#timebomb sg

[jm-chrome]

Get corrupted together 😈

There goes my little free time to draw 💔 I'll finish this in 10 years

[questionablecuttlefish]

Bi Rep in the New Canon

So....worth pointing out.

Riot has stated that a League champion's sexuality is an inherent part of their character that doesn't change across different skinlines and AUs.

So, given SG Jinx has lines like "Lux makes even boring beautiful", the extremely sapphic Burning Bright video, the album cover, all of suqling's 'totally-not-canon-you-guys' SG comics, etc, we know she likes girls. Specifically Lux.

Lux seems interested in Ezreal in Battle Academia, Star Guardian (bleh) and the V-day skins, mostly ignores him in other skinlines and completely dismisses or doesn't even know him in the main one, and blushes at Sylas in one panel of the Lux comic before that crush comes crashing down permanently, so we know she does like guys. Even if it comes down to 'one het blush per AU'.

Lux is very affectionate with Jinx in Valoran Town, considers her to be her 'best and only friend' just like in Star Guardian, and is depicted in a few promo arts for both the show and for Wild Rift touching Jinx, hand on her waist, Jinx lying head on her lap or cuddling up to her and stealing cookies. They're hecking cute in the Wild Rift trailer and the Chinese New Year follow up too, just saying.

Ekko and Ezreal are dating in the Pulsefire universe. Just read the short story, and if that's not enough for you, the writer outright said after they left riot their intention was for them to be a couple in that universe. So they have the strongest 'bi-canon' going for them.

What I'm saying is that Jinx, Lux, Ekko and Ezreal are all canonically bisexual.

And the best way the Arcane canon could prove this is by, IDK, having Jinx fly to Demacia and kiss a light mage.

And Ekko maybe kiss a cute-but-annoying Piltie explorer.

Arcane gave us CaitVi, JayVik (sorry Christian I don't believe you buddy) AU timebomb, let's get Lightcannon and Ezko 😌🙏 complete the collection.

I don't make the rules.

[sovamurka]

@dors-ee

Oh! You made remember so many things. I'm sorry in advance for the amount of words I'm about to produce aggagshdhdjj

To be honest, this is exactly what Riot did prior to Arcane and a little bit after its premiere. Throughout the years I understood more and more that these fuckers should never be trusted with anything so I take every damn thing with a grain of salt. It makes life more enjoyable 😗

But if we speak about financial opportunities of, for a lack of a better word,

💥jinxomance💥...

They didn't really know what could bring them more money.

...

You know what, let me tell you a story called ✨Riot's most notable attempts to explore Jinx's romantic potential throughout the years✨

I'm gonna start with something that doesn't really count. Doesn't count at all, actually. But still kinda does, in my opinion (and my heart 😆). An official crack ship that Riot's staff clearly put for the sake of making a pun. it's totally not the reason I decided to write this post at all, I swear I present to you Jhin/Jinx - the first attempt to toy with the idea of jinxomance.

It was obviously a one-time joke, but I'm so glad Riot's first thought was to make a Valentine's Day card about two characters whose four-letter name starts with J and who are cruelly misunderstood artists in nature (THIS IS EXACTLY MY TYPE OF HUMOUR, I'M SO SORRY, THIS IS EXACTLY THE SHIT I'D PULL IF I WAS THERE). I love it, honestly, it makes me feel like I overdosed on ascorbic acid in the best way possible.

*sighs*

Yes, Star Guardian counts too, actually! In a very "mahou shoujo classic slight yuri that leads nowhere, but it is not really queerbaiting because there's almost nothing going on between anyone, let alone these two" way (you can tell I've been a victim of this one too many times 🚬💀), but it DOES count. Basically, they let Jinx have quotes and moments that could be read BOTH platonically and romantically (Jinx is a tsundere-type character in sg universe so it gives a LOT of freedom to interpretations 🤣☝️). Unfortunately for lc enjoyers, chances of something going on between the girls seemingly went down the drain. For many, many, maaaany reasons. But especially when Ezreal came in. I'm sorry, I have to say it, ezlux has more support from Riot than any other ship combined since it's their absolute favourite go-to pairing, with which they can play safe all the time. All in all, it can be considered the first and it seems like the last time they tried to play with the concept of somewhat romantic lightсаnnon.

"But Valoran Town-" First, Valoran Town is meant to be a wild rift ad in a cute animated form where they made all their poster characters friends, so it's very logical Riot would put them in there as bffs, especially considering they made lc bffs in sg before. Second, all the possible romantic undertones between any characters are erased completely (again, except for ezlux, BECAUSE IT'S SAFE TO PLAY).

Also, off topic but kinda not, I noticed how animators made Jinx and Ez do the targonian lovers pose in the intro of Valoran Town. Like, in a very blatant way. But it doesn't lead anywhere (it's just an easter egg). Although, personally, I think it would be fun to watch if they acted on implications.

