Parallels that make me feral ~ Jayvik & Timebomb edition
(This post focuses on 2x07 because there are plenty of other parallels between these four characters in various combinations and iterations of themselves, but I just rewatched 2x07 and have a lot to say about this episode specifically.)
● AU Ekko doodles AU Powder, his lab and romantic partner, in his journal & Jayce doodles Viktor in his.
● AU Powder and AU Ekko work together to participate in the Innovators Competition & JayVik reminisce about their time at the same Competition in 1x09
● AU Powder offers her help to Ekko (and Heimerdinger) in their experimentation to build the anomaly & Viktor offers his help to Jayce to make Hextech in 1x02
● Ekko falls in love with AU Powder (and, by extension, with Powder/Jinx of his own timeline) while working with her & Jayce falls in love with Viktor while working with him (as we know, this happens in every timeline but this, since they're 💀💀 in this AU)
● Together, Ekko and AU Powder build the reversed anomaly & together, JayVik built (and are) the original anomaly (more on that in my Jayvik meta)
● "Can we just pretend like it's the first time?"
Ekko asks this before AU Powder kisses him because it's the first time for him, while it isn't for her (since AU Ekko and Powder were already together). Then the scene cuts to Jayce arriving at the top of the Hexgate tower, where another version of Viktor awaits. This is Jayce’s first time—seeing Mage Viktor’s face, realizing they’re in a loop of their own making, and experiencing it all—while it isn’t for Mage Viktor.
It’s a brilliant foreshadowing of the final JayVik revelation in 2x09, while also paralleling Jayce—who has finally reached his partner of another timeline, standing in what feels like an oasis of peace, separate and protected from the storm raging below—and Ekko, who finds his partner of another timeline in the oasis of peace that is the AU timeline.
● Ekko leaves AU Powder to return to his own timeline, leaving her with the AU version of himself & Jayce leaves Mage Viktor to return to his own timeline, leaving him with the original version of himself (again, see JayVik meta)
I kept this one for last because, so far, the character mirroring has been Ekko/Jayce and Powder/Viktor, but as I said earlier, there are many different parallels and combinations. This is relevant to this episode so I had to include it:
● Ekko gives the necklace to AU Powder & Mage Viktor gives the rune(s) to Jayce.
While Jayce always keeps the rune on himself for his entire life and makes Viktor his whole raison d'être, Powder places the necklace in her drawer alongside the Hextech crystals she has kept—a memento of "what could have been".
I've seen people interpret this scene as suggesting that Powder might become the future inventor of Hextech in this timeline because of Ekko’s influence, but I strongly disagree. She says it herself: "I like my life. I don't wanna lose what makes me 'me' chasing some wild dream."
She has no interest in pursuing this "wild dream" because she already has everything she needs: a support system. She has her dads, she has Ekko, she has her friends... she has love. She’s grieving her sister and always will, but she’s not doing it alone.
That’s the difference between her and Jayce. Powder already has the love she needs to survive, while for Jayce, the love he needs to survive will always come at the cost of dooming the world.
