#jinx making zaun look untenable as a future colony to ward off swain and noxus in general

[mollysunder]

Everytime it Wasn't Swain

After rewatching Arcane, I decided to make a list for everytime Swain was almost there. You thought he was being alluded to, but he wasn't, it was actually something else. Or was it?

1. The Crows

Swain has ravens, not crows, there just happen to be a suspiciously large quantity of crows, for a port city, instead of seagulls. As the show went on, the arrival of crows became synonymous with Jinx's presence and vice versa. It's not hard to see why, crows are intelligent and naturally social birds that do well in urban ecosystems, they just have a mixed reputation as good and bad omens. On a narrative level, the presence of crows does have interesting implications. Crows and ravens are easily confused for the other if you don't know what to look for. And the more I read about Swain, the more I notice that he and Jinx (in Arcane) are similar in some regards. Not just the fact they killed and maimed their family members, that's not uncommon for League backstories for some reason. From a storytelling standpoint, they both serve as living embodiment of their respective nations, good and bad, that other characters have to react to. And it was their actions that changed the trajectory of their nations.

What's even more interesting is that crows and raven in real life don't get along, they're incredibly territorial and avoid one another. If they do cross paths, crows are more likely to pick a fight with ravens. Despite the raven being bigger, crows band together in large groups to fend off ravens from their nesting areas, sort of like they harass them away. Food for thought.

2. The Man Named Jericho but not Swain

This one was cute. It took me a while to realize that they both had the same first name, except Swain has a last name, which is Swain. The first time his name was mentioned was when Vi and Caitlyn were on the search for Silco, but Vi was really on the search for Jinx. Funny enough, Jericho's apron and pants looks like the Jinx's outfit. I know plenty of people wear pinstripes in Zaun, but the black triangle with the 'X' in the center was pretty on the nose. On one hand this shot could foreshadow the way Jinx's actions come between Caitlyn and Vi. On the other, that's not as fun, and I want to know if this makes Jericho a Jinx stan! Seriously, maybe it's another hint at the way Zaun and Noxus are similar threats to Piltover, just in different clothes. Or Swain's a Jinx stan too!

3. The Palette Portrait

I've watched Arcane more than once and never managed to see it before, and wasn't too sure it was Swain until I outlined the figure myself. There he is long white hair, red magic hand, widow's peak, and sharp profile. In context, this is part of the scene where Mel is aggressively painting while Jayce apologizes for leaving her alone in bed the night Viktor collapsed. It's the first time Jayce and the audience sees her paint, and is essentially one of the first moments we get to see a part of her inner life. In this exact shot she says, "There's a lot you don't know about me". I'd say pretty on the nose to say this is foreshadowing her past connections to Noxus. But there's small things that are off, for example, Swain is draped in red rather than a severe black. And his face is dark while he's a white man, the color choices actually fit Ambessa more than Swain. Another fake out? Or maybe it means that there's no difference between people like Swain and Ambessa in the grand scheme of Noxus' war machine.

All in all I found three times Swain's presence was almost confirmed, but instead was something or someone else. There was always one or two details off to make it so. Each time there was an "almost Swain" connection, it was usually in association with Jinx or Mel, a cast member actually from Noxus. Swain, or at least the concept of Swain, seems to haunt the Mel's past and Jinx's future.