#hextech and social context

[mercutio-the-velaryon]

Okay, the Twitter takes are pissing me awfff, so let's get this straight and then never talk about it again.

The conversation between Mel and Jayce in the council room definitely should have taken place at some point. I think it was better suited to have happened at an earlier point, like episode one. However, the conversation itself fell very flat, and its contents failed to properly reflect the issue with Mel and Jayce's relationship dynamic.

In the confrontation Jay asks, with a very fragmented mind, whether she only protected her and Jayce on purpose, she says no, he says I can't believe that because of you using victor and me for hextech and calling us investments.

This accusation doesn't really make any sense, because although her actions and methods were unethical making a business investment out of hextech does not align with the extremities of purposefully not protecting the other in the council room.

Let me be clear, it is blatantly obvious that Jayce only makes this accusation because he has been through the mental and physical ringer. That is part of the reason why I think this conversation should've happened earlier so the real issues could've been addressed. Because now within context, his almost valid criticism is treated as lashing out, and it has to be swept under the rug because we got war the next episode.

Now for a breakdown:

Mel and Jayce's relationship was imbalanced from its inception. He had piqued her political interest from the moment he stood before the council for his unlawful science experiments. She was interested in Hextech from the jump but didn't make it known until she knew it was a beneficial venture. But that wasn't a problem that was the fall of the first domino.

Throughout their relationship, Mel is always one or two steps ahead of Jayce. She leads and guides him to make decisions that she deems necessary to attain the power and influence required to improve Piltover. I believe that she wants Jayce to fully realise his dream of helping the masses, due to her being an empath, she takes on his wants and desires which results in his success mattering more and more to her as the story progresses.

So, she is well intentioned but inconsiderate of the fact that Jayce rarely wants to be where she encourages him to go he just has an unshakeable sense of responsibility. She orchestrates behind the scenes for his benefit, springs investors on him, and advocates for his place on the council, all without any discussion or proper dialogue with he who it does concern. It's kind of funny that she's very considerate of him, but she doesn't consult him on anything. She's already made up her mind when they speak; she goes to convince not to discuss.

Let me very quickly assert that I don't think what Mel does obstructs his autonomy or his own free will, she offers and he accepts and he always has the option not to but he rarely does mainly because I think he's a people pleaser and he also holds Mel in high regard.

Let us also remember that he is an educated man from a House in Piltover with a sponser from the council he is a man of privilege his social status is his largest obstacle to realising his dream because he isn't even versed in the complex issues of the people he's trying to help.

Considering all of this, the conversation in the council room followed by Jayce's non-apology and their subsequent break-up scene that was more a viscerally implied break up than explicity stated (which I think was an odd choice because they'd known each other for years and they just kind of fizzle out) are an ill match to what actually transpired between them.

There was such an amazing opportunity for them to have a compelling dialogue about their relationship imbalance. If it had been more two-sided, we could have had Jayce bring up being used as a political pawn but also bearing the weight of his own choices, and Mel being emotionally closed off and unreachable.

It should have played out like a tennis match until both of them lost. Then, for the break up, if thats what it was, they were still characters who meant a lot to each other and deserved a just goodbye, featuring a little hand holding and Mel pulls away first and then they walk away from each other.

In general, Mel, as a character, endured a lot with little to no triumph or compensation. For example, the next time we see Mel after that she's trying to talk her mother down speaks "out of turn" and ends up getting bitch slapped by her I mean...

And you can argue that becoming the wolf was triumphant. I would say that it was a very bittersweet moment with an emphasis on bitter because that felt like the passing on of a generational curse.

You could also argue that Jayce had endured a lot by that point. Well... yes! He did, and he didn't seek comfort in her. He couldn't. He wasn't asking for it like she was. He also got to die in the arms of the person he loved, man got glorious closure, no notes.

I think the scene with Jayce also revealed how isolated Mel is as a character. In the sense that she feels so separated from the main narrative, like if you culled her entire storyline, it wouldn't change much. She also has no other established relationships of depth among the protagonists, no dynamic with anyone, her final battle is her and Cait teaming up, and they don't really mean anything to each other. Which sounds irrelevant until you consider how inextricably linked everyone else is.

And yes, they were both somewhat Ambessa's heirs in some capacity more figuratively for Cait, but it fell just fell short emotionally especially in contrast to Ekko and Jinx and Jinx and Vi and even Ekko and Jayvik because they're the science buffs and the kid straight out of Zaun with no formal education shattered time. Ugh, now that's a Triumph!

[nocturneastra]

✦Rewrite the Stars✦

Background Context

In the original timeline, Viktor and Jayce invented Hextech in 193 A.P.F, an event that led to rapid technological progress but also catastrophic political, social, and personal consequences. Among the fallout: the rise of Silco, the proliferation of Shimmer, Powder's transformation into Jinx, Zaun’s suffering, and the fall of Piltover’s Council.

However, at the moment of their deaths—or perhaps as a last ripple of Arcane interference—they are thrown back in time to 190 A.P.F, four years before Hextech is born. Jayce is 20. Viktor is 22. They retain all their memories and trauma, and in doing so, create a divergent branch of history.

