#viktor's commune

like. arcane set up two character arcs about assimilating into oppressive cultures, living with disability and trying to change the nature of life & death, and working to change the world and help the downtrodden only to be stopped by capitalism every step of the way and then forced to confront the fact that your efforts did more harm than good, and fans have NOT DONE ENOUGH to make these characters leftists. nuh uh. not on my watch.

Think about it: Viktor sees Jayce kill Salo through Salo’s eyes. He’s connected to Salo but doesn’t even try to comfort him, verbally or mentally, or ease his pain with magic in his final moments. He just stands there, watching. Waiting for Salo to die, staring at Jayce. The only time he flinches is when Jayce lunges forward, and Salo dies abruptly — his vision cuts to black.

And look at Viktor's face when it happens. That’s not horror. That’s not astonishment. That’s not grief. It’s… mild annoyance, I'd say?

Like, ugh. Jayce didn’t get it. He didn’t appreciate my work. And now he’s also destroyed one of my puppets. Sounds pretty frustrating, doesn't it, Viktor?

Then Sky says, “poor Salo”, and Viktor? Immediately pivots to, “That’s not Jayce. It’s another will at work within him”. And a moment later, he’s fascinated by the Anomaly. Salo’s gone, and no one spares him an extra thought.

And that’s the thing about Viktor’s commune — it was never about the people who joined it. It was never about understanding them, helping them, or connecting with them. It was all about Viktor’s desperate need to be in control, about his refusal to confront suffering, pain, and all the messy, complicated parts of being human. From the very beginning, it was about Viktor going, “well, the end justifies the means”, but there’s nothing kind or humanistic about that philosophy, because it always comes at the expense of people’s lives. The end never justifies the means.

And honestly, I was surprised to see how many people were mad at Jayce for blasting Viktor at the end of that episode. In my opinion, by then, it was quite clear that Viktor didn’t care much about his Arcane-modified toys. He wasn’t even pretending he did. Salo wasn’t a person to him. None of them were. They were just tools, stepping stones for his glorious evolution.

i drink the honey

Interesting thought to present to you; Yellow flowers usually represent friendship, camaraderie, and platonic love, but also death, mourning, and hopeless love.

Tulips especially are associated with hopeless love or jealousy, and hm, who do we know who's associated strongly with yellow flowers that look vaguely like tulips?

To me it seems likely that her flowers serve as a symbol of her feelings toward Viktor* (As research she wants to show him. This is supported by what she's saying as she rehearses asking to show Viktor her work), as well as to hint at the idea that the Hexcore didn't preserve her, but rather just killed her. (Or that she's alive in a similar fashion to the evolved, which is basically being dead with more suffering involved.)

This also adds an interesting symbolism to Viktor's commune since it's really the only other place we see them, besides in the alternate timelines from Pretend Like It's The First Time, specifically with the flowers Clangor wants to cultivate and while Jayce is traveling through the ruins of Zaun and Piltover.

In that episode they have pretty direct explanations though under the idea that they represent hopeless love and death/mourning; Ekko mourns a life he could have had with Jinx as well as a future he and all of them were denied**, though the brief appearance implies a lack of really dwelling on that. The flowers in the ruined timeline are also pretty easily explained as it's a pretty inarguably dead world occupied by a single man who does very little more than grieve.

That leaves the commune, which to me makes them a clever method of foreshadowing, a combination of an indication Sky is really dead and not the one guiding Viktor, the undeath of the commune members, Jayce's doomed love for Viktor (wether you view that as platonic or not is up to you), and Viktor's coming death at the hands of someone he loved. You could even rope in Viktor's sacrifice of Sky to become the Herald of the Arcane in, seeing as the shot pans over the flowers very briefly before the sequence with The Line begins.

here for an angsty daemon arcane au?

There was a commotion at the gates. 

In the midst of a peaceful tranquility, there was a pool of terror. Confusion and fear rang loudly in the shared mindscape, polluting its perfect state.

