viktor nation

there are 2 ideological struggles at war throughout s1 (and i can predict that the struggle will carry over into s2): neoliberalism and populism - in their broadest terms since we're talking ofc about a fictional show dealing with surface level political machinations. by neoliberalism, i mean a focus on the social, political, and cultural structures of a polity (piltover, for our purposes) refocused into a strictly economic vacuum. and by populism i mean a unifying belief that the existing political systems of a polity fail to adequately represent their constituents, so the masses choose to rally around a specific gripe or issue, i.e., class discrimination, xenophobia toward immigrants, etc. this, in turn, forms a populist party or movement. an applicable example i can think of would be Nasser's Egypt in the 1950s.

*i know these are weighty topics with very real world implications! i just want to separate the theory to apply to our favorite fictional world.

the political struggle in question is put forward immediately by piltover, who, though presented as a technocratic state, embodies crucial neoliberal ideals emphasized especially by up-and-coming counilor mel medarda, much like how fresh-eyed american economists blew up the economic scene in the 1980s with a revival of capitalist, free market enterprise. take how she seizes the advent of hextech, for example:

she quickly sees hextech's potential yet not from the solely intellectual standpoint that jayce and viktor do - for her, it is profitable, literally and in terms of international relations. her goal is for piltover to prosper, but she has no rose-colored glasses on; prosperity means capital gain, and she's willing to override piltover's political and social systems to achieve her goal. an important caveat is that she draws the line at ambessa medarda's progression into militant authoritarianism, which deserves a whole post of its own!

piltover's populism moment will come later. first, let's unpack silco, who is probably arcane's most blatantly political figure, and a masterclass in the merits and failures of left wing, class-based populism.

silco, having been spurned by the classism and xenophobia that piltover's elite proliferate, and assisted by his rampant shimmer operation, fills the vacuum that vander's pacifism opened up. though silco's methods are unilaterally cruel (argue with the wall), the undercity clearly invested faith in him at some point, especially as vander's credibility as a guiding figure wavered over the years. he was fighting alongside vander for zaun's right to exist as their own independent body. in other words, he was uniting the undercity toward a common cause because the existing political system failed their constituents. to quote councilor shoola: "they may not be our preferred constituents, but they're still our people."

the track record of populism in our real world frequently ends in the ruin that silco himself brought upon the undercity. the kingpin is too dedicated to self-preservation, sees himself as too central to the movement, which prevents both compromise and/or a necessary armed revolt (insert your own politics about self-determination here). see italy's right wing populism party, Lega Nord, as a real-time example of this phenomenon.

but arcane makes an interesting plot decision with jayce, a very unexpected and "unwilling" contributor to piltover's abrupt dip into right wing populism. the showrunners love foils!

in arcane lore, i think it's safe to say that jayce's moniker "the man of progress" is pretty tongue-in-cheek. both he and viktor have a bemused tone about it in the run-up to his speech, and jayce is taken aback by heimerdinger's insistence that he deliver said speech. but the glowing, savior-esque imagery can't be ignored, nor can jayce's quick switch into his councilor role, no matter how reluctantly he makes it.

jayce is confronted by 2 forces that he seeks to combat in his quick tenure as councilor: internal corruption and an ineffective governing body. the latter goal is inspired almost solely by viktor, playing into jayce's naivety as a fresh-faced political figure, but this will be especially important to note later on. the innocence he offers up to mel is quickly erased, transformed instead into an uncomfortable - and inexperienced - militancy:

important in the bridge scene to my analysis is the populist "out group," or the designation populists give to those whom they actively oppose, and this opposition serves as their basis for organization. in this case, it's the undercity (keep this in mind for viktor's role!!).

jayce's combined frustrations at the unrest in the undercity and the council's (namely heimerdinger's) refusal to act, to both save viktor and to deal with the undercity's looming violence, motivates him to act like silco for a short time. unsatisfied with the status quo, he unites a likeminded individual, vi, along with the enforcers, to undercut the political system he feels is unable to represent its constituents or act in an effective manner. however, UNLIKE silco, jayce's realizes the inevitable cost the method of violence has and refrains in the end. he returns to the council and capitulates to some of silco's demands in the name of a peace piltover and zaun always thought impossible.

jinx's complete undoing of this underscores the failures of populism, especially as an extended movement over time. she wasn't accounted for. it's common sentiment at this point that she didn't attack the council for political gain. she was not invested in zaun's independence. she did it out of her and silco's twisted parental bond, and thus undid piltover's brief instance of compromise and compassion.

