some aspects of Viktor's co-dependency (read as love) with Jayce:
Thinking about "in all timelines, in all possibilities" where mage!Viktor was talking about how Jayce is the only person who can stop him from becoming a reckoning god and turning the world into a sheer wasteland of puppet purgatory.
But really? All timelines? Did he not count the happy AU that Ekko and Heimerdinger were sent to? No, Viktor didn't count that timeline. Because in that timeline, Hextech was never invented because Jayce (likely) succeeded in taking his own life when the explosion killed Vi. Viktor wouldn't have had the power to become the Machine Herald without the hexcore, but he damn well could have done some sketchy ass shit (especially with Singed) if he wanted to "help people". Not apocalyptic, but y'know, questionable shit. Honestly, who knows what could have happened.
But mage!Viktor doesn't count this universe, why? Because he never visited it. He never travelled to a universe where Jayce Talis was dead.
Coincidently this also brings up the notion of, why did he keep going back in time to give baby Jayce the rune in the first place? Or, better yet, not save him and his mother and let them perish in the snowstorm? No Jayce Talis = no Hextech = no Machine Herald. Viktor could have just not intervened and prevented the chain of events that would lead him to the "dreamless solitude".
But no. Every time Viktor saved Jayce and gave him a runestone. Every time he gave Jayce a chance to save him from what he would become. Because even though Viktor knew he would do terrible things he'd come to regret, he still couldn't let Jayce die or deny each of them experience of being partners.
So "in all timelines, in all possibilities" Viktor chose to continually save Jayce so that Jayce could save Viktor. So that they could have those years together, no matter what happened.
People like to dismiss Viktor’s dabbling in eugenics (in part because they like infantilizing him therefore robbing him of agency but I digress), but personally I love it because it’s a great parallel to how, irl, sometimes people in minority groups can be swayed by alt-right talking points due to the immense depth of their own internalized bigotry. They’ll hear these discussions and think “I can be fixed” (rather than learning they don’t need fixing because nothing is wrong in the first place), then throw themselves into that ideology thinking it will lead them to acceptance.
This is why Jayce’s speech saying that Viktor was “never broken” and that his “imperfections” are part of why he admired the man is so so important. The solution will always be love. You can’t shame yourself out of insecurities, they’ll just be buried so deep inside that you’ll start to believe it’s the natural way of things to feel that way.
I’m not saying Viktor is evil. He truly wanted to help people! But I believe this is a commentary both on the dangers of unchecked power as well as a warning of the paths we can fall into.
What I think Viktor’s speech in S2 EP6 (ACT2) meant.
edit: rewritten to be shorter
“I understand now. The message hidden within the pattern. The reason for our failures in the commune. The doctor was right, it’s inescapable—humanity, our very essence. Our emotions… rage, compassion, hate. Two sides of the same coin, inextricably bound. That which inspires us to do our greatest good… is also the cause of our greatest evil.”
Viktor’s goodbye speech in S2 EP6 tells us a lot. We learn about the ‘why’ of his actions and our own reality, and that’s why it’s worth understanding to a higher standard. His words show how humanity interferes with his pursuit of goodness.
Firsthandedly, Viktor’s speech teaches us about the emotionality of humanity. All humans do is feel—this leads to thinking, acting, and as a human, this process is inescapable. Emotions are why we do what we do. Ambessa started a war against Piltover because she hated the Black Rose and wanted revenge (by using hextech as weaponry). Viktor connected people to the hexcore because empathy, influenced by the hexcore, clouded his thoughts. He believed it was saving them. “The doctor was right, it’s inescapable—humanity, our very essence.” We do bad when we feel low, we do good when we feel uplifted. But how do we even know what’s good or bad? It’s because we know the other. “Our emotions… rage, compassion, hate. Two sides of the same coin, inextricably bound.” Emotions like hate/love, compassion/ignorance… They can’t exist without it’s other side. That’s why humanity can’t be perfectly good or perfectly bad, each side proves the other, it’s neutral in the end.