The sound of footsteps further alerted Viktor that the problem wouldn't go away without his direct involvement. The arcane hummed in the back of his mind as he felt Sky and Tel fade out of sight - just as Zawadi walked into the greenhouse.

Viktor made haste.

This is a tale of three revolutionary movements: Silco, Viktor, and the Firelights. Let's start with a quick summary of each.

Silco and the chembarons: Anarcho-capitalist, seeking to install the rule of law. Rules by oligarchy, capital, and force. Relies on fear more than respect or community.

Viktor and his commune: Communist, in the purest sense of the word. There is no state, no property, and no force. Peace is enforced through magic and religion, with Viktor at the helm. An idealistic utopia.

The Firelights: Anarcho-communist. A more realistic version of a moneyless, stateless society. Built on a culture that is strong, but not fanatical. Not afraid of using force when necessary or tactically desirable.

Note that I don't say Ekko when describing the Firelights, very intentionally. The Firelights can run with or without Ekko. This is one major area that sets them apart from the other two. When Silco dies, the whole world flips over. When Viktor perishes, his community is soon to follow. But when Ekko disappears? They honor his loss and carry on.

I want to think about the idea of Founder's Syndrome, and what that means for these movements. I first learned about Founder's Syndrome when reading about Growing Power, an organization in Milwaukee that was dedicated to filling in a nutritional needs gap with urban farming. You may have heard of "food deserts," places where there isn't an affordable grocery store for miles. That's the problem that Growing Power aimed to address. They were a pioneer in urban farming and nonprofit local food production, which is how I came to know of them. It would be a disservice to mention them without also mentioning their incredible impact on the local food movement.

Growing Power's approach to local food production reminds me quite a bit of Viktor's commune--or rather, Viktor's commune reminded me a lot of Growing Power: an emphasis on sustainable closed-loop systems, using technology to increase efficiency over traditional agriculture, and reclaiming the land and the soil from overindustrialization and pollution. Creative use of space is important in these types of settings, and Growing Power did it well.

But its resounding success had a limit. Will Allen, the founder of Growing Power, remained a central figure in the organization as it grew. The centralization of power is often a problem at scale, and Allen was just one man. Every major decision needed to be routed through him, which severely limited Growing Power's flexibility. When he chose to retire, the organization collapsed. While centralization of leadership wasn't the only factor leading to the end of Growing Power, it was the factor with the greatest and most insidious impact: inflexibility of leadership leads to ineffective decision-making, which leads to an inability to address other concerning factors before they become significant, organization-ending problems.

How might one prevent such a fate? Delegation, shared leadership, and a willingness to be challenged.

Consider the Firelights. We see only a few glimpses of this in the show, but Ekko has clearly delegated power to Scar even when they're both in Sanctuary together. They lead more as a duo, even as there is implied deference to Ekko. This delegation and shared leadership is so effective that Scar can lead the Firelights in Ekko's absence: once when Ekko is injured during the fight on the bridge, and for a much longer time when Ekko disappears into the Anomaly. In addition, Ekko trusted Scar so strongly that Scar is comfortable overriding Ekko's judgment, as seen in the attack on the airship during Progress Day--Ekko charges Jinx in a rage, and Scar swoops in and snatches him off the deck. So as founder of the Firelights, we see Ekko exhibit all three factors: delegation, shared leadership, and humility, all of which ensure that the Firelights as an organization will outlast him.

There are many, many reasons why the Firelights are a successful movement. They did many things right while Silco and Viktor made missteps. The avoidance of Founder's Syndrome is the most salient to me. It really is remarkable that Ekko's absence--assumed to be permanent--did not cause the Firelights to crumble, or apparently even waver. This is a lesson for all who are building organizations and movements: if you want your movement to last, you need to build it so that it can run without you. This means building shared leadership into your structure from the beginning, delegating early and often, and maintaining humility. Remember that you cannot have a community without collaboration, and this goes for your leadership team too.