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Something interesting we all missed when we saw Jhin's VO.

Melledoneus·3/16/2016, 6:54:12 PM·86 votes·39,425 views

I was reading the Q&A for Jhin when a Rioter brought up something that caught my eye. He noted that there is an underlying theme to some of Jhin's lines that imply that not only does he want to keep performing until the end, but he actually WANTS to get caught. So I decided to find these quotes and share them with you all so we can all get to know the Mind of the Virtuoso a little bit better.

#"Until they stop me, I will keep going."

Now that's a little strange. Amongst all the talk of not being able to stop beauty and art being perfect, we have this little tidbit. He mentions being stopped, and that he will "keep going" until somebody else stops him. It almost seems as if Khada Jhin feels the need to keep going forever, tirelessly, until somebody puts him out of commission.

#"I swear each performance is the last, but I lie every time."

This one is much less subtle than the last. Jhin keeps promising himself "this is the last one," but he can't seem to. It's almost as if he WANTS to stop, but he absolutely cannot. It's like when you're eating a bag of your favorite potato chips and you keep saying "this is my last chip," fully aware you want to stop, but you grab another chip anyway. Jhin seems to be the same way, just wanting each performance to be its last.

"I am a slave to this passion."

Ok, ok. I know that this is a stereotypical "art is part of me" statement by Jhin, but what if he means it literally? What if instead of him controlling his work,** it controls him?** What if Jhin is constantly feeding an obsession that he cannot sate, but he just wants to stop? I'm pretty sure he wants recognition, as he proves himself to be wanting of praise time and again, so what if he just wants to prove that he is adept to the world? Being the intelligent man he is, he would have considered other options and found them more acceptable, but cannot stop himself on this path he set himself on.

"The moment before the shot... is painful."

This has to at least raise some red flags for some of you out there. The guy is literally telling us that he feels the pain of having the power to take a human life as he pulls the trigger. If this doesn't prove that Jhin wants it to stop, what does?

"My work asks questions, it never has answers."

This one might be a bit of a stretch, but hear me out. Every human being, even the ones who have gone absolutely insane, strive to find something in life. For Jhin, he strives to find answers to all his questions. What do people see me as? How can the audience ever love such a hideous face as mine? How can one achieve TRUE perfection? Questions like these drive Jhin to do what he does, and as he keeps doing his performances and delves deeper into madness, he questions more and more. But this endless cycle keeps raising more questions, never answering them. It is perhaps for this reason that Jhin wants it all to stop one day. To be captured. To go out with a bang.

Tell me what you all think. Just a little bit of analysis on my part to confirm something I heard.

115 Comments

Sir Danzig3/16/2016, 11:46:17 PM63 votes

Pretext: I am a clinical therapist who has previously done both acute and long-term interventions with people convicted of murder and rape amongst other things.

I'll be honest, I don't care for Jhin's kit all that much, but the character is frighteningly well developed. It's actually for this reason that I have so much fun playing him. There are strong characteristics of multiple mental disorders including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (the number 4, killing compulsions, etc.) and (what appears to me to be) Bipolar Disorder (the belief that he is perfection incarnate, minimizing his own terrible actions, the laughter upon death, the fact that when he talks to himself you can actually hear multiple instruments which is a metaphor for his elevated position in his own head). I absolutely love the minor details, such as Jhin humming to himself to assuage his "stage fright" and his inconsistencies when he speaks (aka how he hates killing but he has to). In reading an article on the development of Jhin, the devs stated that they had to go to a very dark place to come up with these things. As far as a complete character, Jhin hits home harder than any character Riot has made before. I actually considered creating a fake case study of Jhin to take to my interns to help with both diagnostic criteria for mental health disorders as well as possible interventions. And we didn't even cover the fact that he was released from prison and paid off to murder more, which adds a whole other wrinkle to it! So many more possibilities and discussions!

Wolfbanez123/16/2016, 7:22:27 PM28 votes

There is no performance unless there is someone there to witness it.

Morsigil3/16/2016, 7:33:35 PM21 votes

He is a serial murderer with a guilty conscience. It is an archetype in popular culture if not an accurate representation of true serial killers. He feels a compulsion to kill and to make it an art form according to his values, and he feels bad about it... but it's not enough to stop him.
Jhin

GreenLore3/16/2016, 7:31:47 PM20 votes

Yeah Jhin is like an addict,he knows what he does is bad,but he simply can't stop it.

There are also the quotes: "I want to feel everything. The gun makes it so I do." "I can't live without the euphoria of performance." "It is only when the gun fires that I am alive."

That honestly sounds like he is suffering from depression and like he only feels good when killing.

Lumen Sage3/16/2016, 9:16:01 PM18 votes

Honestly I interpret his "the moment before the shot...is painful" as him anticipating pulling the trigger more and more, but for his art he has to wait for just the right moment. He is waiting for that moment, seeing it coming closer and it is paining him. He is so close to release, to put it another way.

Personally my favorite aspect of him comes from his quote "I get nervous before every performance, but I need that feeling." I did not originally put much stock into it until I noticed that sometimes during the first 1 min 30 seconds he can be heard breathing heavily, humming, whistling or similarly making small noises. Jhin has stagefright at the start of each game.

