Jhin the Virtuoso
Without a doubt, Jhin the Virtuoso is one of the most mysterious characters in the lore of League of Legends (a MOBA game made by Riot Games). He is a psychopathic artist. He is obsessed with killing and sees eradication as an authentic art form. However, how the lens of Friedrich Nietzsche‘s philosophical character, especially on the aesthetics of death, is seen in Jhin. Nietzsche’s theory, which includes the absurdity, beauty, and art of human existence, can help us grasp Jhin’s character. Who is Jhin? How does he act? What forces compel him to do so?
Nietzsche’s philosophy is anything but simple. It has multiple dimensions concerning aesthetics, ethics, and existence. His “aesthetics of death” owes its anti-moralism, will to power, and life-affirming positions. For such reasons, Nietzsche was a strong opponent of traditional ethical values, especially religion.
In particular, Christianity was detrimental to self-exploration, creativity, and human growth. He believed that all values should be life-affirming. Destruction and negativity should be included among the values. In this context, Jhin can be considered a character of Nietzschean aesthetics; he does not adhere to moral values. He seeks beauty out of sheer destruction.
Often referred to as Jhin, Khada Jhin hails from Ionia. It was a land renowned for its magical traditions. Other than that, not much is known about his childhood. However, he was known to be a stagehand. Later, he was nicknamed the “Golden Demon.” It is implied that Jhin loved killing. Practically, now considering it an art form. It marked the start of a surprise shift, this time as an artist, as he depicted his victims as artwork rather than finished items.
Jhin’s psychological portrayal lies at the heart of his hobby’s goal: perfection. He stages and orchestrates each murder as performance art. Each act of murder is executed with balletic movements down to his high-caliber firearms. It’s crafted to deliver a precise and deadly shot that he considers his “signature.” Jhin doesn’t kill anyone; he crafts an elaborate set-up so that each triangle becomes a spectacle for the audience to tremble at. By depersonalizing his targets, it’s clear that they don’t matter because of who they are. Instead, their deaths serve a purpose in Jhin’s narrative.
Jhin’s Skills
Jhin’s game skills reflect his devotion to obtaining quality. His techniques are designed to show his passion and calmness toward precision in killing. Take, for example, his ultimate move, “Curtain Call.” In this, he shoots four times, each more powerful than the last. The fourth is very damaging. The skill itself is an allegory of Jhin’s way of thinking—every shot he makes and every weapon he holds is aimed at a frame. The final shot from that weapon is art in itself.
To sort out Jhin’s character in light of Nietzsche’s philosophy, we must delve into the concepts of aesthetics and death that he put forward. Fundamentally, Nietzsche believed that there is always tragedy in life. It is filled with bloodshed, chaos, and pain. However, he argued that the tragedy contains elements of splendor and beauty. The core of Nietzsche’s thinking on art is “Dionysian” thinking. It does not reject the creativity and violence of primary nature; it embraces and celebrates it.
In art, Nietzsche uses the term Dionysian or the “Apollonian” to show two opposing forces. Apollonian means rationality, symmetry, and organization. Apollonian seeks to finish the world’s jigsaw puzzle and give it a purpose, but Dionysian prefers to celebrate incompleteness. In Nietzsche’s view, tension is the central dynamic in art, and this tension is created between these two opposing forces. On the other hand, The Dionysian represents the flow of energy that fuels all creative efforts.
Contextually, death epitomizes the highest order of Dionysians: decaying, principles in chaos, and mutilating the order of life. On the other hand, death is something Nietzsche does not avoid or fear. Contrarily, he sees it as one of the creative things in life. Thus, beauty in death is found in everything destructive and terrible. It permeates the being as an essential component of a healthy life.
On the surface, the perspective aligns with what Nietzsche calls “eternal recurrence.” It is the suffering and relief of life, he suggests, that repeats itself endlessly. In that sense, for Nietzsche, to say yes to life (even at its lowest point) is to be creative and powerful. One could say that Jhin, as a character, represents the Nietzschean idea that death is not the end. It is the layer through which he makes art and validates his existence.
Nietzschean Artist of Destruction
Killing in the most artistic way conceivable is one of Jhin’s core principles. This point is relativistic about Nietzsche. Like the former, he finds the most profound art at the expense of morals. Jhin is not motivated by hatred, revenge, or sadistic pleasures; he is motivated by the aesthetics of death and the artistic value of his killings. In this regard, one could argue that Jhin is an artist of the Nietzschean sort—creating art through annihilation.
Killing in any way imaginable is one of Jhin’s core principles. The point is relativistic about Nietzsche. Like the first, he finds art at the expense of morality. Sadistic pleasure, revenge, or hatred do not motivate Jhin at all; his motivation is an appreciation of death as aesthetics and his killing as art. In this sense, Jhin is a Nietzschean artist (creating art through destruction).
Another crucial part of Jhin’s personality is his disregard for moral rules. Nietzsche is deeply opposed to traditional moral standards, especially those based on Christian teachings because they suppress individual imagination and energy. According to him, the morals and beliefs stem from a “slave morality” that values frailty, obedience, and servility while condemning genius, power, and creative prowess.
Similar to the “Übermensch” or “Overman,” Jhin ignores the morality of slavery. He adopts his morality—one that he creates himself. He does not consider his actions evil or wrong in any way. By preference, he sees them as merely his artistic desires. Jhin does not aspire to kill simply for power over others. Willingly, he seeks to kill for the sake of art. Because that is what makes what he considers beautiful. Jhin rises above the ordinary morality imposed on him. He becomes a value creator, much like Nietzsche’s Übermensch.