This timeline is defined not by Hextech but by their efforts to prevent it, to protect Zaun, and to build a future rooted in justice, science, and choice.

Age 22 – The Reset (190 A.P.F)

Event: Jayce and Viktor awaken in their younger bodies. They confirm it is 190 A.P.F via a newspaper headline and quickly realize: 

“We’re back. Four years before it all went to hell.”

Action: They destroy all research and notes related to Hextech and hide the unrefined crystals.

“Hextech was the match. Silco, Jinx, and the war were the fire.”

Effect: Hextech never exists. Piltover’s technological boom is delayed, and the council retains its traditionalist structures.

Event: Jayce convinces Heimerdinger to arrange a meeting with Mel Medarda. Drawing on his memories of her rise, Jayce pitches her future political role.

Event: During the meeting, Viktor accidentally pulls Mel into the Astral Plane, revealing glimpses of the ruined timeline.

Effect: Convinced by what she sees, Mel agrees to work with them as a silent ally. They become her secret advisors, never publicly associated with her.

Event: Jayce suggests the formation of a Zaunite-only peacekeeping force.

Effect: Mel discreetly relays the idea to Heimerdinger. In turn, Heimerdinger speaks to Sheriff Grayson, who reaches out to Vander for collaboration.

Age 23 – Foundations

Event: With Vander’s endorsement and Grayson’s cooperation, the Zaunite Force Program is piloted. Piltover enforcers are kept out of Zaun.

Effect: A 13-year-old Vi, although hesitant given her distrust and hate of enforcers, shows early interest in joining.

Event: Viktor suggests Mel and Heimerdinger quietly establish a scholarship fund for promising Undercity youth.

Effect: Powder (11) and Ekko (9) are identified for future sponsorship.

Event: Viktor contacts Singed, proposing a private arrangement: Viktor will use his abilities to cure Orianna (Singed's daughter), in exchange for Singed abandoning his work with Silco and joining Viktor’s cause for Zaunite advancement.

Age 24 – Family Begins

Event: Viktor and Jayce start a formal relationship.

Event: Viktor discovers he is pregnant.

Event: Jayce and Viktor marry in a quiet, private ceremony.

"We wasted time the first time around."

Effect: They purchase a modest home in Zaun, just beside the Piltover bridge.

Event: Vi (now 16) joins the enforcer program under Vander and Grayson’s guidance.

Event: Naph is born.

Context: Their marriage is not only a response to the pregnancy but a conscious decision to reclaim time they lost in the original timeline. Naph becomes a symbol of that second chance.

Age 25 – The Fall of the Chembarons

Event: With strategic backing from Mel and Piltover’s Council, a coordinated raid is launched on the Chembarons by the new enforcers of Zaun led by Sevika.

Effect: Silco and the remaining crime lords are arrested and imprisoned in the deepest levels of Stillwater.

Effect: With crime syndicates removed, Zaun’s call for independence strengthens.

Age 26 – Zaun Rises

Event: Zaun is officially declared an independent city-state with its own council.

Event: Vander becomes the head of this new council.

Event: Sevika is appointed Sheriff, with 18-year-old Vi as her second-in-command.

Event: Amaro is born.

Age 27–28 – Alchémica

Event: Viktor and Jayce step down from their roles as secret political advisors.

Event: With savings and Mel’s quiet endorsement, they found Alchémica, a company dedicated to Zaunite infrastructure and non-magical innovation.

Effect: They invent the Aetherium Lung, a biological respiratory device that improves air quality.

Effect: The Kiramman family's monopoly on ventilation collapses, and Piltover loses significant control over Zaun.

Age 29 – Old Roots

Event: Viktor begins development of protective suits for deep fissure exploration.

Event: He descends into the depths of Zaun and discovers Oshra Va’Zaun, an ancient, forgotten city.

Effect: Viktor retrieves early texts written in an old-Zaunite dialect, filled with arcane glyphs and references to lost magic.

Age 30 – New Life, New Legacy

Event: Blitz is born.

Event: Powder (now 18) and Ekko (16) begin their studies at a Piltover academy on full scholarship.

Age 31–34 – Consolidation

Event: Alchémica becomes Zaun’s largest and most respected employer.

Effect: Economic stability and public health improve across Zaun thanks to their innovations.

Effect: The Kiramman family retreats fully into Piltovan politics, relinquishing their influence over the Undercity.

Age 35 – Shocks and Revelations

Event: Naph, now 11, asks about her family’s roots. Viktor begins digging.

Discovery: Silco is Viktor’s biological father.

Effect: Viktor's internal conflict, knowing he's related to Silco.

Event: Viktor and Amaro (9) are caught in a structural collapse during a site visit.

Effect: Viktor saves his son, but Amaro loses a leg. He is later fitted with a prosthetic designed by his siblings and dads.

Age 36 – Magic Returns

Event: Viktor catches Naph reading one of the Oshra texts and unintentionally activating dormant arcane symbols.