*coughs*

However, the most famous (prior to Arcane) and undoubtedly clear attempt to make a pairing with our bombastic lady is the whole ordeal of Jinx and Kayn in Odyssey. And not gonna lie, it worked on me because the concept is batshit hilarious while being very suggestive. But this level of blatantly horny dynamic did not work for general public so Riot never attempted to do something like this again. They swept it under a rug and forgot about it, just like with the previous cases.

Despite what some fans (mostly lc ones in my experience) may tell you, jinxomance didn't work in terms of financial benefit. As a separate character? Yes. As a part of a pairing? No.

And then... came Fortiche with their timebomb agenda that slowly caved its way into Riot's chambers. Fortiche's relationship with this particular pairing is actually suspiciously simple 😑 because a lot of things suddenly start to make sense (like why their creative freedom is seen the most with these two characters - to the point where every timebomb scene could be considered a part of an art portfolio) when you learn that their first two projects for Riot were: 1) Get Jinxed music video (Jinx's character trailer); 2) Seconds cinematic (Ekko's character trailer). They're basically Fortiche's babies. It was seemingly pushed by them (even if unintentionally) to the point where certain people on the Riot team started to notice.

I can only guess what happened later.

From now on, everything that came after late 2019 - early 2020, when Arcane was finishing its development of season 1, could be considered an engagement test.

At this point it was pretty clear Riot understands that general public loves Jinx and Ekko as separate poster characters.

The question is, would people enjoy them as a couple (which, contrary to popular belief, doesn't happen often in league). Couple that, most importantly, could help make profit.

Would people buy twice as many things as they did before if they see these two together?

Would people engage with content more than they already do just to learn what both of their favourite characters are up to?

Would people be more inclined to invite new clients just so they could, for example, play the game™ with characters that have matching skins?

The answer is yes, judging by the general reception of this pairing after diabolical Arcane season 2 - the complete public adoration mixed with the absolute international success of "Ma Meilleure Ennemie" (performed by two of the most influential and talented artists of our generation) that exceeded all expectations (which I'm sure at least one of the producers is angry about, because they missed a huge financial opportunity by not giving it promotion - luckily, it was so good it didn't need one).

All in all, as long as timebomb continues to bring money to the company, it won't fade away in favor of other pairings. In fact, it's most likely that the company will focus their attention on it in an attempt to figure out how to make them even more profitable.

I know. Seems like a very materialistic and cruel view of things. But it is what it is, unfortunately.

[questionablecuttlefish]

*clears throat* Well said, sir, and well you did ask to reblog...but you have hit upon my Special Interest so I apologize in advance. 😂In this essay, I will...

Star Guardian

History wise I think you hit the nail on the head, Star Guardian was certainly where Lightcannon either spawned or was popularized, specifically in the incredibly sapphic "Burning Bright" music video.

I'll also add that while Jinx fulfills the role of "the rival" in Star Guardian by being the hothead who doesn't care about the mission contrasting to responsible but uncertain team leader Lux, they're also canonically childhood friends in that AU, Jinx expresses jealousy as soon as Ezreal starts trying to flirt with Lux, and Jinx's bio explicitly states that while she scoffs at the Guardians' mission, she does believe in Lux and would sacrifice anything to protect her, so a common fanon is that Jinx accepted the Guardian contract in the first place to be by Lux's side.

Girlies, is it gay to accept a celestial contract locking you to an eternal magical girl war against extradimensional nasties for your childhood BFF you are totally not in love with...?

Wild Rift

So, Star Guardian is (probably) where it started, but my first exposure to Lightcannon and indeed to Jinx and Lux as characters came in the Wild Rift "You Really Got Me" trailer:

Wherein I was left thinking that Jinx canonically 'kidnapped a Disney princess' for fun and shenanigans as part of her story, and was waiting through all of Arcane for this other character to be introduced 🤣 "Well that was amazing and fucking sad, where is her blond friend though?" led me directly to Lightcannon fanfiction and then I was doomed.

This is probably where 'mainline Runeterra' Lightcannon got its origin story, though it may have simply spread naturally from SG-focused fanfic authors asking 'what if in the main timeline tho?'

Valoran Town

We got more crumbs in Valoran Town! They're adorably close there, Jinx inviting her to run away from home and move in together, Lux even admitting that Jinx is her best and only friend, and Jinx getting once again into pissing contests with Ezreal once he shows up (though also teaming up with him to support Lux in the birthday episode in probably the most adorkable chaos twinnies teamup I never knew I always wanted)

Arcane and Mainline Runeterra

As for Main Canon / Arcane...Would it work?

(About to touch on the canon brainbunnies that led me to writing my fanfic series, beginning with Ill-Omen's Light, to explore. SO. Some spoilers for that. It's basically "What if Arcane Season Two Was Lightcannon?" Link below, shill shill, on with the show )

So my thoughts on all of this in terms of the Main Canon are Below the "keep reading" line because I had a LOT of them, so, here we go:

As a Lightcannon fan and fanfic writer, I have to live with the simple truth that Riot will never make a meeting between these two canon in the main timeline and in fact someone up there may even regret having given the ship life in the first place. The two haven't shared a skinline since Star Guardian, Arcane S1 made Timebomb popular and Riot keeps cranking out Ez/Lux skinlines like it's going out of fashion despite the continuing weird refusal to give them any connection in the main story, so I don't hold much hope.

