League of Legends has always been a verse I would like to see in DEATH BATTLE. It has an extensive history with a lot of lore and character to pull from. In particular, I have always been interested in the conflict between Piltover and Zaun, with it usually having some of the most interesting characters involved which includes Jinx.
I will admit, at first, I wasn’t too sure of Jinx as a character. I always thought that she was just a Harley Quinn rip-off and, if I am being honest, that’s what she kinda was at the beginning. But as the years went on with more and more material being made, I started to gain more of an appreciation for Jinx and her character, but what really sold me on Jinx as a character was a series that everyone is talking about - Arcane. Arcane has given Powder/Jinx a real sense of depth and tragedy to her that makes her by far one of the most interesting characters in the League of Legends Series (that’s due to being one of the two main protagonists of Arcane).
Jinx has always been a character that I felt would fit quite naturally in a DEATH BATTLE, but due to lack of material I thought that it was a longshot. Luckily, thanks to Arcane coming out and fully expanding on Jinx. I feel like she has more than enough material for a DEATH BATTLE episode. So to celebrate Arcane as well as convince people that she has enough to be in a DEATH BATTLE, I decided “why not make a blog detailing all her weapons and abilities, as well as what feats she has as well as my thoughts on the most likely Jinx matchup that I think could very well happen someday.
This is not a long blog, but I hope you enjoy it.
Bio:
"Rules are made to be broken... like buildings! Or people!"
Born as Powder, she lived an ordinary life with her sister Violet until one day , her parents as well as her older sister were on a bridge where a conflict between the Pilotover Guards and the Zaun Revolutionaries happened. It was this conflict that caused the death of Powder and Violet’s parents. Alone and scared, they were found by the leader of the Zaun Revolutionaries called Xander. He rescued the two kids from the bridge and would become a surrogate father figure to both Powder and Violet, growing up with fellow kids Mylo and Claggor.
Years later, Powder would join her sister Violet on multiple heists, though due to Powder’s young and inexperienced nature, she would frequently screw up the heists as demonstrated as when Violet (now nicknamed Vi) decided to steal from a Piltover Scientist named Jayce. Powder lost her bag of stolen materials except for Hextech crystals. While it wasn’t easy living mostly on the streets, Powder’s life got to some sort of normalcy alongside her best friend Ekko. That was until a man by the name of Silco showed up. Silco was the adopted brother of Xander and the two in the past came to blows with the ideals of Zaun and rising up against Piltover. Silco would manipulate events in order to convince several leaders of the Zaun to turn against Xander and use a new chemical weapon named Shimmer to turn his men into living weapons. He kidnapped Xander and Vi, being the ever reckless person she is, decided to go after Silco, However, she decided that Powder would be better left at home.
This caused Powder to have an emotional breakdown and recklessly decide to go against Vi in order to save her sister and adopted brothers. Once she got to the building where Xander was being kept, she realised that she had the Crystals in her bag, as well as the Mechanical Monkey that she constantly carries with her. Using her mechanical skills, she combined the Hex Tech Crystals and Monkey to create a large explosion. This large explosion, however, would have fatal consequences for those that she cares about as the explosion led to the deaths of Mylo, Claggor and her adopted father - Xander. Meeting with Vi, she told her how she had saved them only to realise that her actions caused the deaths of Xander, Mylo and Clagger. Vi, after realising this, angrily rejected Powder - calling her a Jinx and leaving her. Silco would find her laying on the ground, devastated and angry at her sister for rejecting her. After Silco realised that, in a way, she was very much like him, he decided to make her his adopted daughter and raised her in Zaun.
Taking on the name of Jinx, she was trained in explosives, marksmanship and engineering and raised by Silco as his second in command. Everything was not so bright for Jinx as what she was haunted with what she had done to her adopted brothers and father, creating a madness within her. However, it was when she met Vi for the first time in years that caused her to truly spiral - being split in multiple directions with little clue at what her path forward. Jinx would later find out that the two people who she cared about most potentially working against her with Vi potentially working for Piltover and Silco possibly selling her out to the Pilotover Guards. She decided to kidnap Vi, Caitlyn and Silco and take them into one building in order to decide once and for all if she was Jinx or Powder. It was at this moment during this confrontation that she would take the life of her adopted father Silco and decide that she had changed too much to go back to being Powder. With one large act, she severed her ties with Vi and decided to fully embrace being Jinx and sever all ties with her sister by blowing up the Piltover Council Building.