Realization: Naph has inherited arcane sensitivity.

Jayce: “It’s happening again.”

But Viktor responds: “No. It’s happening differently.”

Event: Viktor begins quietly studying the glyphs and their effect on his children.

Age 37 – Gifted Blood

Event: Viktor tests Amaro and Blitz for traces of arcane power.

Result: All three children exhibit subtle, differing arcane abilities.

Response: Viktor keeps this secret, fearing what attention it might attract.

Age 38–39 – Safe Harbor

Event: Jayce and Viktor relocate their family to a secure residence between Piltover and Zaun.

Effect: They withdraw from public life, focusing on their family, their research, and ensuring their children grow up safe, away from political or magical exploitation.

Age 41 – Final Piece

Event: Viktor gives birth to their fourth child, a girl named Hex.

Event: Jayce undergoes a vasectomy, and they agree their family is complete.

Effect: They live quietly, prepared for any arcane resurgence, monitoring the patterns of power in their children and the world beyond.

[lullabyes22-blog]

Hi, I'm not expecting you to answer this ask, I just didn't want to comment this because I don't want it to be perceived as a 'call out'. This is rather to on the off chance this was an accidental reference let you know about it. In a recent ask you replied to, you said Silco views Mel as a Jezebel. If you weren't referencing the Jezebel stereotype levied against black women, I thought it might be good for you to know. Jezebel was used as an excuse to sexually assault enslaved black women, and continued to be used as a term to cast black women as inherently sexual and thus unable to be raped for a long time. Even today it is considered very racially motivated to call a black woman a Jezebel. Now, I'm not sure if you used the term to express that is how degrading his view of her is. But I thought if you didn't know about what Jezebel means in these contexts, someone should tell you. And I wanted to do it in a manner that made it clear I am simply informing you rather than attempting to embarrass or ridicule you.

Hey anon!

I'm fully aware of what the term 'Jezebel' means and we are, throughout this fic, deconstructing how Silco views Mel through this unflattering lens versus the actual lived reality of her experiences as a desirable woman in a position of power, as explored in how she shares more of herself and her hardships and how his perceptions of her alter accordingly, the longer they get to know each other and the more entangled their bargain becomes.

Mel's exploration in FnF is a callout in itself to how fandom all but labels her as a 'Jezebel' in its very unflattering critiques of her as a black woman and a POC in a position of power.

In-text, Arcane has little to no explorations of racial dynamics as that is neither the focal point nor the setting for it. But that doesn't mean the fandom's own social politics don't inform its biases on characters it trashes.

Mel, in particular, gets hit hard with this, being the only notable black woman in Arcane who is a) seductive in her deployment of power b) sexually desirable as evidenced by her beauty and how other characters react to it c) an active participant in trying to gain more agency/power/control by sponsoring Hextech to put Piltover on the map and perhaps win back her mother's approval d) portrayed as highly educated/wealthy/well-connected due to both diegetic text and Lol lore on the Medardas that makes evident just how high-status she is, e) is actively portrayed as having sex with Jayce and, at first glance, using this as leverage in-text as a form of control and f) at first blush, she gets away with almost everything she does, including her numerous manipulations to fast-track her agenda in the Council by using Jayce as her ticket.

All of which makes her, initially, come off as deeply unlikeable, conniving, selfish, vain etc.

At least: to a certain... demographic... of the fandom.

Arcane is very masterful at subverting expectations. Its intent is to tell one story through its visual language, playing into deep-rooted sexist, racist and classist tropes... and then undermining them. It takes characters like Silco, disfigured, conniving and literally coming from the city's sunken underbelly, and paints him initially as nothing short of monstrous, making his ruthless ambition and amorality look cold and unfeeling.

He's inhumane and violent. And so, naturally, everyone assumes he's the villain.

But, obviously, he's not - there's so much complexity to him underneath the surface and why he acts the way he does. And by the end, his dying words to Jinx make plain that however twisted and flawed he is, his love for his daughter is genuine, and he is willing to give up the dream of his city freed to keep her safe.

You are forced to understand that in order to get a seat at the table, your humanity will be stripped from you, piece by piece, until you are forced to become what your enemy fears.

Mel, likewise, appears at first to fit right into the mold of an ambitious, cold-hearted politician. She's clever, cunning and seemingly unrepentant about doing whatever it takes to further her ambitions. The imagery is always with her at the center of a spotlit or sunlit circle - ringed by power, with no shadows, all golden and glowing, as she machinates against others in service to her goals.

And yet the series makes it painfully plain that there is SO MUCH below her shining surface. The moment she sleeps with Jayce and their sex together aren't used by the writers to undermine her moral integrity - rather, the scene where she wakes up and realizes he's gone is used to break apart how small she feels at that moment.

This is a young woman who doesn't trust easily (or ever) because she knows intimately that, in order to win the favor she needs to thrive in a political world that was never designed for her sensitive heart, she has to be on-guard and self-reliant at all times.

She uses people because she can only depend upon herself. She uses her status, her beauty, her charm, her wit- whatever she can in the hopes of becoming strong enough and high enough that nobody would ever hurt her again.

