Idkbroineedfanficstostayalive

and what is with yall and generating ai slop for your avatar fics…and why are they always fucking pregnant

Part 2/2!!

1/2

Like. JAOSLWUS

DONT GET ME WRONG I LOVE HIS LIL MANBUN AND THE KILLMONGER IM JUST CURIOUS ABOUT THE POTENTIAL

LONG HAIR EKKO? All the more space for hair accessories with monkeys on em and colored blue, or firelight themed, he could be matching with Jinx

Braids? Life changing

Happy ending

Is what the bday boy deserves ✨

I know the fandom tends to see Ekko as this perfect boy who wants to save Zaun and cares deeply about his people but I think many overlook how detrimental this "saviour" persona is to him.

In the first season we are introduced to an Ekko that is fully submerged into his leader role and when he talks about Jinx he does so with a kind of resigned energy that lets you know how hard the topic is for him, to basically consider his best friend lost or evil but also that he's fully convinced of what he's saying, of the finality of it.

Most of all, Ekko stood out to me as angry. We like to joke about the fact that he's got a very short fuse and while I think that's part of his character (that I very much like btw) it is also product of his disillusionment with the undercity and with Jinx and it might also be the reason why he's so suspicious of Vi at first.

He says it himself while talking to Powder:

"I used to dream that the undercity could be like this but somewhere I got consummed by all the ways it wasn't. I gave up on it, gave up on you".

And it rang true to me because it's only human that when you constantly try to make the best out of a fucked up situation and your efforts never pay off in full that you end up losing your hope along the way. I think Ekko had to give up a lot growing up in order to create a community for all those lost in Zaun: his friends, his home, his self too. He became the leader who abducts a long-lost friend who he thought was dead because she was seen with an enforcer and even though he cared deeply about Vi he couldn't let her endanger his community (that's also one of the reasons why he goes for the kill with Jinx on the bridge but there will be another post about that).

So in a way I think Powder really saved him, not only by making him see what Zaun could be but also giving him back the hope he thought he had lost.

"I've never seen you give up on everything"

This is Powder reminding him who he is (Mufasa in a pretty dress, if you will), reminding him who and what he's fighting for and she does so with an easiness that only someone who's known him his whole life could achieve. That's why he immediately goes to Jinx when he goes back, because if he can be himself again so can she.

And note that this is not Ekko being selfless (and after years spent prioritizing the firelights this is good). He now wants to save the tree, Zaun and even Jinx, not just because it is the right thing to do but because it's what he wants.

I think saving Jinx is the first thing he does for himself in a very long time.

WORD twin, was it going to be easy? NO Jinx was severely mentally ill and suicidal last time they met, he knows this, that's precisely why he goes looking for her, THAT'S why the monkeys he carved himself in the machine are there, it's Powders symbol aswell sure, but knowing how generous and kind and full of love Jinx would've been changes his perspective, he remembers she was once his best friend for a reason, she IS still a person, she is still capable of this things because is part of her and the look they shared on the bridge is only further proof she's still capable of humanity, her monkey symbol that no doubt grew to be horrifying for him over the years becomes one he carves out of his own hands to put on a machine they built together in a universe where they were never forced apart, where she didn't lose everything along with her mind, and they're together because of course they are, they're each others person, the same kindness that she shows him in a universe where she got to love him so much is one he wants to give her back, the good in herself, the good in him and the good between them, it isn't all lost if they got to be happy elsewhere why not here and now? if he loves her in another world why not in this one? It would've been so simple for Ekko to come to the easy and sad conclusion that she was utterly gone as Jinx because she was the opposite of Powder, but no, they become one, Powder is also the opposite of Jinx, Jinx is everything Powder could've and would've been, Powder is capable of evil, Jinx is capable of good, they're just his best friend, he doesn't need to separate them to love her, in another life shiny and kind Powder slapped him and became the daughter of a man who ruined their lives, in another life Jinx forgave him for blaming her of her own sister's death and helped him build a time machine, supported all his projects and him, danced with him, layed her head on his shoulder, held his cheek like he was the most precious person and kissed him like he was. What they could be is part of what they are, the worst and the best are all things they would've become in a different circumstance, isn't that what the bridge scene was about? for better or for worse, a childhood game they both remembered, a happy memory shared lives on to become a death sentence for one of them, but is because it was so affectionate once that it hurts so much and lives on their relationship even after it becomes twisted, what is grief if not love persevering, between love and hate there's only one step, but they're still right next to each other in the same path.