Breaking down the father-daughter type relationship
Aside from its intricately detailed world-building and phenomenal theme song performed by Imagine Dragons, League of Legends’ Arcane has proven to be a triple-threat with its powerful art style, unique characters and nail-biting plot.
We’re all still reeling from the explosive, yet ambiguous season finale cliffhanger that just aired. Rightfully emotional about the fate of their faves, the League of Legends (LoL) fandom (gamers and non-gamers) has exploded with unexpected adoration for a particular scene-stealer — Silco, after his shocking demise. Silco, the adoptive father of the show’s main character, Powder, who becomes the psychotic assassin, Jinx, managed to steal a number of hearts with his farewell scene. Although some are not so convinced.
This Reddit user commented:
(Spoilers ahead) To recap, in Act 3 Episode 9: The monster you created, Vi, Jinx’s sister, attempts to appeal to her emotions in order to stop her from shooting Caitlyn, an enforcer turned friend and confidant. This forces Jinx to have a psychotic break where she envisions her dead adoptive brothers and father.
As Vi’s voice grows more desperate, she beseeches her sister to remember their birth parents, at which time, Silco makes an attempt on Vi’s life. This pushes Jinx to break out of her episode and brashly react by shooting Silco to protect her sister. Shocked by the outcome, Jinx rushes to his side where the latter tells her he never would have given her up to negotiate a peace treaty with Piltover’s topside. His last words resonate powerfully through our minds and Jinx’s:
‘Don’t cry. You’re…perfect.’
This leaves Jinx distraught and even more manic than before.
Several hours after the final act’s release many fans took to social media to comment on how Silco was a loving and amazing father willing to give up his dream of an independent Zaun, and commended him for accepting Jinx’s true chaotic form.
However, not many people agreed with that sentiment. Several fans have refuted this claim by pointing out all the vile acts Silco performed to keep Jinx loyal to him.
Here are the top 5 ways the Silco-Jinx dynamic was toxic:
- He tried to kill her family
At the start of the show, in Act 1 Episode 3: The base violence necessary for change, Silco, hellbent on getting revenge on Vander, Vi and Powder’s adoptive father, attacks and captures him. This forces Vi and her brothers to come to Vander’s rescue. A nine-year old Powder, who feels helpless and left out is eager to help, and uses four gemstones to create a bomb that accidentally kills her brothers and severely injures her father and Vi.
In the aftermath of the explosion, Vander sacrifices his life to save Vi. It is worth noting that Silco was going to kill Powder after realising she had survived.
2. He ordered for Vi to be killed
Before discovering Powder was alive, Marcus (probably in a moment of temporary insanity) arrests Vi without charge, keeping her separated from her sister and convincing Silco he had completed the job.
Ten years later, in Act 2 Episode 5: Everybody wants to be my enemy, when Vi is released from prison and comes looking for her little sister, Silco tries to kill her again, even though he had taken Powder under his wing. He then proceeds to lie to a grown Powder who has become Jinx (not really a good idea). With cleverly crafted words, he convinces her, her sister didn’t come back for a reunion, but to retrieve the gemstone in her possession.
Throughout the show, Silco refuses to come clean about the destruction he caused to Powder and Vi’s relationship, choosing to lie and deny at every chance he gets. This further damages Jinx’s ability to trust anyone that isn’t Silco, including her own sister.
3. He didn’t find a positive outlet for her grief and abandonment
Powder was a sensitive girl who had been through so much at a tender age. It was only normal for her to feel an overwhelming sense of guilt and grief for her actions. Over the course of the show, Jinx is tormented by the fact she was responsible for her adoptive family’s death. This leaves her hearing voices of her dead brothers, Mylo and Claggor, who torment and sometimes egg her on to cause mayhem. This trauma goes as far as creating alternate realities of events around her, further mucking up her consciousness.
In a particular scene in Act 1 Episode 4: Happy progress day!, when Jinx confesses to Silco that she is troubled by seeing someone that resembled her sister, he tells her to go work on her gadgetry instead, resulting in Jinx concluding that her sister didn’t care about her.
In Act 2 Episode 5: Everybody wants to be my enemy, he takes her to a river and encourages her to be reborn from her betrayal by letting Powder, her old self, die. He insists throughout the course of the show that her current form as the psychotic assassin, Jinx, was perfect, even including them in his dying words.
Silco has always pushed Jinx to violence and used her to do his dirty work, whether that meant stealing or killing. She was his very own soldier of death. Something no loving father should groom their child into.
4. He didn’t correct her sexual mannerisms towards him (did somebody say daddy issues?)
Arcane had a few uncomfortable moments, but, surprisingly, this uneasiness doesn’t come from its brothel scene which turned out to be quite light-hearted. Rather, it’s from Silco and Jinx’s interactions.
Make no mistake, there is no sexual relationship between Silco and Jinx, but her mannerisms toward him say otherwise.
In Act 2 episode E: Happy progress day! we see Jinx sit across Silco’s lap and inch suspiciously close enough to kiss him, even sashaying in front of him at another time in the same episode. Something atypical to normal father-daughter interactions.
In Act 3 episode E: The boy savior, we see Jinx across his lap once again, indicating this is a normal occurrence and behaviour for the two.
This recent tweet from December 12, 2021 by one of the show’s writers, Amanda Overton, clarifies the intended direction for the perceived relationship.
5. He set her on a path of chaos for life
Viewers familiar with Jinx’s League of Legends, in-game character have stated that her manic behaviour in the tv show is reflective of her game persona. This could mean that after Silco’s last words which conveyed the true acceptance she had sought for so long, and after shooting down the Piltover council room, in what could have been an homage to him, she is most likely headed down a path of unending chaos and destruction, making her irredeemable. Making her an active participant in her own downfall.
It’s also important to note that in Act 3 Episode 7: The boy saviour, Jinx knowingly sets off a bomb in close proximity to herself in order to fend off Ekko, but makes no attempt to run from its impact. This may have indicated her wish to die. But, Silco takes her to Singed, a mad scientist, commanding him to save her. Singed informs Silco of the risk of losing Jinx, the persona he’s come to know in the process. But, Silco asks him to save her anyway, risking her sanity and wellbeing for his desires.
These facts along with many others are what have cemented Silco as a selfish, corrupt and equally psychotic guardian to Powder/Jinx in the eyes of many fans.
One fan commented:
However, many viewers faithfully believe he is a good man who loved his daughter and was simply trying to give her a better life.
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To read other instalments in this review series, click on
Part II: Jinx’s downfall is her own doing
Part III: 5 questions viewers needed Jinx and Vi to ask
Part IV: 5 times Vi was a basic character and 5 times she wasn’t
Part V: The 15 best quotes from season one
Part VI: Is the most interesting thing about Caitlyn her partnership with Vi?
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