I wanted to add cause I was thinking about arcane again. I think one of its greatest strengths is that there is no perfect answer to the problem.
Jayce COULDN'T rebel against the council and still invent hextech devices that help people.
The last time Jayce tried to not follow the rules and invent without getting approval from the council they tried to DEPORT him. They took away his belongings, expelled him from school, and tried to force him out of the city/country.
I feel like in discussions about the show I don't see it brought up enough how when we first meet Jayce he very narrowly escapes deportation. His mom basically has to plead insanity to have his sentence be just house arrest.
If Jayce and Viktor had tried to secretly distribute their inventions to Zaun or continue without the council's approval, even if it did work, they would have absolutely been caught. Jayce would have been deported, and I'm guessing they would have been even harsher to anyone from Zaun who was involved.
Also their inventions cost money, a huge part of the plot is that they basically have to get funding to even create anything cause they need a high tech lab for what they're doing.
Jayce is playing along with their rules because he has already found out what happens when he goes against them.
It's good they are not completely altruistic, I love that Jayce and Viktor ARE both a bit selfish in their motivations. I do believe they really wanted to help people but also, Jayce wants to invent things without being deported, and Viktor doesn't want to die. They're not selfless perfect people who are doing things with no regard for themselves. Jayce will choose to protect the people he cares about over strangers, Viktor will do sketchy stuff to stay alive. That doesn't make them bad people, that makes them human.
I understand why Jayce kicked Heimerdinger out of the council but I also understand why heimerdinger was trying to stop the hextech stuff from going too fast. This is what I mean by there being no easy answer. (My main beef with heimerdinger is that he is not very understanding of the situation, he's coming from a very privileged perspective and he is basically stonewalling them when they are trying to explain that waiting a decade might be easy for an immortal like him but that's a long time for someone with deteriorating health) I don't think heimerdinger is a bad person just kinda ignorant in his privilege. Like even if he was right about hextech not being the answer he could have decided to use his own power to help find other options to help people. Also he let some of the hextech stuff be pushed through fast (the things that would bring profit) even if he disapproved, but then he hard vetos the stuff that can help people. I know he's also under pressure from the council but still.
The show is so good, there is genuinely no perfect answer for how the characters could have handled it all.