Next, Viktor’s speech shows how humanity contradicts his vision of hextech. If humans aren’t perfectly good or perfectly bad, then a purely good technology (used by people) is deemed impossible. Viktor and Jayce created hextech to end suffering, but in human hands, the tech then reflected both good and bad. Ambessa saw it as a pinnacle of power in war, while Viktor and Jayce saw it as a tool to aid the lower classes. This contrast already breaks Viktor’s idealistic viewpoint. “The message hidden within the pattern… the reason for our failures…” His dream of pure goodness in hextech failed because the nature of humanity is inescapable.
In S2 EP9, Viktor says, “Choice is false. It is how we clothe and forgive the baser instincts that spur us to division. Death, war, prejudice. Energy spent only to consume itself.” Yet, benefit requires free will. Near the end of Act 2, Viktor’s plan for the hexcore was already flawed. His dream of perfect good was a paradox… Because to achieve it, evil, the very thing that defines it, would have to be gone. He used the hexcore to ‘help’ humanity, but humanity and its flaws already makes it destructive. For the hexcore to be purely good, feelings, conscience, pain, all of humanity would need to be erased. But then again, without humanity, the hexcore deems no purpose. There would be nothing left to prove its goodness. Viktor’s plan ended up destroying what he tried to save, humanity. His greatest good became his greatest evil. “That which inspires us to do our greatest good… is also the cause of our greatest evil.”
The line “Two sides of the same coin, inextricably bound” sums this all up. Yin and yang, Jayce and Viktor, Piltover and Zaun—good and evil, is what makes reality, reality. This applies to life too. Evil gives good its meaning. Appreciate hardship, it makes righteousness exist. Accept sadness, it’s what makes your happiness real. Joy and sorrow make an already full reality—humanity. “People decide to choose their own fates” (S2 EP9, Jayce).
In Aristotelian philosophy, specifically in Metaphysics, axioms are seen as the most certain undeniable truths. However, there is a slight change to the definition of axioms in Posterior Analytics, where they are seen as the primary premises of demonstrations - which is similar to a more modern notion of axioms: axioms are the building bricks for any scientific theory, yet they are impossible to prove. The axiom of equality states that x will always equal x. It is the belief that an x has a uniqueness to it that can never be reduced or replicated, thus it will always equal itself.
Viktor has always thought himself to be the living proof of this axiom. No matter the uniform framing his slim figure, underneath it his bones will always burn with an undesirable intensity. No matter the title standing in front of his name, the fact remains that he has no house name to follow. No matter the warmth of his partner’s hand on his shoulder, he has always been destined to be taken away from him far too early. Viktor will always be the cripple from the Undercity, running a losing race with life since he was born. x always equals x. Until it doesn’t.
Until his story was rewritten by a selfish love. Viktor was no longer himself, yet he remained. He now existed with a hungry ancient thing within him, and a feeling of subtle bites of an animal that was born to devour. Each bite it has taken from him has left a wound - one that doesn’t cover the ground in rose-petal red of blood but rather fills him with uncertainties. He’s less than he could ever be, yet more than he ever was. And so he gives in. He descends down and decides to show everyone that the axiom of equality has been disproven - people no longer have to suffer for the unfairness of their fate. He will take their suffering away, even if it means he has to reshape their very being. And who else could know it is possible if not the one it has been done to? He has become the object of a defiant axiom, an object of a defiant science. x doesn’t always equal x. With this new knowledge he can reshape the very fabric of the human existence, and bring about the glorious evolution.
Analyzing a little snippet of Jayce and Viktor’s conversation in s2e8
Spoilers for Arcane season 2 below the cut, SPECIFICALLY FOR EPISODES 8 AND 9
Some notes:
I am not a LoL player and haven’t cross referenced the wider lore. I’m coming at this with the information available from the show
I am going to be referring to the spacey spirit realm/mind palace/ hexsoup Viktor spends s2 in as the astral plane. Prolly not what it’s actually called, but this is my yap session so I make the rules
the timestamp for the whole convo im gonna be talking about is s2e8 ~16:23 and the specific moment I want to point out is at ~16:48
For those who don’t want to pop open Netflix, a summary:
Viktor has come to Jayce as a mannequin to talk to him, asking Jayce to help pursue their shared goals with hextech once more.