But it's still the most popular ship for both girls on AO3 and I think it's for a reason, because yes, it CAN work and when it does, it REALLY DOES.

As Skyen pointed out, both of them are subject to foundational trauma and rejection, both of them are pitted against societies that do not understand them and want to crush them for existing, and both have complicated relationships with an overprotective older sibling. While Garen and Lux may be on better terms than Vi and Jinx, poor Lux has always got to contend with the fact that the brother she unconditionally loves may one day find himself with orders to take her down for being an accursed mage, even after the events of the Mageseeker - I doubt Demacia's hatred of mages is 'solved' by the outcome of that story, after all, and her friend-not-friend Sylas isn't done...

But there's more. As of the events of the Lux comic and the Mageseeker, Lux has also inadvertently 'burned her world down', caused the deaths of bystanders, triggered a violent uprising, and had a complicated relationship with an older male mentor figure with revolutionary ideals who encouraged her to embrace the darker aspects of her power. Sound like anyone we know?

As to how they'd work as an actual couple, the friction between Jinx's erratic violence and deeply held insecurities and Lux's mostly optimistic, if grounded in bitter reality sense of justice and idealism is inevitable and delicious, but they once again have a stronger foundation than it would seem at first glance.

Because Lux is struggling to accept her power and the potential for destruction it has, but Jinx would love it. To Jinx, she's a living explosion, her light is beautiful, impossible, perfect, and it would anger Jinx that Demacia forced her to bottle it up and kept her ashamed of it, just like Powder was ashamed and afraid of herself once upon a time before she fell down that well and Jinx rose from her ashes.

And if Lux ever has to leave Demacia, if she ever finally accepts that fuck it, my homeland I love can never love and accept me back, or if she's forced on the run by her current precarious circumstances collapsing, Jinx would be only to happy to take this lost girl with the beautiful shiny BOOM inside her by the hand and lead her on a Thelma and Louise, Us Against The World adventure, across the twin cities, Demacia, or wherever she wanted to go.

So what happens if they do get together? Lux would get some eye-opening perspective on class privilege and the struggles of the wealthy and the poor in Piltover and Zaun, equal-but-very-different to the geopolitical strife between the Mageseekers supported by the ruling military and aristocratic class and the mostly commonfolk mages in Demacia, and Jinx would get someone loyal, principled, clear-eyed and most importantly someone who has no baggage with her past and never knew her as Powder; 'Powder' being a raw, open wound in her two most important relationships, Vi and Ekko, and a bridge she emphatically burned at the end of Season 1 of Arcane.

As a foreigner, an aristocrat, a diplomat, and a person who loves her own family despite their actions, Lux actually has all the skills and all the motive to not only be "her Person" for Jinx in a healthier way after Vi and then Silco, but to help her mend her connections.

(Also, as basically a foreign fairytale princess from a Zaunite perspective, she's not going to trigger the same resentment from Jinx, Vi and Ekko as a "Piltie")

Lux values strong interpersonal relationships, she would see parallels between Vi and Jinx and her own relationship with Garen, she and Ekko as responsible community leaders protecting a vulnerable minority would see eye to eye on a great many things, and as an aristocrat struggling with the tension between familial expectations and her personal moral principles she would be able to offer Caitlyn an olive branch and meet her where she lives as well.

Jinx has to want it, Lux could not 'fix her' because that's not how that works, and Lux probably wouldn't try to, but Lux would also not isolate her like Silco did or smother her like Vi did, and she could be a terrific support for Jinx on her road to healing, even as Jinx encouraged Lux in turn to embrace her power and live her truth.

Within the Arcane canon, I actually see a potential Lux meeting as the best and maybe only hope that Jinx might have for reconciliation with her sister and a 'happy ending'.

Which is why ofc it'll never happen. Jinx might not even survive Arcane Season two to potentially meet Lux, but I wish with all my heart that they could at least coexist within the same world and timeline in the Arcane canon.

But even if we never get it, we'll always have our stories, our art, and our fan theories, and that's where our Lightcannon lives.

It's the Little Crack Ship That Could, and I love it, and them, with my whole soul. Thank you, this has been my Lightcannon TED Talk.

So, thoughts on the whole Jinx x Lux shipping popularity blowing up? Why it happened, do you think it can work, especially with the context of Arcane involved?

I don't actually know the history of that ship, so I can't tell you much about that (someone else please reblog if you have a good timeline!)

I know it certainly bloomed with the Star Guardian skins, casting Lux and Jinx SPECIFICALLY as opposites and bitter rivals who nonetheless come together when it matters because they are bound by bonds of deep affection and mutual need, which, in the context of magical girls which are sapphic as F*** at a baseline, obviously was going to set some things in motion.

Their dynamic also works pretty well just on the trope level. Lux is a optimistic, bright ray of sunshine who wants to see the best and the good in everyone and everything but struggles tremendously feeling inadequate to her responsibilities, and Jinx is a sardonic, detached, self-destructive force of chaos who aggressively refuses to take anything seriously, and whose carefree demeanor hides a deep well of hurt and sorrow.