This act would cause Jinx to go down in infamy as the most dangerous criminals in Zaun - causing chaos no matter where she went all due to the madness that consumed her. Now she is the monster that has been created and she will make everyone in Piltover and Zaun know the name of Jinx.
Something to Note:
It should be mentioned that the actual arena part of League of Legends is not strictly canon. It originally was, but due to Riot deciding to retcon it out, it is no longer canon. As such, it is much tricker to scale Jinx to other League characters, though I think it is reasonable that she scales to the Piltover and Zaun characters, considering she has fought against the likes of Ziggs, Vi and Caitlyn in canon.
It should be noted that we aren’t looking at any alternate universes/alternate skins so no Star Guardian Jinx (SG Jinx is on a very different level of power from regular Jinx). However, we will be using material from both the old canon and the new canon even though there are obviously differences between them.I still think it's fine to composite since it’s still relatively the same Jinx.
As for the characters i will be scaling Jinx to:
Vi
Caitlyn
Ziggs
Ekko
Singed
CamileViktor
Jayce
Urgot
Blitzcrank
Twitch
Dr Mundo
Zac
Ezreal
Heimerdinger
AKA i will be only using feats from the Zaun/Pilotover cast as I feel scaling every League character to every other League character is dubious at best because if we went with that then i would be scaling Jinx to Aurelion Sol who created and sustains all stars in the universe which would be frankly be ridiculous.
“But what about Seraphine?”
Moving quickly on
Abilities:
Explosives Expert
Jinx is a huge fan of explosives and is an expert in how to use and handle them, even as a child (she has gotten even better at using bombs).Jinx uses the bombs as a multi-purpose destruction tool - using them to stick to objects as well as use them as thrown projectiles all while staying from a distance and taking out her opponents as quickly as possible. This is shown during her first fight against the Firelights when she instantly reacted and two of the Firelights out with a well timed bomb throw.
Skilled Marksman
Due to her experience on the streets, she learned how to learn firearms and how to be an expert markswoman, as shown when she hit six bullseyes when her friend couldn’t. This Marksman Skill has persisted into the present day with Jinx rarely if ever missing a shot with her pistol - being able to quickly react and tag thrown projects with her gun as shown when she easily reacted to a bomb thrown at her by one of the Firelights.This is also shown through her use of a mini-gun able to easily maneuver it around and hit her intended targets.
Skilled Hand to Hand Combatant
Despite preferring to fight from long range and not being skilled as her older sister - Vi, Jinx has learned Street Boxing whilst watching Vi’s movements.Whilst fighting against a training dummy, Jinx was able to rapidly hit it in quick succession - incorporating both punches and kicks into her fighting style.
Stealth Expert
Despite Jinx’s preference towards explosives, Jinx can actually be quite stealthy when she wants to be. She manages to infiltrate the Kinneman building and abduct her without Caitlyn ever being alert until the very last possible second. She also was able to sneak behind Vi and get close to her in order to knock her out.
Expert Engineer
Jinx, despite her lack of school training and her tenuous grip on reality, is actually a skilled engineer. Jinx is often the one Silco goes to for help with a mechanical based problem and she designed her weapons on her own. She is able to understand the complex science and mathematics of Jayce’s Hextech research to some extent in order to create a device in order to use the Hextech Energy for a bit.
Madness
Jinx, due to the trauma that she experienced when she was young (as well as the fact that she was accidentally responsible for the deaths of her friends and foster father - Xander) has mentally affected her mind to the point that causes her to have auditory and tactile hallucinations. These hallucinations make her extremely paranoid and emotionally unstable to the point that she can flip from one emotion to the next in extremely rapid succession. This makes her extremely unpredictable whilst in combat but it can also cause her to become reckless and untrustworthy of those around her as well as herself.
Berserk Mode
When Jinx completely loses her cool - she goes into this sort of Berserk state where she lets all her anger and emotions out. Whilst she is like this, she will fire indiscriminately even if you are a friend or a foe making her very unpredictable but also extremely dangerous to everyone around her.
Equipment
Shimmer
Created by the scientist Singed and developed by Silco, Shimmer is a chemical that enhances the body’s physical strength. If you ingest enough of it, it will turn you into a hulking monster capable of destroying metal walls and enhancing your physical strikes as shown with the fight between Vi and Sevika. Later on in the series, Jinx sustained a significant injury and had to be rushed to Singed in order to save her life. Jinx was injected by a very large amount of Shimmer to the point that her eyes permanently became purple and she gained an increase in speed and strength as shown when she wasable to easily grab her minigun away from Caitlyn. However, as a downside it makes yourself more aggressive and with enough injection - completely mindless and monstrous as shown with Deckard and to a lesser extent Vander.
