#Viktor Talking Machine

[orangechickenpillow]

Every time I think about machine herald Viktor happening in the arcane universe my body vibrates at a frequency that could shatter glass

[mollysunder]

Shimmer & The Glorious Evolution: A Love Story

We can see how a specialized high quality strain of Rio's shimmer can alter the biology of living organisms to make users produce their own shimmer, as is the case with Jinx. So what will happen now that Rio's specialized shimmer has been exposed to an artificial life form, i.e. the hexcore?

What Has the Hexcore Done Without Shimmer?

Prior to the hexcore's exposure to shimmer infused blood we've only seen it capable of releasing short bursts of massive energy when Viktor experiments with it.

When exposed to human blood the hexcore reacted by "consuming" a drop of it. The blood effected the entire magical dimension the hexcore connects to by turning it to a shade of purple similar to the plants found in Singed's cave.

Later we see that this newly blood infused hexcore's magic turned purple and is able to not only react to organic matter such as plants, but stimulate their growth in turn (not for long of course). The affected plants also take on the purple tinge similar to the hexcore's magic.

What Have We Seen the Shimmered Hexcore Do So Far?

Once Viktor exposed the hexcore to his shimmer infused blood it was capable of producing a longer lasting stable state with its test subject twice. Initially, what exactly happened to Viktor's leg was up to interpretation, but later on animators in Bridging the Rift confirmed that Viktor's new leg and hand are made of metal.

This means that the hexcore took Viktor's flesh and shimmer infused blood (more than the first time) and exchanged it for an arcane/shimmer configured metalic replacement. His skin is gone and we're looking at what his muscle has been converted to.

The transmutation of Viktor's hand and leg into metal could have only been facilitated through the use of shimmer. It was likely the remaining shimmer in Viktor's system that prevented him from being absorbed into the hexcore. Without a sufficient amount of shimmer, a regular human hand does not equal a shimmerized arcane metalic hand. The flesh, bone, and blood of an entire adult woman and a pitance of shimmer is worth the hand it provides.

What Will Happen Next Season?

The further the hexcore directly interfaces with organic matter the more similar it becomes in appearance and ability to shimmer. Where it improves health and strength at increasing biological costs. Once Viktor realizes that he's missing the "Inspiration" rune, the rune matrix will finally be complete and reach a "stable" state.

A "stable" state could mean the hexcore could reliably interact with and alter organic matter like Rio's shimmer is capable of. Based on the notes Sky left behind, her research focused on plant biology. In theory, a "perfect" hexcore could not only stimulate plant life to grow impressively, they could be durable enough to survive in extreme environments like Zaun.

While there is evidence that shimmer and its byproducts can enhance plant growth, especially in Zaun, there is a catch. Any plant affected by a hexcore corrupted by Rio's specialized shimmer would be altered in a way that makes them capable of being producing shimmer independently.

Just from Viktor's experiment with a hexcore exposed to a single drop of blood, the plants began to glow purple like the plants Rio would eat and break down into shimmer. Except, like Jinx the hexcore would pass down its own strain to the plant subjects that's compatible with the hexcore's "exchange" requirements.

But why would Viktor want to create plants capable of producing MORE shimmer for Zaun. Simple! Without shimmer you can't get... The Glorious Evolution. It's already been mentioned that Viktor's limbs have become metal, and to make his transformation complete he'll need more shimmer. For others to become like him, he needs more shimmer.

but...

Who Would Be Willing to Follow the Herald's Path?

Shimmer addicts like Huck and those who live in the sump with dying flesh and residual concentrations of shimmer in their bodies could be "healed" from their state of deterioration through the hexcore.

In Bridging the Rift we actually saw an unfinished clip of Viktor reaching his metalic hand to reach out and grab the face of a shimmer addict. Upon further inspection of the unidentified character's scars, we can guess this is Huck.

There's also the underlying culture of flesh sacrifice in Zaun, which is actually in the same vein as the Church of the Gloriously Evolved. In League, specifically through Camille's lore, the Church of the Gloriously Evolved actually exists outside of and likely before the Machine Herald came to the scene. The Church's roots even stretch into both Zaun & Piltover.

