#'legends of runeterra is arguably a side canon' Yes But none of the LOR content pertaining to vkjc directly contradicts their concepts

[hexhomos]

im curious to know your thoughts on viktor's biography saying jayce was nothing more than an inconvenience. how do you handle him saying they were never friends? was this because of piltoverians superiority or? (correct me if im wrong but i cant remember if you touched on that)

A friend of mine once said a catastrophic breakup has the unforeseen consequence of tainting everything that came before it in the harsh, abrasive light of the fresh argument, and after that initial damage is done it’s hard to pick out how the memories *really* were. No matter how positive. You begin to doubt, re-read and re-write what happened, so the ultimate split "makes sense."

This may not even be a conscious process half of the time! But jokes about crazy-ex-girlfriends exist for a reason, and I believe that reason might be a surplus of unwarranted crazy-ex-girlfriend stories that are told after the dissolution of every messy relationship. You need a clear Right and a clear Wrong. Rationalizing your behavior as “only logical, in the face of irrationality,” is a defense mechanism. It’s not a pretty one, but it boils down to this: avoidance of guilt, rejection of any criticism you may consider too true, the reshaping of your narrative so *you* are the one in control, the winner, the guy who’s closing the debate with the perfect comeback, one thought up in the shower 12 hours after the fact.

Viktor lies a lot. By omission, exaggeration, negligence and a sense of dwindling pride. Jayce is simultaneously unstoppably unjust and a worm-man that could be crushed beneath his heel; an insufferable viktor never chose for himself! Who is, at the same time, somehow, his work partner of years, actively by his side right up until his last project - or until he's had enough. And the dissonance is the point. This is an image that has been warped so much in editing you can see the smudgy click and drag marks in the surroundings. 

I do think Jayce and Viktor were friends, and this is an assertion I make without doubt. Viktor calls jayce his old friend when the plea benefits him, this is corroborated by how positively Jayce's bio speaks about Viktor, even while criticizing his methods.

Jayce is indifferent to nearly everyone he meets, he says so himself, in his opening paragraphs; if he really was so Out There To Get Viktor And Ruin His Life &/Or Reputation- what fucking reason does he have to defend Viktor's honor after he's proved himself to be unstable and aggressive? If their relationship was nonexistent, sour, or predicated exclusively in rivalry or animosity, why does Viktor ask for Jayce to join him in his grand plan, after years of alleged cold war? What reason is there for Jayce to apologize and still extend him an out after Viktor sinks his head in with a giant crystal? What reason is there for him to even disclose doing that? (what reason is there for Jayce to call Viktor petnames after multiple direct attempts on his life???? LOL)

To put it mildly. If we are to take Viktor’s POV by his word (imagine he is being honest,) and see this as a straightforward detached revenge story about prejudice or jayce’s unreasonable hero complex or piltover carelessly wanting to trump over zaun or whatever - why doesn’t Jayce’s side of the story simply call him a cunt and move on? He has all the setup to prop himself as the true hero, but he doesn’t. Like Bon points out here, Jayce’s bio doesn’t even bring up that Viktor is a Zaunite. Not Once. There is no stereotypical city grudge casting him in a bad light. The information is implicit: they talk about Zaun, extensively, but Viktor’s ideas and standing and existence are what you know him by, not some undercity-dwelling boogeyman. If anything, Jayce self-deprecates far more frequently than Viktor does, and makes a sustained effort to poke holes on the audience’s perception of him being a ‘valiant hearted hero’ of any kind. He dont give a fuck. He doesn't want this title. He did not pick it. He is not choosing to represent this city. He has other, better, palpable things to care about. Namely his work, and generally ‘preventing people from being made into fucking zombies’. Jayce doesn’t want you to think that he is right(eous), but that what is happening is wrong.

If I take a step back from text interpretation here and tell you what I personally gather from it, Opinion Wise, it's this: Viktor is concerned with presenting you with a tragic fable because he has an ideology to sell. The revisions and concessions he makes along the way are for the ultimate purpose of crafting a legend. And sometimes that requires humility. He needs the rationalization to make sense of every single bad thing that has ever happened in his life; and in his way there he also tends to mix up one sore spot with the other, like they're all this elaborate multi-step prank destiny sprung on him, like every single other person in his life has been Lowkey Conspiring Against Him, so you can eventually agree to this:

Humans suck, right? We agree humans suck, right, guys? I mean wouldn't we love it if humans didn't suck? Thats Why I Came Up With A Solution!! THE NEURALINK. - Viktor. (note: whenever there's a mention of the student body, swap it with 'Jayce' to see how the motivation builds up. Viktor makes an effort to omit him whenever possible anyway)

He's kind of at the end of his rope. This is his last ditch effort to build himself back up.

Generally speaking, the opposite goes for Jayce. He frontloads his statement with mentions of how he is a huge dipshit, unabashedly so, to get really at the meat of things: He thinks Viktor's preaching is fucking bogus, but the point is that guy used to be his friend. That guy used to be someone he knew! That guy was brilliant at what he did, even, but something went really terribly wrong down the line and it's frankly fucked up that it happened. But nobody really cares nor can they fully understand, because as Jayce previously stated, maybe everyone else is kind of fucking stupid, so he has to fix things on his own. (Jayce doesn't have any 'I stand for justice and righteousness and the american way,' comeback prepared to rebuke Viktor's speeches. That sentence could make him barf. He just has very strong feelings about where the line is drawn, and he’s not going to wait for the worst case scenario before doing something.)

I do think that more than anything else, It’s important (and telling) that both of their bios admit to them being deeply hurt by their falling-out. Jayce calls it ‘growing more insular’, Viktor calls it ‘traumatic’, there are attempts to patch things back up on either side (even if a bit tilted, even if the propositions don’t work) Viktor regrets trusting anyone at all, so he covers it up with detachment. Jayce regrets not having enough faith to communicate anything, when he could have, so he tries his best to own up to every present or imagined failure in his way towards improvement.

Of course Viktor would describe Jayce as inconvenient. Viktor is one of the many perceived past failures Jayce is desperately trying to do damage control for. And if he *can’t* change Viktor’s mind, well. At least Jayce can stand in his way and be really, really annoying.