Arcane’s portrayal of mental illness has been praised by both critics and audiences alike because of how it avoids the romanticization of mental illness and, instead, provides a candid portrayal of how one’s inner demons can affect them greatly.
Arcane makes good use of its animation and voice-acting to highlight Jinx’s past trauma and its effect on her present-day self through scratchy animations of her inner demons and changes in facial and vocal expressions. These expressions immerse the viewers in Jinx’s instability, showing her psychological triggers and raw emotions such as anger and sadness. As stated in Indigo Xan’s article on Jinx’s handling on Screen Rant's website, Arcane shows us that “she’s very much controlled by her past trauma and how it skews her perception of the world” (Indigo, Screen Rant). This is prevalent throughout the show, in which we see Jinx struggling with her identity and not being able to move on and change. Jinx had many struggles in her childhood, starting with the loss of her parents, her issues trying to fit in with her second family, and finally, accidentally killing nearly all of her second family except for Vi. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was when Vi angrily called her a jinx and unintentionally left her behind. In the end, Jinx accepts that she is a jinx, a monster in Vi’s eyes.
Jinx is not just a victim of circumstances; she is also a victim of a lack of self-confidence as she attempts to find acceptance and approval. After all, she still depended on Vi for validation. But in the end, Jinx seemed to throw her dependence away as she decided she couldn’t become the little sister Vi wanted her to stay as. Arcane’s execution of its portrayal of mental illness is powerful and delicate. Even though Jinx is presented as irrational and dangerous, she is also shown to be trying to fight her trauma despite the heavy mental toll it has taken on her. Because of her many facets and backstory, Jinx seems more like a human than the terrorizing monster she is seen as by other characters in the show, arousing more pity for her character than hatred. Overall, Arcane’s depiction of mental illness in Jinx shows a deep understanding, as instead of it being treated as a laughing matter, it’s shown to be horrifying, having long-lasting effects on the affected person even if they got the help and guidance needed. The same cannot be said for most that cover mental illness.
Entertainment in the 20th century saw large amounts of simplified depictions of mental illness, with only a few films in the latter half of the century that took a more complicated approach to its representation. The 21st century didn’t see major improvement until the 2010s when conversations about the complexity of mental illness were more widely discussed, with more nuanced portrayals of mental illness and the prevalence of movements such as #MeToo making discussions around mental illness easier to talk about. However, it’s also in this time when mental illness was highly sensationalized for headlines.
Arcane, in my personal opinion, is the shift in our understanding of mental illness in TV and film. From the simplified and villainized depictions in the 20th century to the nuanced and complicated depictions of the 21st century, Arcane is an amalgamation of all of the lessons we learned from our flawed depictions of a subject that we knew next to nothing about to a subject that we try to understand better and be mindful of when presenting it. It’ll only continue to evolve from there as our understanding of mental illness further deepens.
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