#and he also doesn't care that much about enlightenment and spirituality if it isn't something he can leverage against others

[ll-underestimated-ll]

// Every now and then I remember that I need to settle on what bloody path Leo's on, start reading things, then get distracted and forget for the next 5 months. This has gone on since blog creation in 2020 stg.

Anyway -

[lipstickchainsaw]

There is so much to talk about when Viktor finally starts talking to our main family, because this is literally the first time he has interacted with any of these people, which I don't think is true for any other main character in the show. Before I do that, though, I just want to note how adorable it is that Isha's become so protective of Vander.

The main lens I want to use when talking about what's happening here is that of the religious themes we've been seeing so much of lately. Jinx is the one who gives Viktor his nickname of 'Machine Herald' in this episode, and with Jinx having been positioned as Janna's own herald, that makes this meeting a significant one when it comes to these themes.

It is important, then, that Jinx remains a skeptic. As far as she's concerned, that fight in the church was something she did for aesthetic purposes, and Janna isn't actually, like, a real diety. She doesn't care about all this spiritual woo-woo, even as she starts being painted on walls much as Janna was, and calling on fresh air to clear the choking smog of Zaun, potentially even rising up to clear the noxious presence of Noxus!

Viktor, by contrast, has fully accepted his role as herald of a god he may not have a name for, and has accepted his position as spiritual leader and guide for his people. His healing method speaks to the soul, their inner self, and healing the damage inflicted to it through the body.

Their other grand similarity is that they've both kind of sort of hidden away in their own pocket worlds (which they share with that other religiously themed entity, the Black Rose). Much like Jinx, Viktor has created his own pocket world where he gets to make the rules and pretend the outside world doesn't exist. Hell, Viktor's grown influential enough that he gets to enforce those boundaries even when the outside world knows he's there. He gets to have his own little paradise and do good within it for all those who come to him.

But Jinx eventually found this isolation unbearable, as the outside world continued to impose on what she wanted, and she voluntarily stepped back out to meet it, and to enact change within the wider world. In that sense, Jinx is much more enmeshed in the material realities of the oppression Zaun faces (although, again, I wish episodes 5 and 6 did more with what was set up in 4, and also that we got to see Sevika more), whereas Viktor is more occupied with the grander mysteries of the universe and attaining spiritual enlightenment.

I suspect this will become even more prominent in act 3.