The show wants you to see her one way, initially, so that when it comes time for her to begin 'defrosting' in Act 3, you are able to recognize the difference. She is shown painting scenes of home with a troubled expression, revealing the chasm between her present and her past, something many children of immigrants find familiar. She wakes to nightmares about Ambessa beheading a child - and symbolically killing Mel's own innocence in this context - so we understand that her own survival mindset is a direct consequence of being the banished scion of a warlord, and Mel's relationship with power, with self, with home, is informed by the trauma of how she amasses power in Piltover.

It's a reminder of just how hard Mel had to fight, and how alone she feels even amidst her privilege and security in Piltover, because she is still powerless in her mother's eyes, still seeking a form of validation, acceptance and redemption for a sin she doesn't even remember committing.

All of this, Jayce brings to life within her character in the span of mere episodes - thus reminding us that despite how Arcane wants us to perceive her, we've been misjudging Mel and denying greater depth to her character as well. It's the beginning of hers and Jayce's real relationship, once all pretense is dropped, and that isn't shown through sexual encounters any longer, but scenes of them physically close, sharing their deep-set insecurities, working through them, and finding solace together.

And yet, because Mel is, in fandom's eyes, the hypotenuse to the JayVik ship, the majority of fandom rejects these complexities wholesale and writes off all of her hardships, struggles, traumas and pains as shallow manipulations, without recognizing that Jayce's journey is symbolically one of ascent and fall, and how he makes peace with that fall and learns to embrace his shadow side is by taking in aspects of Mel as a shadowed mirror into everything he didn't want to face about himself and how he could have handled things better in pursuit of what was good versus what was great.

I wrote FnF predominantly to explore the motivations of Mel and Silco, both of whom are very similar in terms of thematic resonance, and how their portrayals in Arcane work against an unfair narrative that tries to cast them as pure villainy (Silco) or evil temptation (Mel) based on visuals and our unconscious prejudices that demand they adhere to two-dimensional depictions.

It was also sheer exasperation on how quickly fans dogpile on these two characters as the go-to villains responsible for every bad thing that happens, period.

Is Silco degrading and hostile in his views on Mel in FnF? Absolutely.

And that is the point of deconstructing the Jezebel stereotype. Silco projects onto Mel all the worst traits possible - assuming that she is cunning, selfish, entitled, spoiled and cruel and using sex as a weapon - whereas she is lonely, insecure, traumatized, fearful of making connections, motivated to prove herself to an authority figure and terrified that showing vulnerability will get her cast out at best, or killed at worst.

She's trying to do her best after her city's imploded, and that is why she's allied with Silco, in order to maintain stability on the homefront. Yet the way she speaks power as a language of seduction is precisely what leaves him so mistrustful regarding her. They both think the worst of each other while seeking common ground, and as that common ground is revealed in their vulnerabilities, they grow more capable of understanding each other in ways no-one else ever could.

They are two leaders of warring nations, playing similar roles, trapped in similar cages - yet utterly alien in every other facet.

So Silco calling Mel a Jezebel, here, isn't me demonizing black women by proxy; I'm simply exploring how Silco regards her as such - through that same lens of ignorance that fans project onto her via the tropes she appears to fill, but in reality subverts.

My intention in FnF is to be absolutely explicit about how degrading his views are - and how necessary it is to make room in his mind to understand how wrong he is - as I feel it mirrors so much of fandom's hostility towards Mel's character, whereupon they just refuse to see beyond the surface, where there is so much more depth available to us to explore.

I hope my answer gives you better context to understand that yes: I absolutely am aware of the history of 'Jezebel', and that I am deploying it in this sense as an active critique of those who'd fling it as a slur against Mel - by turning the trope back upon itself to deconstruct it by juxtaposing it to what is actually true about Mel versus what someone who wants to degrade her would claim about her in order to make her seem worse than she actually is.

<3

[1bibypersecond]

Finishing this study and reading through some forums, I did a little analysis of Viktor.

I believe that not many people understand that he is a VERY empathetic person. It is not wrong to perceive him as a scientist focused on saving his life through technology, which eventually becomes an obsession for him as a way to evolve (LoL lore). And yes, for the most part, we see his curiosity about the power of Arcane as a means to save himself, but he's a character that goes far beyond that based on the context we're given.

First, I believe that the reason he left Zaun wasn’t to improve his own life, as he knew he was already on death's door, but to improve the lives of those who continued to live in the same vulnerable conditions he did as a child. When Mel asks Jayce about Viktor’s illness, he says that he was affected by the poisonous gases of Zaun, a situation they wanted to remedy when they teamed up as colleagues. Still, they never managed to do so due to bureaucracy and the greed of Hextech investors.

Second, Jayce mentions that Viktor often disappears. And Viktor also mentions that he knows someone, who is Singed, his mentor. I believe that Viktor visits Zaun frequently, whether to visit his mentor or immerse himself in his 'metal oasis,' which is part of Piltover's drainage system that ends up in Zaun. Where he sits to think, you can also see the lake where children used to play when he was little.