Pow-Pow
This is Jinx’s most used weapon though its appearance varies depending if you are looking at the main game and Arcane. Developed whilst working for Silco on the streets of Zaun, this minigun allows Jinx to fire a mass of bullets in order to hit her target. In the game, it gains more and more attack speed meaning, as long as Jinx keeps firing, it gets faster and faster. Jinx is an excellent marksman with it, being able to hit multiple flying targets with it as well as being able to track them as shown with her and Vi’s fight against the Firelights.
Fishbones
Jinx’s prized rocket launcher, Fishbones can fire small rockets capable of creating small explosions that hurt anyone that is near the attended target. She can also take a picture out of a certain American Rocket Jumper and use Fishbones to Rocket Jump herself into the air in order to reach high places or simply escape
Electric Pistol
In the games, Jinx uses an electrical pistol that fires a shock of electricity that hits the enemy and slows them down for around 2 seconds. She can also use her electrical pistol as a means of remotely denoting her grenades triggering them without having to pull out the pin
Pistol
During the events of Arcane instead of using an electrical pistol, she used a more revolver style pistol that was capable of eliminating targets as well as fire from close to medium range as shown during her first fight against the Firelighters. The pistol can also kill if at a close enough range as shown with the pink haired Firelight member who looked strangely like Vi.
Flame Chompers
In the game, Jinx throws out three flame Chompers they will automatically explode after 0.5 seconds of ramp up time. However, if they come into contact with an enemy Champion and explode they will knock them down and then rooting them for 1.5 seconds which slows down their movement speed making them ideal for slowing down Jinx’s opponents.
Chomper Grenades
These remote control grenades were developed by Jinx whilst working for Silco. Jinx uses these in several different ways, the first and most obvious example is by using them as thrown projectiles - when thrown they can attach upon their intended target and then explode pretty much killing them instantly. She can also use the clamp function of the chompers to quickly attack a bunch of them or a single one to a target and then remotely denote them - causing instant death if they have no way of removing the grenades. She also has a variant of grenades that creates a large amount of paint..it’s pretty pointless but it can be good to annoy someone.
Voice Grenades
Jinx has specialised grenades that project Jinx’s voice even if she’s not there, this can be used to trick enemies by pretending to be a little girl only to lead them in a trap full of them.
Smoke/Nail Grenades
Created when she was a child, Jinx has explosives that can fire out Smoke or Nails when thrown..too bad they usually don’t work - causing her a lot of problems as shown when she was chased by a thug.
Sleeping Gas
Jinx used a sleeping gas trap in order to knock out Sevika in order to interrogate her about what Silco’s plans were.
Mechanical Firelights
These mechanical objects were created by Jinx and modeled after the Firelights that are found in Zaun. They flutter in harmlessly before triggering miniature explosions that while small are deadly towards anything caught in its blast radius as shown with Marcus.
Incomplete Hextech Crystals/Hextech Monkey
Stolen from the Scientist Jayce, Jinx has used Hextech Crystals alongside a remote control monkey in order to create a remote controlled bomb that is strong enough to create an explosion large enough to destroy an entire building though the explosion would have dire consequences for her - leading to the deaths of her friends and Vander/her sister leaving her.
Completed Hextech Crystals
These Crystals were developed by Jayce and Viktor. They are much more controllable then the Incomplete Hextech Crystals and presumably more powerful depending on the situation. These Hextech Crystals are the source of power for Jayce’s Hammer and Vi’s Atlas Gauntlets but the most impressive showcase is when Jinx used the Hextech Crystals in order to fire the Super Mega Death Rocket - the power of which can be seen here.
Teleportation Device
Whilst this is non-canon, Jinx in the League of Legends: Wild Rift Trailer has a device that allows her to transport to different locations at once (though it doesn’t always work). This allows her to bring together a bunch of heroes to fight in an arena (because she enjoys conflict).
Super Mega Rocket
This is Jinx’s most powerful tool - Jinx fires out a massive rocket that when colliding with an enemy champion - dealing massive damage to them as well as the surrounding area. The rocket also deals more damage the longer it is travelled, so it is best used from a distance. In Arcane Season 2’s finale, she used a hex crystal in order to power her Super Mega Rocket in order to destroy the Piltover Council Building and, while we don’t see the explosion, it was likely she was successful in doing so.