That's in Star Guardians, mind you, Jinx is... a bit all over the map as a personality across her incarnations, but they generally work well together as contrasting opposites with something meaningful to offer one another.

In Arcane, I have no idea what Demacia would be like, but assuming it goes like it does in the main canon, Lux and Jinx certainly would share some foundational traumas, both of them on the receiving end of rejection and systemic abuse by oppressive hierarchies, and experiencing severe rejection and abandonment by parental and sibling figures.

[raventrigonsdaughter]

btw i just wanna say that while i got a lot of followers and made lots of friends because of Arcane, im sad to inform i heavly fell out of love for the show, mostly because of a lot of fandom drama and gatekeeping that came with new fans and old ones who saw the oportunity to be 100x times more toxic, so while i will probably enjoy season 2, i want no interaction with that fandom again... it turned into a shit fest really fast...

[hexkore]

Rumors on the street is that Ekko might get a Star Guardian skin??

[xserpx]

I really wanted a Murph family picnic 2.0, featuring Harry, Karrin, and Maggie. We know she has a life outside of Harry, but in PT/BG she's completely alone, I don't think her family is mentioned at all.

And re: Butters at the end of SG, I completely agree. The fact he also starts calling her Murph at that point feels wrong. IMO Murph is more Harry's pet name for her than 'Karrin', and what gives Butters the right? He literally just put everyone's lives in danger with his mistrust and ignorance, and he has the audacity to act like he's gone UP a level in friendship? He never seems to grasp that he made a huge mistake that seriously injured his 'friend' in a life-altering way. It gets brushed aside as a learning curve for Karrin, the narrative wants us to believe Karrin was 100% responsible for her own injuries despite the fact none of it would have happened without Butters.

I think her talk with Butters about how treating Harry like a monster would push him towards being a monster was one of the most interesting conversations in the series, and it's another real twist of the knife to think that Butters just flat out ignored that advice in favour of treating them both like they'd gone off the deep end, treating Karrin's love and trust like it was false or forced upon her as if she doesn't know her own mind.

I like Butters, he was an excellent addition to Dead Beat and I don't entirely hate him as a KOTC, but the man has gotten way too big for his boots and just hasn't missed while everyone around him completely crumbles. Yeah, it stings when he manages to escape unscathed. He seems to have plot armour thicker than Harry's, and the emotional toll everyone else has suffered during the Fomor invasion hasn't touched him. He's solely there for comic relief and to be the least likely hero - and how many times can a man be the least likely hero before it becomes annoyingly predictable?

Karrin was an amazing second in command because she really took it all on her shoulders post-Changes. The responsibility, the emotional and physical toll, she took time to organise people, she was a diplomat, a mediator, a leader. And nothing was ever easy. She had to smash a vampire's face into a coffee table to protect her friends and keep the Swords safe, all thanks to Daniel's slip of the tongue. She had to make deals with her worst enemies to protect the city, she made impossible choices, all while dealing with the grief of losing Harry (and Butters talked about her missing the funeral like she was a ticking timebomb rather than someone in desperate need of help). Meanwhile Butters is out there using Bob's powers to make himself into skateboarding Batman. Trauma? What trauma?

Tell me, who's more deserving of a Sword of the Cross, again?

Imagine being so overly qualified for something just to loose it to a man named Butters

[jm-chrome]

Someone write a fic so I’ll be motivated to finish this Corrupted Star Guardian timebomb piece next weekend 🛌

[jm-chrome]

Inspired by how some people don't like Ekko's color palette in SG 💔😔

[jm-chrome]

Ekko, standing on the same hill overlooking the battle with Zoe that Jinx fought in 🧎🏻‍♀️

They haven’t met yet in this universe aughhhh

[jm-chrome]

The world needs more Star Guardian Timebomb

[jm-chrome]

Catching up... a lot of surprises between us two now

💭Star Guardian au hc doodles (Y'all... If I were any good at writing, I would seriously start a fic for this already. But alas...)

[jm-chrome]

My Star Guardian HC AU (need a better name for it) has two different stories of how Ekko and Jinx meet again and idk which is angstier 🧘🏻‍♀️

[jm-chrome]

I just learned that there was an official Star Guardian tarot deck given away during the League of Legends 2022 Star Guardian summer event… Jinx is The Hermit while Ekko is The Tower

source: 1 2

[questionablecuttlefish]

Timebomb and Lightcannon (and why we're tugging at the same oar in the same boat)

Okay, this is good, let's talk about this too. I think this raises some interesting points.

Starting with the end here a little bit, yeah, looking back, the fact that she jumps is interesting to me. I've seen it interpreted as her both trying to avoid hurting him more and as her trying to circumvent whatever he's doing to stop her by getting farther away, but I lean more toward the first point. It's subtle, but it is an interesting point.

She was still fine with blowing him up at least the first few pulls, though, so my point still stands, too.

I would caveat that I don't think their stories taking different directions would be 'throwing out the groundwork' at all. Because all of that groundwork is character development, too, and, together or separate, both characters carry that with them, wherever they happen to go from here.