Viktor is a character who knows the reality of the people of Zaun, of HIS people very well. He always knew that with his mind, he could help those who suffered from social and environmental inequalities.

That’s why he gets so angry at Jayce when he orders a lockdown between Piltover and Zaun, he believes that Jayce understands the consequences of the inequalities in Zaun, but he doesn’t. Jayce still belonged to the wealthy, and it would always be that way because they were born in different contexts. Jayce obviously loves him like a brother, a fraternal love with admiration and deep gratitude for saving his life, but he doesn’t understand the needs of people like Viktor. That’s why Viktor decides not to tell him about the shimmer he carried, knowing Jayce would oppose it and 'wouldn't understand' like he did.

He doesn’t understand that saving the people who live in Zaun is a priority.

It’s entirely understandable that Viktor focuses on saving his life in the last few months he has left because he knows he can help many more people by staying alive and, obviously, because he doesn’t want to die and lose his intellect. It may be an egocentric thought, but it’s a very valid human thought.

This empathy is also noticeable when Sky, Jayce and Viktor’s assistant, dies. The relationship between them isn’t detailed, but it’s mentioned that Sky also lived in Zaun and that he knew her from there when they were children. Amanda Overton (one of the show’s writers) mentioned on her Twitter that she believes that it was Viktor who recommended Sky as their assistant in the lab. Although it was a one-sided love on her part, Viktor had known her for a long time and recognized her talent as a researcher. She wasn’t his friend, but she was within his social circle, which wasn’t very large (Jayce).

When she dies, he feels extremely guilty. It is a natural guilt because he knows that he killed her. But I think it’s something more personal. He cries because another life from Zaun was taken, and this time it wasn’t by the rich people of Piltover, the bureaucracy, but by him, who always wanted to heal people, to save them. Yet, in his hands runs the blood of a Zaunite, like himself. Which makes the situation much, much sadder.

[bitchqueenofthebitchsquad]

Another problem I had with season 2 is the weird way that hextech is treated. The hexcore is treated like it's semi sentient and malicious, no explanation for why that is, but even regular degular Hextech is treated as uniquely capable of great evil. We're given a whole episode that waxes poetic about how much better everyone would be if hextech was never invented but no explanation for why that is.

As others have pointed out, the problems between Piltover and Zaun are the problems inherent to all stratified societies, particularly ones that appear to be in the midst of an industrial revolution. The under city predates Hextech by a long shot. So why are we being shown this episode about how much better everything would be sans these tools? It just has a luddite vibe to it. I think some people mistakenly identify technology as the reason oppression exists. While some tech can exacerbate oppression, the same technology can often do the opposite. I think season 1 was still a little clumsy in places, but it did a better job of pointing out that the technology is a neutral thing. It's the system that allows greedy and ultra powerful but unqualified weirdos to make all the decisions that's a problem.

I feel like the writers who left over the pandemy took their talent with them when they bounced. I can't know this but I get the sense that the remaining writers did little to no research but were enamored with portrayals of class conflict they'd seen in other media. Not to bring up simulacra but, you know, that's what it was giving. It was derivative.

Getting back to the hexcore, I liked the aesthetic of it, particularly how it transformed Viktors body but thematically I think it was incoherent, especially when put in the context of the rest of the show. Again I like spooky purple energy with evil vibes, very witchy, but how does it help progress the narrative? It seemed to me that it was a totally derivative element. Because sometimes magic is portrayed as spooky and seductive they decided to have this cool object that was spooky and seductive. Maybe someone in the writers room was going somewhere with this but if they were I don't think the execution was successful. It doesn't have anything to do with the stronger themes of the show, it distracts from them, and then becomes a problem because they spent so much time foreshadowing it so there's no way to gracefully retcon it.

It's made even more awkward when Viktor uses his new spooky powers to help disabled people who have nowhere else to turn. Before Jayce shoots Viktor in the chest we don't actually see Viktor doing anything malicious with his magic. He's essentially just set up a rehab and is quietly minding his business. The empire and state come to him and give him grief so wouldn't the reasonable conclusion be that actually Hextech is just a tool no matter how purple and swirly it is and that militaries and cops get in the way of positive social change because they seek to abuse and control technology used to help people? But then the show goes on to make Viktor the ultimate villain and it's very hard to parse what the message is other than to avoid the very specific scenarios that happened in the show.

It's almost like they forgot the show was for an audience, forgot about the themes, and just started advertising for the next league project, forgetting to finish what they were actually making. I also think they fell victim to too big of an ending, not everything has to be world ending or contain multiverses. Idk very sloppy but, even though he's essentially an entirely new character, I loved blonde highlights Viktor.

Edit: not "no explanation" it's the blood that made it evil but again this is tropey and leaning towards derivative again. We wouldn't assume that a technology that interacts with blood is bad/evil if we hadn't all already seen a million other works that do this and have built the negative associations for us.