so...where does viktor fit into all this? and what are his implications for neoliberalism vs. populism in season 2?

viktor is neither wholly within nor wholly outside the populist outgroup - though jayce unintentionally shoves him back there in the pivotal bridge scene. furthermore, viktor also makes use of piltover's technocracy. he seems to have had a "raise yourself up by your bootstraps" history in arcane, contrary to left wing populist insistence that neoliberal ideals make this impossible.

this compounds as a double alienation for viktor, who also is straddled with the complications of his disability. a lot of his story is searching for a fellow in arms, if you ask me, and he had that with jayce until the pendulum swung, hence his return to singed.

if we stop there, viktor represents the failing of these 2 very flawed political ideologies. he fits nowhere and arcane uses him adeptly as a symbol of the failings of binaristic ideologues and systems. but let's speculate some more!

i'm convinced that viktor, due to his ambiguous 3rd party role in the story so far, will be one of the central villains (if not THE villain, if you allow me to be admittedly hopeful/biased) in season 2. consult the innumerable very well written theory/meta posts about the subject for more details, but one piece of evidence i want to focus on is this inherent physical, cultural, and ideological separateness that is innate to his character.

can we see him allying ever again with piltover, knowing that there's a split incoming? even without outside knowledge of league lore, singed's damning prediction ("if you take this path, they will despise you") cannot go unheeded. alternatively, then, can we see viktor allying with the supposed jinx-as-revolutionary side? no. personally, i see him as becoming increasingly unwillingly to compromise his a) immediate survival; and b) his ideals, especially after being endlessly sidelined in his attempts to express them in acts 2 and 3. he's also just a loner, guys.

there's some controversy on this point, but i'm convinced that the finger-printed cultists/followers we saw in the s2 trailer are devoted to viktor. starting with the shimmer addict he touched in the teaser, he is accruing a following all his own. and since noxus is here, touting their authoritarian militancy to replace piltover's outdated liberal ideals, nothing that jinx's revolution OR viktor's following does can be apolitical. to organize and to fight is survival under s2's raised stakes.

there aren't any binary spectrums when it comes to political theory in my opinion, so i am prepared to witness viktor introduce an entirely separate totalitarian narrative into arcane. where it will surely lack in militancy, it will make up for in its domination of the arcane. my biggest speculation is that, as they always do, piltover will fold and compromise at the last minute, perhaps yield to noxus, and invest wholeheartedly in taking down viktor's BBEG cultist regime. and by isolating his narrative repeatedly in s1, the writers planned this out expertly.

even if i'm wrong about viktor as third party, i like to think my observations still stand about the specific and qualifiable political divisions between piltover and zaun. the biggest hole this leaves for me is the question: will arcane ever take a stand? they seem very averse to making a blatant political statement, but i think their pervasive anti-police thread makes it clear that we're not meant to sympathize with piltover yuppies or their seasoned, jaded councilmen. let me know your thoughts!

also, as a jayce fan and a fan of arcane's overall story, none of this is meant as a CRITIQUE of him, mel, or silco. as silco said, "we all have our parts to play." i believe arcane's very greatest strength is their archetypal storytelling, and these distinct character roles are crucial to the success and vibrancy of the story.

this is incomplete! there are plot holes, missing parts, and inconsistencies! i just want to share the narrative that's alive and kicking in my head.

some disclaimers:

i've always been more invested in the jayce vs. viktor half of arcane (along with sevika's story), so my rewrite prioritizes them over cait/vi/jinx/etc.

i am very negative about season 2. if you enjoyed it, i'm very happy to hear that, and please don't let me spoil anything for you! <3

i need help with including and expanding mel's storyline. i've removed the black rose completely (that deserves its own season or its own show entirely), but i love mel, so i would actually love to hear people's thoughts on how she fits in.

i'm not interested in happy endings of any kind or degree (which is actually one of my central issues with season 2). i'm a tragedy enjoyer, first and foremost!

i didn't include isha because i feel like she was a plot device, more than a character, and that jinx has plenty of character depth to stand on her own.

i need assistance in locating the best caitvi opportunities! they're really out of my wheelhouse, so please know that i'm not deliberately excluding them. i just need help lol.

there's no anomaly. my number 1 priority was killing off the anomaly completely.

tw for body horror/gore at parts.

shoutout to @steam-golem who has always fielded these ideas, helped grow them, and shared thoughts of their own. we will always be trapped in this building together, my fellow viktor understander.