So an Ekko/Jinx reunion and romance could build on that, yes, but so could a return of the Powder AU (I get a nagging sense we haven't seen the last of AU!Powder, her knowledge of the Z-drive, the art Ekko made of grown-up Vi and the gems in her drawer feel like a whole battery of unfired Chekov's guns), so could future relationships with Lux, Ezreal, or Zeri, whatever those might be, and so could non-romantic, non-shippy storylines of Ekko growing into his own as a Zaunite leader and Jinx going on her journey of self-discovery and self-redefining.

It's all valid and possible from here.

Moving on though, i think it's interesting what you said about the "had a crush" line because this takes me to another thing I Feel Strongly About which is: the relationship between Timebomb and Lightcannon.

Because y'know we're in the same boat, right?

Timebomb had "I had a crush, until you started talking to the gun" and "Powder..." and "I miss you" in LoR. And more recently that Wild Rift trailer of them fighting together. And Chroma Crash!

...but meanwhile, Lightcannon had "Lux makes even boring beautiful" and "don't forget to miss me, Lux" and "This almost breaks my heart Lux" and a bunch of others in Star Guardian. Lightcannon also had a whole ass sapphic music video:

Lightcannon also had this:

And this:

And even this:

Which was one of the first teasers for the mysterious new punk Zaunite champion and apparently the first thing that inspired/teased the Jinx/Lux ship before Jinx was even released as a Champion.

So it's not only an older ship than timebomb, older than Ekko, it's older than Jinx, and that's freaking nuts.

At one point we even had an official Riot artist (who still works there) drawing off-the-books comics and art with Lux and Jinx kissing both in the SG and mainstream universes.

But my point here is not to try to 'gotcha' Timebomb or make it seem like Lightcannon is more legit. It's not. We are talking about ships from league of legends here guys.

I'm pointing out that until Arcane S2, we were both in the same boat. We were both non-canonized crack ships based on a couple of voice lines and a few ship teasy bits of promo art and videos.

And in some ways, we still are, because of where S2 left Timebomb off.

So you'll have to forgive Lightcannons for being a bit cynical when people come at us about 'canon'. We've been at this for ten years. We've had our thing teased and yanked away and teased and yanked away from us by Riot, again and again.

Star Guardian, yay! Burning Bright, they're childhood friends turned comrades turned rivals, tsundere Jinx who took the oath to protect Lux leaving the team and Lux pining for her until she returns to save the day!

Next SG comes out, suddenly Ezreal.

And they never share a skinline again until - but we'll get to that.

Oh wait, there's Wild Rift! Look at the two cuties adventuring together! Jinx rescues Lux from her boring life and they're running and fighting together and Jinx watches Lux unleash her light with 😍

Oh they're releasing all the Timebomb/Ezlux skins on Wild Rift? Oh okay. Valoran Town, Jinx is Lux's only friend, she's helping Lux sneak away from Demacia to move on with her and THEY WERE ROOMMATES and they're hugging and Jinx is on Lux's phone background screen and they're so cute toget-oh there's Ezreal again.

Oh, they're sharing a skinline again? Oh, it's Lovestruck? Oh, it's another Ezlux/Timebomb skinline, with paired hetero valentines skins? okay.

The biggest difference between Timebomb and Lightcannon is that Timebomb has a champion. Timebomb has Amanda Overton. Let's not be blind here, until she decided it was her ship and she was going to make it canon within Arcane, Timebomb wasn't 'canon'. Ekko's spinoff game, his comics, his short stories, never had a whiff of timebomb in them, even the boss fight in Convergence and that's the only time in the pre-Arcane lore he actually interacts with Jinx outside of the voice lines, and his line there is: "We interact a perfect amount, Jinx! Never!" Before Arcane, timebomb was in the same boat as Lightcannon. Just a fun cracky ship based on a few crumbs and a couple of voicelines.

That's where Lightcannon still is. We don't have Overton, we don't have a champion trying to tell our story. In fact, call me cynical, but to me the above evidence suggests someone at Riot actually hates our ship, or is afraid of it getting in the way of Ezlux, despite their bizarre avoidance of actually making Ezlux in any way a legitimate romance and not a weird one-sided stalker crush played for laughs.

But they don't hate us enough not to string us along. Not to give us Star Guardians and the WR trailer and Valoran Town and even to make those new Lovestruck skins actually kinda match each other's partners more than the hetero pairings.

Why? Well we're still a demographic, we might make them some $$$. They don't want us to leave, heavens no.

So you'll have to forgive us if we look at the new crop of Timebomb fans screaming and crying about not getting their endgame and tiredly thinking:

"You got most of a 40 minute spinoff episode, a dance sequence, a French love song on the soundtrack, and an onscreen kiss? And one of the showrunners loves you? And now you're getting future spinoff teases, a bunch of voice lines in the $250 Jinx gacha bullshit and a Valentine's skin?" "And it's not enough? You think you're hard done by....? Really?"

