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💔🩹❤️‍🩹💖...

Maybe I don' t have a right to talk about this, but this stray thought is an interpretation that I don't want to forget.

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Sometimes I see complaints about Jayce's "You were never broken" speech, and I think I get how taking it literally can be problematic---in terms of dismissing the very real threat of death that Viktor was facing from his disease. But I think that every part of that speech was doing a lot of metaphorical heavy lifting.

Jayce says, "You've always wanted to cure what you thought were weaknesses. Your leg. Your disease. But you were never broken, Viktor. There is beauty in imperfections. They made you who you are. An inseparable piece of everything I admired about you." Then, after Ekko throws an anomaly that breaks Viktor's mask: "I thought I wanted us to give magic to the world. Now, all I want is my partner back."

Even though the first few sentences of that quote from Jayce, specifically mention Viktor's leg and disease, I think it very quickly went into metaphorical territory. In my opinion, Jayce wasn't trying to dismiss the very real threats on Viktor's life from his physical ailments. I think Jayce was trying to make the connection that Viktor compared the deadly "imperfections" of his body, to an overly broad interpretation of how to regard Humanity's imperfections, in general. Because Viktor's "imperfections" were deadly and bad, Viktor could only see the imperfections of Humanity as solely bad. That explains Viktor's monologue after Jayce shot him, wherein Viktor says that Emotions are the root of all of Humanity's evils. At first he says Emotions are 2 sides of the same coin, seemingly acknowledging that Emotions can have both good and bad expressions/impacts. But then he decides that it would be best if Emotions were done away with, altogether. He no longer wanted to see the good that could come from Emotions, after identifying them as "imperfections". After he blamed Jayce's, and likely also Singed's and the Noxian army's, emotions for the attack on himself and his commune, Viktor could now only see emotions as messy, "imperfect", and a source of suffering and death. The same as "imperfections" were on his body (from his perspective).

Jayce tries to challenge this assumption of Viktor's, by telling Viktor that he was never broken. Yes, his body could be considered "broken". But VIKTOR, WHO he is, as a person, in his spirit, was never broken. He was always fighting for a solution, for a way out, for a cure, for some answer to seemingly hopeless questions. And yet, he still ALSO had the empathy to spare for considering the other people he could help in Zaun. Singed called Viktor "a doomed man". And yet, Viktor, WHO he is, was never broken by his impending death. He never stopped fighting for himself, nor for others, nor for answers. He was never broken.

And because the best part of Viktor, who he is as a person, in his spirit, was never broken, Jayce challenges the idea that Imperfections are enough of a reason to discard everything associated with them. Because if the "imperfections" of Viktor's body (his disease, his leg) still didn't break the most important part of him (his spirit, his soul), then are "imperfections" really so dire and evil that they need to be completely discarded? If Emotions are so messy and "imperfect", then do they really need to be discarded from Humanity? If individual autonomy is so messy and "imperfect", does it really need to be labelled as "evil" and thrown away completely? Imperfections aren't enough to break and ruin anything, in Jayce's view.

Jayce makes the argument that even things that Viktor deemed as "imperfections" are "an inseparable piece of everything", that even the "imperfections" can be part of what makes something good---despite being "imperfections". Jayce isn't trying to valorize the disease killing Viktor, nor is he trying to say everything great and admirable about Viktor came from his disease/disability. He is just saying that they are a part of Viktor, and Jayce loves all of Viktor, so even if those "imperfections" are part of him---because they are part of Viktor---he will love those "imperfections" too. Jayce would love Viktor, even if he was completely cured, and even if he never had a disability or a disease to begin with, just as much as he loves Viktor WITH his "imperfections". Because Jayce loves WHO Viktor IS. But because they don't live in those hypothetical worlds where Viktor never had a disease, or never had a disability, or completely cured himself (while staying human), the Viktor that Jayce came to know is the Viktor who had what Viktor considered "imperfections". Jayce needs Viktor to know that those "imperfections" are "An inseparable piece of everything I admired about you", because they are part of everything he came to know as "Viktor".

Jayce's speech isn't an idealization of disability or disease. He is making an argument to challenge Machine Herald of the Arcane Viktor's fundamental premise that "imperfections" can only be bad, cause suffering, and must therefore be completely discarded. It is an argument to defend the "imperfect" messy things of Emotions, individuality, autonomy, etc. It is an argument that even the detrimental sides, the messy, "imperfect" aspects of life and Humanity, are still not enough to "break" everything good. Jayce is arguing that even though Emotions can cause suffering, they can still also cause good, and maybe trying to deny that, trying to throw it all way, for fear of that pain, would be more detrimental than keeping it all, including the "imperfections". That's why Jayce specifically says that "imperfections" are "inseparable" from everything. He is trying to convince Viktor to see the good that Jayce sees, from Humanity retaining it's "humanity", by conveying Jayce's perspective on Viktor, who also had flaws, but who Jayce saw as perfect as a whole. It's not a literal statement about Viktor's bodily disabilities being "negligible". They were predominantly metaphorical statements about Viktor's admirable spirit (from Jayce's perspective), and how that proves Jayce's argument that removing Humanity's Emotions, as merely only "imperfections", is wrong and a waste.