act 1: departure

my season 2 opens up just like canon. jayce rushes viktor to the lab and uses the hexcore to revive him. he gets put in the web and everything. most of viktor's canon s2 act 1 story lulled me into a false sense of security that christian linke and friends had good ideas in mind. ambessa is in charge of piltover's forces and appoints caitlyn as normal, but here is where i diverge:

jayce refuses to hand over hextech to ambessa whatsoever until viktor wakes up. mel agrees with this and stalls ambessa. caitlyn and jayce quickly diverge at this point between hesitancy (jayce) and vengeance (caitlyn).

vi sides with the enforcers because she's afraid of returning to prison. she fronts that it's only her distrust that holds her back, but i think the fear of her past would function a lot stronger. only under threat of imprisonment (from ambessa, not caitlyn) does she agree.

viktor wakes up (while jayce is away) and happens upon draft weapons plans in the lab. these were delivered by ambessa's forces, but viktor assumes that jayce had already signed off on hextech's weaponization.

viktor hears sky's voice in his head like in canon s2 act 1. sky feels like another almost palpable force in his body that keeps demanding her give into the hexcore.

without jayce knowing, viktor leaves for the undercity after stealing some of the weapons plans and a gemstone. he's not in the same stupor we see him in s2 act 1; it's just the only place he can think of to escape to.

sky's voice becomes increasingly insidious, and viktor decides that he needs to extract her before he succumbs completely to the hexcore. through some plot finagling that i haven't developed, he slowly and painfully cuts out/off the parts of his body that the hexcore has merged with, replacing them with robotics/steel/shimmer amalgamations. this takes a lot of pain-numbing shimmer and a lot of time. once he's cut out the hexcore-ized parts, sky's voice fades away.*

jayce, after viktor's departure, waits several days/weeks before cracking under ambessa's pressure. he bargains with caitlyn and asks that she use the enforcers to conduct searches for viktor throughout the undercity.

in order to give him plausible deniability, caitlyn doesn't disclose that the enforcer sweeps are really violent raids against the undercity by ambessa's command.

in the meantime, jinx returns to the undercity as normal and bonds with sevika through their shared loss of silco. no isha.

post-augmentation, viktor sees jinx's wanted posters throughout the undercity and elects to recruit her. this is where his healing ethos (which we saw in s2) emerges; he says something to the effect of "this city needs healing. you need healing" to jinx, highlighting the very physical damage and trauma piltover caused the undercity.

sevika, having found a new, hopeful cause to follow, joins quickly; jinx eventually follows suit (and dw i know i need a compelling reason for that one lol).

frustrated with jayce's lack of investment in weaponizing hextech since now he's the only scientist on deck, ambessa decides to fake viktor's death. she pins the blame on the firelights (who have yet to be fully exonerated post s1!), and jayce, recognizing them from before, agrees to weaponize hextech to combat them. i do not know how ambessa fakes viktor's death lol.

* sky is not really sky in my version of events, just a manifestation of the hexcore.

act 2: divergence

opens a time-skip of approximately 9 months, our collective favorite arcane storytelling convention.

viktor has created the real machine herald's equivalent of the season 2 commune. his goal is almost strictly healing through hextech-powered means (limb augmentations, healing of scars, etc.). this is meant to directly contrast with jayce's commitment to violence. in essence, viktor pledges himself to pacifism.

he builds blitzcrank during this time!

meanwhile, zaunites have waged various attacks against piltover in the name of the machine herald (against viktor's wishes/without his knowledge). ambessa orders the MH's identity be found out.

vi is still working with the enforcers, caitlyn, and ambessa, but feels increasingly at war with herself about it. she decides to send the firelights anonymous missives about enforcer raid activity to lessen the harm.

during ambessa's search for the MH, she happens upon singed, who won't reveal who he suspects the MH is until ambessa sweetens the deal, at which point singed will assist in assassinating viktor.

they come to an agreement - i don't know the details LOL - and singed helps ambessa stage a raid on the MH hideout.

fearful that ambessa's entrance into the undercity spells ruin for zaunites, vi comes clean to jayce about ambessa's real intentions and convinces jayce to use his Man Of Progress Magic to parlay with the undercity like he did with silco.

together, vi and jayce leave for the undercity. as they make their way toward the MH hideout, following clues, they happen upon a mural of the MH with the hexclaw. jayce realizes that the MH is, therefore, viktor, which means that not only has ambessa been lying to him, but that viktor is presumably behind the attacks against piltover that were done in the MH's name.