We survived a decade on crumbs and spite, and you won't let us have the faintest, slightest possibility that just this once, just in one universe, Jinx might even meet Lux?

Because make no mistake, Lightcannon shippers are only dreamily sighing at possibilities when we talk about the airship going to Demacia.

Now would be the perfect time, Demacia show on the way, Jinx on her way to new horizons, a calmer, sadder Jinx in desperate need of healing, a Lux unsure of her place in the world, a beautiful bond possible between two young women struggling with their identities in a world that hates them.

It would be perfect. Now or never.

But we don't have hope. Not really.

Because Riot has burned us, over and over again, Riot has lined up that football and yanked it away

Timebomb has Overton in its corner, so we will very likely never see our thing. We're most afraid of course of someone getting pilled on the "Game of Thrones" possibilities in a Demacia show and forcing Sylas/Lux canon, despite them being only a broken platonic friendship turned enemies in the existing canon, and the truly messed up age / power dynamics inherent in that ship.

To be Lightcannon is to suffer. Old Timebomb fans understood this. The new ones cannot comprehend. They've been indulged and inundated and then had the slightest taste of disappointment and can't handle it.

But we get it, we do, because we've lived it for ten years. Welcome to our world, even if you're just passing through.

We'll still be here.

But that doesn't mean we're not still together in that boat, for now, with one hand each on the paddle.

Maybe we can even listen to each other while we're at it.

Okay Fine Let's Talk Timebomb and Season Two.

I do want to talk about this because I have a Lot of thoughts and feelings and it has been building up and building up, not only based on what's happening in other social spaces, but what people keep bringing into mine despite my best efforts to avoid it.

This isn't any kind of hatepost, I don't think I could hate Ekko or the ship if I tried, I just want to explain my very mixed feelings about the whole thing.

My likely-to-be-very unpopular take on Season Two's Timebomb romance is that it left me feeling uneasy and uncomfortable.

Not with what was in the show itself, I feel like that was perfect. Powder and Ekko sold me completely. They made me feel things. I even liked how Ekko and Jinx's story ended. I think it was beautiful, poignant, perfect...

...until.

'The Discourse' since, the way the fan culture has exploded around it, and particularly some of the creators' commentary on it, has made me sour on the whole thing.

It feels like I'm suddenly part of an increasingly small subset of people who saw what they did with S2 Timebomb and applied our media literacy to what was on our screens and got something very different to what the fandom consensus seems to be.

For context, I semi-shipped TB before this. Though I've always been Team Lightcannon, I had a lot of respect for timebomb, I understood it, I had read a few very good fics, I was just in the space of "Jinx has hurt Ekko too much for him to ever fully forgive her for murdering his friends, they might come to an understanding, and there will always be a silent undercurrent of love beneath the hurt, they may fight together on the same side again someday, but whatever bond they had as kids is broken and they can't go back, and both know it."

I respected, and still do, people who shipped them romantically, but I've always seen them as a broken childhood friendship being a much more interesting dynamic, and being hot for each other lessening that to an extent and not really adding anything to it.

All of his interactions with Jinx in season one are violent; she murders five Firelights point-blank in front of him in her intro scene, and Ekko reacts particularly upset to the pink-haired girl, Eve or Eva, whom Jinx shoots in the back. It's clear this isn't even the first time she's fought them. We don't know how many of Ekko's found family she's put on the Memorial Wall or how close he was with any of them.

Ekko is clearly convinced that "Powder" is gone, and the person who replaced her is a cold-blooded killer who can't be reasoned with. Leading to the Bridge confrontation, and this:

This is the first time Ekko catches a glimpse of "Powder", yes, but more importantly, this is the first moment he recognizes Jinx's humanity. He's hurting her, killing her, and he can't do it.

....and she knows he can't do it.

So, to save him the weight, she pulls a grenade, with the intent to kill them both, foreshadowing quite neatly where Ekko/Jinx (but not Ekko/Powder) is going to go in S2.

Fast forwarding from Season One here, Ekko disappears for 2/3rds of the second season, completely offscreen.

When we catch up with him he's woken up in the S2E7 AU; the Powder Timeline.

Here's where I start to get a little confused by the fandom take. Because, you know, I've seen enough Star Trek and Stargate and Supernatural and Batman the Animated Series and Quantum Leap to know exactly what this is.

This is the 'bottle episode', this is the 'Perfect World' trope, where the protagonists find themselves in an alternate universe - or trapped in a dream - or they've died or think they've died and this is their 'heaven' - where they have everything they ever wanted.

This is familiar storytelling and E2 follows a familiar pattern, the protagonist struggles to adapt to the surreal new circumstances, they are seduced by the illusion, particularly falling in love with someone in the Perfect World, but eventually, they start noticing something incongruous - something isn't quite right - (In this case, it's Vi's death, and Powder holding back her genius and hiding her grief to be support girl for others) - that reveals the Perfect World to be not as perfect as it seems.

And the hero has to choose to go home, because he realizes that this isn't real, it doesn't belong to him, he doesn't belong here.

Which is exactly what happens with Ekko in E7.

Which brings is to AU!Powder and Jinx.