Then the following words are exchanged:
J: “Everything you've done to these people, you did alone.”
V: “Perhaps. But I'm alone no longer. I now speak with all their voices.”
Viktor is lying.
While Jayce might think this last statement is true, he saw the cult and talked to Viktor/Salo, it’s blatantly false. Viktor even admits to it outright later during the finale, “I thought I could bring an end to the world's suffering. But when every equation was solved... all that remained... were fields of dreamless solitude.”
But it’s not the finale yet. So why do I claim Vik’s bullshitting?
Because as he makes his claim of being backed by many, the camera gives us this shot.
A full body zoom out of Viktor standing *alone*.
But I think Viktor *believes* in this. I think the framing is chosen to fit the narrative he wants to tell here, it even mirrors ascended Viktor, who gets the same framing.
But in the latter image, Viktor has evidence. Viktor has thousands of souls all around him.
So it’s not as if they can’t be ensnared in the astral plane. It’s not as if Viktor during e8 can’t have evidence. It’s that he simply *doesn’t* have any.
Because Viktor is lying.
And Viktor is alone.
Anywho, that’s all ((:
Thank you for coming to my mini-lecture on one 5 second scene, grab a cookie on your way out 🍪
Viktor is ‘competing’ with Mel for Jayce’s attention (represented through his mimicry of her, them being literal character foils as well) is a metaphor which Jayce is meant to represent Piltover, the comparisons of the opportunities they both were given, their different expectations, Viktor is painting himself to be the ideal perfect image to win their praise. He’s fighting for Piltover acceptance to see him as he is by painting himself as one of them, when the point is that he literally is not and their ignorance of him as himself is the fault.
The working class fighting for the upper class’s attention, to notice them, to let them in, to give them equal opportunity, to stop benefiting at their expense, etc
Bc at the end of the day, even when Viktor makes his way through their ranks, they still don’t see him as equal. Bc Piltover can never, and will never. If they do, it would crack the system, and they make a message out of Viktor. Undercity boy helps invent magic by breaking their laws? You bet your asses they wish they could’ve got rid of him, they hated they needed him. And so they punish him, they remove his credit on Hextech projects (Hexgates), they tell him he has to wait for his projects, and then Jayce eventually falls into complacency because he gets comfortable, he himself doesn’t need. And he has his own arc where he learns but it doesn’t change that he still did at a point
I think in spite of a bit of the writing falling short in Season 2, there still are some really well done things that I will definitely take with me, and I wish Jaymelvik story wasnt diminished to just ship wars as often as it is when there’s so much more we could unravel and unpack, it really does a disservice to how complex some of the storytelling and character work is
I think those are the brackerns trying to comunicate with him
(Sent in response to)
so are we ever gonna talk about Viktor’s visions and wtf THAT was or are we just gonna leave that one alone
Okay so I had to look this up because I’m still trying to learn League Lore. but holy SHIT. Thank you!
The question originally came up because I couldn’t quite figure out why they made such a big deal about the visions. On my first watch through, the visions seemed to be just another way to say that Viktor is smart and to liken him to Tesla in a way, but they seem... too intentional for that, and this show doesn’t exactly seem to include a single frame without a lot of thought behind it. On top of that, Jayce-- whatever you think of his character-- is also a genius. So why would Viktor have visions and not Jayce? Is it just an emotional way to show that Jayce is getting distracted while Viktor is falling deeper into their research? (maybe that’s a possibility, too).
