edit: rewritten to be shorter

“I understand now. The message hidden within the pattern. The reason for our failures in the commune. The doctor was right, it’s inescapable—humanity, our very essence. Our emotions… rage, compassion, hate. Two sides of the same coin, inextricably bound. That which inspires us to do our greatest good… is also the cause of our greatest evil.”

Viktor’s goodbye speech in S2 EP6 tells us a lot. We learn about the ‘why’ of his actions and our own reality, and that’s why it’s worth understanding to a higher standard. His words show how humanity interferes with his pursuit of goodness.

Firsthandedly, Viktor’s speech teaches us about the emotionality of humanity. All humans do is feel—this leads to thinking, acting, and as a human, this process is inescapable. Emotions are why we do what we do. Ambessa started a war against Piltover because she hated the Black Rose and wanted revenge (by using hextech as weaponry). Viktor connected people to the hexcore because empathy, influenced by the hexcore, clouded his thoughts. He believed it was saving them. “The doctor was right, it’s inescapable—humanity, our very essence.” We do bad when we feel low, we do good when we feel uplifted. But how do we even know what’s good or bad? It’s because we know the other. “Our emotions… rage, compassion, hate. Two sides of the same coin, inextricably bound.” Emotions like hate/love, compassion/ignorance… They can’t exist without it’s other side. That’s why humanity can’t be perfectly good or perfectly bad, each side proves the other, it’s neutral in the end.

Next, Viktor’s speech shows how humanity contradicts his vision of hextech. If humans aren’t perfectly good or perfectly bad, then a purely good technology (used by people) is deemed impossible. Viktor and Jayce created hextech to end suffering, but in human hands, the tech then reflected both good and bad. Ambessa saw it as a pinnacle of power in war, while Viktor and Jayce saw it as a tool to aid the lower classes. This contrast already breaks Viktor’s idealistic viewpoint. “The message hidden within the pattern… the reason for our failures…” His dream of pure goodness in hextech failed because the nature of humanity is inescapable.

In S2 EP9, Viktor says, “Choice is false. It is how we clothe and forgive the baser instincts that spur us to division. Death, war, prejudice. Energy spent only to consume itself.” Yet, benefit requires free will. Near the end of Act 2, Viktor’s plan for the hexcore was already flawed. His dream of perfect good was a paradox… Because to achieve it, evil, the very thing that defines it, would have to be gone. He used the hexcore to ‘help’ humanity, but humanity and its flaws already makes it destructive. For the hexcore to be purely good, feelings, conscience, pain, all of humanity would need to be erased. But then again, without humanity, the hexcore deems no purpose. There would be nothing left to prove its goodness. Viktor’s plan ended up destroying what he tried to save, humanity. His greatest good became his greatest evil. “That which inspires us to do our greatest good… is also the cause of our greatest evil.”