Who is “Baby Jinx”? New Arcane Season 2 character Isha explained
NetflixYou might have noticed “Baby Jinx” making her debut in Arcane Season 2, but who exactly is the new character Isha and is she in the League of Legends games?
It’s a fair enough question to ask, given not all of the Arcane characters are LoL champions. And this is one of the reasons the Netflix series is so well-loved.
Riot Games’ Christian Linke and Alex Yee have drawn from the source material while establishing a story that appeals to both fans and newcomers.
With Arcane Season 2 Act 3 just around the corner, here’s what you need to know about the “Baby Jinx” character, Isha.
Who is Isha?
NetflixIsha is an orphan child from the Zaun undercity. After Jinx saves her from Chem-barons Chross and newbie Smeech, Isha starts following the blue-haired Zaunite around, looking up to her as an idol and mentor, hence the nickname “Baby Jinx.”
We’re first introduced to Isha in Arcane Season 2 Episode 2, ‘Watch it all Burn’. Little is known about her backstory, not least because she’s non-verbal.
What we do know is she’s brave and courageous, a bit like Jinx when she was a child. While running from Chross and his cronies, she attempts to make a jump between gaps in a broken vault, only to fall right into Jinx’s lap.
After Jinx takes the Chem-barons out, Isha spots the ‘Wanted’ signs with Jinx’s face all over them. “Yep, that’s me,” says Jinx. “You ever need to curse a sibling or a family or a society, my card.”
As well as being one of the most dangerous criminals in the undercity, Jinx waves a gun in the kid’s face – and it’s still not enough to put her off. Quite the opposite.
When Jinx walks away, Isha runs after her, shadowing her in the scenes to come. In Arcane Season 2 Episode 3, she even gets between Vi and Jinx, putting her life at risk to save her mentor.
In Act 2, Jinx and Isha become like sisters to each other. As part of the Arcane Season 2 soundtrack, Eason Chan’s ‘Isha’s Song’ was released with a video featuring clips of the pair running through the city together.
In another snapshot, Isha, who now has blue hair, hugs Jinx, and this is interspersed with flashbacks to Powder, showcasing the parallels between their characters.
For a while, it was looking like Jinx, Vi, Isha, and Warwick/Vander might be able to live happily as a family. But this is Arcane we’re talking about.
In Season 2 Episode 6, these hopes are dashed when Ambessa and Singed/Dr Reveck enter the commune where they were staying, injecting Warwick with a serum that eradicates all traces of Vander.
This causes him to erupt with rage, and although Jinx tries to bring Vander back, he pushes her to the side. Wanting to protect her adoptive big sis, Isha grabs the Hextech gun, runs through the chaos, and shoots at Warwick.
This causes a massive explosion, with Act 3 set to show the aftermath of Isha’s attack.
Is she in the games?
NetflixNo, there isn’t a character named Isha in League of Legends. It’s likely she was created specially for Arcane Season 2.
There were, of course, a number of theories that Isha could actually be a different character from the games, one of them suggesting she might be Teemo – the yordle leader of the Bandle Scouts.
Over on Reddit, one wrote, “The Hat. The Hair. The freakin’ binocular and scouting on people, the glasses. Maybe I am crazy, but even if this has nothing to do with Teemo it looks like his clothes and stuff, wtf. And yordles can shapeshift too.”
Riot GamesAnother put forward a far out theory: that Isha is Janna, the spirit god who gets a mention in Season 2 Episode 3. In Arcane, Jinx reminisces about how Vander would tell her and Vi stories about Janna saving Zaunites struggling to breathe.
“What if Isha is Janna?” said one viewer. “The name Isha means ‘goddess’ and ‘the one who protects’. Janna is the goddess who protects Zaun, Isha protected Jinx.
“Isha fell from the sky into Jinx’s life at a time when people were praying to Janna for divine intervention. The truth is out there!”
However, none of these theories have turned out to be true. It seems Isha really is just a creation for the show.
Why Isha is important to Arcane Season 2
NetflixAt the base level, Isha stopped Vi from killing Jinx. And Arcane Season 2 would’ve looked very different if our leading lady wasn’t around. But she’s also the key to Jinx’s redemption arc.
Isha’s actions also inadvertently sparked a divide between Vi and Caitlyn (who have since made up). During their fight, Caitlyn wanted to shoot Isha but Vi stopped her, saying she’s just a kid.
The pair ended up arguing and going their separate ways, only exacerbating the hatred Caitlyn felt towards the undercity. Shortly after this event, she agreed to help Piltover lead the war against Zaun.
But these aren’t the only consequences of Isha’s appearance. There’s no denying the similarities between the kid and Jinx’s former self, Powder, with both of them experiencing extreme trauma at a young age.
NetflixBy taking on the role of big sister or mentor, Jinx is slowly finding a way to reconnect with her more innocent and caring side. Whatever the outcome of Isha shooting at Warwick, perhaps Jinx will see that she had good intentions – and this may pave the way for her to forgive her younger self.
Jinx isn’t old enough to be a mom
Even though we’re nicknaming her “Baby Jinx,” she’s really seen as a baby sister rather than her adopted kid. And the reason why is simple: Jinx is barely an adult herself. She’s thought to be around 17-to-19 years old in Arcane Season 2.
This number is an estimate based on Arcane writer Amanda Overton’s 2021 response to a tweet asking about the characters’ ages.
“Caitlyn and Vi are about the same age in the first act, maybe a year apart? Somewhere in 14-16 age,” she wrote.
“Powder is 11-12ish. And we think about 6-7 years passed between episodes. This is all approximate since time is a bit different in Runeterra, and a bit open to interpretation.”
Given Season 2 picks up where Season 1 left off, we can assume Jinx is in her late teens going into her early 20s.
Arcane Season 2 Acts 1-2 are streaming on Netflix now, with Act 3 landing on November 23. Be sure to check out the Act 2 ending explained so you’re up to scratch. You can also read about why Season 2 had to be the last and plans for an MCU-style LoL cinematic universe.