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Kill Him: Explained

Mogarl·12/10/2016, 8:01:40 AM·16 votes·1,945 views

######Disclaimer: This is probably going to be a mess

Jayce was wrong. Twice. These two instances I have not seen questioned by anyone (tragically we've been busy bickering), and I think they do a wonderful job exposing the reason why Viktor made this cold hearted decision and felt horrible for it.

"Jayce disagreed, informing Viktor that what he truly needed was a moral compass."

"Jayce knew whatever Viktor was planning, he would only resort to these measures if he were close to completion."

I theorise that on both accounts Jayce was wrong. Viktor had somehow changed (perhaps the consequence of a certain steam golem Blitzcrank), and Viktor was nowhere near completion of his Glorious Evolution. As mentioned by Riot Dinopaws, Viktor is in it for the long haul.

Before I go into the final segment there is something I need to point out. Immediately after waking up Jayce armed the Mercury Hammer, and ran off to Zaun. Unlike his previous story Jayce does not inform the Piltover government of Viktor's theft. If he had, Piltover or at least his clan, would have sent assistance with him. Viktor was a known threat and his thievery would have had a direct response, if Jayce didn't run recklessly into Zaun.

What does this tell us?

  1. Jayce is an imbecile that ran straight into Zaun without telling any of the people that will be happy when he's gone why he left.

  2. Viktor acted completely recklessly, he was angry at Jayce's accusation enough that he'd already risk Jayce alerting people when he woke up, just to knock him over the head.

Now we switch to Viktor's perspective. He has made a horrible mistake, but it's too late to turn back now. When Jayce wakes up he could bring an entire squad of Wardens with him to put a stop to his plans. He wanted to win Jayce over, but his outburst has ruined everything. Should he have killed him? Kidnapped him with the crystal? The whole time Viktor is wiring these machine people to the crystal he's dreading this. What will he have to do to Jayce, and anybody he brings with him?

Finally Jayce arrives, and Viktor is relieved. He brought no one with him. Nobody knows, because if they did he wouldn't be there alone. However Jayce is still a problem, and Viktor only has one real solution. Viktor could

  1. Imprison Jayce, for possibly decades while he wastes away. Hoping Jayce could come around to see his side of things. If Viktor has acquired morals then this would surely go against them.

  2. Put Jayce's brain in a robot and enslave him. And you thought imprisonment was bad. previous issue x2

  3. Kill Him. Jayce can't return to the surface, and will likely never be converted willingly. It is the most humane thing Viktor can do, and it hurts him. No one will miss Jayce except Viktor, his only friend.

I rest my case. Kill him was what Viktor saw as the best option morally.

Tomorrow (maybe) I'll tackle Jayce's colour story and why Viktor isn't just an insane mustache twirling villain on a quest for revenge.

XEditX

Also a point I realised. The robots were unarmed and very ineffective at killing Jayce. Likely Viktor's original intent wasn't for them to be an army. Just the first members of the Evolution after being charged by the crystal.

Also worth pointing out I'm going off the thought that Viktor and Jayce are actually old farts see point 4. of this post by Glory In Death. It doesn't affect this part of the theory as much but I may as well mention in case I say something that doesn't make sense otherwise.

second thread

21 Comments

LordHippoman12/10/2016, 2:56:21 PM11 votes

This does put another issue at the front of the matter, though. I think you make great points, but this did bring to mind something else that's been bothering me about the Viktor thing.

"Jayce was wrong" just doesn't make for a great justification if you use it too much, and we've been using it for roughly 4 years.

The thing about Jayce is that everyone has hated him from Day 1. (I'm talking meta-level here, not narratively, he's pretty well liked in-universe, evidently.) Jayce was the 100th Champion, and a lot of people were expecting some kind of huge revolutionary character, some of the community guessesI remember from the time were like, a shapeshifter that could turn into other champs, or a flying gunship! And then...he was a guy with a big hammer. That could get new moves when he pressed R. You know, like Lee Sin and Nidalee already.

The response to Jayce initially was ROUGH from an aesthetic standpoint, and then his original, poorly received Lore came out and it got WAY WORSE, because Viktor had become a bit of a breakout character with a lot of Lore fans, especially because that was a period where Lore was very sparse. This was around when the JoJ had stopped, Judgements stopped, etc, so a lot of people were left to draw their own conclusions about characters, and the official characterization of Viktor via the original Jayce lore did not jive with that. So they edited it. And that's not really anything extraordinary, I can think of two other champs from around that time who had their Lores reedited before hitting the live client (Shyvana and Revamped Kat).

What I'm trying to get at is that Jayce has always been a punching bag in the Lore community. So if we give Viktor the benefit of the doubt for every single action he performs, Jayce just turns into this constant screwup who's stumbling over himself trying to stop the guy who's actually curing cancer/destroying death/giving out candy to orphans with his robot pals. And that's no more fair to his character than it is to Viktor's to just say "Viktor is just satan now".

There's definitely a compromise, but both of these characters are historically very touchy subjects.

Beyond Legends12/10/2016, 10:18:10 AM6 votes

Holy shit man thank you my poor finger can now have a rest. God thank you a rational person. Can I hug your leg?

The Anagram King12/10/2016, 3:11:12 PM4 votes

I think I'm getting a lorecrush on you, Mogarl. I just stalked a couple of your recent posts. You're very succinct when it comes to making points.

There is a lot of pushback against a lot of minor elements of the new sequence of events that take place between Viktor and Jayce; and it no secret that they can be salvaged, saved or just straight up executed correctly as was initially planned.

But past events make people nervous. Well, they make me nervous.

A lot of what makes Viktor interesting is perspective; and I think that sort've contributed to the "JAYCE COMPULSIVE LIAR" theory (I SAY theory, more like abject dismissal :P) so popular. Poorly conveyed facts degrade from the image of Viktor carved in the minds of his neglected fanbase. But things like this; that not only take into account VIktor's thought - but Jayce's mistakes - add much needed colour to the black and white outline that is the Machine Herald's character.

I actually am of the opinion that if Viktor tried to kill Jayce (I swear to robot Jesus, I'm half expecting Vik to say "Don't kill him!" as though this constitutes a twist! =p), but WITH the intent to bring him back. I feel like THAT is going to be the justification, here. And maybe it's the decision a person WOULD make in that situation (being that they just mastered resurrection and all), but it feels... wrong. Like a cheesy justification for a scene that was not required in the first place.

A twist for the sake of twisting, y'know?

Nonetheless, I like this thread. I like that everyone's offering their opinion on Viktor. I would REALLY like for our efforts to be taken into consideration, when the lore comes out.

Venting now also has the added benefit of tiring us out for later. =p

TyrekGoldenspear12/10/2016, 10:26:54 PM3 votes

Nice to know that people are at least trying to understand the new lore.

Upvoted.

Helmight12/10/2016, 5:08:28 PM2 votes

Logged in while at work just to upvote. Very nice analysis here.

333lom12/10/2016, 4:21:20 PM1 votes

What if "Kill him" is in its entirety Jayce's fabrication?

SolarPoweredWolf12/12/2016, 10:47:32 AM1 votes

I have a solution that is a lot simpler; if Viktor said "remove him", how would Jayce interpret that with his dumb brain?

DragonShea12/13/2016, 12:08:47 AM1 votes

Evil only has to win once. but "evil" in this case is just victor. If Jayce crosses the line then victor will win. Victor is without a doubt one of the most complex and interesting characters in lol lore and he is someone that dumbfucks that see things in black and white will vilify while those that know better can tell it's 60/40 on the matter with victor being on the "60" side of morality.