#arcane fishbones

Thank you for your ask Anon!

I’m sorry it took me years to finally answer it, but at least I’m answering it the day S2 airs, so that’s something, right?

Also, I worked on this before S2 aired (before I watched it), so if something turns out to be wrong - oh well, I did my best. Again, sorry for the super late response.

Fishbones – The Idea and the When

This might surprise a lot of people since many see Fishbones as something Jinx specifically made for Silco, but the show’s details make it clear Jinx had the idea for Fishbones before she ever met Silco.

The main evidence being one of Powder’s drawings -

The bottom drawing depicts the very basic concept of Fishbones - a shark shooting a fiery blast out of its mouth with a bullet above it.

Fishbones is clearly a power fantasy of Powder’s, which makes sense. Violence was beyond the norm for her growing up and unlike Vi, physical hand to hand combat was not something she excelled at.

Now, her having this fantasy or dream weapon doesn’t make Powder some evil child who was always going to be violent, she was a kid growing up in a violent world, who wanted to be useful, so it makes perfect sense she wanted to have (make) this “ultimate gun” – especially since shooting was something she truly excelled at.

I would also argue, she has more of a desire to create weapons that are uniquely hers, rather than just weapons to hurt people. Because despite all her insecurities she’s always been confident in her own artistic and general self-expression.

Powder obviously admired her sister and wanted to be like Vi, but she never tried to be Vi. She pursued things she was interested in and even what she was good at, rather than abandon all of it to be more like Vi.

In many ways, whether as Powder or Jinx, she's always remained true to herself.

Her weapons, particularly Fishbones are arguably proof of that. As, the same drawing (or a near identical one) is hanging up in Jinx’s lab in ep. 4.

Indicating Fishbones is still something she wants to make, despite how much she's changed and is different from her younger self.

Bonus Material -

Additionally, we have a promotional image of what comes with The Collector’s Edition of Arcane, giving us a clearer picture of said initial drawing of Fishbones.

As well as the blueprint three of Jinx's weapons (including Fishbones) and her other drawings.

Her blueprints are interesting to me, because they’re this mix of childishness and sophistication.

There’s a lot of “maturity” in how the actual drawings are clean, concise, and well-made. They don’t have Jinx’s usual scribbling style or aesthetic, which is evidence of something I’ve always believed about Jinx – her art style is simply just that, her style of choice.

Mostly importantly these are blueprints; meaning Fishbones is no longer just the abstract idea of a shark with a fiery blast, but now an actual idea of a possible weapon to be used.

Now in general it’s hard to tell what specific age Jinx drew something because of her scribbly style, but I’m leaning towards her being on the younger side for these.

Though it's more than possible she made the blueprint of Fishbones after Silco took her in.

Nonetheless, Fishbones has been an idea of Jinx’s long before Silco entered her life - meaning he wasn't the sole for reason why she built Fishbones.

Fishbones - The Design (Inspiration and Reason)

Now, I do agree with the common consensus that Fishbones was made with Silco in mind, specifically his love for sea monsters – BUT he’s not the only one with a love for monsters.

If we pay attention to the details, it's obvious, Powder had an affinity for monsters as well, even a fondness for sharks specifically. 

Which is just the cutest thing ever.

Can you imagine how happy Silco was when he learned his newly adopted daughter loved sharks and other monstrous creatures?

I know that has nothing to do with your question, but I just can’t get over that. Seriously, imagining that scene is just way too cute.

Evidence of Powder’s Affinity Towards Monsters

Ep. 1 - Shark plushie

In ep. 1, we see a shark plushie right before Vi goes to comfort Powder. Now, either Powder made this plushie herself or it was made for her, but either way it’s obviously Powder’s.

It also looks very similar to the rocket she shot from Fishbones – the grin especially.

Act I - Powder’s grenades

Throughout Act 1 we see several of Powder's grenades and also hear her talk about them. Note how she designed them, she didn’t simply draw a cute little poro or dragon on them, she actually designed them to be little creatures themselves.

She goes even further, by giving them names and pronouns; which to me, shows how many of her weapons are meant to be their own little creatures, not just weapons.  

Fishbones is a great example of what I’m talking about – because he’s not a bazooka with a shark drawn on him, he’s an actual SHARK bazooka.

Plus, I’m using he/him pronouns instead of calling Fishbones an it, because of the intentional “life” and personality Jinx has imbued into this weapon, and also from how she interacts with him in other League media.  

Ep. 6 - Powder drawing monsters

Vi has a hallucination/memory of Powder drawing the monsters they made up to outdo one another, so even though Vi said she went too far at times and Powder got scared, clearly Powder loved their game.

Which, by the sounds of it, was solely made up with the purpose of keeping Powder happy and entertained.

Ep. 7 and Enemy (mv) - Powder's battle helmet

With its eyes and teeth, clearly her helmet is another one of her monsters. And again, we don't simply see a cute figure simply drawn on the helmet, instead what Powder did here, like with her grenades, is turn her helmet into its own little monster.

Another couple of tiny details

In ep. 1 - Powder picks up something from the trash when Claggor and Vander are leaving the Last Drop and it looks very similar to the teeth of her future chomper grenades.

Even if they're not the same - Powder she clearly saw something that resembled sharp teeth and kept it.

There’s also her clapping monkey toy and while that's not a monster, it’s still a pretty creepy toy.

In the S2 trailer - Shark hoodie.

I know I said I was only focusing on S1, but I couldn't not talk about her hoodie, because she's wearing a shark hoodie!

