I love arcane because we saw that every single person (except maybe Ekko) made unforgiveable mistakes. What Jinx did was irredeemable. What Cait did was irredeemable. What do we do with people who make irredeemable mistakes? Where do we put them? Why do we keep pretending like we should puritanically erase all misdeeds? I think that we can look at the TRC in the aftermath of apartheid in South Africa. Obviously one side had more power and committed more atrocities than the other. But, despite there being countless numbers of atrocities, the country acknowledged that more bloodshed, more acts of terror and oppression would never end unless there was radical forgiveness for all sides. While I do not personally believe they were equally blameless, there becomes a point of no return, where there are no winners. At some point we have to accept our losses and walk away and be okay with the fact that sometimes people can be evil.
The whole season was Viktor advocating for a eugenicist's dream world. Everyone, fully evolved, perfect. No more war, or discrimination, disability, or poverty. But throughout arcane, every person fucked up. They fell short, they made stupid decisions, they let the people they loved down. But even though they were extremely flawed, they got to make their own decisions. They chose to do better, Cait lost an eye taking down Ambessa, Vi went back for Jinx again and again after trying to kill her, Jinx fought for Vi, Jayce used Hexcore to create the Machine Herald and then destroyed it. But Viktor's perspectives stemmed from seeing himself as a deficit. This brilliant inventor, and lovely man, who, because of his perspectives as a man with a bad leg, who was born into poverty, joined Piltover and saw the topsiders as the polished, perfect facades they carried around with them and thought he needed to be like them. He wanted to rid himself of his imperfections. These imperfections, which motivated him to want better for people like him. He was driven by empathy, by his own perceived short comings. But in reality, taking away everyone's imperfections leads to these faceless, uniform, manufactured robot people.
Wanting to tweak people, to do away with these imperfections robs them of who they are, their personhood, their identity. Humanity is a condition, and there is no such thing as a normal person, that doesn't exist, especially with circumstances as complex as theirs.