They believe that you must sacrifice something close and dear (like diseased flesh) with the faith that something better will take its place. Splinters of this organization likely made Silco an object of worship admiring his power and assuming the shimmer he brought was the miracle they sacrificed so much for already. Without Silco and his shimmer, Viktor and his hexcore would become the Church's new object of adoration as they bring shimmer AND immediate transmutation.

Finally, there's Sevika. In the tarot seen, Sevika drew a winning hand with a pair of card, Death and The Magician, that resemble Jinx and Viktor respectively. The scene may foreshadow that Jinx and Viktor will be the trump cards to win her Zaun's independence. But How will that work with Viktor?

You could argue that Sevika could bring Viktor in to repair her arm, but there's an entire industry backed up by a chembaron, Smeech, to fulfill that need. Viktor's going to need to bring something new to the table to be brought into the fold, and that could be shimmer infused plants and the "healing" properties of the hexcore. And I'm sure Sevika's pragmatic enough to know that for Zaun to survive Piltover's retaliation she'll need to bolster her resources in manpower and shimmer... lots of it.

Whether Sevika will be able to handle the cult of personality around the Machine Herald, especially if Jinx ends up siding him is a whole other discussion.

[ree-duh]

I love you viktor arcane running past the boat scene

[arowyn-m]

Jayce/Viktor/Hexcore situation in S2

Okay I've seen a lot of S2 theories circulating so I just wanted to get my two cents out there before we get any new information beyond the most recent teaser!

Lots of this is speculation loosely based on lore and possible foreshadowing. I'm not 100% convinced any of this is going to happen, but I do think some parts of it are more likely than not. Here's the gist of what I think will happen over the course of the 3 acts. (Buckle up because this is a long post)

ACT I:

Act I opens with the council attack. Everyone is dead except for Jayce, Mel, Viktor and maybe one other lucky but irrelevant councilor (probably Shoola if Mel’s armor protection has this radius)

Shoola is the closest councilor on Mel’s right.

In the German version of the trailer, Ambessa says “Half of your council is dead.” There are 7 councilors. At least 3 would have to survive for the council to be considered “half” annihilated. Although it could be a statement Ambessa’s trying to make, implying that just Jayce and Mel make up at least half of the council’s power. Either way—Jayce, Mel and Viktor survive, if barely.

Jayce makes it out with largely superficial injuries. Though they make it out alive, Mel and Viktor are badly injured in the explosion. Mel is expected to recover, but Viktor is not. Both are in a coma or at least bedridden at the beginning of the season. Despite the good news for her daughter, Ambessa is furious about her daughter’s injuries.

Jayce somehow finds out about the extent of Viktor’s Hexcore experimentation, either by finding his research notes or by seeing his modifications and putting two and two together.

Jayce uses the Hexcore to save his friend. Viktor wakes up not relieved or grateful like Jayce expects, but outraged.

Viktor sees Jayce’s decision as a blatant betrayal of his promise to destroy the Hexcore, and so decides the device would be better off in his care than in the clutches of someone he now sees as faithless. He returns to the Undercity, presumably for good.

Jayce stays topside and begins building Hextech weapons (like Caitlyn’s acceleration gate rifle we saw in the teaser) in earnest.

I’ve seen some speculation that this hooded figure is Jinx, but I really can’t see her skulking around the Undercity in a cloak. We know we get Jinx in a hood at some point in the series (due to reports from the Annecy event) but this cloak in particular doesn’t seem her style—and we see Viktor in a similar-looking cloak later in the teaser. This, paired with the convincing theories that Viktor and Jinx will at very least interact in S2 leads me to think that this is just Viktor standing in the aftermath of some Jinx shenanigans.

Later in the act is when we get hooded Viktor. He uses the Hexcore to heal some of the addicts living near the fissures, unintentionally rallying them to his cause. I think Huck is the person Viktor is healing or changing here ->

The character on the bottom middle seems to have a similar build. This may lead to Huck being the cult leader for the Gloriously Evolved.