It’s interesting - because some say this is her fully embracing Silco and his legacy while others claim this her returning to being Powder once again, as she's wearing something similar to what she wore when she played with Ekko – with the markings on her cheeks and everything.

I think it’s 100% both of those things, while also just Jinx being Jinx – someone who has always loved monsters and sharks.

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Now I genuinely believe Fishbones was a gift for Silco; it’s just that Fishbones was always going to be Jinx's weapon. If anything, Jinx made Fishbones for Silco AND herself - something for the two of them to share.

Because if Silco had lived and they had attacked Piltover together, Jinx would’ve still been the one firing Fishbones, Silco would’ve been standing right there next to her of course, but Fishbones was always going to be her weapon.

Fishbones - The Physical and Literal When

My theory is that Jinx has tried to make Fishbones over the years and was finally only able to complete him (in a few days), once she figured out hextech (Acts II & III.)

The main Fishbones drawing I've been talking about proves he wasn’t thought of and then made and finished in a few days, rather he’s been in the works for a while.

I also think the scene in which we see the drawing is some great foreshadowing.

The unrefined hextech crystals landing top of the drawings of Fishbones and her family, right after her breakdown (ep. 3).

Fishbones may have only been an idea at the time and maybe that's all he could've ever been, but once the crystals were refined into gemstones, there became a way for Jinx to bring her vision to life.

I could also argue, that without the tragedy of losing her family and Silco taking her in - Fishbones may have never existed.

Even with Powder's fantasy of Fishbones and her being more than ready to use her grenades, she's never actually hurt anyone before, not as far as we know. It's possible if things stayed relatively the same, Powder would've ended up freaked out or scared of the reality of what her weapons can do.

Jinx on the other, being raised by Silco... not so much.

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I'm so glad I noticed all these monster and shark details, because initially my timeline for Fishbones was that Jinx came up with the idea for him and executed said idea in less than a week.

While Jinx is beyond impressive, when would she have time to do that?

Seriously, even if Jinx didn't get any sleep (more than likely) there are only so many hours in a day and she was doing a million other things.

But with this new (very loose) timeline, well everything makes a whole lot more sense.

It's still beyond amazing Jinx made and finished Fishbones in the time frame she did – but it’s more doable (for her), especially since Jinx has shown to be able to accomplish a whole lot when she’s under a time crunch.

But like I've said, I believe Jinx has been working on Fishbones for years now and I’m guessing she couldn’t make her specific vision of him into a reality because she didn’t have a strong enough power source; so, he was put on hold.

But once she cracked the gemstone/hextech – it was “simply” a matter of redesigning Fishbone’s design to be a hextech devise.

Basically, I think Jinx was able to finish Fishbones by the finale, because she salvaged her previous protypes of him for parts

None of this is easy or simple by the way. Fishbones truly shows how much of a genius Jinx is. Seriously, consider the fact that at the end of S1 the three experts on hextech and known inventors of its devises are Jinx and the two literal creators and founders of Hextech.

That's amazing.

Jinx taught herself hextech by using the notes and research she stole from them, which is beyond insane and I feel like so many undercut how truly impressive that actually is.

In addition, Fishbones' existence shows us how inventive, adaptive, and weirdly enough practical Jinx is.

The last one may seem odd, but remember Silco told her she needed to crack hextech sooner than later, so, working with a design she's been struggling with for years and adapting said design to be a hextech one; rather than just starting from scratch is really practical of her.

And Jinx did all of this while remaining true to herself and her aesthetic, because she's all about that self-expression and creativity.

Jinx wouldn’t/couldn’t design just any weapon for Silco, especially not for his war against Piltover, none of those weapons would've been good enough for him or for her.

The weapon she made to help Silco finally turn the tables on Piltover, would've had to be something significant and meaningful to them both, because this is important to them.

So, even though Silco never saw Fishbones, I know he would’ve absolutely appreciated and loved him.

Fishbones was made to be something the two could share in a way; if anything, he’s a symbol of their bond as well as all the things they have in common, in particular their shared love and admiration for monstrous creatures.

And I absolutely love that so goddamn much, because in a way Fishbones shows Silco and Jinx were “always meant” to be father and daughter.

Who else would’ve truly appreciated her giant shark bazooka?

Who else would’ve found Silco's sea monsters to be just as beautiful and awe inspiring as he did?

Summary

Fishbones was an idea of Jinx’s long before she ever met Silco and what started out as power fantasy of a young powerless girl, became not only a reality, but her ultimate show of power (at least for S1).

Fishbones was made for Silco’s sake though, Jinx was going to present him to Silco as the weapon to turn the tables on Piltover.

He's a shark because of Silco's love for sea monsters AND because of Jinx's own love and fondness for monsters (+ sharks).

Fishbones also, at least I think so, shows their bond as father and daughter over the years.  

In regards to when Jinx made Fishbones, I think since Silco took her in, she's likely tried to make him a few times, but he's never worked – likely because she didn't have a strong enough power source.

Something that always caught my eye in The Monster You Created was when Fishbones is activated, runes light up alongside him.

I've never seen anybody talk about this before, so for my upcoming Fishbones re-creation, I roughly drew out the runic marks to inscribe into my 3D print.

And no, he glitched out too.

But I was 1000% on board with the idea of Fishbones being special because of Jinx; like yes, of course he should be completely different than every other Hextech device because the best girl made him.

And do I still want that to be the reality?