s'up, nerds

I ain’t gonna make it. Afraid this cowboy’s been to his last hoedown. Octavius, remember me as I was, wild, and free, and–and…No need for final words. I’m not finished yet. Oh.

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But also. Creating something that's not just using him for its own ends but that genuinely cares for him, that comforts him, that loves him?? (Except that love is a terrifying unstoppable force. Love that wants to crawl inside you and consume you. Love that says we'll die if we are parted from each other. Separating us will be like ripping a hole in your own body. But maybe there is something he recognizes about that kind of love.)

All that is SO much more interesting than Magic Orb Evil. It fits so much better with the themes and parallels of the show. "I only wanted to help." The darkness of love. Devotion that enables someone's worst impulses. It's so much more twisted and tragic and in keeping with the tone of the show than the idea of the Hexcore just controlling him or manipulating him for its own ends. It's Viktor all the way down and also he's created this thing that has a will of its own and there will be unintended consequences.

It makes a lot of the Sky stuff snap into place for me too, if you think that Sky is a manifestation of the Hexcore. I still think she works equally well as an expression of Viktor's connection to his humanity, which he finally allows to burn away during his final transformation. And tbh I prefer symbolism that's open to multiple interpretations. But things like Sky reminding Viktor that "all systems have limits" make a lot more sense if you think of Sky as an avatar of a Hexcore that genuinely cares about him, that's protective (if maybe also a little bit possessive.) Because frankly, this doesn't sound like something Viktor would say to himself. Nor does it sound like something that a Hexcore bent simply on relentlessly consuming everything in its path would encourage him to believe. It sounds like something his PARTNER would say.

(There is a whole other post to be made about Viktor and Sky in the astral plane and how astral plane Viktor is much more free with both giving and accepting touch than we ever see him in the physical realm, and astral Sky is MUCH more touchy with Viktor than the real Sky ever was: clasping his hands, sitting draped against his back. Something something inventing a ghost to soothe the gaping wound of loneliness inside you by accepting casual intimacy in your mind palace where no one can see. ANYWAY.)

The idea of the Hexcore being willing to protect him at the expense of others also fits with one of my pet headcanons, which is that the reason everybody in the commune reacted like that when Viktor got shot is that the Hexcore reflexively took a giant schlorp of everybody's life force, in a desperate attempt to keep Viktor and/or itself (is there a difference at this point?) alive.

Even the line about the "recursive impulse," which I've seen a lot of interpretations of but we never really know what it means. What if it's because the Hexcore is already a little bit Viktor and now it's inside him and that's just a hella confusing sensation to describe, like staring into a hall of mirrors?

Now for funsies take a look at these parallels:

I've seen a lot of takes about why Viktor was unable to destroy the Hexcore after he'd just watched it eat someone. It's possible he was physically unable to, in that the Hexcore wouldn't let him...but tbh I think if that's what they wanted to show, they would have made the Hexcore intervene in the moment when he's brandishing the stool at it (which, I agree with your tags, would not have done jack shit to the magic orb that repurposes metal). So I tend to think the reasons he can't destroy it are emotional. It's his legacy and he's not ready to let it go. He (selfishly, I'm sure he thinks) still wants to live and can't make himself destroy the thing that could save him, even if it's dangerous to others. He's realizes the Hexcore is alive in some way and can't make himself kill something sentient. Or, possibly, he's already developed some emotional attachment to it and it reacting with fear instead of aggression is what stays his hand. I don't know if I think the Hexcore is capable of guile, but appealing to Viktor's sense of compassion probably is the most effective way to get him to back down. And while he says later, once he's already merged with the Hexcore, that it killed Sky...right in this moment I very much think he thinks he killed Sky. I could see him rationalizing that the Hexcore doesn't have malicious intent; it just sensed organic matter and did its thing, while Viktor assumes all the guilt for Sky's death himself.

one, "It's possible he was physically unable to, in that the Hexcore wouldn't let him...but tbh I think if that's what they wanted to show, they would have made the Hexcore intervene in the moment when he's brandishing the stool at it."

--I mean...didn't it zap him? I remember a bolt of purple *ZAPPING* across his face, knocking him out. (I assumed that when he said that he couldn't do it, he meant that since he and the hexcore are connected--by blood AND by magic--he can't destroy it. But Jayce isn't, and Jayce is his partner, and Jayce is the only person he trusts with this, so it makes sense that he'd ask Jayce to do it for him.)

two, and this is gonna require TWO quotes (and it's also really the reason I made this reblog in the first place):

"The idea of Viktor creating a thing that shares his goals, that genuinely wants to help him help people, at a time when he's starting to feel like maybe Jayce doesn't share that goal with him anymore? I think he's doing it all subconsciously but. Creating a thing that's a reflection of his own mind, an echo instead of another truly autonomous human that can challenge him when he starts going off the rails? An endless feedback loop of yes-and, supporting and encouraging him but also enabling his own blind spots and increasingly extreme ideas?"