Another dimension of Jhin’s character is, as already mentioned, his perfectionism. In fact, for Nietzsche, the desire for perfection and greatness is what distinguishes the Übermensch. The Übermensch is a sphere defined by the “will to power.” It compels one to aspire to great heights, conquer challenges, and impose their values.
For Jhin, the will to power is transcribed as his obsession with perfecting his art. Each of his murders is executed after an elaborate plan. He is always attentive to the tiniest things, whether it is the timing or the background decoration. It is also evident how Jhin’s search for perfection is motivated by his desire for power, to make himself and his beauty acceptable in a hostile society.
Jhin’s “artwork,” which appears as both in-game and backstory abilities, emphasizes the idea of death. To Jhin, the act of killing someone is an act of performance. Every individual who dies for him is on show, intended to astonish and frighten everyone at once. He does not kill at random; his victims are chosen based on their ability to perfect his art. Jhin is an artist. His target is a work of art to be elaborated upon. Each kill elevates its beauty in the context of vast destruction and devastation.
Curtain Call
Citing the example of the ability to focus on his enemy and release under his “Curtain Call,” Jhin shows how the aesthetics of death are part of his character. The ability allows Jhin to pull the trigger four times on an enemy, each taking more damage than the last. The last shot is a critical hit to the head and deals the most damage.
The ability compares a metaphor to Jhin’s ideology: the first three shots are just wasted ammunition before the real action occurs in the fourth and final shot. It is the most beautiful art. The final shot must cause significant injury since Jhin sees art as a form of death, as an artist writes his final strokes.
Jhin is also depicted as committing horrific acts but with a purpose. His remains are placed in an ornate arrangement that resembles entropy. The presentations are not just due to Jhin’s madness. They are intriguing and must be seen as the artist attempting to bring beauty from death. Jhin is an artist who creates art that is devoid of morality. He embraces the more savage side of life, similar to how Nietzsche used the Dionysian.
Every time he speaks or utters something, he does it in a distinctive way, through which one can see Jhin as an aspiring artist. For him, every murder is a stage performance in a way that would make no sense if not a theatre. His vocal lines are always refreshing. It has the tone of someone filled with art and beauty who speaks even of destruction and death in both a heavenly and joyful way.
This feature is congruent with Nietzsche’s idea that the Apollonian and Dionysian are combined, beauty in order is found in Jhin’s murder (Apollonian), and ugly in the beauty of death (Dionysian) in art.
The concept of tragedy and tragic characters is also borrowed from Nietzsche. Jhin might also be considered a tragic figure. However, it is perhaps in the context of what Nietzsche calls “tragedy.” Again, tragedy is more than just a source of pain and loss; it is an acknowledgment of the confusion and strife at the humanity center. But there is also the possibility of achieving something beautiful yet great. According to Nietzsche, the best work of art does not suppress or avoid the conflicts of life. Instead, it embraces and confronts them.
Jhin’s Art
Jhin’s terror has a disturbing beauty. He is not motivated to kill for power, revenge, or pleasure. Instead, he seeks to fabricate beauty in an inherently disordered social structure. Truly, Jhin is an artist. But he conveys “image” through death. In a way, the victims die and suffer. They exist on a different dimension of the art they have been taught.
However, Jhin’s devotion to perfection became his archenemy. His desire to create a work of art that would be the best. If such a thing were possible, it would propel him to a new level, given that art often depicts murder and betrayal. So far, such an obsession can only be self-destructive because there is no curse; it has the opposite meaning for him: all humanity. More tragically, Jhin suffers to get what he wants: perfection and beauty. However, it burdens him and the people around him.
Jhin’s tragedy lies in the fact that he produces art, but no one appreciates it. This is aggravated by the fact that people don’t understand why he does what he does. He considers himself to be in the league of great artists. In contrast, society views him as a maniac driven by passion. He finds solace only in mischief.
The difference in Jhin’s perception of himself and the world is quite pronounced. More often than not, it is because society will not tolerate them. When great artists exist in a society, the absurdity of Jhin’s art is so great. The humiliation drives him to a state of madness.
Jhin the Virtuoso is a character study whose complexity can be studied through the lens of Nietzsche’s philosophy. His self-centeredness is an aversion to talk of reintegration into society. The self-centeredness emphasizes the separation between what is loved and the person himself. As Nietzsche wrote, the self-centeredness elicits similar concepts. Jhin does not simply kill because of his desire. His massacre is more than just a massacre. Instead, the massacre is a dramatic performance designed to entertain and frighten the audience.
The view of art represented by Jhin and influenced by Nietzsche’s philosophy also includes the beauty of art in its tragic nature. In the conflict between Apollonian order and Dionysian chaos or between life and death, Jhin understands how society views morality and creates art. He does not shy away from a nihilistic worldview consistent with how the nature of art is to confront the ugly aspects of reality.
In the pursuit of perfection, Jhin sees his shortcomings. It leads him to a hysterical obsession with danger. Meanwhile, he is alienated from the rest of the world. Jhin is a somewhat tragic hero; his art is at once the best thing he has ever done and the most crippling burden he has ever had to bear. Most importantly, his character represents the most terrible but scary beauty and majesty.
Bibliography
- Nietzsche, F. (1989). Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (W. Kaufmann, Trans.). Vintage.
- Nietzsche, F. (1967). The Birth of Tragedy (W. Kaufmann, Trans.). Random House.
- Nietzsche, F. (1978). Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (W. Kaufmann, Trans.). Penguin Books.
- Riot Games. Jhin (Character) | League of Legends. Riot Games, 2009.