Rendarkan3/16/2016, 10:17:11 PM16 votes

This one is much less subtle than the last. Jhin keeps promising himself "this is the last one," but he can't seem to. It's almost as if he WANTS to stop, but he absolutely cannot. It's like when you're eating a bag of your favorite potato chips and you keep saying "this is my last chip," fully aware you want to stop, but you grab another chip anyway. Jhin seems to be the same way, just wanting each performance to be its last.

Eating Potato chips = Serial killer. -looks at his potato chips- Well shit.

Captain Aishi3/16/2016, 7:37:57 PM16 votes

Jhin laughs really hard when you kill him, because he is overwhelmed by emotion at no longer being an artist, but instead having become art himself!

Xeynid3/16/2016, 7:30:32 PM15 votes

Jhin has some form of OCD. We learned this in his flavor text with his obsession with wiping the gun four times whenever he uses it, otherwise it would feel "Unclean"

Jhin has a murder compulsion. He doesn't kill people because it's fun, but because he can't stop himself. I mean, there's some interesting concept there with his mental disease being a result of some form of magic, and it's possible that his obsession with making his killings "Beautiful" is because he constantly has to be more elaborate to try and get a sense of satisfaction from his urges.

Malicious Metal3/16/2016, 7:57:49 PM8 votes

He does seem like he WANTS to be caught, but not going down easily. Think Alucard from Hellsing.

Bladeglory3/17/2016, 1:59:02 AM8 votes

This was pointed out to me a while ago and I loved it. Those lines belie a conscience within him, a yearning for someone to stop him and end this compulsive habit that he cannot break himself. It's so tragic!

...and that's exactly what he wants you to think.

I realized the other night while reading the updated lore that Jhin sees himself as an artist. Yes, I know that should be obvious, but really think about it. He sees himself as a creator and a performer, planning meticulous works of grisly and gory art. And like all shows, it must eventually come to an end. But not by simply being captured, no, no.

"Where's the drama in that?" Jhin

Characters in fiction, even villains, need a reason. Need a story. Whether they have mommy issues or were rendered insane in an experiment gone wrong, villains have a (small) reason for doing what they do, and Jhin does not see himself as an exception. His is a morbid fascination with "Beauty in Death" and he simply cannot help it!

"...every time I lie" Jhin

...and it is indeed a lie. Jhin feels no remorse whatsoever. He's insane. He's engineered himself a chance at redemption to make the story more interesting. Everyone here has just been lured in by the story of a mentally ill man who yearns for saving from his own madness. We fell for the drama he's written for us.

There's no doubt in my mind that if Jhin were ever truly cornered, if Zed or Shen were moments away from ending his life, that somehow, there'd be a decently sized audience and a method of killing himself available to Jhin. "Finally, the golden demon is defeated! Oh how I've longed for this day. It's been so many years of pain and sorrow, unable to stop myself when every death breaks my heart! But I shall not sully your hands with my death, no. I must have the courage to put such a monster out of everyone's misery myself. I do so regret I hadn't the courage earlier! Goodbye, faithful audience. You'll miss me."

Zed and Shen would spend the rest of the night examining the scene. They'd examine the base of the cliffs and search for the body. Maybe it was a hidden knife or poison, and they'd examine it thoroughly, looking to determine if it was a body double or a really good false death. They'd spend months poring over what happened, wondering if it's really over. They'd spend the rest of their lives wondering if what he said was true.

This world will never forget the performances of Khada Jhin.

Photos of Ghosts3/16/2016, 8:38:29 PM5 votes

I LOVE every sentence where his voice gets funny and he loses his composure and acted persona to show how fragile he is. Not only those about him wanting to be stopped.

Also I think this may be a good way to tell. If his voice trembles, it's probably a sign of something deeper. Else, not.

Cosnirak3/16/2016, 11:37:07 PM5 votes

we all missed

I didn't miss any of this. If anything, to me it was pretty obvious. I think it's possibly the most important thing about him so I'm glad it was made so clear.

Swaid3/16/2016, 8:49:13 PM3 votes

It's the mask, its doing things to him; perhaps when he wears it, he thinks himself another person that must commit these acts, trapped behind a personality he created to forgo morality to pursue his passion. Think of it like Two-Face's coin; Jhin views the mask as an enabler, allowing him to perform such acts because in the beginning, he wore the mask to hide his identity and it prehaps evolved into a nessecity to wear the mask to make his art until he became dependent.

Kisindiaan3/16/2016, 7:54:19 PM3 votes

Yeah well you just painted down his character!

What I'm really interested of is, how does a man get to this point. But I guess only psychiatrians could answer this, maybe. I'd really love to learn about his childhood, for instance.

crippler383/17/2016, 1:00:38 PM1 votes

is that why in his color text it sounds like he wants shen and zed to work together to either kill him or him kill them? after all he said that is when the performance would really go. (I think I swear if I'm wrong about what I remember I'm going to cry)

I mean he's leaving hints for them to find him right?