I think it’s likely that this ^ shot is from the same scene where Viktor’s using magic in the sump. The primary lighting is a different color, but the Hexcore has given off both purple and blue light before. Heimer also looks like he’s in a dark environment where he wants to be hidden, so it wouldn’t make sense for this to take place in Piltover or in Ekko’s oasis. He’s somewhere in Zaun.

We see some foreshadowing to the Hexcore corrupting Viktor. Heimerdinger expresses worry about the whole thing and once again proposes the Hexcore be destroyed. This time, Viktor outright refuses.

ACT II:

Here’s where things get a little muddy and speculative. Arcane is obsessed with parallels, so it’s likely that the writers are going to try to replicate the same structure S1 had. Here we’ll have another timeskip mirroring the one in S1–about 6-10 years in duration. This would but Jaycr and Viktor into their late 30s/early 40s (closer to their in-game ages)

Both characters will have realized a design closely resembling their in-game counterparts. Viktor and Jayce are now full-on enemies, but how they got to that point will only be told through subtextual clues and maybe a flashback.

Either during this Act or within the timejump preceding, Viktor builds Blitzcrank.

I looked at Blitz’s wiki to find out why exactly Viktor built them, and it turns out they were built not as a weapon or shield, but as a means of disposing of hazardous waste. I wonder if one of Viktor’s main motivations in S2 will be making Zaun more habitable as well as healing its citizens.

Despite Viktor’s good intentions, the Hexcore will have corrupted/connected itself to him to some extent. Whether for good or ill (probably ill), it’ll become apparent that Viktor and the Hexcore are irreparably connected.

ACT III:

This is where the theory gets controversial. I’ve seen a lot of people predicting that Riot won’t choose to kill any champion characters in Arcane because it puts an end to their lore and makes them unmarketable. I wholeheartedly disagree, and here’s why: Arcane and subsequent stories based on League are going to be primarily about the champions. There are more than 140 champs in LoL. If Riot plans to make shows or movies about even half of these champions, the plot armor for each will become increasingly obvious. I don’t think Riot is going to shy away from killing champions, especially not when they’ve made it clear they don’t have a problem with showing drastic time jumps. Immense amounts of lore can happen (and have happened) within timeskips, especially ones that are 6+ years long.

Knowing that Arcane ends with season 2, it’s likely that all the main characters’ arcs will be wrapped up by the end of the season. Christian Linke mentioned that Riot and Fortiche have plans for other League-related projects, but I don’t see the characters of Arcane becoming involved enough in another show to complete a personal arc or resolve a major plot point from THIS show. The most I can see is cameos, honestly. I hope I’m wrong because I love these characters…but yeah.

So with those points in mind…I think Viktor dies at the very end of this season. Viktor has always been on a path of carrying out experiments farther than he should and creating things much too strong or volatile for him to handle safely. Jinx is on a similar trajectory, but she at least has some form of self-preservation, which is something Viktor has grown to lack. At some point, his luck will run out and his technology will be the end of him.

Towards the end of the series, Jayce and Viktor will have their final showdown, and Jayce will destroy the Hexcore. Because Viktor and the device are so interconnected to one another, destroying the Hexcore will kill him. Viktor dies to a fault in his technology, and Jayce keeps his promise in the end.

[junorpheus]

vikjayces that make me want to get CO2 poisoning

[vhvrs]

sparkle on its monday

[binghe-malewife-goals]

Me, an intellectual, scoffing at the theories for arcane s2 bc no one seems to understand the characters

[sup-honey]

Merry Christmas @PhoenixTheThief /twitter

They had such cool prompts for their #JayvikGiftExhange2022 gift, I had to do them all!!