"But most of all I love this because holy fuck it is SO MUCH SADDER than any other interpretation I have seen. HE MADE HIMSELF A PARTNER. HE MADE HIMSELF THE PARTNER HE THOUGHT HE DIDN'T HAVE!!! WHEN JAYCE WAS RIGHT THERE THE WHOLE TIME!!!!"

--you just unironically described AI psychosis, and I love it.

Literally, you described it, right down to the bit where someone wanted a partner, so they made themself one. I'm practically bouncing in my seat over this--it *perfectly* describes all the lonely people who decide to check out chatgpt (or one of those ai companions) and get stuck in these loops, b/c it's the perfect yes-man. It artificially fills the need for companionship, without actually fullfilling the need. It's an ouroboros.

(oh I also have a pet theory that the hexcore acts the way it does is because it's young. I think that in season 1, it doesn't exactly act *maliciously* (not intentionally, per se), it's just reacting impulsively. I don't think it has a conscious will, but I think it's acting as if it has a form of consciousness; kinda like an infant--a lot is happening under the hood that we don't see or understand, and it reacts instinctively to positive and negative stimuli.

And then in season 2, all of a sudden Viktor's logic about evolution itself, and the Glorious Evolution is really simplistic--especially by Act 3. (he's been alone inside the echochamber of his head for so long that he's distilled an idea--remove suffering and pain, create "an end to cruelty," help and heal people--down into it's purest extreme).

--I think the line "he's a man; I will not sacrifice his humanity for your cause," is Viktor's human side speaking. But that whole monologue about "evolution has a destination" (which, sidenote, I've said it before and I'll say it again: every time he says that bit, i wanna shake him by his purple, magic, metallic, dumdum-bitch shoulders and scream 'WHAT DO YOU MEAN??? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! THAT'S NOT HOW EVOLUTION WORKS! THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS!! has the hexcore cooked you'--anyway, back to the original topic)

Evolution is just...it's just entropy, that happens to promote survival. It's not a force, it's not a will; it has no motivations, no 'final destination,' it simply is. Evolution doesn't sit down one day and go 'I'm gonna give this animal flippers, and if that doesn't work, then we go back to the drawing board'; no, one animal gets a mutation, and then if--IF--that animal successfully mates with another member of its species, and IF that trait gets passed down, then it gets passed down. Now, if that trait gets passed down because it increased attraction (therefore increasing chances of successful reproduction), OR because it helped keep the animal alive long enough to reproduce, doesn't matter; it gets passed down either way. Again, evolution isn't a force, it doesn't have a goal--it's just the word we, flawed humans, we, have to describe the process of changing to best adapt to our surroundings. That's literally it. I think sometimes people--or in this case, VIKTOR--forget that evolution isn't the process of perfecting a bloodline of living things; evolution gets it WRONG too, lmao. There's probably an entire wikipedia article FILLED with every extinct species on the planet, and if not there has to be an invisible list that catalogues every rogue mutation that didn't survive past one or two generations, OR that survived long enough to categorize living things with that mutation into its own species.

Under Viktor's definition, what are they evolving for? (Evolving to better adapt, to better survive in a cruel world? He's not adapting people, he's transforming them into something so 'perfected' that it cannot evolve at all, while also--supposedly--removing all catalysts for evolving.) Turning people into perfect beings doesn't bring about peak evolution; it destroys it. Evolution is, by definition, always changing, always moving--Singed was right, in his definition of "nature forever in flux," by the way--and Viktor's Glorious Evolution (btw I can't get over the fact that the developers had an idea for their own mad scientist based on Nikola Tesla--and his inventions--that they probably named after Frankenstein's monster's creator, made him Generically Slavic, and thought that we wouldn't notice that they took the USSR's 'Glorious Revolution,' and just removed the 'R'. XD)

--and Viktor's Glorious Evolution is the end of all things. (I know that Jayce summarizes it as 'the end of Piltover,' but that's not the entirety of it; it's the end of...well, ALL of it (aside from some mutated yellow flowers that feed on pollution and waveriders, that is; no I'm not counting the garden at the top of the hexgates, with the flora and the dragonflies, that is a *haven* that Viktor made, it doesn't reflect the rest of Piltover; if anything, it's like his greenhouse 2.0).) It's the end to entopy itself.

Because--and once again, I wanna grab Viktor by the shoulders and shake him, but for another reason this time--once humans are perfect beings...what happens next? What CAN happen next? There's no problem to resolve, nothing challenging to adapt around...no purpose.

And--to bring this back to my original point, before I got INCREDIBLY sidetracked (sorry, btw)--Viktor's logic in season 2, post-merging is not only simplistic (remove all imperfections and flaws in order to remove all pain and suffering), but short-sighted. Like a child, that doesn't understand what to do next once they've completed their first goal. Of course, it's not that simple either--clearly Viktor isn't as far gone in Act 2 as he is in Act 3, and isn't in a hurry to bring about his Glorious Evolution just yet. BUT, from what we are shown in canon, it doesn't look like he's thought past the Glorious Evolution. B/c the 'G.E.' (look it's long to type, okay?) isn't an age, it's an event; a moment. And I think what Viktor and the hexcore fail to recognize--or are possibly ignoring, or even just don't see it, like an intellectual blindspot--is that moments pass. Once you've achieved your goal, time doesn't stop in that moment forever.

