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This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
- Note: Just want to say that as we did with Singed for PE and MB, we are gonna be disregarding Word of God that these 2 are canon to each other due to the massive continuity drift between them that LoL is simply soft-rebooting in favour of Arcane, and thus treat Viktor from the games and the show as seperate characters. That means even if also another qualifier, Viktor from the games will need a seperate proposal, and I am only proposing from the show.
| “ | 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 our greatest good... is also the cause of our greatest evil. | „ |
| ~ Quite unsettling to hear Viktor say all this considering how much of a nice guy he was in the first season. |
So, I have now caught up with the second season of Arcane and boy is there a massive pool for MB. 2 years back I proposed Silco who while agreed to count still did have some hiccups which this season did well in healing and cementing him as a keeper. We still have about 5 more keepers from the series which me and my pals, Yorkobe Shounen and Tripp Everett agree to split, with York getting one out already while I will handle 2 candidates from the series. So let the trial commence.
What is the Work?[]
Arcane is a great 2021 animated series released by Netflix that recently had it's second and final season concluded, and created by Riot Games as expanded material to their famous(ly self-contradicting) 2009 game, League of Legends. In the world of Ruterra, there exists the region of Piltover and it's undercity, the downtrodden region of Zaun, with 2 sides of the coin explored as the falling out between 2 sisters, Violet and Powder occur, and the partnership of Jayce Talis and Viktor leads to the creation of HexTech, which shall bring technological advancement to Piltover. As the two stories slowly intersect with each other, culminating in Powder going mad and becoming Jinx, the 2 regions are now at the brink of war against each other, interesting the likes of outside influences such as the Black Rose or the Noxus general, Ambessa Medarda, as the second season slowly builds up to the Arcane going unstable and leading to the annihilation of humanity during the "glorious evolution".
One of the main characters of the series who slowly grows more insane as the series progresses and the final threat of the series, Viktor, the Herald of the Arcane.
Who is Viktor? What Has He Done?[]
Once a poor, crippled boy living in the downtrodden regions of Zaun, Viktor as a child was a brilliant being, but due to his crippled nature, had suffered from loneliness. A scientist, Corvin Reveck or as he is infamously now known as, Singed, took a shining to the boy out of empathy, making him his protege. Viktor was skilled in helping Singed, befriending a mutation named Rio who was dying with Viktor wanting to saving her. However, when he realized that Singed's methods of saving her will subject her to unimaginable amounts of pain, the horrified Viktor cut ties with Singed and left.
He was eventually discovered by Heimerdinger, one of the members of the Piltover Council, and now a member of the Piltover Academy by being his assistant. Tasked to clear out Jayce Talis' unauthorized research when it was exposed, Viktor took an interest towards it and Jayce's interest to harness magic through science. Through this, Viktor was able to talk Jayce out of suicide and help him develop HexTech and show it to Heimerdinger and the rest of the council, impressing them and HexTech brings an era of progress to Piltover, while the two become best friends.
However, the two would slowly begin drifting apart, as Jayce and Viktor have differing opinions of when and how should their research and technology be released, or how Jayce's duties as a new member of Piltover's council has been making him busy. But then, Viktor contracts an illness, thanks to him not eating and sleeping for many days for his research on top of already growing up in the heavily polluted Zaun. Viktor, not wanting to die, wants to cure his illness as he feels he has so many gifts left to benefit humanity, but upon Heimerdinger advising Viktor to not press further as his experiments can be dangerous, Viktor returns to Singed, having understood why he needed to take his extreme ways to find the cure for death.
This would slowly kick in Viktor's sanity slippage as he conducts his own research to heal his own body, but at a cost when one of his tests using Shimmer and the HexCore results in the death of his assistant, Sky, leaving him to spread her ashes and contemplating suicide, until Jayce intervened where Viktor demands Jayce to destroy the HexCore. As the Piltover Council finally agree to vote Zaun as an independent state, tragedy struck as Jinx shoots a missile at their building, killing most of the councilmen and gravely injuring Viktor, that Jayce had to use the HexCore to save his life. Disappointed that Jayce broke his promise to save him, decides to leave Piltover.
Now returning to Zaun, Viktor realizes his power to heal others and use this to create a reputation as a sort of messiah. Hundreds to thousands of people gather around Viktor, surrendering their own lives and souls to him for Viktor to heal them, bringing peace as Viktor's following forms a thriving pacifistic village where everyone is on bliss. When Vi and Jinx arrive so that Viktor could heal Warwick/Vander and bring his mind back, Viktor takes the task and finds ways to overcome the mental blocks to Vander's mind, even refusing to put him down when Singed arrives at asks him too. Until Jayce came, driven mad with what future shall befall the world should Viktor continue doing what he did and then kills him. Coming to agree with Singed's misanthropic view and how humanity is their greatest enemy, Viktor decides it's time for a new course of action, bringing in the glorious evolution to free humans from emotions so that they can all be at peace.
