Ekko was given the spotlight in the final episodes of Arcane Season 2 and he didn’t disappoint.
Ekko is the protagonist of Arcane Season 2, Episode 7 "Pretend Like It's the First Time", which is one of the best episodes of the whole League of Legends show.
Ekko's lore from League of Legends play a huge part not only in that episode, but in the end of Arcane Season 2. It's a great example of how Arcane brings up LoL lore and expand on it, creating scenes that make fans of the game fall in love with the show.
Ekko invents the device he uses in League of Legends
Arcane Season 2, Episode 7 is about Ekko and Heimerdinger living in a parallel reality in which Zaun is a prosper city much like Piltover, and everyone is alive but Vi — who died trying to rob Jayce's workshop when she was a teenager. As a result of it, Jayce never invented the Hextech as we know in that universe.
While Heimerdinger is living comfortable in that alternative universe, Ekko is desperate to come back to the original timeline. He sees the perks of that universe throughout the episode, like working as an inventor and dating Powder, but still wants to travel back to the original Zaun and help out his people.
In order to do that, Ekko collects the Hextech fragments in Jayce's destroyed workshop and invent the technology in that reality along with Heimerdinger and Powder's help.
During the process, Ekko plays with inversions on Jayce's acceleration rune and creates Zero-Drive (Z-Drive), a time loop device that allows him to travel back in time up to four seconds.
From there on, Heimerdinger find out how to send Ekko back to his original reality and the Zaunite brings the Z-Drive with him.
Thanks to it, Ekko prevents Jinx from killing them both with a bomb prior to the war between Zaun and Piltover troops and Ambessa in Episode 9 "The Dirt Under Your Nails".
Later on, Ekko also prevents Viktor from concluding his plan as he cinematically throws the Z-Drive at him, breaking the glass and making the Hextech interact with Viktor.
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What is the Z-Drive in League of Legends?
Ekko's abilities in League of Legends heavily rely on Z-Drive, a device that can manipulate time. It's also why Ekko is also known as "The Boy Who Shattered Time".
"Using his own invention, the Zero Drive, he explores the branching possibilities of reality to craft the perfect moment," Ekko's League of Legends bio reads. "To outsiders, Ekko seems to achieve the impossible the first time, every time."
We didn't know before Arcane how Ekko invented the Z-Drive and learned to manipulate time. Now, thanks to the show — which is canon — we know more about the Zaunite's past.
