#first hextech and now protecting piltover against viktor while sneaking behind those ppls backs to fraternize with the enemy

[hextehc]

the timeline and changes from act 1 → post - act 1 into defender of tomorrow aka the talis to giopara pipeline it lived inside of him this entire time and he didnt even know it

( act 1. ) while some things were present in the beginning like being patient, diligent, inventive, persistent, suicidal, reckless, gullible, an absolute unit of a people pleaser, ambitious, insecure, polite, and even held ideas of having relaxed prejudice against those in zaun (arguably you could say almost everyone in piltover has negative ideas of people from the under city so jayce is absolutely no different despite where he came from originally. you can see it in the way he talks to viktor sometimes, completely forgetting that he's from zaun himself; this is an entirely different discussion) these traits vanished as the series went on. hard to actually see what goes on the 7 year time lapse of jayce in and out of the lab especially playing as the councilors lapdog that bids their every command, but you see a little more of a newer jayce and some of old traits that stayed the same. you see he's more proud of his and viktor's work, a lot more bold in his pursuits particularly when he gets more involved with the council, even charming and honest to the point where it's almost manipulative; ambitious and diligence still holds true but the less time he spends in the lab, he becomes more headstrong, demanding, fierce, difficult, and renege; having too much tunnel vision, he goes against his most important persons wishes and being blind to rift drifting between the both of them. guess you could say he's also inattentive with his partner's failing health and quite inability to read the room, until it's too late (even a negotiator with sylco to give zaun its proper freedom).

the foundation really crumbles when the council room explodes and he sees his partner's body broken but barely alive. he decides to play the role of frankenstein, impulsively and desperate with trying to piece viktor's body back together using his schematics.

( defender of tomorrow. ) he starts to lose those values when he was just the creator of hextech. carelessly thrown into politics lead to his downfall and before he knew it, viktor had decided to leave piltover to go back to zaun and fight back jayce's development and the nation as a whole. he begged, pleaded, even giving up his council seat (originally having the mind he wasn't fit to help defend piltover and fight for its citizens, translating into against viktor rather) so they can resume what they originally wanted to do: create hextech to help the common man, in piltover and zaun. it didn't give. this causes him to become panicked, scornful, impatient, hostile, and resentful. it was hard to accept the nature of the present and the future. in the lab he continued to be, doing what he wanted to do but made the promise to himself that no more weapons would be created the exceptions of the ones already made (the mercury hammer, atlas gauntlets (originally made with miners in mind), and the hexrifle). he starts to neglect to his grooming habits, letting his beard and hair grow out; he becomes indifferent to what others think of him.

eventually, as those feelings subside, and having still under the council's eye, he forces himself to only associate hextech with himself and not his old partner (and becomes annoyed at people who make the comment you were so loud about including him before, now what happened?). the golden boy and paragon of progress was no more, even refusing to look at the posters that showed off his face, ones that gave bright hope over piltover and a dark shadow over zaun.

he then becomes arrogant, stubborn, sarcastic, insensitive, disrespectful, regretful, possessive, dismissive, rude, secretive, and insular. he absolutely irritable, upon stopping one of viktor's failed attacks on piltover, does he gain the defender of tomorrow title. one who held so much pride of the beautiful city of piltover now has feelings of shame, but egotistical. if he was going to put into this position, might as well play into it. can we just mention jealous and obsessive, too? just in a private room where he and viktor share, regardless of being enemies.

however, he's all too familiar with masking to make himself to more digestible and approachable. he only feeds into that, his face speaking for him, but even with all that he still remains helpful, hopeful, passionate, disciplined, protective, and empathetic.