[ao3feed-arcane]

Am I interrupting?

by sunset_seed Background- PLEASE READ BEFORE READING FANFIC FOR CONTEXT!:-Set in an alternate universe where Viktor and Jayce are professors in a special science university-Piltover University of Hextech Technology (PUHT) -Jayce and Viktor are professors there, Viktor is head of Hextech Science, teaches Hextech Science, Computer Science, Physics and Chemistry. -Jayce is the principal and founder of the school, teaches Science, Maths, Social Sciences, Hextech Science and Physics -Sky and Mel also play a huge role here-Mel is head of Arts faculty teaches Psychology, Humanities, Chemistry and Creative Arts and Sky is just a professor teaching Science, Biology, English and Math 3 dots (...) in between paragraphs means change of perspective between Jayce/Viktor Set around s1. Two professors solving hard problems for their students now have to solve their own hardest problem-their feelings. I'm a native Czech speaker, so canon Czech Viktor with occasional Czech phrases will be included! Words: 1488, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021), League of Legends Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Jayce (League of Legends), Viktor (League of Legends), Mel Medarda, Sky (Arcane: League of Legends) Relationships: Jayce/Viktor (League of Legends), Jayce & Viktor (League of Legends) Additional Tags: JayVik AUgust (League of Legends), Alternate Universe - Professors, Alternate Universe - College/University, Top Jayce (League of Legends), Bottom Jayce (League of Legends), Dom Viktor (League of Legends), Soft Dom Viktor (League of Legends), Soft Viktor (League of Legends), Jayce and Viktor are in Love (League of Legends), slowburn, Bottom Viktor (League of Legends), Top Viktor (League of Legends), Alternate Universe, Hextech (League of Legends), Hexstrap | Hextech Strap-on (League of Legends), Flustered Jayce (League of Legends), Seductive Viktor (League of Legends), am i interrupting, My First Fanfic, First Kiss, My First AO3 Post, Czech Viktor (League of Legends) read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ngbLyov

[fuckyeahisawthat]

I think it’s as simple as…he's not useful to her. Mel has a very utilitarian way of interacting with people. She always has an angle. She very rarely genuinely lets her guard down; it's always about what she can get out of building a connection with this particular person.

Viktor's not easy to manipulate. He’s got a strong sense of his own goals and principles, and he’s not easily taken in by Piltover’s, or the Council’s, self-congratulatory propaganda about itself.

At the same time, he has no social capital that would benefit her. I don't think she thinks about this in like, a prejudiced way; it's a neutral assessment of his place in Piltover society. The powerful people he's connected to (Heimerdinger and Jayce) are people Mel herself already has a direct line to. And he's from the undercity, but he doesn't have any influence there as a leader in the way Vander, Silco or Sevika do.

And it just so happens that in the one area where Mel might consider Viktor valuable to her--Hextech--he has a partner who is extremely easy to manipulate. When she's making the argument about Hextech weapons, she intuits pretty quickly that she is not going to convince Viktor and doesn't bother to try--she goes straight for convincing Jayce, with whom she's confident she can win the argument.

FWIW, I don't think Mel was particularly close to Jayce in the timeskip years either, and I would guess they interacted purely in a professional context regarding Hextech. So she wouldn't necessarily have gotten a lot of insight into his relationship with Viktor until she actually starts to get to know him as a person, independent of what purpose he can serve for her.

I do wonder about Mel's complete disregard for Viktor. I'm sure Viktor thinks it's because he's from the Undercity, since that would be the usual reason for him to be disregarded, but it seems unlikely Mel would have that kind of engrained prejudice. I'm mostly coming up with things it probably isn't.

Mel isn't from Piltover so, while she is ignoring the Undercity itself and probably considers it a poor investment, I don't think she'd inherently write someone off for being from the Undercity.

Mel is the kind of extrovert who knows the names of the security guards and chats to them enough that her doing so isn't suspicious, she wouldn't see a menial position as a reason to ignore someone.

Mel is very close and trusting with her own assistant and probably wouldn't see Assistant to the Head of the Council as a particularly menial position anyway.

Mel doesn't seem to dislike Viktor or bear him any malice. When she realises how much he means to Jayce (and how little attention was she paying to miss that?) she cares about him for Jayce's sake but still ignores him to talk to Jayce.

If anything this seems to be how Mel treats people she finds boring? Which could be the case. Viktor isn't quiet around people he doesn't trust, but they do tend to get blunt opinions from him and little else.

[arcane-ish]

@arcane-temp-fandomblog

I'm pretty sure from context of act 2 - from the fact that the 'soon/now we can help people' argument is the ongoing thread of conversation around Viktor scenes both with presentation of Hextech and later in the Hexgates - that Viktor doesn't have years, most probably doesn't have until next Progress Day and maybe already is on borrowed time.

I have to admit that I don't pay nearly enough attention to Viktor and Jayce scenes, so I just kind of assumed that Viktor might have known for a while that whatever he has is serious so the years he might have had would have been the timeskip of 7 years. Didn't really think of him only finding out that it was serious rather than just Jayce finding out.

Imo. Jayce & Viktor's drive is nearly exactly the same at the core, the only reason they aren't - or weren't (probably now are) - on the same page is that they are from different social classes and could not agree on the priorities entirely.