Prompt 1: Pinning

Prompt 2: MH pinning Gio against a wall

Promot 3: Desperate member grinding (covered)

[dastardlydumb]

redesigning Viktor

how to go about it? as i'm drawing up body shapes and silhouettes to use in a fun little attempt at redesigning a character such as viktor the machine herald with a more modern take or just a bit of a character update in general. at first i thought perhaps giving him a bad posture would be a good idea to use to accentuate the fact he carries a giant hand laser on his shoulder and give him a bit more of a feral vibe by essentially stretching him out like you see with most tech priests from warhammer since that's his original inspiration. but then i start to think it might go against his personality and character to be seen as something with a bad posture. plus if you were to put him besides singed their character silluhette would be far too similar which wouldn't be ideal in a character lineup.

so then a more tall and regal yet a bit inhuman stretching of the character seems a better choice. and i think it'll be what i end up landing on were it not for Jhin who could be seen similarly even with the weird pauldron on the side. but Jhin is very lanky and thin so if i give Viktor a bit more of a buff with his chest armor it shouldn't be a problem in a character line up.

then there's the question of whether or not to keep his hood on or off. if he has it on he sorta runs the risk of looking to similar to other hooded caped character which mostly include Ashe Xayah who both have feminine figure so maybe he won't run that risk too much. giving him a hood would arguably make him seem more shepherd or herald like befitting his title. the spiky mess of hair can just be underneath it the same way he hides his unaugmented parts of himself with a shawl/cape.

having his pauldron jut out and be kinda flat would separate him from getting confused with jhin who has a very tall upright pauldron. i am aware that their pauldrons are on the opposites sides but that hardly matters in terms of confusing their silhouettes.

arguably his claw is his most distinguishing feature if you were to put him in a character line up. tho making that work for him in terms of aesthetically pleasing character designs could prove to be difficult. but it's one of those curve balls you just have to roll with and try and see what works and what doesn't.

he's a spellcaster/scientist with a staff and with that comes the opportunity to display his aesthetic and personality through the object with which he does all his zappy science magic stuff. i'd say that keeping the wires but making them a bit more visible and overall giving the staff the appearance of some sort of container for the hexcore is a good idea unless i was to decide that the hexcore/his ult ability "chaos storm" actually remains in his chest and he just throws it out whenever he uses the ability like in his battlecast skin model. either way, i think the staff should look almost like a lightning rod with a container for the crystal or hexcore at the head of the staff. you could also implement some aesthetic choices of his cane from arcane into the design but i'm currently focusing on his league design. otherwise i'd say it would be a great idea to almost show signs of it being capable of somehow collapsing into a crutch or a cane with the push of a button on it somewhere, or just having it be able to double as a crutch.

i would like to incorporate more bronze or design choices that ties him together to his creation blitzcrank. it would only make sense that they would look similar to show Viktors style in engineering and making their lore connection a bit more recognisable despite their design differences. blitzcrank is very friendshaped but i think that generally making viktors armor somehow more angular and a bit more like scraps of metal welded together would accomplish this.

Viktor is a scientist who looks like a mage, or to use his original concept title he is a "hexmage" and in the league universe that's almost the same as saying he's an artificial mage made through or powered by hextech. but more so than that he is a leader type of character, in fact most of his the skinlines that he's in, he has to fill the role of villainous leader. admittedly in his league lore its a role he has very little interest in, aside from maybe using it as an opportunity to educate people. but it's a role league seems very intent on him filling somehow. And with that being the case then it's the most natural choice to give him a design the exudes some sort of power and authority or perhaps even charisma that people from zaun would see and think yeah i wanna follow that guy into a revolution.

with all that and a bit more in mind it's easy to see how difficult it is to actually redesign this guy. but fortunately his design is so very old that quite literally anything would be a step up from his current messy design (which i still find adorable in its own right but by god please this man needs an update)

[luixiv]

I have been thinking again about the one image of The Machine herald from Bridging the Rift. And I'm going little bit isane over it. Over him. He is so TALL and BIG. Just loomig over himself. Taller than Jayce and I think even taller than Vander was. Aaaaaa I mean look at him. Look at the man. He is gigantic. He probably has to bend, when he wants to go through doors. Absolutely insane. My god. My brain can't. I'm so giddy. I want to see more of him. Why would they tease us like this and show so little. So cruel of them. Like go on, show us more, don't be shy.

