To Be Clear I Really Hate That They Made Viktor Arcane Canon, I Wholeheartedly Believe His Previous 2

To be clear I really hate that they made viktor arcane canon, I wholeheartedly believe his previous 2 iterations were both overall better.

But I do believe people over catastrophize the void aspect a bit much, the show isnt really concerned with the void other than an aesthetic choice, from what we know of the void it doesn't even make much sense that they can make shimmer out of it.

Many peoples reading of the relationship between viktor and the hex core was that it was manipulating him, but other then switching his leg off when he actively tried to harm it (wich reads more as self preservation than anything), I don't think it did much, Viktor's obsession with it started to get unhealthy the moment it consumed his blood, and at that point the void element where nowhere to be seen. His obsession with it came from his own personality and the circumstances amplified it.

Not to mention the core only started gaining its corrupted look when it consumed a human, not when it got in contact with shimmer.

As for his look, I don't think the leaked image is a final concept, and its hard for me to imagine how they will bring in its orange look since we never saw that in the show so far. And I feel like color wise it would be odd? Blue red cape, purple chest and orange accents? That feels a bit incoherent.

For his staff, I can see it go either way. In Jayces journal he talks about how it could be used as a channeling object for magic, so I assume he will use it for that. But if he gains his power through the core and that will end up in the rod why doesn't he need it in the trailer. So it's a bit hard to tell right now.

As for his motivation, since Jayce seemingly will start making weapons he can't let jayce be the only one with the knowledge of hextech who only supports piltover and just gave them a tool to oppress his people more efficiently, so in order to give zaun a fighting chance and with his own survival becoming more important he starts doing more dangerous experiments with the hex core and on himself.

In the documentary talking about how arcane was made, they talk about how he will lose his humanity, but I don't think that will be influenced by the void, and it will be more in the lines of it twisting further his new adopted philosophy about surviving at all cost, which will be amplified by the changes the core makes to his body. I assume the more he will use it the more it spreads through his body.

If any one reads it this far, thanks mate!

So in conclusion, I don't like this new direction, but I also really dont think it will be as influenced by the void as people think it will be.

hallo - I'm probably the umpteenth person to ask this, but have you seen the very brief shot of Viktor's new design in the Arcane S2 teaser? if you have, what are your thoughts ? I'm a little worried about it if I'm being honest, given that they're leaning even MORE into the "sickly twink mage" thing :(

man I'm going to miss og viktor

Hi! Don't worry even if you're the bazillionth, I'll always reply, it's no problem (I like getting messages!)

Unfortunately based on the leaked screenshots, this is my prediction (I haven't invested more than one day into this art as it's frustrating to imagine):

The spindly fingers and his height in the leaked images inform me (I suppose) that they are indeed leaning into the "little timmy has a cough" design as a friend of mine would say.

They're gonna stretch him and have him feel like a tree, like he's made out of metal branches pulsing with Void energy. The Hex Core is clearly going to be in the middle of his chest to power him instead of on the tip of his staff. The staff already got converted into a cane. Expect to see a LOT of holes and veins in him because that's the very first design thought a person comes up with when they want to convey something "ooo creepy! ooo alien!" (we usually discard our first ideas because they are generic.) And Riot is clearly transplanting Malzahar's thing onto Viktor because apparently they don't know what to do with this Machine Herald character. He's gonna be going mad because of VOID WHISPERS instead of actually suffering from a real untreated mental disorder.

The staff design is already clearly visible in the leaked image, and the only thing I have to say about it is that it looks like a lot of pointless design noise. None of those lumpy metal parts serve a purpose.

The claw may replace the third hand and it may come out of the shoulder itself for some reason, which is insanely impractical. It was mounted on his back in the original design for a reason. Current designs seem to think that an actual hand is too "naive"?

Even if on first glance they may share many elements, fundamentally they are two different characters. They fulfill completely different archetypes.

It doesn't matter if Arcane Viktor's cape is still blue on the outside and red on the inside, because the core of the character would be different. A coat of paint on the top doesn't determine his structure.

Let's analyse the hexcore!

Its potential functions and powers, how it affect Viktor,

AND WHY IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE VOID

The hex cores abilities are a bit unclear, but I believe there's a clear progression of its corruption and a hint to how Viktor will use it. AND I SWEAR IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE VOID, shimmer didn't infect it. (This does not contain info from the le*ks in any form.)

Firstly the core does not influence Viktor, it is rather a vehicle for his obsession, his strange relationship to it began even before it consumed blood or even before it was built, he started seeing and hearing things after the council meeting. (I will talk about more why that happened and why at the moment in an analysis i make on him later.)

The weird purple flesh-like imagery begane before it even consumed shimmer, because it's not connected to the void, but it's what arcane magic looks like when it is contaminated with flesh. We can see this when the inside of his leg is shown.

Yes it already effected him in some way after the core absorbed his blood, as Heimer noticed he did become more energized, but most likely cuz its started attuning to him, jayce journal mentioned how crystals attuning to people but it isn't explained in detail.

Yes, the core started working more reliably on flesh after it got into contact with shimmer, but since the second time viktor tried to use it, it was not present. I believe what changed the core further was the consumption of more organic matter, not shimmer.

This is why it changed form the second time. The shimmer was only important as far as making viktors body malleable enough to get it working the first time. But that begs the question why it got more reactive and easier for it to change people?

I believe the answer to that is because, well it absorbed more of it, but secondly the writing on it got muddled, it is no longer programmable or bound by them like Viktor originally wanted it but works on its own accord. it is less controllable.

This is further supported by the fact that where it corrupts can not be bound by runes anymore, that's why his hand got changed not his chest, now it corrupts by contact and it became unstable enough that it does it with anything that contactach with it.

The only time the core actively does something to viktor is when he threatens it, and even now it only does it to his body. It began to have a mind of its own now, but beforehand it didn't show any signs of deliberately influencing him.

After skys death there's an odd shot of his leg, crackling with energie, I think that was foreshadowing of how he started to become attuned to the core enough to be able to channel some of his abilities and energie.

So I believe this is why Viktor was touching people in the trailer. Now it changes by contanc reather by being abel to restrict where it influences the body with runes. And now he is able to channel the cores power.

From this we can suspect that he will use the rod from his design to control the arcane energie already inside him, or to control the cores energie directly, because in itself it is uncontrollable.

And that's how he is going do lightning and possibly some magic.

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Prompt was a cowboy au from the lovely @oddp1ant!

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this is basically how i hash it. hope this helps

Smaugust day 2!

Teeth

I wish but I doubt… It would be really hard to reconcile that in the unified canon they making, like would this mean we have 2 viktors? Or will he get completely rewritten? That would be really confusing for people who are coming to the game from the show since the entire jayce/viktor plot would need a rewrite, and the whole reason they doing this is to bring in the show viewers.

Not to mention it was specifically marketed as "arcane inspired". Tho that wording is strange in it self…

babe wake up new viktor emote just dropped with his real orig design we may be free from a completely redesigned viktor vgu omggggggg....

Perhaps his arcane legendary gets the show look but we get an updated polished original vik for 2024 and beyond!