In one the AMA with the writers from Arcane (I think it was Christian Linke but I'm not sure), said that one of the keys to building their characters respective narrative arcs was to "forcing them to make an impossible choice between two things they can't sacrifice" (for example, Silco having to pick between Jinx and Zaun; Marcus choice between protecting his daughter and keeping the peace between the cities vs exposing himself; Vi between Cait and Jinx)
Makes me wonder, what is going to be the "impossible choice" for Viktor and Jayce next season? 🤔🤔
Ouch, this one’s gunna hurt… (TW suicide mention)
I think Viktor kinda sorta already faced it. Or the beginning of it, anyway. The first choice—to die. To give up fighting. To lose everything. To leave this world before he made a mark on it, helped the people he set out to help. Or to survive his terminal illness, take back control, but with the knowledge that he cost Sky her life, and in so doing made the one critical error he never meant to make. To quote Heimerdinger himself, “no great science should ever put lives in danger.” He would always know that, in order to live, he had to sacrifice the very foundation of who he is—“to improve lives, not to take them.”
And we saw him choose option 3. Death, on his own terms. But Jayce stopped him, and I think it’s only going to lead to more destruction of Viktor’s psyche. He’s going to lose everything, possibly be banished by his lover only friend. And I think the ensuing rage and grief will swing him to choose the other option; life, on his own terms. Life that makes him sacrifice who he is. But at that point, I think he’s going to realize that who he was… is already dead. He already lost everything. So taking that final step toward becoming the Machine Herald won’t even be a hard one.
And as for Jayce, I really do think it’s going to revolve around Viktor. What Viktor did will likely come to light—his self-experimentation (which I foresee them calling ‘mutilation’), drug smuggling, and the subsequent killing of Sky. It’s a violation of their ethos, and in the wake of Jinx’s attack, what remains of the council will want their pound of flesh. And I’m assuming Jayce will still be the de-facto head of the council, so it’ll all come down to him.
I don’t think Piltover has a death penalty… so the options will likely be Stillwater Prison or banishment. But Viktor has a lot of knowledge of Hextech, knowledge that I foresee the council wanting to keep out of Zaun. So they will all lean for Stillwater. But Jayce still cares about Viktor, he understands why he did what he did, even if he doesn’t condone it. He wants to protect Viktor, wants to give him a chance. And this leaves him with an impossible choice—send his lover partner to Stillwater Prison, where he will suffer before eventually dying in there, locked away and all alone. Or… banishment. Equally grim, but Zaun is resourceful, they have Chemtech and body mods… maybe someone can help him, maybe someone can save him.
So he banishes his lover best friend.
But I do have a theory on this—Viktor will know how this judgement is going to play out long before the verdict. He knows the council, and… he knows Jayce. He’s seen how Jayce bends to them, how he allows himself to be cowed and corrupted by the pressure. And unfortunately, he’s seen how wrong he was to think “Jayce will understand.”
So he will probably sneak into the lab, steal the Hexclaw and the Hexcore, and leave for Zaun of his own volition. If he can’t trust his partner and lover best friend, then he can trust only one person. Himself.
This gives me brain tingles!!!
I think there has to be a fight between Jayce and Viktor before the latter leaves for Zaun, where Viktor condemns Jayce for his political choices after Jinx's bomb, and Jayce confronts his partner about the Hexcore, where he got the Shimmer from and Sky's death, that will ultimately tear their friendship apart.
I do think Viktor would be imprisoned IF he would survive the council destroying the hexcore. We don't know what that would actually do to Viktor's body, maybe it's like an instakill.
As to Viktor's next "impossible decision", it's prob going to be to defend the undercity from Piltover's attacks/initiate his glorious evolution. Bc we know Viktor is a pacifist, he doesn't want war and he doesn't want to meddle with stuff like that, but he will decide to fight, bc he's not only partly responsible for the weapons that will tear Zaun down but also the only one to have an adequate defense for it (the hexcore and all the magic and technology accompanying it). At least this is what I think. 🤔
