the start - ironically, the guy who can turn back time is the only one who doesn't run backwards. And for that reason, this bit of dialogue can be read as Ekko being effectively threatened by being stuck in the present. He trades the future he could believe in for the present he has. And if I do an arc and go back to the moment Ekko leaves AU Powder - he leaves behind the perfect present in the name of the future because he has understood that it is the ONLY path to success. Creating something new, not staying in one moment. This is a very strictly narrative point of view from me - but what's interesting about it is that from a narrative perspective, there is no perfect future that Ekko is leaving behind. Because a perfect future would be breaking the rules (getting stuck instead of progressing) - and the story would have to punish Ekko to remain internally coherent. But how can this be subverted to how Ekko sees Powder/Jinx, because that's what he's effectively doing in this piece of dialogue? I think the answer may lie in comparison. What Vi does is practically "if we dig deep enough, we'll always find Powder in the form of the little girl I left behind" (and then gets lost in trying to separate the two completely); what Silco does is "Jinx is perfect" - he sees her as a transformation, as something that was created and is perfect as a result. They both approach something that can be seen as a speech act, a performative act - the very naming of Powder as Jinx has changed reality. Whether it's "burying" Powder inside of Jinx or her complete erasure. But Ekko is sitting here saying: screw you, J.L. Austin, with your theories about words alternating reality - it's just perspective. Ekko (unknowingly) got caught up in the sight of how Powder is not herself in his eyes, until he forgot he was looking at her. But Powder is Jinx. And ultimately there is no Jinx without Powder (and likewise there is no Powder without Jinx), Ekko got caught up in his very "present" mindset and forgot that everything is always a movement - where she is simply always just herself. I'll admit I love the idea of Ekko just metaphorically talking to himself in this episode - because it fits with my perception of this whole AU as something that was created to give Ekko a chance to rethink his own mindset - and find his authenticity. And considering how Arcane treats perfection - thanks, Ekko, for not staying, Arcane would have kicked you even harder than it already did. Instead, Ekko is the only character I trust to look at our Powder/Jinx and really see her - and to me, that's a much nicer message they could have delivered than the romanticized storyline in a utopian world.
eleana UwU ShadowWolf
Fun fact: Arcane was translated and recorded the song of Heimerdinger in 25 languages that the show is localized. For example: if you're in France and you're loading the episode, you're getting the French voice actor singing the song in French. They chose the voice actors of Heimerdinger who can sing his song in other language when Powder and Ekko were dancing they filmed it in 4 frames per second as symbolism to the 4 seconds when Ekko said “this is the limit”. Thats why the dance scene was “lagging” It was 4 frames per second (as the time limit). It was pure symbolic 3) my thoughts about Jayce-Ekko-Heimerdinger: the reason why Jace was sent to another universe/dimension is because he died with Vi in the explosion as well! (In Ekko’s new universe) And because Jace from the upper-city and Vi from the under city had died, Piltover decided to make peace to honour both Jace and Vi, Vi as a kid who died trying to steal food to survive, thus comes to Silco’s ambition to unite the Piltover and Zaun 4) when Silco heard about Vi’s death he felt empathy for Vander, found the apology letter and forgave him 5) Lore fact: Heimerdinger is not actually dead because of his species. When they “die” (he didn’t die precisely, he disappeared) instead they respawn in their birthplace- so Heimerdinger went to the place he was born at, again because of his species… as he is not human 6) Powder kind of understood the alternative universe thing, I believe (without letting Ekko know) and she had hope that ekko could go back and save Vi. When the real Ekko disappeared she immediately understood that her sister is alive in the actual universe (ekko’s universe) so she felt a kind of “relief” lets say from her grief a little bit Or Ekko could have told Powder was is really happening: I’m not the real Ekko you know (maybe thats why he was comfortable enough to ask her: “Can we pretend that this is the first time?” and Powder wasn’t asking why, instead she kissed him for “the first time”. I believe he could have told her you know, I’m not from this universe, i need to go back and save my people including YOUR sister and your alternative YOU. Just my thoughts on this livestream 😊😊😊❤️🙈 And as i remember Caitlyn died in the alternate universe as well WITH Jayce. But I’m not so sure about Cait