And here's where I really start to struggle with the seeming consensus that the romance between Ekko/Powder automatically leads to Ekko/Jinx, like you can just transfer the one to the other.

I'm sorry, fam, I thought my basic media literacy was telling me that this girl:

Is not the same person as this girl:

....and I am not getting into any debate about "Jinx" vs "Powder" as identities within our current Jinx. I'm talking about Powder in the E7 AU.

AU!Powder is literally a different human being.

She may have been the same person up until the explosion in Jayce's laboratory, but from that fork in the timeline, she becomes a FUNDAMENTALLY different person to Jinx, shaped by different experiences, different relationships, different life events.

Powder's physicality with Ekko, as you can see in those GIFs, the casual intimacy, the clear affection, the way she touches him, looks at him, her awareness of him in her space, is so utterly opposite to the way Jinx interacts with him that if anything, it nailed home to me how savagely absent this kind of feeling is from his relationship with Jinx.

Powder loves Ekko. She leans on him, snuggles into him, touches his hands, dances with him, kisses him.

Jinx cares so little about him she barely makes eye contact and would casually kill him without blinking.

And I thought that was the point.

I really thought that was the whole point of E7. Being in the perfect world, getting his perfect love story with his perfect Powder, the girl Jinx could have been, but can never be, drove home for Ekko that his feelings for Jinx, both romantic and resentful, were tangled up in his illusions of "Powder", and it took living those illusions as a physical reality for Ekko to see his mistake.

To be true to himself, and true to her, Ekko had to let that go and go home.

To face his world's Jinx, and be there for her in her darkest moment, even if it meant giving up the love he'd found with Powder, a love that belonged to a different Ekko, for someone who could never love him back.

To me that was Ekko's most heroic moment, an act of selfless sacrifice. But that's what it was - a sacrifice.

Meanwhile, Season Two Jinx is not aware of any of this. The last time she saw Ekko was on the bridge where she nearly killed him, and for all we know she might have thought she succeeded.

She never talks about, thinks about, refers to, or even has scribble-nightmares about Ekko, not even once.

Season Two Jinx is, instead, having a love story of her own.

And Isha was and is a PUZZLE to me. Because she's more plot device than character, she isn't necessary except as a way to give Jinx a villain-to-hero arc and a way to reconnect to her humanity.

But she could have been Ekko.

If they really, really wanted us to have Timebomb Canon, instead of confining the entire arc to a bottle episode in an alternate timeline with a literally, physically different girl, they could easily have given all of Isha's considerable screentime to an Ekko and Jinx romance.

I'm sure Amanda Overton would have been on board with that. But that's not what we got. It's almost like reading two different fix-it-fanfics for the same character, put into the same show and running in parallel.

I'm not crazy, this is what's happening for Ekko in s2;

While this is happening for Jinx at the same time.

But Jinx's love story, too, ends with a tragic sacrifice.

And here's where the two stories finally intersect.

When Jinx is in her darkest moment, her absolute rock bottom, Ekko comes back into her life, a miracle, impossible, a Boy Savior.

But she's still ready to kill him.

Because she didn't dance with Ekko. She didn't invent a time machine with him. She didn't sit and watch the city lights with him and share a tender kiss and a heartfelt gift.

That was Powder.

Jinx and Ekko are resuming right where they left off on the bridge, right back to "I pull this pin and we both blow up".

They've both loved and lost, but their stories are absolutely unknown to each other. Ekko Doesn't Know About Isha. Jinx Doesn't Know About Powder.

It's only when Jinx (a genius, a reminder here) sees monkeys of her own design inside the Z-drive - recognizes her own handiwork, but knows SHE didn't make those - that, I think, sheer curiosity stirs her out of her darkness.

She has to know what that was about. She hesitates, just long enough for Ekko to speak. And, though offscreen, he tells her his story, and maybe she tells him hers.

And it's enough, just enough, to set Jinx back on her Redemption Arc, to become the hero Isha always saw in her.

Maybe even the hero Vi and Ekko saw in her, too. Her new costume is full of references to all of the people in her life who never gave up on her.

(side note, the yellow stars and crowns puzzle me, though - they're quite prominent, but who are THEY for? Isha? Maybe? Yellow isn't a color associated with anyone in Jinx's life, but that crown's identical to the one she scribbled on Demacia in Fortiche's map, is... this a very subtle future Lightcannon tease? Nah. I'm not that crazy.)

I mean her costume is also almost literally both a Fishbones and a Fiddlesticks cosplay, with her hair as Fiddle's tongue, so take from that what you will.

It's clear Jinx and Ekko war painted each other for the battle, but the Firelights are also similarly painted up, and (with Linke even confirming this) there really wasn't time to develop anything else, guys.

And I am, honestly, fundamentally angry at anyone who would suggest that, even if she'd been in any space to want it, our boy Ekko, one of the most genuinely good men in recent fiction let alone in Arcane, would take advantage of a girl he just talked out of suicide.

Moving on. During the battle, Ekko is knocked out and lying not far from Jinx. She doesn't even look at him, she leaps up to defend Vi instead.