a lot like 2x06, ambessa's forces storm the hideout, with vi and jayce in the mix with their own separate objectives.

vi encounters jinx here for the first time since 1x09. jinx initiates their fight, assuming that vi is there with ambessa and the enforcers.

sevika intervenes here, however, believing that jinx is too important (and volatile/traumatized) to come out of this fight alive. this creates another solid "vi is abandoned" moment, too.

jayce carves his way to viktor, who doesn't understand who's attacking the commune at first. this is how i think 2x06's real confrontation should have gone down.

viktor can see that jayce has officially weaponized hextech by the guns the enforcers bring into the undercity during the raids.

jayce demands that viktor answer for what his "followers" have done in the name of the MH. viktor asserts that what people do post-augmentation is their business, not his, unwilling/unable to take any ownership.

when jayce asks why viktor never came back to piltover to work things out together, viktor gestures to the violence jayce has brought here, blaming him completely for ambessa. "they're paths diverged long ago."

viktor makes a treatise on his autonomy regarding his people: "After you forced me back, I fought to achieve my own autonomy. I won’t strip them of theirs. And I won’t let you do it, either."

viktor attacks jayce first (in a blow-out fight that s2 promised but never delivered upon).

jayce lands a near fatal blow on viktor, and sends the structure toppling down onto them both. this crushes jayce's leg and pinning viktor beneath the rubble.

vi pries jayce out of the wreckage; sevika comes to viktor's aid, but he's very much Stuck in there.

after helping jayce, vi comes to another decision point, since the carnage reminds her so much of 1x03. seeing the bloodlust of ambessa and caitlyn, she decides to abandon piltover and, thus, enters her pit fighter era.

act 3: convergence

picks up right where act 2 left off - viktor is secretly planning to go to singed for help, but he keeps this from sevika, who would object. he insists that she go look for survivors, and she reluctantly agrees, devastated that another leader and another cause fell apart around her.

with the last of his strength, blitzcrank helps viktor out from beneath the rubble.

singed, meanwhile, has been cast out by ambessa after the raid on the commune felt. ambessa felt that singed had not prepared her for MH's forces' strength.

when viktor shows up, singed can barely believe his luck, and manages to overpower him (not sure if warwick exists here or what would cause this yet). instead of giving him up to ambessa right away, however, singed rio-ifies viktor, repairing him augmented parts while majorly infusing him with shimmer.

once he's sure that he's created a super-soldier, singed contacts ambessa to get back in her good graces (this is again contingent on whatever deal these 2 strung up earlier in act 2). covertly, ambessa returns to the undercity to investigate. she knows that singed is not a threat to her.

but! when singed attempts to just slightly wake viktor up to show ambessa, the combination of the augmentation, the shimmer, and viktor's anger (angry moment! he's tired of his bodily autonomy being taken from him!) grant him full control of his person.

he punches through the glass of his rio-esque enclosure and kills singed outright.

viktor mortally wounds ambessa in the melee, and she flees into the depths of the undercity for a time.

viktor takes up the improved version of his hexclaw that singed was toying with.

after this confrontation, viktor returns to the commune. here, he finds a nearly lifeless blitzcrank, and spends the next several days in solitude repairing him. this is what truly hardens viktor against any lingering doubt he had about his hatred for piltover.

during this process, viktor realizes that he no longer needs to eat, sleep, or drink after whatever singed did to him.

some time during blitz's repair process, sevika returns to the commune in one final sweep for survivors. she finds viktor and tries talking him out of his pacifism, after learning that he's just killed at least one person.

sevika asks that viktor fight for a cause, not excuse himself from causes altogether (similar to what silco demands of vander in 1x03).

together, sevika and viktor decide to levy an attack on piltover to disable the hexgates and steal the last of the gemstones to destroy them.

meanwhile, ekko and the firelights have stepped in to help the survivors of the commune attack. as a result, vi and jinx have found their separate ways to the firelights, but the 3 can barely speak to one another at first.

they agree on their animosity for ambessa, if nothing else, which is in line with sevika's attempts to unite people under A Cause.

after reuniting with viktor, sevika orchestrates a meeting between him and the firelights, which is very hostile at first. ekko agrees to meet with viktor (who's still the elusive MH at this point) with vi, but jinx rejects the offer, to sevika's chagrin and heartbreak. she goes her own way (for a time).

