The song was written for the show by the acclaimed band Imagine Dragons, the song (and the band members themselves) featuring in the multiple undercity scenes. The Riot Games animated music video for the song includes many scenes from the show, but adds several too, including the disturbing firelight vomiting scene. At first this moment seems fairly odd, but just another part of the vibrant and often abstract music video. However, upon further inspection, this moment helps sum up Powder’s entire character arc and her journey to becoming Jinx.
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Power’s character is one who would most likely have grown up to become a member of the Firelights, a ragtag bunch of undercity dwellers who offer a third alternative to the seemingly black-and-white war between Piltover and Zaun. They fight for the people, helping people in the present rather than everyone else, who sacrifices the needs and comfort of their people for an idealized vision of a better tomorrow. Ekko went on from being the timid young boy to leading this crew (as well as having a fantastic music video all to himself). If the traumatic events of episode three did not happen, it would likely have been founded by Powder, Vi, and the rest of the gang alongside him.
Episode three did happen, however, and this is where things get interesting. It’s the moment where everything changes for Power and Vi. The heavy trauma of killing nearly all her family pushed Powder into the realms of Jinx, and into the hands of Silco. While the Firelights symbolize life and freedom, Powder becomes much more a symbol of death and madness. The firelight bugs give their name to the organization: despite being fairly undesirable on the outside, they open up to reveal a secret beauty. Most importantly, though, they are symbols of freedom. This future would have suited Powder nicely, but as the music video shows audiences, her carefree and childlike demeanor all disappear at the moment of the explosion, this possible future dying. The firelight crawling from Powder’s mouth symbolizes that this powerful and bright possibility within her has gone, leaving her feeling hollow and empty. As she grows, she is followed more and more by crow iconography, symbols that are closely associated with death and bad omens.
The most notable appearance of Jinx and crows appeared during the future and past flashback fight sequence between Ekko and Jinx. Ekko is accompanied unsurprisingly by the firelight; Jinx is followed by crows. When looking at the symbolism of crows, there are a lot of parallels between them and Jinx. Most notably, crows are often seen as a bad omen, with many superstitions holding the belief that their presence is followed by death or disaster. What’s sad about this, however, is that this superstition is based on faulty logic. It came to be believed that crows are the harbingers of death, where really their presence is a consequence of it. Crows eat and peck at the dead, coming to the scene after the bad thing has happened — or simply being more likely to be there when it happens.
The same is true of Jinx. Her moniker derives from her perceived ability to always mess things up, but in reality she is more like a crow, often blamed for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. While Firelights and Crows are both free in some senses, the predictability of a crow’s behavior, following the stench of death, suggests that they are not free at all. Instead, they imprisoned by their nature, much like Jinx herself. She is unable to break the pattern she has fallen into, all under the ever-watchful eye of Zaun.
It is a testament to the skill and subtlety of Arcane that all this analysis stems from a two-second shot of a seemingly random moment from a music video. The show’s creators are able to so succinctly fit an entire character story arc into one visceral, deeply disturbing moment. The firelight leaving the body of Powder was the moment she died. The trauma of the explosion led her to becoming Jinx, her future among the Firelights (as well as her freedom) wiped from the timeline. Crows take their place within her, and throughout the show, Jinx is shown struggling to keep them out, all the way up until Silco’s death. That is when she finally lets them in, becoming the villain she was trying so hard to avoid becoming.
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