And that's their final interaction on the show.

Instead of returning to Ekko, Jinx chooses one final act of sacrifice.

Ekko's final shot of the show is this.

He's sitting, alone, burning a mourning paper, where he sat with AU!Powder - where he and AU!Powder kissed - a place that has no significance to himself and Jinx, whatsoever.

It's little wonder who he's thinking about here, and which name he's burning on that paper. The girl he truly loved and lost.

For all he knows, Jinx is dead. But it's not only her he's mourning.

Or maybe he does know, or suspect, she's alive.

But either way, he's making one final act of sacrifice, too, with that paper burning into the breeze.

He's letting her go.

He's choosing his own story.

He's staying where he belongs.

Jinx may have become a symbol of the revolution, but it's Ekko who is, and always will be, the true hero of Zaun.

And this is Jinx's final shot.

Because let's face it, we all know she's on that airship.

She's "breaking the cycle". She's "walking away". She knows that Jinx has left too many scars on the people she still loves - on Vi, on Ekko, on the cities of Piltover and Zaun - for her to pick up the pieces.

She knows that if she's going to find out what "Jinx" might stand for now, she has to go very far away from everything and everyone. She has to leave it all behind and find something new.

Maybe even someone new?

And ultimately, that's why I feel the Timebomb we got was perfect, they shouldn't touch it, they shouldn't try to force it to be "Endgame", not because it couldn't have worked, but because that's the opposite of the story they told.

For the rest of my analysis, lol, this got a bit long but i have FEELINGS.

Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't buy Jinx and Ekko as a love story if they had actually told that love story. But they didn't. It had no screen time. They have less interactions in S2, maybe even in both seasons added up, than Vi and Loris. Let that sink in a bit.

We know it's Amanda's favorite ship, so she may have intended more, and may even actually give us all more at some point, but please, dear god, let's stop pretending they fucked or kissed or even held hands offscreen.

That's honestly a bit insulting to both of these characters, to insist hell or high water that this very important milestone in their relationship happened, but they just didn't even bother to depict it. That an entire love story (because it would be a whole one, remember, Ekko and Powder had a romance but Jinx did not experience any of that, she and Ekko are back at Square One) would just be cut for time.

They both deserve better than that.

Let's stop pretending there was some grand, horny, Forever Love story with 60 minutes of cut footage, all of it timebomb content, somehow left on the cutting room floor of an animated show where every single frame has to be deliberately hand painted.

Because if in some insane universe they had written, storyboarded, voice acted and animated an entire 60 minute additional timebomb storyline and then cut it from the show, that would itself be a searing indictment of the quality of the storytelling in that imagined arc, but that's not what happened. Anyone who knows how filmmaking works would shoot this one down, and the showrunners already have, so let's leave it behind.

I know Timebomb blew up hard, and I get it, but what we got on the screen is not confirmation that there is any relationship at all between Ekko and Current Timeline Jinx. If anything, Ekko and Powder's beautiful romance only highlighted the tragic 'never to be' of Ekko and Jinx.

And it's absolutely fine to look at the art book, look at the creator comments, and imagine what could have been. Draw the fan art, write the fanfic, imagine the what-ifs and the fix-its, those are all beautiful and valid expressions and deserve their space.

But don't go insisting it's "the canon" and going after the shippers of other ships for these characters as "not canon" or somehow offensive theirs, some ships that, yes, have been around much longer than timebomb, is uncool.

I think this is mostly people who are New From Arcane, it's Baby's First Ship and they don't know how to share space. The timebomb fans I knew pre-season two didn't do this, at least not often enough for me to notice or care.

But I'll just say to them, if a Timebomb follow up happens and they actually tell a good love story for Ekko and Jinx, I will accept it. Grudgingly, because I think Lux/Jinx is an untold, untapped story full of incredible character dynamics that would complete Jinx's story in ways that as much as I love Ekko, he's too tied to her past, he can't.

But I love Ekko, and I love Jinx, and I will accept it.

But I'll also say to them, if the followup doesn't eventuate, if things take a turn you don't expect, if Jinx's airship is heading for Demacia, maybe they'll have to experience just a taste of what it's been like for Lightcannon fans for ten long years.

And maybe that's healthy. Maybe that's okay. Maybe our endgames don't need to be 'canon' to have value and that's a lesson we should learn.

Maybe there's a new Light on her horizon, and that's okay too. Maybe Ekko won't be alone forever. Don't forget - until Arcane - his story had nothing to do with Jinx, and there was a whole lot of it.

More with the firelights, the lost children of Zaun, his inventions, his parents, all could yet be in his future. Who knows? He might find a way back to AU!Powder - or she might rebuild what they worked on together, and come to him, no matter what butterfly effects that could set in motion...

But if Jinx is heading for a Light on her horizon, maybe Ekko might Explore some of his possibilities. Find a new Spark of connection. Just saying. Jinx isn't his only ship, either 😌

And it is okay for people to move on, and let go. Maybe, for two characters whose themes are letting go of the past, living in the moment, redefining their identities, and moving on, that's what their story should be.