Arcane's writers really dropped the ball with Viktor in Season 2. And since he's seemingly not allowed to get mad anymore, I'm going to get mad for him (/j).
Hear me out.
Viktor in season 2 just kind of exists. Shit just happens to him. He's MIA for at least a third of the runtime, and when he is shown, he acts less as his own fully realised person and more like a tool other characters use to progress their own plotlines. He has agency but lacks true autonomy, and as a result he doesn't really do anything unless somebody else's story necessitates it.
Further, he spends the last quarter of his screentime dressed in the reinterpreted trappings of an eponymous character he does not actually resemble, co-opting aspects of an aesthetic that make no sense for the person he's become and paying lip service to a contrived worldview he should not actually believe.
Season 2 never gives us space to feel with Viktor, to think or breathe with him (though this is a wider problem with Season 2 in general). He has, what? one? scene alone, and it lacks any kind of insightful information about his state of being. Even in the arcane dimension, he's kept constant company by Sky, a character whose presence adds nothing of value to an already overcrowded cast.
At no point do we see him meaningfully struggle, even though he can attribute his current existence to Jayce violating his humanity in the name of love—using the very object Viktor begged him to destroy to do it. This is prime material for internal and interpersonal conflict, yet the writers did nothing with it.
Let Viktor get frustrated! Let him get mad! If I were him, I'd be furious and betrayed. We know he has the capacity for anger, we've seen his outbursts: let him have at it! Jayce and Viktor’s divorce arc could have (and should have) contained so much more divorce.
Then there's the whole cult leader angle: in his previous life, Viktor was shown to be a relatively reclusive scientist who didn't spend a lot of time with others outside the lab. He is not shown to be a leader, instead mostly content to work in the background while others handle external optics. He appears friendless throughout child and adulthood, demonstrating no substantive personal bonds beyond Jayce and Singed. Does Viktor not struggle at all with the fact that he is now the messianic leader of a quasi-religious movement? How does he feel about being a figurehead? Does he ever question his competence or worthiness, especially given how he became the way he is? Deep down, does he feel his position is something he deserves?
And how does he feel about being able to affect direct change upon those in need? Was he ever uncomfortable with the idea of being able to control his followers' bodies and minds? Does he even like practising magic, or does he really yearn to return to the lab?
Let's also not forget the way his physical state would affect how he interacts with the world around him. How might a sudden ressurection as an able-bodied immortal shape his emotions, his worldview? Does this arcane-powered form cause him to feel new physical sensations, or stop him from feeling old ones? Does he struggle to accept his strange new body, abled as it is? Where could that show through in his actions?
I've seen people say that being fused with the Hexcore has dulled his emotions, but if that's true, then the writing does a pretty poor job of delivering that information impactfully. I can buy into an end point where his becomes emotionally distant, but we don't get to see him grow into that state of being. The idea that he simply 'woke up like that' is not only boring and lazy, but it makes the final scene where his mask breaks away completely nonsensical.
Then there's the whole "glorious evolution" thing, which came so far out of nowhere it had me yelling at my screen. When were we shown Viktor developing this line of thinking? Did he come to the realisation in the goop sphere Singed somehow knew would revive him? The writing for this is atrociously contrived, especially when compared to how compelling his radicalisation is in the original character lore bio.
LoL Viktor is obsessed with mitigating and eliminating human error. He dedicated his life's work to saving lives, automating processes and building intelligent machines to improve safety in a highly polluted city that regularly experiences industrial disasters. It took a long term mental health decline—and eventual crisis—for his obsession to mutate into the belief that becoming more machine-like (incl. eliminating error caused by emotional interference) is humanity's next evolutionary frontier.
Arcane Viktor hits none of these beats in a meaningful way. While he could absolutely come to a similar conclusion via different means, we don't see the journey it took to arrive at these beliefs. Plus, most of his screentime with/as the arcane is spent attempting to cure physical ailments, not emotional ones. So where is this talk about curing people of their emotions coming from? And why is he suddenly piloting 500 mannequins? Speaking of: where did all these mannequins even come from? Were they created specifically for an assault on Piltover? Who built them? Where did they get the materials; what was the lead time on that?
Finally, as much as I casually enjoy Jayvik, their ending doesn't sit well with me. It sees Jayce acting the saviour to a version of Viktor that he played several direct roles in creating, yet he never acknowledges his own culpability in bringing Viktor’s corruption about. He has not, in my opinion, demonstrated sufficient understanding of just how deeply fucked what he did to Viktor was for their ending to be in any way earned.
I get that they love each other, but a lot has happened between the explosion that ended season 1 and the grand yaoi finale of season 2. They spent 98% of that time No Contact and a further 1% actively attempting to murder one another. Jayce and his universe's Viktor haven't had enough meaningful interaction for me to believe a single celestial conversation would peacefully resolve their issues. And why is Viktor suddenly a wet rag? Where's his conviction? He's not the only one at fault here!
Hopefully you're finally ripping in peace, king. You deserved better.
been reading some cute hdg digitization/robogirl microfics on here and i mayyy have discovered how bad i need to be replaced piece by piece with machine parts until there’s nothing organic left (expect maybe my tongue?)