Hmm. I think they do want progress and I do think that they have generally similar interests like "helping people". But I do think that there are still different shades of it. Like Jayce's motivation seems to be a lot fuzzier and more vague, tied in with his dreams of being a superhero or being bound to very concrete people (I want to save Viktor, I react to the concrete kid I killed).

To give an example, in a more Silco and Vander situation (and mind the show is even more vague on what their motivations were), two people might have the same general interest of "fighting Piltover", but one wants the general concept of "freedom", the next one wants "to help people" and the third wants revenge (Vander talked about having been an angry person).

They might agree on the general direction and even on the methods, but they for example would have very different stopping points. Let's say the person who wants revenge gets to kill the people they consider responsible for killing their parents. At that point, they might walk away even if freedom is not achieved and people are still suffering.

Similarly, the person who is motivated by "helping people improve their lives" might walk away if they feel people's lives are made worse while pursuing freedom or revenge.

Basically, I'm not fully convinced that Jayce and Viktor necessarily picture completely the same things, the same people when they imagine "helping people" or "bringing progress" even if both agree that progress is a swell or necessary thing.

Again, I don't think that their positions are so incompatible that they couldn't be sorted out with a good conversation, but still possible to be a source of misunderstanding.

[mojo120]

So I don't entirely agree with this, there were social and political messages in Arcane but.. overall yes the setting and the political themes and tones were always meant to be more about advancing and informing the characters than them being the main attraction in of themselves (and indeed I think even in S1 Piltover in particular is pretty damn undercooked as a setting, we get quite a bit of world building for Zaun but it's almost all tied to what is happening with the characters and their plots) S2 is less politically focused largely because the guy who pushed most of the PvZ plot died at the end of S1 and the magic part of Jayce, Viktor and Mel's plots came to a head, we still get some of that political stuff through Caitlyn's stuff but like Jinx was never really the revolutionary a lot of the fandom perceived her as (or amusingly as much of the population of Zaun inuniverse did) and Vi really always did care more about her direct circle of people than grand systemic stuff.

I do think people would of accepted this easier if.. they hadn't been so damn adamant on not spoiling "hey btw Jayce, Mel and Viktor survived the attack on the council" in the trailers.. that left them with almost nothing but the more PvZ focused stuff (and Ekko but without much of any context to all the scenes they showed of him) for the trailers. So like basically nothing of the Hextech plotline got shown in them.

We suffer and are in pain because we need love and can't find it. But even through pain and wrongdoing we can always return to love.

I think Arcane is less for the people who already understand this and more for people who don't. I think that's the source of disappointment with the leftist politics of the show. It's trying to model what people like Viktor, Vi and Jinx need people like Jayce, Caitlyn and Ekko to do for them.

I refuse to think that a show that so closely understands marginalisation and represents it so well would have centrist politics.

Viktor, Vi and Jinx are people who are suffering and in pain. They don't need to lead the revolution, they need relief, they need support.

Viktor has been getting outcasts like Jayce and Sky into the Academy. His own success is commendable. Vi wanted to follow in Vander's footsteps and she immediately gets to dismantling shimmer with Jayce. Even Jinx inspired revolutionary action, helped Isha, helped Sevika, helped Silco! They have done enough. They have done plenty to make their world a better place.

The show continually challenges the idea that a singular act of revolutionary violence will solve the divisions of their society. Historically this has never been true.

The divides between the cities run deep. All the way down to individual relationships. It's the failure of people to choose love between each other instead of political ambition, vengeance or even idealism. They need to accept the imperfection, lay down their weapons and choose to love the people who are already in their lives.

Love won't just automatically fix everything. Sometimes their mistakes will mean death. Sometimes it will be a complete reinvention/ new start. But without affection they cannot be held together.

[arcane-temp-fandomblog]

"connect with the people who matter to him and live his last years to the fullest/try to pass his knowledge on to others so his work can be continued even if he were to die" Like if he really wants a legacy, how about becoming a teacher and having his students be his legacy?

I'm pretty sure from context of act 2 - from the fact that the 'soon/now we can help people' argument is the ongoing thread of conversation around Viktor scenes both with presentation of Hextech and later in the Hexgates - that Viktor doesn't have years, most probably doesn't have until next Progress Day and maybe already is on borrowed time. That's why Jayce can't answer his question 'How much time do I have?' in the hospital. There is no time, and all he accomplished so far is getting the folks at the top of Piltover richer.

I totally get why Viktor would be dissatisfied with being an assistant his whole life - remember Heimerdinger is immortal or close to immortal, so that's how far he'll get. I mean he's position sounds like so much fun if you're person that wants to do science in episode 2...

The issue around Viktor and Jayce is not about them being 'mad scientists' - it's about Piltover's Ethos of Progress / Heimerdinger which always values 'not rocking the boat'. Even if by inaction it passively sacrifices lives that could be saved. This is exactly why Jayce uses "Progress" in quotation marks when he talks to Silco, because Piltover isn't very progressive as a system. Nor is it very ethical. I mean both Jayce & Viktor are a bit too 'out there' for Piltover with their idea of helping people, and saving lives as soon as possible - perish the thought. In a decade maybe...