But the idea that brackerns-- the celestial beings inside the namestones, or the true hex crystals-- are trying to communicate with Viktor through the visions is super cool. I can’t decide if it is more plausible, more satisfying to the depth of the story, or both, but I could totally see his visions being a result of his newfound proximity to the hex core, as they start to happen as he begins to say things like “hextech can learn” and as he starts to dive into the way that mages may use it.
I also think there’s some very interesting implications in the fact that hextech is actually powered by magical beings / godlike things, and not just some type of magic energy like how we would think of electricity (maybe that’s obvious if you know the lore but oh my god my mind is spinning).
Anyway I have a lot of thoughts now on what this could mean for Viktor so I’ll put them under here because this analysis got a little out of hand. Essentially...
Viktor is a mage, even though he was not born one
Viktor is a mage in Piltover
Viktor is a mage who (eventually) goes by the Machine Herald, with a corresponding ethos that doesn’t quite seem congruent with the use of magic
Hex core and brackerns could protect Viktor if they brought him into their little communication web
VIKTOR AS A MAGE
The first important thing I think here is that this almost certainly means that Viktor is becoming or has already become a mage himself, as he is in the game (which actually shocked me when I first found out because it just... didn’t fit right in my mind). @arcane-temp-fandomblog has some wonderful posts analyzing the hex core itself and how it bonds with people, but I’m really interested in what this means for Viktor himself.
This is a man who has dedicated his life to science and invention, and a man who later dedicates his own body to the exploration of technology and metallurgy. And yet… now he has the ability to wield magic.
I don’t think it’s mutually exclusive— science OR magic instead of and— and I actually think they’re quite intertwined for both Jayce and Viktor in the very nature of working with hextech. But there is something that feels incredibly different about investigating Magic’s practical use in the every day, seeing if you can essentially use it as a renewable energy resource, and… bonding with magic in a personal and very singular way.
The general populous of Piltover and Zaun do not have that connection to magic: the ability to wield it and shape it to their will. Jayce himself isn’t bonded to the hex core or to any of the crystals, and he is who they know of as the inventor of hextech.
It’s just Viktor.
On one hand, as a character, I’m very excited for him… this is a man who loves discovery and invention, who craves exploration of knowledge even at his own detriment. And we already know that that passion burns so deep within him that he is willing to break the rules in the pursuit of knowledge at every turn.
And now he has the ability to explore something completely new, to create tools and shape magic to do anything he can imagine, which must be the most incredible, heart stopping gift to give someone who loves discovery. An entire world has just opened up for him to explore, and if everything were chill in the world, I think that this is possibly the best thing that could every happen for Viktor. (My little academia loving heart just adores him omg)
However… he is now a mage in a society that hates magic.
Sure, they now accept hextech. But it’s branded very distinctly as technology, and I’m genuinely not sure how much the citizens of Piltover or Zaun think it is intertwined with magic? (I would assume it’s talked about a little bit as it does enable literal teleportation lol. If anyone knows, lmk). It also seems that the refined hex crystals are no longer magical, but are genuine tech created by Jayce and Viktor in Arcane, and the Ferros Clan in lore. From the brackern wiki page:
Piltovan scientist have created synthetic hex crystals as an alternative power source for hextech devices. It is unclear if this was done to prevent the wide exploitation of Brackern namestones, or as a result of the namestones being a finite and a difficult to gather resource.
So it seems that the majority of hextech used is not powered by the truly magical brackern namestones, or the unstable crystals we see in Act 1, even though they are sort of marketed as “magic meets science in the new frontier” or whatever. But, as I said, there is something that feels distinctly different about the crystals and tech that are manufactured in a lab to be used in ship engines and hex gates, compared to the overtly organic thing that hex core seems to be.
And once again, hextech is bonded to no one, so it doesn’t feel as innately personal as Viktor being an actual mage who can wield and shape the power of a namestone.
I think that maybe Viktor’s new status may play into his exile in Arcane?
