Thematically, Jhin makes a lot more sense than he seems

I was among a few who were quick to jump on Jhin for having a kit that was inconsistent with his theme. Having played a few games as and against him, I actually reconsidered my position. Granted, I think they could push the theme a bit further, but it's actually much cooler than I initially gave gypsylord and the rest of the team credit for. Allow me to explain:

Initially, I though his kit was more as a visual artist; certainly all the fancy visuals in his teasers suggested as much, but (as many before me have pointed out), he actually is more of a performance artist; his niche is in the theater, not the studio. Imagine him more as this behind-the-scenes director type, and all the spell delays and ridiculous range suddenly starts to make sense. Moving onto his kit:

Passive: He has 4 auto attacks per reload; pretty straightforward application here, since 4/4 is the most common time signature in music and theater. The 4th shot is meant to be a "finale" of sorts, which is why it crits and has execute damage. The way his AD scales means each one of his attacks must be deliberate and meaningful, as opposed to just attacking as fast as you can, as with many ADCs. (I haven't found a connection for his MS boost on crits; it honestly seems to counter his theme, since after a finale he's supposed to bask in the applause, or at least not run away to reload/run up to finish off a kill someone that was supposed to die after the 4th shot)

Q: A bit looser, I think the theme could be pushed further here, but a common theme with his spells is that there's a delay and/or indicators to manipulate the opponent into moving in a way that's favorable to Jhin. With his Q, the damage amps up on last hits (which is ideally how you use the spell), so if it's bouncing towards an enemy, they take more damage. As the opponent, you're going to want to avoid this, so Jhin can zone you by making his Q bounce off a few minions towards you. I think they could amp up this factor by changing the visuals on bounce (to say "hey you really don't want to get hit by this") and also increasing the time between bounces, even having a fixed bounce time (if it isn't already; it seems really fast regardless), where there's a bit more dramatic flair/pause between bounces

W: Again, indicator and delay in order to manipulate the enemy into moving out of its path. Getting hit by it, especially after being combo'd with something else, gives you a lot of incentive to dodge the spell. It's less about hitting all his spells, than using them to toy with your opponent. The range also lets him do this safely from his director's seat. (The MS boost here seems to serve more of a gameplay function; to allow him to get in range to punish once rooting someone).

E: This is Jhin setting the stage; throwing down traps (for any champion) has always been about zone-denial, creating pseudo-terrain that your opponent has to work around. This is further amplified with his E since you have just enough time to run out of the detonation range once you trigger the trap (even with 325 MS). Furthermore, his traps are stealthed, and his W also roots when you're in the E zone, so if he's charging up his W, does it mean that you were walking into a trap and he was trying use the root, or he's using his W to nudge you towards a trap, or he's simply using it to poke? The mind-games can get pretty deep.

R: This is really where he's calling the shots from the director's seat. Even the range indicator give the impression of setting up a stage. You know how you can make people dance with Xerath ult? Same concept. From a counterplay perspective; you can figure out Jhin's location from the indicator on his ult, so if you're not busy dodging the shots, it's a race to find the serial killer who's calling the shots from behind the scene; pretty common horror/thriller film affair.

Although I think they could push some elements of his theme further (I think his Q having more dramatic bounces would be really cool, especially since I feel like it's a bit weaker thematically as-is), I was very pleasantly surprised to find these connections to Jhin's theme and gameplay.

What do you think?