Imo. Jayce & Viktor's drive is nearly exactly the same at the core, the only reason they aren't - or weren't (probably now are) - on the same page is that they are from different social classes and could not agree on the priorities entirely.

And imo. the fact that Jayce is their front facing man is only because he's from Piltover. This is how the council speaks around Viktor about people he's part of, the only reason he's even acknowledged is because of Jayce.

Same with Progress Day speech - it's only Jayce that offers him they should make the speech together, not Heimerdinger or the council who offer it only to Jayce. Because after all the years Viktor is still the outsider in Piltover anywhere but their lab. Thou he has pretty low opinion about Piltover's political circle so it goes both ways.

He's part of not their preferred constituent, they're part of his not preferred constituents.

It's the same thing as when Caitlyn takes Vi in front of the council and in 3 minutes flat they show her the door.

Because people from the undercity are second-rate citizens if citizens at all to Piltover and the 'equality' is there just as a slogan. Arcane is actually showing this from the start - Piltover has systemic inequality that no one at the top cares to know about or address.

“Piltover the land of progress, equality, innovation.” - is maybe what Piltover aspires to be or aspired to be, but definitely is not.

Can't wait for Viktor to become the true 'villain' to Piltover. Just like Jinx. And just like firelights were this season thanks to Marcus. All the villains.

I feel like people often conflate Jayce and Viktor's core drives and desires in ways that sometimes aren't useful and don't really feel true to the narrative.

Like, Viktor is very clearly a play on the 'mad scientist' archetype, in the most obvious of ways. He displays a good number, if not all, of the characteristics that have made this archetype so popular and recognisable. Including:

Being driven by a near all-consuming drive and ambition inextricable from their work and to the exclusion of anything else. One of the first things Viktor talks about is not being satisfied with just being an assistant, later, he's preoccupied by leaving a 'legacy' as per the conversation with Heimerdinger; pretty much the only place he seems to be fulfilled and have some measure of joy is in the lab;

Loneliness, tend to work alone and eschew companionship and socialization as it would distract from them achieving their goals. This man quite literally spends his life in the lab - we have no indication that Viktor has any other preoccupations or even a life outside of that lab. Does he have hobbies? A domicile? A family or friends? Even though he's known Sky since they were kids he calls her "Ms Young" like they're nothing but professional acquaintances;

Often can be tragic heroes awaiting a hubristic fall of some kind, of which Sky's fate was a mere foretaste, or slide onto more villainous paths etc.;

Driven by goals and results; see the stakes of their scientific exploration as far higher than regular concerns. And in Viktor's case, it's partly understandable since he needs this science to quite literally save his own life and "fix" his "condition" but at the same time, the conversation with Singed is kind of setting the stage for some of the quandaries he's going to deal with in the coming seasons when it comes to developing the Hexcore in ways that may cross lines of "morality". And even in ep4, we see how Jayce hesitates, in line with Heimerdinger's recommendations, where Viktor is constantly pushing for further development no matter the dangers to himself and potentially others etc. etc. etc.

While some of these can describe Jayce, they don't really ~fit~ Jayce in the same way, he certainly doesn't relate to the 'mad scientist' archetype in the way Viktor clearly is:

Jayce does love science and he's an incredibly gifted inventor. But what inspired him and set him on his route was magic. The wonder of it, the capacity of it to save life, to make miracles happen.

While he's driven, and we can really see that in his journal archives, and sometimes to the point of irrational actions at times that actively put him in a fix e.g. almost getting himself banished because he piped up in front of the council. Jayce isn't driven in the way Viktor is. If he was, then he'd also be happy to spend his entire life inside the lab.

Jayce enjoys and actively seeks out companionship. His friendship with Caitlyn is one of the first things we learn about him. While Viktor is hunched over his desk trying to figure out the secrets of Hextech, Jayce is preparing to go out on a date. While Viktor is wasting away and collapsing in the lab, Jayce is literally making love and cuddling with his new girlfriend. These two people are not the same, and never will be, that's kind of the point.

Jayce also has a very public-facing persona in the show that he's comfortable with, and I'd say he actually enjoys. He knows how to work a crowd, he's charismatic and charming, and he's aware of it. There's a reason why he's the face of Hextech, and it's not just because he's the Piltovan so obviously those audiences would be more open to him. It's because he's damn good at it.

The childhood drawing is key, too, imo. It speaks to Jayce's core drives as much as his first encounter with magic does. He wants to be a hero, he wants to take practical action, he wants to DO. That's at the heart of his desires, not necessarily scientific exploration. It's why he crafts a super-hammer for himself, why he'll likely eventually continue to be a vigilante.

Also, feels important to remember that he comes from a family of tool-makers so even the way he understands 'helping' and scientific invention is to make functional tools that improve lives. That's the approach he applies to Hextech - he wants to put this tool in the hands of the people the way his father put hammers in the hands of the people.