I don't know what will I do when S2 comes out. I'm already going crazy, chewing at the walls, running in circles and all we have seen so far is ONE blurry image and close up of his hand and staff. I will go feral when we see MH in all his glory. Like run into the woods to be never seen again type of feral.

[infinitelystrangemachinex]

what you see in season 1:

what I see in season 2:

hope this clears some things up

......oh god

and no I am not some kind of coward

i do not care how deep into Greek tragedy season 2 strays, they are setting up this layup too perfectly and Mel and the Machine Herald together in the same room would descend into the most hilarious negging and banter the world has ever seen GIMME

[ree-duh]

[giohexora]

i love jayce giopara x jayce talis x machine herald, because yes, talis gets to be sandwiched sometimes, but. but. have y'all ever thought about how much of their shit talis has to deal with on a daily basis.....

[ricky-olson]

my toxic gifmaker trait is starting big project after big project without finishing the last and it rots in my drafts <3

[geek-antic]

I feel like artists (including myself) have to hold up a picture of their fan art side by side with the original character and think to themselves… Is this the same character? or have I just made an oc based off of them?

Because at some point you have to realize that you’ve just made an entirely new character purely by projecting

[hexhomos]

The 'Talis' hypothesis

So I think the S2 trailer confirms something central about Arcane I've wondered for a while. This has plot bearings to it, namely what nebulous purpose 'Magic' serves in the story -- how they're changing the role Hextech has in the game lore, incl. its power system & ruleset -- and what kind of hubris is associated with it historically. But it also answers something that has always nagged at me: why the fuck did they change Jayce's name?

So let's talk about this picture. And I'm going to give you the rosetta stone in 5 seconds:

This is Hextech now. Like that is just an incredibly concise and complete descriptor of Hextech-in-Arcane, right. It 'harms' Jinx, it 'protects' Jayce in the snowstorm, it 'heals' Viktor to a degree. It is installed permanently in architecture; the Hexgates ARE the brand.

First off, we have this fucker carrying around a talisman from back when he was 7, and the cinematography of the show agonizes over showing you this throughout all of ep2:

Jayce's bracelet is a bang-on definition of a historical talisman. The way hextech *functions* in the show is inextricable from the promises and rites associated with talismans, a word appropriated/popularized by the French - which I'm going to conservatively argue Fortiche would be familiar with;

Which brings me to the subject of what Hextech is, and how Hextech was changed for the tv show (and what its possibly being retconned to in the game)

Hex'tech' is not technology. The name is a carryover from a bygone era of leagueoflegends speak; Hextech in Arcane, and presumably in expanded lore going forward (given Skarner's rework and other things) - is the study, development, and the building of an industry around the craft of practical Talismans. If you want to understand how this shit works you need to promptly abandon the assumption that it is 'manufactured' magic -- its pure magic. It's raw magic. The tech part is a red herring misnomer.

The beliefs around this already cover links to 'the Arcane' as another, ethereal destination realm with Inhabitants that learn and change, ontop of rune-carving as magical instruction;

This also covers Viktor's impending transformation and the changes made to his character.

IN MY OPINION, via the content released so far and what we've already witnessed in S1, Viktor has been shifted away from becoming 'the machine herald' and re-positioned to become the Herald of Divine Rune Alchemy or whichever name they end up using.

I don't doubt that he'll get the armor at some point, because that's a recognizable visual and as much fanservice as they owe his decade-long fans, but... I would temper my expectations around the thought of machine evolution. It's not what this Viktor does, and it's not what he (or the narrative,) is interested in -- My guess is that the armor comes into play as a secondary way to AVOID overusing limited magical power, as we've seen runes can be depleted, and the hexcore tends to kill things in exchange.

Now that we've established all that, here is the bridge that I'm going to sell you.

Now, for today's homework, I expect you to run off to do something useful and homoerotic with this information.