Feats:
Overall:
Defeated Karthus alongside Lux in the One More Trailer (Not Canon)
Matched Ziggs in combat
Went on a destructive rampage with Ziggs that blew up a Enforcer Station as well as several buildings
Evaded capture from Piltover's greatest enforcers - Vi and Caitlyn
Responsible for the worst crime spree in Piltover
Challenged Vi to try and capture her and bested her numerous times
Blew a treasury building to smithereens
Wrecked a wedding and blew up a massive cake
Fought the Fireflies and their Leader to a Draw
Matches the Firelights in combat which the enforcers were having trouble with
Killed several enforces and stole Hextech Technology from Jayce/Viktor’s Lab
Killed Marcus and several Piltover Guard
Killed Caitlyn in an alternate Legends of Runeterra ending
Killed Silco during the climax of Arcane (though this was by accident)
Presumably killed or at least injured the Piltover Council
Defeated Caitlyn in Legends of Runeterra
Former Second in Command to Silco
Destructive Power:
Bombpault that was built by Jinx causes this explosion. Based on the size of the explosion it should be at least Large Building Level or 11 tons of TNT
Blew up multiple buildings on her rampage with Ziggs including Aleco’s Sweetcakes
She can fire her Rocket launcher with enough force to lift her into the air
Created this large explosion in Legends of Runterra,considering she destroyed the Police Academy - this should be Building Level-Large Building Level
Destroyed a building and killed 6 Piltover Enforcers (see above)
Her Firelight grenades causes miniature explosions
Her battle against Vi led the Eclipse Vaults to a smouldering ruin
Can swing her minigun gun with enough force to knock people out.
Created this explosion which killed Caitlyn (in an alternate ending)
Jinx’s explosives have matched Ziggs in power.It should be noted that Ziggs’s bombs destroyed a large portion of a prison
Speed:
Reacted to Viktor’s Death Ray. In the Arcane TV Series establishes it as a Beam of Light. As such Jinx reacting to it and scale to Victor puts her reaction speed potentially at FTL
Comparable to Shimmer infused Chem Guards who are quick enough to dodge Jayce’s Electrical Cannon.
Rockets that Jinx fires are fast enough to intercept Jiggs’s bombs
Can react to and dodge Heimerdinger’s Hex-Tech Micro Rockets which unleashes a wave of 5 rockets at once
Scales to Caitlyn who reacted to to and dodged Urgot’s shotgun blasts
Scales to Ekko who can dodge bullets as shown in his fight against Jinx. Ekko can also dodge these Acid Attacks.
Comparable to Chem Guards that can dodge Jayce’s electrical balls (it should be noticed that this is Hextechn and not actual electricity)
Likely scales to Camile who dodged this electrical attack (as well as this attack)
Comprable to Simmer enhanced Soliders who could dodge bu
Dodges these bombs thrown by Firelight Leader
In the League of Legends: Wild Rift Trailer - dodges Ahri’s attack
Threw these two grenades quicker then the Firelights could react
Scales to Firelight members that can react to and outrun minigun fire
Reacted to a Firelight member coming at her and swinging her minigun to hit them
Reacted to a bomb thrown at her by one of the Firelights and destroyed it before it hit her.
Durability:
Tanks this explosion that sends her flying into a barrel of water
Has tanked blows from Vi who can punch with enough force to send her flying forwards. It has also been stated that her punches are "vault shattering” which should be at least Wall to Small Building Level. This is further backed up by the fact that Vi’s punches can smash through Walls
Vi’s punches can also hit people covered in armour several feet into the air and can shatter bone
Comparable to Chem Guards that can tank hits from Vi as well as Electrical Attacks from Jayce
Presumably survived the blowback from her Super Mega Death Rocket - should be noticed that Hextech Crystals have the power to destroy buildings.(we don’t her see her post this moment but due to canon she is likely)
Scales to Ekko who fell several fell through a glass roof (though this is possibly not what happened as he might has reversed time at the last second but the trailer indicates he fell through)
As a child,survived a building exploding (though she wasn’t in the middle of the explosion)
Survived a pointblank explosion from her own grenade (though it should be noted that while she survive she was in a critical state)
Weaknesses
Jinx is by no means a perfect fighter with her greatest flaw being her own mind. Jinx is often prone to making extremely rash and impulsive decisions even if they aren’t the smartest approach. This can lead to her being blindsided and taken off guard by a smarter opponent as shown during her fight against the Firelight Leader, who was able to secretly take Vi and Caitlyn without Jinx noticing because she was too absorbed in fighting the rest of the Firelights.
