Viktor, Villain or Hero?
Villain, without a doubt. I have absolutely no understanding how a man given the backstory of "Boohoo, some other scientist stole credit from me twice. Now, I shall purge all "emotional weakness," create machine people, and take over the world with my GLORIOUS REVOLUTION!" You know what heroes do when someone stills the credit for something? They either trick the thief into revealing, publicly, who actually created it, they steal records showing who actually made the project, they make something that won't work (but looks as if it will) to embarrass the thief, or they make something that is clearly the hero's own work in another city where the thief can't possible steal credit.
Heroes do not make machine cults. They don't make death rays. They don't purge emotions that cause weakness (99% of the time when this is said, they mean what everyone else thinks are positive emotions: happiness, love, compassion, mercy, and the sanctity of human life). They don't tell people to "Adapt or be removed" (you know, agree with me or die) or "Submit to my designs" (Usually people are only told to submit if they are unwilling to go along with whatever plan the villain has, but "submit, for it is inevitable").
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Riot revealed that Viktor had found a Reaper artifact during his year of seclusion. Advanced tech that surprised people, thinking flesh is weak, metal is perfection, "machine cult," and does this sound familiar?
How about another group that has replaced bits of themselves with technology? "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. We are the Borg." Hmmm, Vik is pretty sure that resistance against his ideas is futile. He even thinks that everyone will submit to his plans (sounds like they will be assimilated into them).
Plus, he's a mad scientist (from the town of mad science that uses unethical methods for unethical results) with a Russian accent. How could he not be evil?