Through this, Viktor agrees to partner with Ambessa Medarda and the Noxian Army for a full-scale invasion of Piltover and Zaun. Even with all this, Viktor still wants to have Jayce be his partner and sends one of his extensions to infiltrate Piltover which ended up showing how powerless either Piltover or Zaun was if they fight seperately. Viktor then begins his evolution as the Herald of the Arcane as he sends in the Noxian Army to invade and decimate the combined forces of Piltover and Zaun, while he has AMbessa guard an empty shimmer pod as bait while he sneaks into the HexGates. Still maintaining a friendly relationship with Jayce, despite his best efforts Jayce could not stop Viktor from activating the HexGates and begins the "glorious evolution" as he has the Arcane slowly absorb everyone in Piltover and Zaun and then all of Ruterra.
Viktor's plan would've worked perfectly had it not been for the surprise resistance of Ekko thanks to his Z-drive, a device Viktor didn't know could even be possible. While Viktor still manages to thwart Ekko, Ekko's efforts frees Jayce who then reveals to Viktor on who he met in the future and sent him back in time... a future version of himself who upon succeeding in his goals, grew regretful on how such actually annihilated humanity and realized the beauty in imperfections. When the future Viktor met Jayce, he sent Jayce back in time to stop his past self from succeeding. Viktor, knowing that his dreams are not worth the price and there is no true reward, opts to sacrifice himself to control the anomaly and free everyone from the arcane, with Jayce joining in to help. Viktor then spends his final moments embracing his best friend as the two sacrifice themselves for humanity's sake.
Is He Magnificent?[]
Oh easily. From the start he is as is a technological genius who alongside Jayce built HexTech that led to Piltover's incredible technological advancement. But I think Viktor shines when he goes rogue, using his newfound powers of his resurrection through the Hexcore to build a following as hundreds to thousands surrender their lives to him as their messiah, enough people to create a thriving village. Even with what all setbacks he faces, he is always available with plan b and never loses his cool, willing to compromise and be the power in his partnership with Singed and Ambessa, leading to a threat neither Piltover or Zaun are powerful enough to even put up a dignified fight, much less win, in which he has the Noxian invasion be a distraction to infiltrate Piltover and reach the Hexgates, and was seconds from bringing humanity to it's "glorious evolution", in which the only reason that plan can only even be truly foiled is due to Ekko's surprise resistance, which even then he struggled to fend of Viktor's powers and even succumbs to his plot, which only then grants Jayce an opening to reason with Viktor and show what his plans would really bring, to which Viktor opts to sacrifice his life to undo the harm that will ensue, spending his final moments embracing his best friend.
Is He Too Much of a Baddie?[]
Viktor starts out as the classic goody two shoes, the less likely to be corrupt compared to his partner Jay who gets tempted by the corrupt Piltover council at times while Viktor gets flashbacks objecting against Singed's extreme ways to preserve life... until he starts slowly dying, where he then understands and slowly approves of his extremist ways, and it all goes downhill from there, especially when he does get into his near death experience at the Season 2 premiere, as....
It needs to be said, Viktor's community... is a cult. Cults... are bad. Dude manipulates desperate people into surrendering their very lives to him in hopes of immortality, available to surrender parts of their own free will too in exchange for bliss. And while he doesn't seek to destroy the world, his plan is to strip humanity of their free will and emotion for their new "glorious evolution" by merging them all into just one being. Even his emotional attachment to Sky, he admits he will miss the conversations they have at the HexCore, before Sky's spirit/apparition disappears forever, she bluntly states that Viktor won't as he will get so drunk in the darkside that he will forget. Viktor at that moment was one of if not the greatest danger to all life on Ruterra whose ambitions are near apocalyptic... Viktor... is... a... bad... guy, and it's kinda wild hearing that people are lining up to defend him.
But again, even with the cult thing and horrible assimilation plot, one thing always remains constant... he is a well-intentioned extremist. While Viktor's methods progressively get less defensible, such horrifying actions are only motivated out of an earnest desire to unite humanity and give it peace, no longer fearing death or be harmed by unbalanced emotions that spur them against each other. He wants to prevent humanity from destroying each other, and detests being needlessly violent. He was fine with not assimilating humanity until Jayce goes mad with the revelations of what the "glorious evolution" will lead to and attack him. He is sincerely affable, he does not fake the kindness and mercy he offers anyone even with the skeevy nature of his cult that even with his sanity slippage going from bad to worse, he would still make it a priority to compromise with Jayce, earnestly wanting his best friend to be by his side saving the world and earnestly happy to see him. And when he realizes the true extent his plans would doom humanity to, in the future encourages Jayce to put an end to his plot, and the present Viktor sacrifices his life to undo his assimilation plot and save the world. Arcane is a show where even it's most vicious and evil villains gets lots of humanity to their name, and Viktor definitely is no different and such affably evil nature easily compensates for how nasty he gets at the final episodes.
Final Verdict[]
This is indeed a glorious evolution. An easy keep. Game version should keep to but would rather let people more familiar with that to do him