Jinx also generally prefers to fight from a distance, using ranged weapons rather than getting up close and personal. This is due mostly due to her physique which isn’t really designed to be in fights of brawn. She also has trouble dealing with faster fighters as shown where she was unable to take out all of the Firelights who used their superior speed and maneuverability to their advantage (a lot of her weapons aren’t very good at fighting against fast moving targets) as well as her fight against Ekko where she was defeated when Ekko got close in.
Overall
Advantages in a fight:
Large variety of grenades/traps that she can use to instantly kill opponents
Has sleeping gas to knock out opponents for an instant KO
Has unexpecting Mechanical Firelights that can surround the enemy to set off multiple explosions
Minigun is very good at keeping opponents at a distance
Super Mega Death Rocket is very powerful
Disadvantages in a fight:
Focuses in long ranged combat over close range - this can lead to her being overpowered by someone who is more skilled at close range combat such as Ekko
Her trauma can lead to her making irrational decisions
Does not wear a lot of armour
Lacks formal training
In VS Terms - Where would i put Jinx:
Destructive Capability: Large Building Level
Speed: Supersonic+ (potentially much faster based on Viktor)
Durability: Building Level
Regarding Harley Quinn vs Jinx:
This one is the obvious one. Jinx has been a long term request for Harley Quinn for a while now and an argument could be made that Harley Quinn’s most popular matchup is Jinx and popularity isn’t the only reason as to why I think it should happen. The two are very similar in a lot of ways that I think it remains Jinx’s best matchup and the one that DEATH BATTLE is most likely to go with
Connections:
Both Harley and Jinx are former female villains turned anti-villains bordering onto anti-heroes in Harley’s case
Both are heavily inspired by the Joker with Jinx being based on Joker, Gollum, and Helena Bonham Carter while Harley was literally inspired to be like the female version of the Joker
Both Harley and Jinx were forged by an evil crime boss and sociopath into embracing their worst traits and falling further and further into darkness. (Joker for Harley and Silco for Jinx)
Both are formerly the second rank in command for their boss’s criminal organizations (Joker and Silco) before more or less splitting off to their own things
Both have an affinity towards ranged weaponry with a particular love of explosives - so much so they have made their own versions of explosives that incorporate their personality into them.
Both were transformed due to a chemical - affecting their personality as well as mental state
Both Harley and Jinx are mentally unhinged with at times being unable to discern fact from fiction and suffer from auditory and visual illusions to the point that they can completely lose their cool and shift their personality at the drop of the hat.
Both generally put on a front of a happy go lucky personality but secretly are emotionally broken people inside with a severe lack of self confidence who want anywhere to belong.
Both Harley and Jinx look like harlequins with their pale white skin and noticeable lipstick
Both Harley and Jinx have a more morally good person who often works outside of the law and wants to save them from themselves (Bruce Wayne/Batman and Vi respectively)
I don’t really see Jinx getting into DEATH BATTLE if it’s not against Harley. As for who would win that, sad to say but i think DEATH BATTLE would likely lean towards Harley as the overall victor. As someone who does not buy Town Level League of Legends for everyone including Jinx (the calc that has been used is iffy at best), I would put Jinx at around Large Building Level with Supersonic Speed. This comes from shown feats as well as statements that Jinx’s bombs can destory buildings and it has been shown that Jinx can survive a direct explosion from her bombs (though was in a critcal state).
As for speed, I would put her at Supersonic due to scaling to the Firelights who are able to react and move faster than Minigun fire (from her gun no less), as well as Ekko reacting to pistol shots from her. Granted, Jinx’s speed could be a lot higher if you buy that Jinx can react to Viktor’s death ray which is a Beam of Light. (considering Vi who is Jinx’s rival has beaten Viktor in Legends of Runterra it shouldn’t be too outside of the possibility she scales). Still, it feels iffy at best, so I would just put her at supersonic
And this is not even taking into consideration Harley’s wackier weaponry. Ultraguy did a blog on Harley Quinn so i would highly recommend checking out his blog on what Harley brings to the table:
http://ulltraguy.blogspot.com/2019/12/character-analysisharley-quin.html
Anyway, I feel like if Harley vs Jinx ends up becoming a DEATH BATTLE, then I would definitely put my bets on Harley based on what I have experienced of League, though that could potentially change.
Anyway, thank you very much for reading and I hope that I have at least convinced some people that Jinx is Harley’s best matchup..despite the fact she probably dies. I hope I have convinced some people that League could be cool in DEATH BATTLE.