viktor makes an appeal to ekko to join their assault on the hexgates. vi endorses this and suggests a combination of general zaunite and firelight forces to go after the hexgates while viktor pursues the gemstones. ekko disagrees, however, worried that too many people would be put in danger.

sevika then delivers the mythical class consciousness manifesto that arcane season 1 jokingly suggested and then never delivered. she combined silco's old belief in not just dying for a cause, but fighting for one, with ekko's desire to live, rather than just survive.

in a last ditch effort, viktor assures the group that he will handle jayce and that piltover won't have their Man of Progress for long.

seeing viktor's conviction and that he's abandoned his pacifism, ekko agrees to join forces.

meanwhile (again), in ambessa's absence post-viktor-assault, caitlyn is in charge of organizing joint undercity raids looking for ambessa and weeding out any MH sympathizers. with mel's subtle influence and reconsidering all the violence from the commune attack, caitlyn is starting to have major second thoughts.

ambessa returns from the undercity, having just barely survived her wounds, and informs them of MH's return and singed's death. she assumes (correctly!) that they will wage an attack soon.

jayce agrees to mobilize the troops outfitted with more hextech, but he asks that caitlyn try to buy him more time for one final attempt at speaking with viktor.

ambessa's second reports this to her, and ambessa treats this as insubordination, now exceptionally furious about All Things Machine Herald since he so nearly killed her.

act 4 - revolution

opens with ekko reviewing the attack plans with his firelight squad, plus vi (i like to think that she joins the firelights officially, as a way of casting off the enforcer influence).

ekko will lead a strike team of firelights to take out the rearguard noxian guard at the hexgates.

vi and sevika will each lead their own platoon of zaunites to flank the hexgates at the right and left.

viktor will lead the attack from above, dropping in with shimmer tanks AND BLITZCRANK.

meanwhile, mel has observed growing forces at the hexgates and stresses the need to jayce and caitlyn to oust ambessa. knowing that noxian forces are allegiant to power, first and foremost, she hopes that jayce making a show of his Man of Progress title could turn the popular tide (this could also be where he switches to Defender of Tomorrow).

jayce, cait, and mel plan a fake war room meeting with ambessa after amassing a small number of enforcers willing to disobey ambessa's tyranny. they still don't know that ambessa already expects their collusion.

after receiving summons to the meeting, ambessa sends more troops to the hexgates as insurance; if/when the trio tries to usurp her, she can immediately take over the hexgates.

mel, rather than jayce, offers ambessa the chance to surrender (similar to how jayce bartered with silco in 1x09). ambessa rejects this outright and alleges their conspiracy to usurp her.

when a fight is about to break out between ambessa and jayce/mel/cait, explosions sound off at the hexgates.

THE UNDERCITY INVASION HAS STARTED!

alarmed, ambessa manages to take caitlyn hostage. mel tells jayce to go after her, while she amasses more enforcers to rally against ambessa.

during the attack, the firelights are able to take out most of the noxian rear guard, but they didn't anticipate the added forces.

sevika and vi's forces are at equal ground with the noxian forces.

the piltover enforcers are torn between who the enemy is; they were just engaging with the noxian troops who were violating their agreement with piltover by bulking up around the hexgates, but they are also under orders to treat undercity aggressors as enemies.

jayce enters the fray with his hammer, hitting back undercity and noxian forces alike.

ambessa is dragging caitlyn through the melee like a human shield.

ambessa makes a speech (mostly to jayce) about the necessary strength of humanity, the ability to be cold and calculated in spite of our feelings (referencing her love for family above all else). she tells jayce that he can either choose to defend the undercity "dogs" until they bite again, losing hextech along the way, or side with her one last time and squash the threat forever.

(because i love a flair for the dramatic), right as jayce considers this ultimatum, viktor and the shimmer tank warriors drop through the ceiling behind ambessa.

viktor beams ambessa through the back of the head with the hexclaw.

caitlyn flees to jayce.

the battle comes to an abrupt halt. the enforcers train their guns on viktor, while the noxian troops actually train their guns on jayce.

in a moment of anxious tension, a random zaunite fires on caitlyn and jayce. caitlyn leaps in front of jayce to take the blow, losing her eye in the process.

caitlyn demands that jayce keep viktor away from the gemstones and says that this is the only way she can "buy him more time."

reluctantly, jayce peels off, egging viktor on to follow him, and a pursuit ensues through the streets of northern piltover toward the academy.