NOW, I can't chalk alll of this up to the hexcore--I think it's just reflecting (and therefore amplifying) Viktor's existing ideas.

(it's interesting that you and I both acknowledge that the hexcore seems to fill two paradoxical roles: the reflective yes-man, who says everything Viktor wants to hear, and doesn't 'push back'; and the impression of a partner that reflects back or represents Viktor's humanity, that does 'push back' against some of his ideas. Maybe it's reflecting back his left brain AND his right brain, but distilled into separate 'entities'? The left brain: cold, methodical, logical; obsessed with perfection. The right brain: warm, human, creative--flawed.)

(it's also interesting that Viktor keeps insisting--out-loud or indirectly--that he's doing what he's doing for purely altruistic, logical reasons.

But Viktor.

Viktor.

Viktor.

...you initially created the Hexcore since you were inspired by a vision at the Hexgates. You then pursued it doggedly--until you literally collapsed--first b/c you were near-desperate to secure a legacy for yourself, and then b/c you--for the first time in...we literally don't know--had hope that you might actually be able to cure yourself of your disease. You then did a heel-turn when it/you accidentally killed Sky--

(which is also indirectly your fault, by the way, because you used up all of your Shimmer on the first experiment, and didn't think to either secure two vials of the stuff, OR split the dosage in two when you experimented with your leg, so when you went to cure your lungs, you attempted it without Shimmer, and would have probably died if Sky hadn't stepped in and accidentally sacrificed herself. (guilty-) Food for thought.)

--and resolved to die from your disease. You left your lab due to Jayce's betrayal and broken promise(s) (promise one: destroy the hexcore, promise two: never weaponise hextech). You heal people because it's what you want to do, not what the Arcane wants to do. You heal people of ALL problems, even cosmetic ones--look, I'm sure Huck was very grateful that you fixed his eyesight AND filled in his hairline, but you didn't have to do all that--even physical disabilities, b/c you can't imagine a world where anyone with physical limitations could truly be completely happy. (that's not his fault, he was born and raised in an environment where his disability was not only not accommodated, but limiting and literally isolating--and then he went on to live in a hypocritical city full of 'progress' that doesn't even have wheelchair accessibility. I don't think he even knows what that world could look like.)

then Jayce shoots you out of the sky with the Mercury hammer, shattering your chest as well as any traces of your faith in humanity.

THEN Jayce rejects your offer to do this "once again as...partnersss" (sidenote: slut--affectionate). And oh, for some reason, afterwards you tell Signed that he "may begin the process" which involves removing the last traces of your humanity.

Oh and also suddenly the Glorious Evolution has a very short ETA.

...yeah, uh-huh, sure. I TOTALLY believe that your actions are motivated solely by your wish--your dream--to help.)

(Viktor, you can't claim that 'evolution has a destination' and that you are trying to help by removing ALL 'suffering,' and act as if you are removed from it all; as if you are as cold and calculating of a machine as the Hexcore was before it absorbed your blood. You can run from it as much as you want; but at your core, you are still HUMAN, and you are still influenced by HUMAN MOTIVATIONS and HUMAN EMOTIONS.)

...oookay, this turned out WAY longer than I'd originally intended, lol.

A pun post crossed my dash, and I reblogged it with an equally bad pun in return. A couple of my followers find it funny, it's a good day for everyone.

That was on July 7th.

Virality on Reddit was entirely algorithmic. You could garner a couple crossposts, but the success of a post was entirely dependent on whether or not it hit r/all--the main page of Reddit. If your post does that, it's immediately exposed to 10x the number of people and immediately gets upvoted.

On my pun post, I get a couple reblogs. And those reblogs get a couple reblogs--nobody really adds any content to the post, it just gets a couple reblogs here and there.

There's a specific chain of reblogs that I'd like to focus on. The most popular post on this chain has about 25 reblogs on it. Half the posts have three reblogs or fewer. Five posts in this chain have just one reblog total.

But the reblog chain keeps going. And going. It breaches containment many times over. And finally, after a chain THIRTY SIX posts long, at 9:30 AM, July 22nd this morning, it hits a popular account.

99% percent of the people who have seen the post--virtually unchanged from how it left my dash--have seen it because it was curated by 36 different people. That's insane to me.

None of those 36 people know that they're part of this chain. They saw a post, reblogged it, and moved on. If any one of these people had not reblogged, the post would have a fraction of the impact it has.

And yet, after two weeks, the post has effectively hit the main page of tumblr. It was picked up, only because people liked it enough to show it to their followers. There were no algorithms necessary.