It also feels like something that has the possibility to tear at Viktor’s priorities a little bit. Right now, and for the last seven years, Viktor has focused on hextech knowing that it had to do with magic, and he now has a much larger field to personally explore and experiment with in a way he never has before. Essentially, he has the opportunity to dive headfirst into magic and nothing else. But he becomes the Machine Herald. Every voice line he has is about welcoming in steel and technology, and how much better it is than the organic— which the hex core kind of fits imo. I know Arcane could simply be altering or retconning this, but if we go under the assumption that they are not right now, that means that Viktor either rejects his newfound ability to genuinely create and shape magic, or he lies about it.
Both are incredibly interesting to me.
MACHINE HERALD MAGE
On one hand, the Machine Herald could be created partly by magic (or the Void, or whatever the brackerns represent). It makes “Machine Herald” a bit of a misnomer, but it would make sense with the transformations we already see in the show. Perhaps he continues to use magic to augment himself, whether through the power of the hex core, some other manifestation of his newfound mage abilities, or through other means. For other people to join him his Glorious Evolution in this case, he would have to figure out how to use magic to augment other people as well.
Perhaps calling himself the Machine Herald, or even just allowing others to call him that, is simply a form of self defense or plausible deniability for Viktor in a world where no one should be using magic like this— his augmentations from the hex core certainly look to be made of metal, so perhaps he says he constructed them with metal when that isn’t quite the case. I think this theory feels a little disingenuous to Viktor’s intelligence, however, and actively choosing augmentation is pretty important to his character in lore, so I don’t know that this would be a likely case.
The last option I see is him trying to remove, alter, or perfect the hex core augmentations mechanically, moving him closer to the Machine Herald in lore. I could see him doing this out of guilt from what happened to Sky, as he already wants to destroy the hex core, so I don’t think loathing of the augmentations it created are that far off. Personally, I think this is the most likely theory, but I am interested to see how his becoming a mage and the possible communications with the brackerns affect his transition into steel augmentation. Perhaps it simply helps him gain better knowledge on how to create superior augmentations? The brackerns did give him visions that helped his research even before his blood touched the hex core.
I also think there is some fantastic inspiration in this for Viktor desperately trying to rid himself of the limbs that killed Sky
CONNECTED TO BRACKERNS / THE HEX CORE
I’m sure I am not the first to speculate this, but I think this is further support for the theory that the hex core could help protect Viktor in the explosion following Episode 9.
Again, on the brackern wiki, it says:
Through their namestones, the Brackern posses a hive mind connection with each other, being able to sense each other from long distances. Skarner himself was able to sense the cries of the namestones from as far as Piltover.
And of course in the show we see that Viktor is unable to harm or destroy the hex core after he has bonded with it, indicating that the hex core certainly has some self-preservation tendencies, and that Viktor himself may have bonded enough with the hex core or the brackern that was attached (?) to that namestone in order to connect himself with the brackern hive mind.
The theory that mages could bond with the namestones is either well known enough or discoverable enough that twenty-something Jayce made note of it long before the events of Act 1. In his journal:
I have collected several theories I've discovered on my journeys on how the power of the Arcane might be harnessed: Crystals form bonds with a sole user - their power is channeled though it
- Can a device be created to manufacture such a connection?
- What determines the bond?
Of course, we know that while Jayce and Viktor were successful in creating a loose bond strong enough to discover how the hex crystals work and turn it into marketable and recreatable tech, Viktor was the only one who actually made that unique bond with a crystal-- through his blood.
Because this particular bond is unique, I think it is possible that Viktor has connected to the brackerns / the namestones in a way we have not seen yet.
With their hive mind and their instinct for self preservation, I think it is even more plausible that this is what saves Viktor in the Council explosion.
Whether it saves anyone else... that is up for debate.
Here’s an interesting detail (which may or may not be relevant):
Old comics used colour language to communicate who was a hero and who was a villain. Red and Blue are heroic colours, while Green, Purple, Orange etc. are villainous colours.
Jayce is predominantly blue and red + gold accents.
Viktor is ALSO blue and red, with green, silver and gold.