this next part is where i get a little flimsy with how i would end things. i guess i can give the s2 writers' room that mote of sympathy. it's hard to think up a suitable conclusion! this is what i've come up with thus far:

jinx, existing in a sort of limbo between the undercity and piltover, discerns that the firelights and zaunites have united in an offensive to take back the hexgates.

she thinks back to silco and vander's codes of ethics and decides that being a passive participant doesn't assuage her pain or guilt for her past. she can only hope to actively change it, like sevika has always stressed.

she enters the fray subtly and allies in the combat with vi. they fight together side by side. they kind of equate to a silco/vander dynamic here.

viktor and jayce's pursuit takes them back to the academy and they share intermittent blows along the way. jayce struggles to break the distance between him and viktor, since viktor has better long-ranged attacks via his hexclaw.

as the fight gets nastier, viktor starts to forget about his main objective to steal and destroy the gemstones. instead, he rails against not only the injustices that jayce has incurred, but all the resentment building within viktor toward jayce as their hextech dream lost its way.

some creative liberties here; i don't know how to transition to the final moments of their fight but imagine that it's the mega awesome fight we were promised in 2x09 but a lot grittier. think bucky vs. steve in captain america: winter soldier.

pinned to the ground by viktor now, and in a particularly strong punch, jayce knocks off the mask that viktor wears as the MH and sees the myriad scarring all over viktor's face not just from the bombing, but from the attack on the commune, and singed's experiments. seeing this carnage, jayce drops the remaining gemstones he's grabbed. he lets them scatter across the floor.

for a moment, viktor is tempted to give in (he's also very injured at this point). like imagine a REALLY long dramatic pause her, a la jinx vs. ekko in 1x08 when she pulls the pin.

but he's reminded of the very moment where jayce motioned for him to stay seated at the council meeting in 1x04, when he said he'd halt the development of hextech, and viktor's new, steeled self takes over.

viktor tells jayce that he's never know that he harbored this kind of violence within himself - "only you could show me this."

jayce sees the old viktor through all the brutality he's endured and thinks, however twistedly, that he needs to be stopped. he hates himself for doing it, but he hates himself more for following the hextech dream and getting him involved.

jayce manages a very anticlimactic stab through viktor's armor, only close enough in this very intimate fight to see where viktor still has flesh (it's very sparse).

viktor dies by jayce's hand. HEAR ME OUT.

and i have no clue what happens next lol.

i've spent ages going back and forth on who should die in that final conflict - jayce or viktor. the common refrain i've heard is both (and sometimes neither), but i think that condemns us right back to the centermost problem with season 2: its refusal to commit. shoving sevika in with the council in a scene without dialogue does not count.

someone has to give in season 2, and in the face of revolution, that will come by force. i also think that piltover and zaun absolutely have to exist as separate entities, and that neither viktor nor jayce are equipped to usher that sort of arrangement along - not their arcane selves, anyway. my gut instinct is for viktor to lose, however, because of season 1's larger commentary on the power's that be. piltover will always maintain the status quo, and viktor killing ambessa is even a step back in that direction.

that's all to say that viktor dying (and maybe even the entire zaun independence project along with him) is the "wrong" ending...which is why i like it. the saccharine version of events we got in season 2, completely with utterly nonsensical time travel, is so hollow and toothless to me. i fully expected viktor to die by jayce's hand.

but i have also majorly entertained the idea of jayce dying, too, and can mostly go either way. it's kind of paralyzing.

concluding notes/thoughts:

i had initially called this "neon brother" after the nothing but thieves song of the same name. here's the link to that song plus my viktor season 2 playlist. songs like "soft spine" and "no mercy" are really the vibe that i'm going for here.

a lot of this is written as a revenge narrative for viktor. i like the tragedy engendered by way of losing bodily autonomy, but season 2's version rings hollow and incomplete. it's more impactful for me to see him make the most of whatever control he can get over his life, and what version of himself he's forced to become.

i know i'm very harsh to jayce throughout. in a full-fledged rewrite (like a complete, ready to post to ao3 draft), i would depict him as a lot more conflicted. but i still think the merit of his season 1 character comes from doing the wrong things for the right reasons, which is lost entirely in season 2.

sevika needed to be an integral character in season 2. she needed to have her moment rallying the masses.

i also wanted vi to have more agency. i feel like she gets strung along in season 2 and subsists without a lot of defined motivation. i miss her season 1 characterization.

again, the only way i can see proper resistance to season 2's pervasive centrism is by granting one winner and one loser. in the end, it's a show greenlit by netflix, so we can't expect any populist revolution, though.